Journeys in Middle-Earth: Spreading War

I've finally painted all the figures from the 'Spreading War' expansion for Journeys in Middle-Earth, including the 'Scourges of the Wastes' villains. I used a lot of Contrast, and some of the painting was a bit of a mental slog. There was an issue with the primer being patchily hydrophobic and I had difficulty getting even coats. I placed the larger figures on MDF bases. The heroes have already been seen here.

Heroes

The otherwise nondescript 'Soldiers' received a thin coat of Vallejo sepia.

Soldiers

The Uruk-hai are nice beefy orcs. I didn't differentiate between all the details on their sculpts, its just browns.

Uruk-hai

I don't like the warg-riders all vaulting the same log, but it's not the end of the world. They're wielding slings, but two of them are broken and I'm not going to repair them.

Warg riders

I removed the flames from the top of the oliphaunt's howdah because they were starting to snap as well.

Oliphaunt

The flames on the siege towers, however, are quite durable.

Siege towers

I'm really happy with these beasts, the wings came out just right.

Fell beasts

I used some Vallejo Liquid Mask to cover the Witch King's flight stand before final matt varnishing. It hasn't quite all come off despite attacking it with a stiff brush and Blutac.

Witch King

I don't know anything about these two villains, as I have yet to encounter them in a campaign.

Lord Angon

Eadris

Glad to have them done.

"What is this, a siege tower for hobbits?"

Journeys in Middle-earth: even more heroes

Heroes from the 'Spreading War' expansion for Journeys in Middle-earth. I used a fair amount of Contrast on these. I tried painting the eyes but it is far from my best effort there. The LEDs are quite unflattering!

Dwalin

Fréahild, Rohan Shieldmaiden

Calaminth Took, hobbit

Boromir

Beorn and The Great Bear

Rénërien, daughter of Círdan the shipwright

Spreading War

The Great Bear is an underwhelming sculpt. I  can't explain how Fréahild became a Shieldmaiden of the forgoil, but I do think she could have got a bigger sword. It's not a miscast; there's a tiny scabbard on her left hip.

The matte varnish is still drying in these photos, with a greyish residue in the crevices.

Journeys in Middle-earth: Dwellers in Darkness

 I picked up a few characters for JiME:

Supplicant of Morgoth

Ursa

Ollie the Cave Troll

Dwellers in Darkness

I think they came out OK and were quite nice to quickly paint up. I like the sculpts but I'm not sold on the names Ursa and Ollie.

Journeys in Middle-earth- more heroes

These are the heroes from the Shadowed Paths expansion. They took me many more weeks to get done than I had anticipated.

Shadowed Paths heroes

You've seen Gandalf before:

Gandalf the Grey

Arwen Undómiel, the Evenstar. A beautiful name that rolls off the tongue. I always try to emulate the breathy way Hugo Weaving says "Ahhhhr-when".

Arwen

Dís is a character named in Tolkien's legendarium. She's the sister of Thorin Oakenshield and the mother of Fíli and Kíli. I don't really like her sculpt; it doesn't fit my vision of Middle-earth. I still don't know how to pronounce her name- I think it rhymes with 'geese', but I suspect it may rhyme with 'this'.

Dís

Eleanor is a made-up character; a Gondorian noble.

Eleanor

Balin is the famous Balin from The Hobbit and the ill-fated expedition to reconquer Moria. I think he's my favourite of this bunch. He has his iconic red hood and white beard, and is accompanied by a raven. I painted this dark blue (like Arwen's hair) as I think blue looks better than shades of dark grey.

Balin

3D printed Mirkwood

Spider attack!

I've been dabbling with 3D printing some scenery for Journeys in Middle-earth. I printed these gnarly trees from Printable Scenery and based them on 80mm bases. I was going to add Woodland Scenics clump foliage, but I wasn't super-impressed with the appearance after doing one. I thought the bare branches are actually pretty atmospheric and menacing. What do you think? Should I add greenery or not? Maybe a darker green?

Gnarly trees

Fallen trees

Journeys in Middle-earth: Shadowed Paths monsters

I've finished off the assorted monsters from JiME: Shadowed Paths. I rebased the bigger figures on 40mm MDF.

Balrog

The Balrog was featured last month, and I'm still really happy with him.

A Balrog of Morgoth

Cave Trolls

I used a dark blue-grey for the scaly bits, which I quite like.

I have two Cave Trolls

Orc Taskmasters

"Where there's a whip, there's a way!" Orc Taskmasters

Pit Goblins

Pit Goblins

Shadow-men

I think they've named these after a throwaway line in Return of the King about the oathbreaking Dead of Dunharrow:

None of the people of the valley dared to approach [the Stone of Erech],

nor would they dwell near;

for they said that it was a trysting-place of the Shadow-men...

Shadow-men

Nameless Things

Similarly, from The Two Towers:

Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.

Whilst painting the Nameless Things, I thought they looked like an a cappella trio, and now I cannot un-see this.

Nameless Things

I'm not inspired by the concept, but I think they're handy generic monster models for other scales and settings. May their painting cleanse the world.

Giant Spiders

I was inspired by Mr Hunt's spiders. All the lines on the legs were more frustrating to paint than I expected!

Giant Spiders

Spawn of Ungoliant

Another oddly fiddly model to paint. Pretty satisfied with the final outcome.

Spawn of Ungoliant

Not a huge fan of the egg sacs

One Gandalf, many Gandalves

I was painting up Gandalf from Journeys in Middle-Earth: Shadowed Paths, and thought I would dig up other Gandalves I have procured over the years. I was a little shocked to find how many I have... and I also found two unfinished Gandalves that I had to complete.

All the Gandalves

Gandalf the Grey

I prefer the weary and grandfatherly Grey Pilgrim to the more proactive White Wizard incarnation. My older paintjobs worked up from black, but my new ones work from a mid-grey washed down with black shades and more highlights. My new ones include FFG's Shadowed Paths Gandalf, and the plastic Gandalf from GW's Thorin's Company. I like his fingerless gloves and silver scarf, but he doesn't have my favoured staff with the gnarled knob.

GW Fellowship of the Ring metal 2001

GW Escape from Orthanc metal 2001

GW Battle at Khazad-dûm metal 2002

GW Mines of Moria plastic 2005

These are my two new Gandalves, painted this week:

GW Thorin's Company plastic 2012

FFG Shadowed Paths

Gandalf the White

I'm very happy with Gandalf on Shadowfax, which is a great sculpt. It was a good exercise in shades of white with cream or grey undercoats.

GW metal 2002

I am underwhelmed with this pose. I painted the face and hair years and years ago, but finished him this week.

GW metal 2003

Little Gandalves

These are from Ares Games' War of the Ring and Battle of the Five Armies.

Bonus Wizard

Here's a plastic Empire Grey Wizard, which I painted during GW's Red Period in the mid 90s.