Botwt's Hobby Blog

Got more work done today…mostly base coloring, but did do more work on the eyes and fur detail. I’m still undecided on the coloring I’ll use for the wing membrane, thinking brownish, maybe a pinkish, but I’m not sure yet.

Before the official “Skully” was released I had created my own with the use of the conversion sprue that was originally available from the Battle Games in Middle-earth magazine. But now that I have the official model, the converted model of him needed to be revamped. So I decided to turn him into a captain for my Angmar army seeing how I am tooling around with that force presently. I clipped off the skull on the top of his head and replaced it with a disembodied hobbit head…added a bit of gore and there you have it…”Skully” in his youth running with the boys in Angmar, or an overzealous admirer of his seriously hip style.

Angmar Orc Captain

Well, Monsters won the vote for this month’s challenge and of course I’ll be working on my Terror of Arnor (modified Varghulf model). I have been tossing up the ideas of painting him black, grey, brown and even a ghostly scheme, but think I have settled on him being white furred with a grey skin. This may change, but for now this is the plan. Here is a picture of how he looks so far, but lots of work still to do.

I have been wanting to put a Gûlavhar, the Terror of Arnor in my Angmar ranks forever, but have always hated the official model. So after searching for something reasonably priced, cool looking and will fit the bill, I decided on the Varghulf model, but after getting it I didn’t really like the head so much. Creepy, but kinda inbred looking. So I went back to looking for something suitable. Then while falling asleep one night I had an epiphany…use one of my leftover plastic Minotaur heads, but modify it to look less bull like. So I trimmed out the middle part of the snout and glued the two parts of the head together bringing the mouth and nostrils closer to the eyes much like a bat and similar to the Varghulf model. Next I puttied over all the torn skin details on the model to add a complete fur coat to the beast and after the head was attached I added fur to the face as well much like the original model. Here is the finished conversion.

If the Monster category for the One Ring September Painting Challenge wins I’ll give this model go, if not I’ll pick at him here and there until I get him finished off.

I got the then exclusive Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul (foot) when I purchased the Hosts of the Dark Lord boxed set a few years ago. Not entirely happy with it I converted him to give him his crippled arm (kinda ballsy seeing how he was exclusive to that pricy set of models at that point in time), and was really pleased with result until the new version came out. Now, the head sculpt on the original is far superior to the new model (too small and not gnarled looking enough), however I really like the upright pose of the new figure…so I combined the two of them together to make the definitive Gothmog for my Mordor army.

Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul

Went on a painting bender today…put in about 7.5 hours on the model adding detail and pretty much finishing the project. Had several different ideas as to where the orc and Merry should end up, but I think I finally found a convincing scene for the two of them, and Merry looks like he is glancing up at at the beast as it flies by. Now, when I give the model to Mark for his birthday I sure hope he knows where his Nazgûl pilot went to.

Fell Beast

Well, been fooling around in between the layers of paint drying on the birthday project and started on two of my 11 Woses (minus Ghân-buri-Ghân which will bring the total to an even 12 when completed). I kept with the look of the uncontacted tribe for the red marked fellow and went with the stone look of the Púkel-men w/red glowing eyes for the other. I think I’ll end up with 2 stone looking Woses, 2 black war painted Woses, 3 red war painted Woses and 4 plain skin colored Woses, with Ghân having a unique look all his own but still flowing with the rest of his tribe.

Drúedain

Today, a tad more on the wings and I also worked on the beast’s claws. Gave the entire model a wash of Badab Black to bring up the detail of the sculpt, and also painted the base of the saddle and the straps around it and the bridle and bit.