The White City - Avenger Bolt Thrower

I've been somewhat productive lately with the painting and have completed yet another unit. By my standards it came together pretty quickly as well, although probably helps it's a warmachine.....

The Avenger Bolt Thrower gives my Minas Tirith force some much needed ranged punch, especially important when facing the forces of darkness who have a rather unpleasant tendency to include trolls, fell beasts and other assorted nasties in their rosters.

I toyed with the idea of a Trebuchet, but the theme (if you can call it that) of my force is a band of warriors fighting in Osgiliath, or serving on a fort on the Rammas Echor, so something a bit more portable seemed more fitting at this point.

As I've said, the model was quick to paint, using pretty much the same colours as I've used for the Knights and Warriors up to this point. I did try and make the bolt Thrower itself look like it's made of aged wood to show it's been in service for many years. The photos aren't the best though so that probably doesn't come across too well.

With this war machine I've finally hit the 500pt mark of completed units for Minas Tirith, which is enough for a standard game (I think), so hopefully I can try them out on the battlefield soon enough. A certain friend has a horde of Orcs that are getting a bit big for their boots, perhaps the men of Gondor can put them in their place....

The White City - 3 warbands completed

It's been a long time since I last posted anything, but that's not to say that I've been idle on the painting front. At least not by my standards when it comes to completing stuff anyway....

I've got back into the Lord of the Rings miniatures game from GW and have made decent progress so far this year in a modest Minas Tirith army.

With army lists in this game working on the basis of a character and then models that form their warband, it's a much more modular way of building an army (in my opinion anyway), than say Age of Sigmar. In addition the average size game for LoTR seems to be around the 500pt mark, which is surely some thing I can achieve in a year right???

Without further Ado I present the first warband:

This is a Captain of Minas Tirith leading 12 Warriors of Minas Tirith. 

With the banner, spears and their shieldwall ability, as well as a couple of bows in the rear rank to keep the enemy honest, this serves as the anvil of my force than the enemy shall (hopefully) break upon. 

Next up is warband 2:

This warband is led by none other than Damrod, my first named character who serves as part of Faramirs Rangers. He's leading 6 Rangers of Gondor into battle, who provide the bulk of the firepower of the army. Granted their only packing strength 2 bows but their shoot value is pretty good still so you never know!

Warband 3 that's been completed is:

Another Captain but this time mounted. He's leading 5 Knights of Minas Tirith who should be the hammer to my warriors anvil. At least that's how it'll be in my head. 

So good progress so far this year, with the 3 warbands I'm well on the way to achieving a 500pt army for Minas Tirith, at which point I'll look to get some games in! 

Next up is a mounted banner bearer and an Avenger Bolt Thrower.

Mortal Realms Progress 9 - Lord Arcanum on Gryph-Charger

So it's been a while since I posted anything but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

I recently have completed the next addition to the Astral Templars a Lord Arcanum on Gryph-Charger!

Introducing the leader of my Sacrosanct chamber Lord Arcanum Phoram the Ascendant. 

I've been painting this guy on and off since about the start of December, as and when time allowed, but it's still taken me alot longer to finish than I thought.

I'll go out on a limb and say this was the hardest model I've ever had to paint, mainly because of all the different textures. You've got feathers, animal hide, leather, armour and claws all on the one model! 

Still I'm very chuffed with how it's turned out and think he makes quite the centrepiece to the army so far. I'll have to do a full shot of them all once I get to the 1000pt mark. 5 Evocators on foot are being lined up for painting as we speak, so fingers crossed I can get them done quicker than their Lord and get over that first 1k for the Astral Templars.

As to whether I'll get a game in with them this year, well that depends on whether we'll be allowed outside again! 

Mortal Realms Progress 8 - Knight Questor

The next addition to the Astral Templars is complete:

Knight Questor "Arinos Wolfsworn" joins the ranks. Once again the name is from the Realm of Plastic AoS name generator (as will all my characters names).

This model was much simpler to paint up as it's not one of the Sacrosanct chamber and covered in robes. Choosing where to put the green spot colours was a little bit of a challenge, however I think they work well where they are and tie in the model to the wider army. 

In the lore Knights Questor are on a mission given to them by Sigmar, so to represent the fact he's on a quest I've tried to paint his armour in a more worn down fashion to show he's been on campaign for a long time. Rules wise they're not the best, however I look forward to trying him out soon, and perhaps keeping a tally of any champions/heroes he kills amongst my group. 

Next on the list is another unit of Sequitors. As I've painted 6 of these already I'm just adding another 4 so I've got the option of 2 small units or 1 big one. 

At the same time I'm also adding some artillery to the army in the form of a Celestar Ballista. The addition of a model from yet another chamber means I really need to get reading up on how the organisation works within the Stormcast...

Hopefully I'll have those done in time for the arrival of the Lord-Arcanum which will round out the first 1000pts!

Mortal Realms Progress 7 - Knight Incantor

Introducing the latest addition to my Astral Templars Stormhost - Vora Suremane - The Warden of the Howling Gale. 

This is the exclusive Knight Incantor that comes with the mortal realms subscription. I must say I prefer this model to the slightly more static pose of the regular Incantor (though I'll be painting up at least two more at some point!), Plus she was great fun to paint with lots of small details to pick out. 

Ive tried to get a glowing effect working on the staff as well as adding progressive blue highlights up to white on the outstretched left hand, as if she was building up power to smite the enemies of Sigmar (at least that's how it looks in my head). 

Painting wise i stuck to pretty much the same method as I've been using to paint the rest of my Stormcast so far. The exception being that I based the bone coloured robes in tallarn sand as opposed to Wraithbone:

Personally I find it looks much better and serves as a much more natural base to build up highlights from than Wraithbone ever did, so will be using that going forward.

Next on the list of things to paint is a Knight-Questor. Whilst the rules for it might be lacking the model itself looks awesome, plus the lore behind it is even better! After that ive got a Celestar Ballista to paint up and another unit of 5 Sequitors, to finish by the end of July, just in time for the next delivery which for me will have the first of the big boys - A Lord Arcanum on Grpyh-Charger, which should round out my first 1000pts of Astral Templars.

So lots to do between now and the end of July but if I can keep up my current progress I should stay on target! 

Mortal Realms Progress 6 - Castigators

Continuing on from my last post the next unit from the Mortal Realms magazine has been completed:

Castigators provide ranged support in a Sacrosanct army, very much counterparts to the Judicators in a strike chamber. That said the opinion of their performance on the battlefield according to the internet is lukewarm at best....

Still, the units was good fun to paint with alot of detail on the models allowing for a bit of variation from the scheme I used for the Sequitors. 

Being as these are the easy to build miniatures that I got through multiple copies of the magazine there's a fair amount of repetition on the poses. The latest issue though contains some multipart Castigators I think, so once I get round to assembling the 4 of then I should add some variety that way whilst also rounding out the unit to 12 in total. 

Realistically I can't see myself fielding more that 1 unit of 6 in my future lists, possibly as part of a hailstorm battery but it's nice to have the option if I ever do decide to go infantry heavy!

Anyway, with these 8 completed this brings the tally up to:

Mortal Realms - Stormcast Tally of Completion!

6 x Sequitors - COMPLETED

8 x Castigators - COMPLETED

1 x Gryphound - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED

1 x Knight Incantor - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED

1 x Celestar Ballista - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED

1 x Knight Questor - ON SPRUE

I need to revisit this tally business at some point, perhaps tracking completion against what I should have from the magazine as opposed to what I actually have. If only to make myself believe I'm keeping up with release schedule a bit! 

In anycase, after painting all that infantry (I know it's only 14 models but that's alot for me!) I figure I'll reward myself by painting a character next to lead my erstwhile band:

This is my as yet unamed Knight-Incantor with some base colours on so far. Hopefully if i can keep up the progress here and there as I did with the Castigators I'll have her done by the end of June, that's the aim anyway.....

Mortal Realms Progress 5 - Checking in

As the title says, just checking in. The arrival of my second daughter has put a brake on the progress I was making as most of the free time I have is being spent with the first born to make sure she doesn't feel left out. Between that and the sleep deprivation it does make you wonder how anyone in our hobby gets stuff done with very young children on the scene.

Still, wouldn't change it for the world. Well maybe id like more sleep...

On the hobby side of things despite everything progress is being made on the Castigators from my last post. With the mobile set up I've got for them (I'll explore this in a future post), I've been taking any opportunity to break out the brushes, even if it's only for 10 minutes. Whilst progress has been glacial as a result, it does mean I'm inching closer to completion of my second Stormcast unit. 

Of course during this time and in spite of the global pandemic we're currently in the middle of Hachette are still getting deliveries of their mortal realms magazine out. 

Luckily for me the Stormcast element is relatively low in the latest delivery, consisting of 1 Knight Questor. For anyone wondering, this isn't the case with the Nighthaunt, and my mate in this mortal realms endeavor is currently drowning in ghosts and terrain!

With the latest delivery the tally is as follows:

Mortal Realms - Stormcast Tally of Completion!

6 x Sequitors - COMPLETED

5 x Castigators - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED & 50% PAINTED

1 x Gryphound - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED

1 x Knight Incantor - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED

1 x Celestar Ballista - ASSEMBLED & UNDERCOATED

1 x Knight Questor - ON SPRUE

So I'm still behind but not by as much as you'd think or I'd thought I'd be at this point. I've also updated the numbers of Castigators and Sequitors as I got more in the delivery before last. 

Hopefully by next delivery in 4 weeks I'll have finished the 8 Castigators and be into the characters, which I'm really looking forward to doing!

Anyway, that's it for now, there's a funny smell which I think means someone needs changing again....sigh....