Nazgûl on fell beast

And behold! it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was, whose kind, lingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon, outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely brood, apt to evil.

JRR Tolkien, The Return of the King (1955)

And behold! I have painted a fell beast.

Lord of the Nazgûl on armoured fell beast

I did some dark magic with magnets which allows a choice of rider. I also made a base with four 25mm washers buried within, for added heft and to drop the centre of gravity.

Nazgûl on fell beast

I snapped the clear flight stand during priming- some rather colourful colloquialisms were voiced- and had to trim it shorter and angled down more. Taking advantage of advice from AHPC XI Challengers a few weeks ago I repainted it flat black.

Théoden and Snowmane for scale

I started from a pale grey undercoat and added thin coats of dark greyish browns to taste. I'm not entirely happy with the wings- I'd prefer them to be a bit more tan.

Now to work out how to store and transport this...

Star Wars Rebellion: Rise of the Empire

Rise of the Empire is an expansion for Star Wars: Rebellion, offering more toys and, importantly, an improved replacement of the original's clunky combat system. It brings in a lot of units and characters from Rogue One.

The Empire

Interdictor-class Star Destroyers

Occupier Assault Tanks (with a horrible underslung turret...)

TIE Strikers

Shield Bunkers

The Rebellion

Nebulon-B frigates

U-Wings

Pathfinders

DF.9 Turrets

Rise of the Empire

Monks

 These monks are from Gripping Beast, and have many centuries of potential use.

Tom Bombadil & Goldberry

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a ding dillo!
Ring along! hop along! Fal lal the willow
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

Tom Bombadil & Goldberry

Tom Bombadil is Tolkien's most enigmatic figure. He's also often the first major hurdle many first-time LotR readers encounter. I really like this sculpt which captures the Hildebrandt magic.

Tom Bombadil

Feb 1976 JRR Tolkien calendar by the Brothers Hildebrandt

His wife, Goldberry, is a river spirit. I don't usually add flowers to bases- this was a good exception.

Goldberry

These figures are from The Printing Goes Ever On.

Ned Kelly and The Kelly Gang

Ned Kelly is the most (in)famous Australian bushranger. Starting with petty crime, his career progressed through horse theft and cattle rustling and on to murdering police and robbing banks. His gang fashioned armour out of ploughshares in a bush forge, and wore it for a shootout with police at Glenrowan in 1880. Forewarned of ambush by young teacher Thomas Curnow (an under-recognized hero), the police prevailed. Kelly was executed and his last words were, "Such is life." He was 25.

His iconic armour weighed 40kg and significantly impaired movement and vision, but sustained multiple hits without penetration.

Ned wore a grey coat at his final shootout

He has become part of Australian history, either as an idolised Robin Hood figure or a disaffected terrorist- Geoffrey Robertson scornfully calls him 'Jihad Ned'. If you have a "Such is life" tattoo, then I will judge you.

These figures are from Great Escape Games. I painted the armour with Army Painter Gunmetal, then a wash of AP Dark Tone, then a thin wash of Vallejo 73.204 Flesh Wash for a subtle rust effect. The final touch is a 2B pencil for edge highlighting and scratches.

Recommended reading: True Girt 

Dungeon scenery

I've bought or printed an amount of various scatter fantasy and dungeon pieces this month:

Cart from Printable Scenery

Goods from Mantic

Market stalls* from Mantic; cat from Reaper

Torture implements from Printable Scenery

Pits from Printable Scenery

Webbed adventurers from Printable Scenery

Spider swarms from Reaper

Spiders from Reaper

Cobwebs from Thingiverse;
Modular cavern walls from Printable Scenery;
Mat from Cigar Box Battle

*The market stands were atrociously warped. I did the hot water/ cold water trick to no avail multiple times, and ended up melting them on a flame to try and get them straightish. Very frustrating and I cannot recommend, but the other Mantic stuff was fine.

"Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Happy Christmas!

 This is my first entry in AHPC XI!

I've acquired a 3d resin printer (Creality Photon S) and these are the first prints off the bed, with factory settings. Old King Swol and the Tree of the Holy Cog are free files from The Makers Cult. I added a skull to the tree top.

I was going to do a racing green and white tree, but inspiration struck and I went for AdMech red. The scheme reminds me of my Epic titans.

I like the raging Saint Nick; there's a definite pagan Hogfather vibe.

Skullz: 16

Happy Christmas everyone, and stay safe!