Knight Of The Lion Order

Outworld Miniatures (H&V Miniatures)

1/12 scale bust

Here's my latest bust, The Knight of the Lion Order which was given to me by Alex Varela (Iguazzu) and Antonio Fernández at last years Euro Militaire. It's painted in Jo Sonja (face) and a mixture of Jo Sonja, Vallejo and some MIG graphite powder and a pencil was used for the armour.

Alex.

Warden Of The Tower

Nocturna Gatekeeper + Andrea Dark Menhom

What's behind the gate? What dark power comes to take it? Will the gatekeeper keep the evil at bay?

All finished and based with a handpainted pewter foil nameplate. Enjoyed dipping into a bit of fantasy for a change, I enjoy the freedom of it.

The Wight Of The Tower

Andrea Menhom conversion

A quick update on the progression of the second figure for the Warden of the Tower dio. Sculpting of the cloak and hood is now finished and I jumped straight into the painting. Leaving him at this stage.

Warden Of The Tower

The GateKeeper

The base has progressed a little this week with the stone steps being rendered in Jo Sonja acrylics. The marble pillar has had a coat of matt varnish followed by a semi opaque spray of very dark (near black) orange to tie the flagstones in with the pillar as I felt the oil finish with the sonjas lacked harmony.

The Gatekeeper himself turns out to be not alone in the tower! I have decided to add another figure ascending the stairs and after running through a few choices I went for the Andrea 54mm Menhom Dark Shadow as I felt he could be envisioned as gliding silently up the stairs.

I am in the process of making a few changes to the figure, losing the helmet and shield and covering him in a hooded cloak in a grim reaper style.

Progress so far

Warden Of The Tower

The Gatekeeper

Inspired (as I often am) by the work of Frank Frazetta I've been making an attempt at marbling the pillar on the Gatekeeper base. I've had a crack at this in oils over acrylic using the alla prima technique. I found it pretty tough.

Here's the first sessions work. Looks a little raw.

And now after some shading using oils through the airbrush.

Still a fair amount of work to do on this, finding it hard and slow work but hopefully I'll be happy with it in the end.

Nocturna Gatekeeper

Warden of the Tower

54mm Nocturna GateKeeper

After much deliberation over the colour scheme for this guy and what techniques to use (NMM or metallics) I found he wasn't getting done so I stopped thinking and just painted. Went for metallics, using a combination of Citadel and Vallejo metallics. The armour is basically Vallejo gunmetal blue mixed with black and progressively highlighted with Vallejo steel. Guilding is a mix of Citadel Dwarf Bronze, umber and black highlighted with bronze and gold. Weapons are a Citadel Leadbelcher and black mix highlighted with chainmail, with Vallejo smoke washed over.

Nocturna Gatekeeper WIP

The Gatekeeper

I have a few WIPs on the go at the moment, this is the first one, a 54mm Gatekeeper from Nocturna Models.
I've scratched up a base using platicard covered in magic sculpt for the steps, a 32mm waste pipe for the central pillar and Iv'e added a Photo Etch gate with the idea that he is guarding whatever may be behind the gate at the top of a spiral staircase.

 Here with the pillar coated in Mr Surfacer and sanded nice and smooth and the gate loosely hanging on the hinges.

Ive also added a bunch of keys from the PE set (well he is a gatekeeper) and begun the work on his flesh and hair.

Here he is roughly in the position he well stand.

Conan the Barbarian

By Ceremonial Studios

Bit of a J R Hartley moment for me (remember the Yellow pages advert? or am I showing my age?) when this ebay purchase arrived the other day. When I was a kid my brother and father had a family business called Ceremonial Studios (I wonder where I got an interest for the hobby from?) and they used to manufacture scale miniatures, mostly Napoleonic but they started a Fantasy range way back in 1982 with a Conan figure and princess based on the comic book cover art by Earl Norem and sculpted by Richard Almond. It was probably one of the best selling models they ever produced. Ceremonial Studios have long ceased to exist and with my father passing away over 13 years ago and a long estrangement from my brother I haven't laid eyes on this kit for some time. Although I still have the single Conan figure that I painted as a teenager I never got around to painting the full two figure piece as it was intended.

This is how it arrived, still mint in box.

This is the artwork it was based on

And this is the single Conan figure that I painted aged around 16/17 in oils. It was one of the first (in fact I think the second) large scale (this one is 110mm in height) figure that I ever painted.

Should be fun to paint this again and see how much I can improve upon this first attempt.