What I said about those horse ankles... damn you Games Workshop!!! I swear that they knew about this issue and could have fixed it!!! I broke another.... AFTER it was painted..... talk about poor cast! If this was a car it would have been recalled! I got through it, but now I have the ugliness of the repair work to deal with....
While on the subject I will mention something Games Workshop DID fix.... when they went from lead models and plastic horses to pretty much all plastics they solved one major problem.... a lot of their kits that have lead riders and plastic horses or mounts, it doesn't matter the range, you have the issue of metal shrinkage.... that is what I will call it because the lead riders NEVER fit well on the plastic horses.... not without a lot of bending and tweaking... I did the best I could with the ones I had already painted... beginners mistake.... the last ones will be matched up better and I will make sure I have no glaring gaps between the rider and saddle this time around.
Anyway... This weekend was busy, when is it not in my house! I did manage to get some time to myself and polished off 3 of the Knights of Minas Tirith and started on the others. They were all regular knights as I usually tend to hold off on the personalities or heroes until the last few models.... Faramir and Boromir will have to wait until another day.
I am happy with how they turned out and I really only have 2 things left to do.... highlight and then seal them in matt varnish... I'll get this knocked out before I move on to the next batch.
I do need to pick up some more mithril to pick out the highlights on the armor and weapons. They are ok for now, but I think would look better with the raised edges picked out better. I also opted to leave the horses pretty much one color as that is how they appeared in the movie and I need to take the horse painting class at one of the HMGS Hobby University classes.... they regularly offer the class and I am never available to take it.. I'll have to commit sooner or later!
I kept the paint jobs rather straight foreword for the riders also. I think that is why I want to go back and highlight them, I used a lot of black leather and the rider's skirt and the back of their leggings are also black... this caused an issue where the leg armor and straps kind of disappear where they overlap. I will hit the leather with a grey lined highlight to pick them out where appropriate. This worked decent enough with my Warriors of Minas Tirith that I have already painted. I also used the Ral Partha bronze instead of the Games Workshop shining gold.... it was just too bright for me... I like the subdued look of the bronze. I will pick the highlights out with the Ral Partha gold.
The bases turned out decent enough, but I think I brightened them up a bit too much... I had a decent amount of repair time/work on the horse's ankle... not only did it take forever to align the small parts and glue them, parts of the base had to be redone as I used a decent amount of glue to try and build up the thickness, strengthen it, smooth out any issues and just make it look better. I think they turned out well enough. Both horses pictured above with one contact point had broken ankles and I had to repair them. If I didn't have to contend with the repair, I probably would have gotten another, possibly two knights completed.... I am glad I got them repaired as I really don't have any extra horses and most times, I have seen other folks just throw them out and grudgingly move on... only to have lost one of their mounts and riders for a unit.... and when dealing with Games Workshop prices, the price can add up quickly!
Next up will most likely be the last four Knights, including Faramir.... The horses are all the same, so there will be no issues getting them done and I really only anticipate having issues with Faramir's face and tabard.. I hate painting faces and small details like laces or thread on clothing like Boromir's and Faramir's... Yes, it makes them stand out and gives that added detail, but damn is it hard.. .even with a small brush, this is always intimidating and time consuming.... but I will press on! Boromir will finish the lot... and maybe, someday, I'll go back and pick up some of the plastic knights to see how they paint up and add to the strength of my unit.... I'll need them if I want to do the scene form the movie where my heroes, I mean the Nazgul come in a decimate the retreating knights, only to be saved last minute by Gandalf..... this will be a fun scenario!!!
Depending upon how long it takes to get these last 5 done, I might switch gears and move to Flames of War or perhaps some 1:144th WW1 planes. The Ironclads will be on hold until I gather materials for basing, etc... Speaking of which.. tonight I get to PLAY!!!! At the local brick and mortar my Brother-in-law will be running an ACW game.... we will have probably 8 people, so it looks like one ship each!!! It will be a fun night.... the update and pics will follow! As will also get the name of the rule set we use and a copy of the rules!
No comments:
Post a Comment