The Three Hunters and the Wise

One of my recent commissions was to paint the Three Hunters set in metal. At the same time I had the same set in resin laying about, so went to paint both at the same time; it was actually a great opportunity for me personally to paint and compare which material would seem better.

Both sets have ended up looking pretty identically. On the picture above I can no longer distinquish which one is which!

From the painting prospective the finecast set was easier to paint as the metal one needed some extra layers of paint to cover the surface and the paint would not always stick to it very well. But at the same time despite the identical looks in the end I must say that I do prefer the weight and the "feeling" of the metal miniatures slightly more. 

Also I have looked to find some pictures of another Three Hunters set I have painted a year ago. That one was made for the War of the Rings game, so I have made a custom base with a dead Hunter Orc on it; decided to post it here as well so this will be a triple Three hunters post!

 

The other figures to paint were the Rivendell versions of Gandalf and Elrond. I really liked this version of Gandalf the Grey as the pose gives an impression of great wisdom and power the old Wizard has.

While Elrond's face sculpt is not great, the other parts of the miniature were all fun to paint, especially ornaments on his clothes.

So here is the picture of all five going together!

Laketown Militia Warband

In my opinion, Laketown militia are some of the best models in the final Hobbit release wave. With their simple weapons and no armour these guys add some great medieval townsfolk character to the Middle-Earth setting. 

At the same time being made in finecast sets of 3 makes them probably the worst release as well, both in terms of their price and quality. Good job GW, thanks for making some of the cheapest units in the game in overpriced resin! This would of have been such a great plastic set! As a result, I think these guys are going to be rare on gaming tables, although it's just my guess. 

Anyway, since I have ever saw them, I just wanted to paint Laketown militia at any cost, and have finally finished the warband.  

I have first got a Captain couple of mounts ago just because I liked the model so much. After he was 

done, I thought he wouldn't make any sense without some of the warriors, so have picked up two packs of swordsmen (although most of them are definitely not armed with swords!) and painted them all up. I was following the standard GW paint scheme with adding some variety on similar figures.

At that point I had Bard the Girion's Heir painted for a commission, so there he is posing along the militia. Send him away, so he is missing from the other pictures. 

Last week I have finally added some archers and spearmen to the warband, and just finished them over the weekend. 

Really pleased how the middle spearman has turned up in his red clothes, been painting him with    Khorne red with adding some white for highlights. 

Finally, I like these guys because they could be also used as any other militia in Middle Earth. For example, I always had an idea of scenario where fishermen and peasants of Southern Gondor are  attacked by corsairs, and these guys are just a perfect fit (too bad you will have spend a whole fortune before you get enough of the "cheap" fishermen to balance your force). Also just placing Strider along them has instantly made it look like inhabitants of Bree are protecting their homes from the Black Riders, don't you think?