February 02, 2014

LOTR Berserker hoard.

A few weeks back i managed to get my hands on a great deal off Trade me (New Zealand's version of e-bay). 15 of the old out of production metal Berserker miniatures for NZ$60.
Over the last week I've worked my way through them all and now have a finished sizable force of 31 Berserkers. 
Here’s a few step by step pictures i took along the way with a few basic notes about the colours i used.
After the obvious black undercoat Stage 1 started with a base coat of VP984 Flat brown for the skin.  For stage 2 Vp864 Natural Steel was used for all the areas of metal and VP983 Flat earth was used for all the leather areas.
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Stage 3 was a coating of Black Ink over all the models. Stage 4 was a 50/50 mix of VP 984 Flat Brown and VP 982 Cavalry Brown for the skin.
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Stage 5 was Highlighting the leather areas with VP983 Flat Earth. Stage 6 was a watery mix of VP 200 Brown Shade and VP 982 Cavalry Brown. This was run down the chest and back of each model. (representing the fresh blood the berserkers place in their helmets before placing them on their heads. – gross but a cool piece of fluff from the the Two Towers film.) Stage 7 was painting the bases with GW’s old Bestial Brown.
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Stage 8 was a dry brush of VP876 Brown sand over the bases.  Stage 9 was random application of Green static grass.
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Stage 10 was small clumps of GF9 Meadow Blend.  At this point i then Airbrushed on a good coating of flat varnish.  The very last step was using a thin coating of gloss varnish to go back over the blood areas to make them stand out.
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All up about 8-10 hours work which for 15 28mm models isn’t bad going (especially since stages 3 onwards were all done yesterday!!)
Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and they should be awesome on the table .
Here's a final pic of all 31 of my berserkers together being lead by a Uruk Shaman.  (you may notice some of the skin looks different (these are the older models.) I think the slight variation in the skin tones makes them look better as a group overall.
Keen to know what you guys think of my efforts.
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6 comments:

Minitrol said...

Fantastic results for time spent. I have been really enjoying getting back into Lord of the Rings lately as well!

The Kiwi said...

Excellent. I like them a lot. You don't see this many berserkers very often.
Cheers

Scottswargaming said...

Great stuff, mate. They'll be a handful alright, backed up by a shaman with fury!

Rodger said...

Very impressive sight! Great painting!

Unknown said...

Excellent paint job. The skin tone you chose matches these models very well and I like how the iron masks (helmets?) make them 'pop'. Actually reminds me of Jason... The idea of blood running down their back is a nice touch. Always good if the fluff is reflected in the miniatures on the table. Would be cool if you could make a picture of the backs, so that we can see the effect better. Might be an idea to have some blood drops on some of the bases, where the fresh blood went down all the way.

Kiwicolourstudio@gmail.com said...

Hey Guys thanks for the comments. ill post up a couple of closeups of the blood later on tonight.