On the day on which I offically became an Old F@rt (thanks to the Pensions people - Good afternoon all.
Before I continue with the build update ...
This appeared in one of my news updates
https://www.warhammer-community.com/202 ... -the-ring/It appears that Games Workshop were so impressed with my Amon Hen/Seat of Seeing build, they had to do one of their own.
Yeah, right.
It's not 1/72nd
unlike mine, it's to the same scale as their War of the Ring stuff, but some people may find it useful.
My biggest gripe with this visualisation, which is of course from the film, is the Gryphons. I cannot recall any mention of gryphons anywhere in Lord of the Rings. Normally the chaps at Weta Workshop are spot on with their work, but it jarred badly for me.
Speaking of visualisations I got started on the Alliance Steppes Warriors. I'm using figures from both sets (72051 & 72052) and working on two
eoreds of horse archers.
First up the horses - spray GW White undercoat, spritz of dirty wash and leave them to dry, wicking away any bubbles of dirty wash with a clean brush.
I think I gushed about these when they came out, I love the work the sculptor has done on these horses, which first appeared - without saddlery - with the mounted 'historical' Amazons. Whoever did these has plaited manes and tails, and there are axes and maces hanging from saddles, and other bits you can add to the riders and their mounts - generally I think these are the mutt's nuts. (I'm thinkinking of using some with Alliance HYW cavalry just to see how they look)
The dirty wash has really brought up a lot of this detail and if I just did the harness and saddlery I could probably use these as is.
However, I want to get some variation in the horses. White horses aren't white horses as such, they more like a number if shades of grey (no, I'm not going say how many shades of grey
, work that out for yourself
). There are dappled greys, iron greys, off-white - all sorts in fact.
Why am I just using white horses? Simple, Tolkien says that the Rohirrim rode white horses. In the films they use all colours, but they were using any and every rider in New Zealand - they could not pull that many white or even grey horses together.
Sometimes a grey/white mare will throw a black colt, and it was these that were stolen by Mordor to raise as mounts for the Black Riders.
Anyway after some dry brushing with a 'linen' coloured craft paint, and some grey shades, I ended up with this group.
Harness and horse furniture next.
And we end with these two groups.
I had forgotten how much I hate painting horse harness.
It used to be that I could churn through a dozen figures, easy.
These were hard work, and took the best part of two sessions. Partly it was trying to get variations on a theme for the colour of the harness, partly it was the light which varied from bright sunshine streaming in through the roof light to needing the light on my magnifier to see where I'm painting.
Still, I am quite happy with them.
Next up for these is to select the archer figures, match them to the horses. Once that is done, add the extra bits that come in these sets - shields, quivers, bow cases etc.
Okay a question for the Hive Mind - do you paint riders before you fix them to their horses or not? Not a trick question, I genuinely want to know. I am inclined to fix these riders in place and then paint them, that way I can match any details to the horses, but you may have other ideas.
While I am here, here are two figures that I finished soon after I purchased the figures - the King, Theoden son of Thengel.
Guthlaf, his standard bearer
And the two of them with the figures which will make up the king's household
eoredAfter showing off my Zveda Black Rider - thank you for the complements - I slopped some paint on the Alliance Versions, as much to see what they looked like.
Unusually this particular set of figures were very greasy and really needed some form of preparation to take paint. I didn't and ended up spraying them with Matt wash to stabilise them. It's not something that is usually a problem I have found with Alliance before, just this set.
In the end after that, apart from some washes and some detail work, I'm not sure they need much more work than this.
I have only used six figures because as above with the Rohan
eoreds, Dragon Rampant only uses 6 figures in a cavalry unit.
Well that is me for today.
I may not be able to update the Musketeers thread this week as I off to go to my first re-enactment in nearly 18 months this weekend.
If it's a holiday where you are enjoy, stay safe all.
Regards, Pickers.
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