Gandalf and Shadowfax

 

In search of a contrast diluent

I wanted to paint some of my mirkwood rangers with dark angels green, but it had dried out.  So, I went to my nearby Warhammer store and bought a pot of the contrast dark angels green (not a real color match BTW) and tested it on one of  the rangers.  I was pleasantly surprised at the effects.    At one point I needed a break from working on 60 mirkwood miniatures.  So, I, as others, thought about a way to make a contrast paint out of any regular paint since I liked the effect but already have 50+ bottles of paint.  I searched around the interwebs and tried some various diluents with some success.  Though none really had the viscosity of the contrast paints.  I had some extra matte gel from another project so I used some of that in a new diluent.  I used roughly 20% of the matte gel and then added water with a couple of drops of liquitex flow aid.  This is essentially what I dilute my paint with, except I use golden airbrush medium about 1:3 with water.  I do primer my minis dark gray with a zenithal white highlight normally but these are just white.  The results are below, 1:5 vallejo purple paint to either the water (left) or the new diluent (right).

And I also used some ink, one drop of blue and one drop of red inktensity from scale 75 and 10 drops of either water( arms) or new diluent (legs).

Not really going to comment on it other than it seems to work differently between the ink and the paint.

Yet more painted minis Rohan, Thranduil's Halls and Corsairs

 The Thranduil's Halls warrior is a test for color scheme.  Working on the mounted version now after trying this color scheme out.   Once I have finished those I will go back and work on my serpent guard.I painted 14 Rohan Royal Guard but I am not taking pics of all of them. 

Rohan Royal Guard

 This will double the number of Rohan Royal Guard that I can deploy (painted that is), the trick was matching the ones i painted over five years ago.  Some of the paint I originally used had either dried up or I ran out and there is no perfect match.  This was also the first time I airbrushed on a matte varnish.  Now working on the mounted versions.

Rangers and Dunedain with a special guest

 Looking at these pictures, it looks like the new light I installed in my office is a little brighter than the one I removed, I will have to figure something out for other pics.  Here are the finished models from the previous post.  With The Terror of Arnor as a side dish.  I just finished some 14 Rohan Royal Guard, once they are based I will post them.....but who am I kidding, once I get around to it I will post them.  Also have to get the mounted versions done.

Lockdown Progress

I, as many others, have made some progress on my enormous back log of unpainted miniatures.  I have painted some Infinity and some LoTR.  Also assembled a bunch of minis (gotta fill that back log back up!)and made some conversions for mounted Rangers of The North.  These conversions were made with Fireforge games mounted sargents.   One of the few minis that are close in scale to GW AND come with cloaks.  The heads are a little off of the Rangers of the North aesthetic but you will see how I compensated for that.  So expect some more posts in the coming weeks with finished models and back log refill.

Halbarad w/ Ranger of the North

This is the first time I have tried Non-Metal Metallic, do not think I will do that on the rest (13) rangers/grey company.  Been working on these minis for about 3 weeks, hope to finish the other 13 and 11 dunedein before the end of april.