Tell Me Istari

The Lore of Life is next to be painted, and the model I used completes my trio of miscoloured Lord of the Rings Istari: Saruman the White Grey; Gandalf the Grey White Amber and now, Radagast the Brown Jade.

"So do we all get horses?"
"Yeah, horses... yours is over there. In that hutch."

Whereas the other two miniatures were easy enough to pick up, I had to be patient until I got one at a decent price (about a quarter of GW's original retail). It's out of production now, as it was only an 'extended universe' design by the Perry Brothers, having since been replaced by the 'as seen in the movie' one from The Hobbit.

For my twopenneth, I prefer the look of this Radagast (ageing hippy) to the Radagast of the films (confused tramp). For starters, a pet raven is a bit more sorcerous than a hedgehog. And let's not get started on the bunny sled.

The real McCoy.

This was actually my favourite of the three wizards to paint. Saruman was all one robe, and Gandalf had a few too many robes that didn't quite add up. This one is more sensible combination of underobe, tunic and cloak that could take complimentary colours. And not having to match any actor in the film, he just looks like a damn good wizard.

Appropriately for a Jade wizard, he has sprigs of leaves on his belt, hair and staff, as well as a nice stone-carved spearhead, like a tiny monolith. The falconer's glove is a nice detail too, as is the raven.

I realise that, by holding a bird, he may technically be Lore of Beasts, but for all we know, he could just be saying to the raven: "hey, check out those sweet dwellers, down below there."

The underrobes were painted Death World Forest, which is a scary name, but a really lovely green (so nice, in fact, that it makes me want to push my Wood Elves up the painting list, just to use more of it). The tunic and boots are Balor Brown with Agrax Earthshade. The cloak is another new green - Elysian Green - washed with thinned-Green Ink and drybrushed.

In terms of the eyes: I tried white-on-black and I'm really happy with how *one* of them turned out (luckily, he's facing sideways). For his hair and beard: Steel Legion Drab as a base, then highlighted with Bleached Bone, Golden Yellow, and more Bleached Bone. Apart from making him distinct from the others, I thought a muddy-blonde beard would suit a Jade wizard, as I'd see them having a dreamy quality, like an organic stoner.

"Yeah, well, that's just, like... your opinion, man."

And so ends my brief sojourn into Lord of the Rings (no blubbing on the shores of the Grey havens, please). Although, as every good Tolkien scholar knows, there were actually *five* wizards of the Istari: Gandalf, Saruman, Jar-Jar and a pair of anonymous 'Blue Wizards' that quickly went east and were never seen again.

They were supposed to appear in the Hobbit films, but apparently the Chuckle Brothers were not available.

Tune in on Monday to find out what all this wizard business is leading up to!