Lead Painters League Week 7: Archers

Another week...another chance to show off my last LPL team.  I went outside my normal ranges for this team.  Back in the day I picked up a couple of packs of Bretonian archers based solely on their looks....they are just wonderful characterful sculpts and I had to have them.  Fast Forward 20 years and they were still languishing in a box in the closet....the LPL was the perfect excuse to put a lick of paint on them.

I envision these guys as the Border Guards/Rangers for my Dwarf/Human Army...therefore I opted for more subdued color pallet of dark green, deep blue, and a golden tan color.  These guys also have the new flesh tone that I have been experimenting with and I think it works quite well on them...perhaps it is a better system for Human features than for the large dwarf faces like in the last team.

 I actually also worked on the standard bearer for this group and got him about 80% finished before realizing that he was slowing up the works and that I HAD to focus on just getting five figures done and photographed.  So he has about a nights worth or work left on him...hopefully once the LPL wraps up, and my field work commitments ease a bit, I'll be able to get him finished.  When he is done I will take better individual shots of the whole team and share them with you.

I have also just picked up a 4 new figures for this unit from my frequent trading partner SOF....now I can get rid of the crappy plastic filler troops that I had.  These are actually some of the "youngest" figures that I have in my collection...dating from the mid-90s...but they will probably not be the last...I've been eye balling the 4th edition Black Orcs...High Elves as well.....sigh....so much lead so little time and money!

Anyway...Cheers for now!

Blue

LPL Round 6: Happy Easter

Howdy all, With Round six of the LPL kicking off on Easter Sunday I felt obligated to do something interesting...and I was looking for an excuse to paint some more of the great Ratnik dwarfs that I have recently received from LAM. Luckily for me one of the sets of dwarfs that I ordered included the two guys that are designed to carry the dragon egg. A quick switch of cargo and we have a great centerpiece for the team. After that it all just fell into place....a religious fanatic preaching in front....a dwarf with a wheelbarrow that could be filled with some chocolate and one playing an over sized horn to announce the arrival of the egg ...and the team was ready. Here they are:

I've continued to experiment with a new fleshtone...and with these guys I feel like I've finally started to settle into the new color...I went a little too pale on the priest and actually had to back out and re paint some parts of his head to mellow the color a little bit. (I would love any feed back you care to share about the skin color). Colorwize on the rest of the figures. I opted for slightly more muted tones for these guys...which seems to be a trend with me right now...I still love to paint an obnoxious puff and slash dwarf....but there is an appeal to mo natural colors as well. Im not convinced that I like their white cuffs and hood edges...but at this point I don't see myself changing them...;) Alright off to bed....this fieldwork is kicking my ass... Cheers, Blue

Lead Painters League Round 5: Tolkien

Hi all,

I'm running a little behind on posting up the latest round of the LPL figures that I can share with you.  My life has taken a turn into the insanely hectic and its starting to impact my figure painting...I know...its a crime...but cest le vie eh?

Anyway...Round 5 of the LPL was the Tolkien  themed round and it saw some truly amazing entries...if you want some inspiration please take a stroll through the postings...you won't be disappointed.  With this round entrants could earn bonus points for matching the theme...as well as by including a second team of five figures representing an opposing force for your first team.  Yes, that means a total of ten figures for this week...and as usual I was working on them right up till the last possible moment....and beyond....I'm pretty sure I dreamed about this entry even after I had sent the pictures in!

As most of you know my collection of figures is almost wholly composed of classic Citadel and Marauder figures...and not centered on Tolkien figures at all.  Finding myself at a loss for figures to paint...and not wanting to buy a bunch of figures solely for the purpose of painting... I put out a call on CDO asking if anyone wanted me to paint their LoTR figures for them.  Luckily for me a forum member gladly shipped me a box that contained both teams that I needed for this round.

I chose to recreate the scene from Fellowship of the Ring known as the "Ambush at Amon Hen" where Boromir is killed and Merry and Pippin captured by Uruk Hai.  Squeezing all 10 figures into one 800x800 pixel shot was a challenge...particularly at 2:30am with VERY tired eyes.

Here is what I managed to capture

And here are a couple of close-ups showing a bit more detail from the action shot above

Round 6 of the LPL is in full swing and I'm madly trying to get round 7 painted right now.  I've just learned that some fieldwork that had been scheduled to begin in mid May has been moved up to next week...and will last through mid May...sigh....that means I will be trying to get my last three rounds painted and photographed in a hotel room in upstate New York...sigh...we'll see how that goes.  It could be a rough couple of weeks.

Cheers,

Blue

Lead Painters League Round 4: Ratnik Halberds

Well Week four of the LPL is now in the bag and we have moved onto Round 5...so I'm able to share with you some pictures of my team for round 4.  For this Round I chose to work on a group of the recently released landsknecht halberd men from Lead Adventure Miniatures (http://www.lead-adventure.com/).  These wonderful figures are part of the growing Bruegelburg Line sculpted by the very talented Ratnik.  The figures are amazingly detailed and full of character.  This is both a good thing....and a challenge for a painter working on a deadline like I was.  While the detail makes the figures look amazing...they did take a while to paint!  This made the run up to submission time a very close run thing.  But...it all worked out in the end.

Here is my Entry Picture:

I also found the time to take some "studio" shots after the contest began.  Here is the group studio shot.

...And here are some shots of the individual troopers

This guy was sold as a standard bearer...I opted to give him a weapon and use him as an overzealous trooper...I have another Standard bearer to use for the unit.

I'm not sure about this guys bald head...I may need to add some stubble in the future...

There are more armored figures like this one coming in the next batch...whenever that might be :)

And this guy is my favorite of this batch...I just love his face...so he gets a couple of extra pictures...I also love that he has a gourd canteen (behind his sword hand)...I love details like that!

That's all for now...thanks for looking!

Cheers,

Blue