Gondor W.I.P, Free Angron model and some terrain

So whilst I haven't finished much in the past few days I have got a lot done. Firstly I've been starting work on repainting my Gondor army for War of the Ring. So far I'm about half of the way through stripping all the models (so tedious, all the scrubbing) and I've started the painting for my first company of archers. To paint them I've base coated with Vallejo version of mithril silver through my air brush after undercoating them with vallejo's undercoat black.

I've also been putting heaps of effort into planning my entry for Armies on Parade next year, if I can pull off what I have in mind it will be totally mind blowingly awesome! (no understatement, seriously, hopefully my painting doesn't let me down) Anyway to warm up my scenery skills so that the board itself looks good I tried my hand at building a shipping container in the past two afternoons, and for a first prototype built off the top of my head I think it looks really good.

I'm planning to paint it up navy blue, with plenty of rust and a stencilled on serial number and Aquila. Scale wise it's pretty much exactly right when compared to real life standard containers, not really important but it does ensure it looks about right when put next to models on the table.

And finally what your all still reading for, how you can win a signed copy of forge world's new Angron model. It's simple really masterminis.net after their recent success with their Games Day coverage are giving away a signed copy of the model in its case, all you have to do is join. For more information follow this link to their post explaining it all.

Picture from Forge World

In addition you really should check out all their other stuff, they have some great tutorials and do your self a huge favour and go through their Picassa albums with all the Games Day pictures there's some truly great stuff in there.

Birthday Goodies and Furture Plans

So it being my birthday on Tuesday I was very lucky to pick up an airbrush which I've wanted for a while. Besides that though, last Friday I received a replacement order from Wayland Games which included some paints that should go well with my new airbrush. Though it should be noted that when replacing my order (my last one never turned up and I had to but all the paints from Games Workshop) they were really good about it, explaining the situation and offering me credit for the order. So good job Wayland Games customer service.

Compressor kit came with two airbrushes, both dual action

Latest goodies from Wayland Games

But getting all this new gear, and not having any time to hobby, (for the past and probably next two weeks) has given me a chance to reflect on what I want to do. A good thing too as with the airbrush a whole lot more things are now possible.

• Firstly I want to repaint my Gondor army and build it up to a 1500 War of the Ring army. I already have the vast majority of the army, it being my first but I still need a couple of boxes to bulk out the troops. It being my first army the paint jobs are usually pretty terrible and the paint really thick, so I'll need to strip the lot an start from scratch. I'm hoping with the airbrush I'll be able to move through them pretty quickly. Finally it will also involve converting up about two companies worth of Osgiliath veterans from plastic warriors as I just cant face that many repeats of the same three models.
• Secondly I want to finish up my High Elves to a 1500 army. Again I want to repaint most of it, as I want to learn how to do True metallic metal (great tutorial here), and see if I can apply it to an entire army. Besides that I can't really decided what to add to it, but I'm leaning towards a BSB and some more dragon princes and an archer bunker for my mage. Finally if I get time I might try and convert some of my spear men to look like this.
• Finally I have my eldar army, about three years in progress and I still haven't got any where with it. The main problem I have with it is I keep changing lists because I can never make something I'm happy with, as a result of this I have a fair number of models but not enough of anything to turn them into an army that will work. Matters are made worse in that I lost some enthusiasm for 40k by buying the old rule book (hardback) and then getting two games in, one with the other guy forfeiting by the end of turn 1. Right now I'm tempted by Eldar corsairs from forge world and the allying them with some codex eldar. However the cost means I wouldn't get it done by next Christmas and with a new codex rumoured for next year unfortunately this just isn't an option as a result.

So where does this all leave me? Well in between wanting to enter armies on parade next year and commissions I'm determined to at least finish either my fantasy or my Lord of the Rings army and accompanying board. Fight now 40k is definitely on the back burner, though I am thinking of building a 500 point Imperial Guard force around Christmas with the models I already have, pick up the mini rule book and learn the game. (though this time I plan to start 6 months into the new edition instead of 6 months till a new edition)

But if you're still reading (understand if you're not) you may be wondering whats going to happen to the blog if I can barley get any time into hobby anyway. Well it should get a lot better as I'm able to experiment with new techniques, move through models faster (so fewer single model updates), and get on to new projects that I've held back whilst waiting for the airbrush. Any way the next year's looking pretty good , though definitely busy.

Halbarad 2 and some urban Eldar bases

Got some more work done on Halbarad this week, namely the metal and the muted green as well as getting started on the boots and banner. For the metal I tried doing a True Metallic Metal technique for the first time and whilst not perfect by any means I still pretty pleased with how it turned out. For the muted green I followed the Games Workshop tutorial for painting an Ork's head from the Lizardmen White Dwarf (2009 I think it was).

After picking up some plaster last week and my little basing experiment with this model I was keen to try my hand at doing some more interesting basing, (because along with sculpting this is my weakest area)> Anyway I did two flying bases up today for my eldar using my new technique, I also have a tutorial in the pipeline so check back midweek if you're interested.

Just a little teaser.

Halbarad W.I.P.

After taking a short break from painting in the past few weeks from painting, i got going again on the weekend, to make good progress on the Halbarad model that has been sitting on my desk for the last year and a half. So far only the face is pretty much done and I'm really happy with that, especially the lips, not the best in the photo but in real life the red glazing I applied really makes them look good. Otherwise I'm also trying true metallic metal for the first time, something I want to do to my whole High Elf army as I think it looks great but I'll see how that goes. The models is still in the early stages obviously so any comments or criticisms will be greatly appreciated.