Sign of Things to Come

Bandai Models General Grievous- look for more pics tomorrow!

Stranger Things in LEGO- The Wheeler Family Basement

When I was six years old, a LEGO catalog was delivered by accident to my home. This was the first I had heard of the construction toy, and from the moment I opened it I was hooked. I can remember agonizing over my first small purchase- a Batman dragster. More sets were the main item on my Christmas list that year, and soon I'd amassed an impressive collection. I played with them throughout my childhood, creating fantasy worlds in which my Castle Knights rubbed shoulders with Darth Vader and Dumbledore, and a system of alliances and conflicts emerged between myself and my brothers- vast conferences were held, and wars took up the whole of the house. These youthful endeavors influenced me greatly on my current path, seeding my love of tabletop and roleplay games and encouraging a burgeoning interest in fantasy. I still buy LEGOs, and build the occasional MOC (short for My Own Creation). This is the most recent of my builds, an environment from the Netflix show Stranger Things (a show I've thoroughly enjoyed, and one I ought to do a review of).

This is the basement of one of the main protagonists, Mike Wheeler, and is where he and his friends play D&D. The basement is filled with references to the show, and sharp eyes may locate some buried hints to others. I had a lot of fun adding in details to fit the extremely cluttered atmosphere of the set, which certainly shows in the finished model. Here, I'm particularly pleased with the small bowl on the bookshelf (a mere two pieces) and the small replica of the Kenner Millennium Falcon, which was featured in one episode.

The area around the couch was where I started, and also is probably the closest to the prototype. I was inspired by the awesome awnings on the official Ninjago City set in creating the curtain in front of the window- I do wish the pieces were available in a different color, though! Behind it is a system of panes accounting for the antistuds showing above the window.

A central component of the basement is, of course, Eleven's blanket fort. This was probably the section that took the longest- I went through several different versions of the structure before settling on the final one. A pie tile used as a waffle and a walkie-talkie round out this section of the basement. 

Here's a better shot of the center of the room, occupied by the gaming table! It's set up for a session with a map, miniatures (a box for which is present on the coffee table) and a DM screen- but where's the fourth player, Will?

A hint may be found in the center of the frame, where a stylized Demogorgon lurks. While a simple build, it was only recently made possible- the base piece is Jack Skellington's bow tie, and the head is the flower included with Sally. The entire basement is built around a 16/32 stud baseplate, with baseplates covering it and hanging over the edges. I then added the frame under the overhang, so there's a large hollow underneath the whole build. 

There's not quite as much detail pack into this side, but I like the detailing around the cluttered worktable on the left. In the spirit of the show, I don't believe any of the chairs are alike- they all have different bases, as well as the tables.

This picture presents a better view of the shelf behind the stairs. That was the last detailing I finished on the model, before the frame was added. It was a very enjoyable build, I love adding in detail work, and the nature of the prototype gave me pretty free reign to add as much as I wanted! I've entered this in a Stranger Things contest over on LEGO Ideas, and I'll provide a link to the entry below for those who want to check it out. 

New Etsy Listing- Female Wizard

I got a new Etsy listing up yesterday, the first in a long while. This particular miniature is from Wizards of the Coast's recent Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line, and was packaged together with another I posted a couple years ago. I like the more realistic sculpts seen in the NMM line, in particular the females- they almost remind me of the simple style seen on early TSR miniatures.

I used the same colors on her dress as my recent Eowyn miniature. I've recently grown to like a heavy contrast between my base color and highlight. You can see this most clearly on the hair, which started as a dull dark brown.

This cloak is pretty much the opposite- with a soft, layered transition between colors. It's the first time I've used this color as a highlight on a large area, and I think it goes well alongside the sharper contrasts elsewhere on the figure.

I enjoyed painting the spell effect like a meteor of sorts- a burning red with a smoky purple tail. The book also got an intricate pattern of words and images, meant to evoke the spell sections in the actual D&D rulebook.

Take a look at my Etsy Page for more prepainted miniatures and custom order information!

Defenders of Helm's Deep- Legolas

"[...Y]ou comfort me, Gimli, and I am glad to have you standing nigh with your stout legs and your hard axe."

Legolas, Helm's Deep

If I had to choose a single race in LotR to be my favorite, I'd have to choose the Elves. They're such a folk of contrasts- mixing beauty and childlike joy with an extreme melancholia and sensitivity. I read a good deal of Celtic literature, and Tolkien captured my vision of the Sidhe so well and yet made it his own; fitting perfectly with his professed desire to create "a mythology for England".

Legolas, along with his comrade Gimli serve the Fellowship (in particular Aragorn) as a sort of solid base. No matter what befalls the rest of the company, the Elf and Dwarf are there to aid. This makes perfect sense in Tolkien's greater cosmology as well- Hobbits, Men and even Wizards are the center of the Third Age, and it is theirs to sort out. The Elves and Dwarves have already made their peace with Middle-Earth, and have begun already to forsake it.

Now on to the figure! Yet again, it's from Games Workshop's Defender's of Helm's Deep pack. As with Aragorn, I've sought to portray a transitioning Legolas. He's got his traveling gear and clothes on, but has supplemented it with armor and a short sword from Theoden's armory.

The quiver is directly based on an Alan Lee painting, and I'm very happy with both that and the hair. The cloak is actually the same highlight color as the stone, simply with more blue tones underneath it. The similarity evokes the camouflaging cloaks of Lorien well.

The face has no washes on it, except for a light coat around the eyes. I'm trying to balance definition as opposed to the Elf''s fair skin, and I',m not quite sure I've succeeded. I'll go back and tinker with it later once I've given myself some time to approach it with more critical eyes.

Defenders of Helm's Deep- Aragorn

"Come!' said Aragorn. 'This is the hour when we draw swords together."

 Every time I reread LotR (ten times now!), it astounds me how much depth Tolkien packed into his characterizations (an excellent example is Merry and Pippin's growth throughout the books). There are also moments where more central characters fade into the background, like Aragorn's role at the battle of Helm's Deep. For the most part, he's very careful to avoid the center stage- always deferring to Theoden or Eomer. At the same time, this is the first we see of Aragorn in his element as king. It is the hour Anduril is first drawn and declared openly, that he claims his birthright as the bearer of Narsil reforged (and at extension the heir to Gondor's throne); and takes up the mantle of leader of men. Most telling is his talk with Saruman's army right before dawn, which culminated in this revelation of his power-

"So great a power and royalty was revealed in Aragorn, as he stood there alone [....] that many of the wild men paused[.]"

To cause this victorious, heckling army to reconsider its attack is remarkable. Again, it's the first time Aragorn reveals himself as something other than Strider to a large amount of people, and the result is telling of future encounters.

That look of emerging power is one I tried to capture in miniature. As with my previous Aragorn, I didn't paint the beard sculpted on the figure.This is per the books, and Tolkien's express statement (in Letters) that the Dunedain do not grow facial hair as part of their Elven heritage. I'm not quite sure how I like it on the sculpt, sometimes it looks good and weather-beaten (as he is 87 during the War of the Ring), at others too Neanderthal.

I like the outfit worn by this sculpt, it shows the transition between Ranger and King well. He's still clad in the rusty greens and browns from the Fellowship, but layered with greaves and mail from Theoden's armory. I wanted the clothes under the armor to look very weathered, and dropping the base colors to a darker tone did the trick. This would also work well as a Pelennor Fields Aragorn, and I look forward to playing the Dunedain (featured in my second post!) lead by him.

The finished miniatures has a certain Leatherstocking feeling to it, especially with the knife and boots- this suits Aragorn well to me. Also, as seen in the above picture, he wears the ring of Barahir, the sole remaining legacy of Beren One-Hand!

Anduril goes to war! The Blade that was Broken shines again!

Defenders of Helm's Deep- Eowyn

"Too often have I heard of duty,' she cried. 'But am I not of the house of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a drynurse?"

Eowyn, The Return of the King

I'd imagine it'll come as a shock to my more constant readers, but I'm very much a purist when it comes to LotR. Due to this, I'll preface this post with a disclaimer-

Eowyn was not at Helm's Deep! She had already departed for Dunharrow. Not even in the Jackson films did she fight in the battle, she stayed with the refugees in the caves. 

Now, I must admit, I can understand completely why GW added Eowyn to the Helm's Deep pack- it makes for an awesome miniature, and means they didn't have to wait for RotK to make one.

And this miniature was a joy to paint. The dress, in particular made for a pleasant experience. I'm very pleased with the results. The sleeves seemed to need some detailing, and folds on both of them made for excellent decorations.

Aside from the sleeves, there's not a lot of detailing. The simpler (and, for me brighter) colors make her stand out from my hordes of earth-toned rangers and orcs.

It can be difficult to tell, but I've also been messing with my skin tones. Thus far, all of the Helm's Deep set have featured subtly different skin- Gamling received heavy washes (even a careful red wash around the eyes) over a darker than normal base, Theoden got my typical colors and the upcoming Aragorn has a paler face, halfway between Theoden and the fair-skinned Eowyn.

Defenders of Helm's Deep- Theoden

"The end will not be long,' said the king. 'But I will not end here, taken like an old badger in a trap.... When dawn comes, I will bid men sound Helm's horn, and I will ride forth."

Theoden, Son of Thengel, King of Rohan! Saved by Gandalf from the poison of Wormtongue to lead his people in the War of the Ring, he perished aiding his allies on the Pelennor Fields. As with my recent Gamling, this figure is from Games Workshop's excellent Defenders of Helm's Deep pack.

I was already on a roll painting Rohirrim armor, and the practice gained from Gamling stood me in good stead painting his liege. I like the darker, engraved look of the armor from the film, but not the full brown color on the breastplate. As before, dark washes were used to achieve a similar but still metallic effect.

I also added a fair amount of enamel inlay in and around the armor's brasswork. This is most notable on the shoulder, which I felt needed more detailing than the plain metal. Gloss varnish was applied over the inlay, which accounts for the sheen in the photograph.

I'm also very pleased with the pale hair. I had originally intended to paint it a tone closer to Bernard Hill's hair from the films, but the dirty white better befits the aged Theoden.

Forth Eorlingas!