Tuesday 5 August 2014

Mr. Grey Will See You Now

I already have a few hireling wizards in my Dogs of Empire army (Bright, Amethyst and Light). More than enough to do the job (if by 'do the job' you mean miscast spectacularly or get caught in the open and overrun for a massive loss of points).

And after a bit of recategorization, when I realised my mad scientist conversion was a better fit for an alchemist than an engineer, I could also count a Metal wizard.

So that gives me four of eight colleges. But as you know, I'm not the kind of obsessive-compulsive who would need to collect a representative from every lore of magic, just because I was halfway there.

Yeah, so here's the Lore of Shadow.

Saruman in the style of a Warhammer Empire Grey Wizard
Lover of the Russian queen.

The model is another Lord of the Rings refugee that found its way into my leadpile: Saruman the White. He may not be the immediate choice for a grey wizard, but given the model is all robes and long straggly hair, I think it works quite well.

A fairly easy model to paint (apart from the eyes once again - arrgh - if only every model could wear RayBans), as it just required getting the robes right.

I started with a Chaos Black undercoat, then worked successive highlights of Shadow Grey, Dawnstone, Space Wolves Grey and then a smidgen of White Scar. The under-robe was Dawnstone with a thinned-Black Ink wash and Dawnstone highlights. There is a glimpse of a belt there, which was Mithril Silver with a Black Ink glaze.

The staff was Rhinox Hide, since I wanted something in there that wasn't greyscale. I tried to replicate my glowing effect for the orb, with a mix of Ice Blue and White Scar, but it just made the staff look unpainted, so I abandoned it (the fractionally-smaller LoTR miniatures are less forgiving of fine-detail mistakes, I've found).

The idea for the (Ra Ra) Rasputin look just leapt out, as I'd left the hair undercoated black while I decided what colour to paint. A highlight of Shadow Grey and there was a cat who was really gone.

So there we have it: Saruman the Off-White.

Saruman in the style of a Warhammer Empire Grey Wizard
"White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white underwear can be soiled."

Three more lores to go!

6 comments:

  1. Very nice! And an excellent addition to the Woffboot Non-Official LoTR Paint Scheme Gang.

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    1. Thanks - I've got a couple more off-brand LoTR to paint in the coming weeks. Those poor Istari won't know what colours they are supposed to be.

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  2. Of course you have to have all 8. Why would anyone stop half way? What's the point in having an army that can use all 8 lores, if you're going to limit yourself by not painting up the relevant models? It's all sensible, and not at all compulsive behaviour. *twitch twitch*

    The Saruman model seems to be a good fit for shadow. Have you tried the method of painting eyes where you start with a black eye and then paint in the white bits? It's easier to get a decent result, and avoid the staring eyes that starting with white can so easily give you.

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    1. Of course, it's a perfectly rational aim to collect all eight lores. The *really* obsessive part will come when I decide I need two models for each: one mounted and one foot (and then there's always the Hurricanum...)

      Thanks for the tip about the eyes, I'll give that a try with the next one. At the moment the 'mad staring' look is the best I can currently hope for - at least that means both irises are pointing in the same direction!

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    2. I usually forget to do this, because my habit has always been to paint the eyes in the final fine detail stage, but I've had some luck with painting them in very early, or just after inking. That way, you can shape the resultant fried eggs down with layers of highlights.

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    3. Yes, I always paint the eyes last - because it's an unpleasant task and, to my mind, eyes go 'on top' of the face.

      (which displays some breathtaking ignorance of basic anatomy on my part)

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