Thranduil the Wood elf king

This is a metal Reaper figure and is actually meant to be a Wood elf king. He originally came with an eagle perched on his arm, but I didn't think that suited him for the Battle of five armies. So I cut off the eagle and replaced it with a resin shield.

I did give him a resin shield from Scipor miniatures but this was just a tad too small. It didn't really do him justice being a king and all, so when I found another larger ornate shield, he got an upgrade.

I added some swirls with a red fine permanent marker to the inside of his cloak. The trick with this is giving it time to dry before adding any washes etc. They just add a little bit of finery to his cloak and so I'm glad I tried it, it looked a bit drab before.

He is quite a modest king and wears the same brown as his men. These browns are from a triad of Reaper miniatures paints, and are in my opinion, some of the best paints out there.

This is the moment the king got his new shield. Much larger which suited the size of the Reaper miniature better as he is quite tall. 

Reaper miniatures tend to be quite large in scale but as this is meant an heroic character, the size works well.

I always surf eBay for any new bits that might be useful and these Elven shields were a good find. They are large, but again perfect for this big figure.
 His old Scipor shield was given to another elf in the shieldwall so all ends well.

You can see here that this type of resin shield is quite large for a standard elf.  They would be great for elite guard units though.

Basing Day

The Iron Brigade show off their new smaller bases.

The backdrop is a book from Jon Hodgeson.
 

Even some Rebs got in on the act. These bases must have slipped through the basing day net a year ago.

A detailed shirt easily done using coloured permanent markers.

I do like these Irish standards for the south. They should make the unit really stand out on the board.

Now the Iron Brigade sport their normal sized bases, they seamlessly fit in with the rest of the army. 

There they are right in the corner.

Clone Wars 15mm

well, it's basing day and I finally got around to finishing up these AAT's.

A droid speeder squadron patrols the area.

I'm not quite convinced by the neon plants yet...but they do look very Star Wars.

I used a pencil to add some scratches and areas of worn metal on these tanks.

 Update: one thing that bugged me about these AAT's was that their long barrels were slightly curved.  

After a little research on the internet I decided to have a go at fixing them.

The barrels were dipped in a cup of hot ( not boiling) water. Then straightened and put straight into a glass of cold water. This fixed them in their new position.

A warped barrel next to a straightened one.

Both straightened.

The new straightened barrels look much better, I'm glad I made the effort. It always feels good to do something new.

I've put together everything I've done so far. The forces are getting there and the new Contrast way of painting B1 battle droids, looks a lot better than my first attempts.

The blue of the 501st legion. I think next up I will just keep the clones in their white armour.

A new bit of anti slip fabric stops the bases sliding around. Part of the reason for the multi basing is storage safety. I think these little resin figures are safer based on large bases.

Jedi masters based on 40mm.

There is a lot to be said about collecting 15mm forces. I arrived to this conclusion quite late in my hobby journey.

The armies so far.

I tried my luck and struck gold with these Clone wars decals from eBay. I was planning on trying to paint the tiny emblems on the new walkers, but it turns out you can get decals in the right scale. They also do CIS ones too so the droids will be covered also. The other Republic decals on this sheet will be handy for storage crates and equipment etc