Amber Wizard, Red Rum

I continue to lay down the lore, and today it's the Amber College of Magic.

There's an interesting decision to be made when picking a Beast Wizard: put him on a horse, and he'll get +1 for casting anything on himself (there are three likely spells), due to the Lore Attribute. However if you want the super-dragon transformation spell, he needs to be on foot.

In the end, I went with a mounted wizard: I expect he'll see most action in cavalry-heavy lists; I found a model I really liked; and I also don't have any model resembling a manticore, hydra, chimera or dragon (*drafts painting list for monsters*).

Giddy up.

Here we have Gandalf & Shadowfax, another Lord of the Rings model that I am scandalously painting in the wrong colours. Once I decided to go with a mount, I wanted a horse miniature that had no saddle or bridle (in the spirit of the wizard being attuned to beasts). What I also liked about this model is the wild abandon of Shadowfax, who really seems to be hauling ass (or whatever equine is appropriate).

The Gandalf model I picked up was missing its right hand, but I didn't want that anyway, as it was holding his distinctive staff. As a replacement, he's holding a plastic Militia halberd with the blade replaced by something boney-feathery (I think it's meant to be a drum) from the Forest Goblin Spider Riders. The missing sleeve was made up with green stuff, and at least the staff now points in a proper 'tally-to!' direction.

This is what happens to the White Rider when you don't separate your coloured wash.

For the colours, I went with browns and oranges - in keeping with the lore, and also anything to avoid it looking the actual Gandalf the White.

The horse is Mournfang Brown, followed by Flesh Wash, then Vermin Fur & Leprous Brown highlights, which gives it a nice chestnut look. The mane and tail is Tallern Sand, Brown Ink wash and highlights of Tallern Sand and Lerous Brown. I thought warpaint for the horse would be in-character, so I copied some Sioux designs in Bleached Bone.

The wizard has a Bleached Bone tunic, Tallern Sand trousers with belt and boots in Balor Brown, all washed with Agrax Earthshade. The cloak is Vermin Fur and the beard Leprous Brown, both washed with Agrax Earthshade.

In addition to being the symbol of his Lore,
 the arrow helps the wizard keep his horse pointed in the right direction,

I realise now that, thanks to my choice of colours, this Amber wizard somewhat resembles Obi-Wan Kenobi.

And not the good one. The prequel one.

My adventures with eyeballs continue: I took on board both pieces of advice from last time (start dark and add whites; paint the flesh around it) and it seems to have come out a little better - although I later discovered that I'd struggled through the entire eye-work using a Standard brush, not my Fine Detail one. So by the end of it, my own eyes were probably crazier than the model's.

Anyway, two more lores to go. Who will be next: Jade or Celestial? The answer lies in the stars (or maybe the earth...).