Frodo's Quest: Mines of Moria Merry

My weekend was crazy, so the final brush stokes on this stout fellow had to be postponed until today.

I still do not dare try painting the eyes on these tiny faces, but I may go back and do them at a later point, when I feel more confident.

Nevertheless, I now have all four Fellowship Hobbits painted up, two from the Fellowship of the Ring set, and two from the Mines of Moria set (and I shall, of course, do both versions of the entire Fellowship in due time, but for now I have to focus on the minis needed for the first installment of Frodo's Quest).

As mentioned earlier, these minis are REALLY tiny, and I find it hard to paint their faces (and it shows in the not-so-accented facial features). Maybe I shall try redoing the faces some day, but for now they will have to do as is.

I am not quite sure about Merry's hair; I think it turned out a bit too orange, but it was the closest I could get to the colour shown on the Fellowship box (which is not quite the 'live' colour from the movies, either, though).

The waistcoat buttons also are a bit different than I think they should be; I used a painted mini as reference, and it had silver buttons, whereas the movie stills show cloth-covered buttons the same colour as the waistcoat itself. So, I dotted in the pale yellow (Warzone Vega Sand) I used for the waistcoat before covering it with Iyanden Yellow, leaving the Chainmail edges visible.

There will be no family portrait this time, not until I have to put painted models in the storage box, as it is stoved away in a larger crate at the moment (I need to keep the storage boxes from spreading all over the ground floor of our home).

I am quite pleased with his cloak and jacket - the trousers are not quite as dark when seen with the naked eye, but I have a little trouble getting the light settings of my camera just right (which is also why the pics are a tiny bit blurred; I have to turn up the Gamma output in GIMP to keep the photos from having too bright unnatural colours).

I am happy to report that I have found all my Middle-Earth Ranger figures (bar one Ranger of Ithillien from the set with Faramir and the Hobbits), including the Grey Company and the Guardians of the Shire, so that is one task to check off!

Frodo's Quest: Aragorn and Pippin Bases Altered

 I lightened up the Moria-themed bases of these two protagonists a bit, I think they look a bit better now.

Frodo's Quest: Mines of Moria Pippin

Another one of those diminutive plastic minis; I had to take a lot of breaks from painting this (working on other bits and bobs), as it was really putting a straikn onm my ageing eyes.

I did not take a pic of him with Aragorn, as I want to redo the ranger's base, first, there'll propably be a group shot when I finish Merry (somewhen next week, he is just as fiddly as this one).

Frodo's Quest: Dark Realms Shirelands Kickstarter

I just got on board, and thought I'd blow the war horn for this one!

This Kickstarter is a tremendously good deal, and it lands just in time for being included in my preparations for bringing the first scenario of Frodo's Quest to this year's Horisont Con (which is being revived after a pause of a couple of years).

Picture courtesy of Pinyo Gulashart (Dark Realms proprietor)

If you are into 3D printing, take a look at it - and maybe also visit the Dark Realms store on MyMiniFactory. Lots of interesting stuff, there!

Frodo's Quest: Hobbiton 101, WIP

As mentioned yesterday, I am painting some 3D printed smials for my 'Frodo's Quest' project. I am making progress, albeit a slow one, and I thought an update would be in place.

Yes, there are visible layer lines. No, I am not going to do anything about them; it is a terrain piece, and once the war horn is sounded, nobody will notice, anyway. Besides, I printed this quite a while ago, and I am achieving better quality these days, but that is no reason to let this go to waste, methinks.

I am going to acquire a static grass applicator just after this year's summer holidays (I wouldn't risk it being returned to the seller because it arrived while I was away and unable to pick it up), and put a nice lawn on the roof.

More for the Plastic and Lead Alps

Earlier today, I received my June order from North Star Military Figures. The Gnolls are (primarily) for my 'remixed' version of Rangers of the Shadow Deep, the Goblins for mixing in with my LotR Orcs (and providing extra archer arms for the Gnolls), and the Halflings are for my 'Frodo's Quest' Shire spin-off (more about it in a later post).

The Hell Crows are for RotSD (some kind of Crows, the name eludes me right now), and the Frostgrave Barbarian with the two-hander is for Emil's Sellswords & Spellslingers warband.

The Magmites and the Thief are just bonuses, but I shall probably find some use for them.