Just received my Willow Tree Giant from Majestic Bear Miniatures in the mail!
Unlike Shriff I was too excited to video the opening and just tore the packaging to shreds!

Here's a pic of the contents:



I sort of hogged the last painting challenge thread with my progress reports so this month I'm going to confine my progress to this thread, where it belongs.

Stay posted,
Cheers,
Pinky

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

Nice! I received one of daves ents yesterday, probably going to paint him up for the challenge too, i'm looking forward to see you tackle this one

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Everything that has a beginning has an end
There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time

cool stuff

I'm sure the model will look amazing when you're done with it Andrew. Can't wait for an update.

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" I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Bilbo

I can't wait to see what you do with this.

Cool. It's funny because when the orders come in I often have no idea who it is buying because obviously people use their real names as opposed to their usernames. It's only in forums like this with members saying they bought this and that when I can put two and two together.

This latest painting challenge coupled with Shriffs latest youtube creation has wiped out most of my stock (not that I'm complaining!). I've ordered more which should arrive within the next 10 days or so.

I have one or two conversions of my own to work on this challenge. Looking forward to your Wip Andrew!

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

Cannot wait to see how he comes out Pinky...I'll be working on one of Dave's Birch Ents this month!

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No one feels as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.

Thanks for all the comments guys, this months challenge is going to be fun.

Don't worry Dave, I won't submit him to the same kind of punishment as the King of the Dead!

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

I really like that model, he looks fun to paint, can't wait to see how he turns out

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"The board is set, the pieces are moving."
Gandalf, The Return of the King

www.YouTube.com/LotrWarhammer24

I was going to save this chap for the OR Awards but I've managed to convince myself that I can submit a better mini

Warning: Pic heavy! I'll use thumbs though to save space and bandwidth.

All my little goodies laid out and ready to go:



The base was really my focus with this mini; lets face it, it's quite hard to have an amazing paintjob on an Ent, there just isn't that many ways to paint bark! Here are a few pics of my progress on the base:





Notice the shield and the helmet, I was really quite proud of that touch but they became somewhat obscured as will become apparent later.





My "container" so to speak for the water. Notice the tape? That caused me no end of trouble which I will explain later.



More support to contain the water.



The resin I used. That was a test base I knocked up so I could play around with the resin before using it.



Resin added. It leaked out the bottom slightly which dropped the level a bit but no biggie



Time for some explaining. Stupidly I put the tape holding the plastic together on the inside thinking that it would provide better water tightness. This left a lovely frosted effect up all four corners of the resin once it had set I therefore had to get some very fine sand paper, 1200 grit, and proceed to try and sand the marks off! Fun job. Plus I was playing around with the figure and its attachment to the base, I drilled out the bottom of each foot and glued in rare earth magnets and also in the rock, see next pic.



I also made some ferns and cattails. The ferns are etched brass from the warhammer basing kit and the cattails are just some light coloured sticks dipped in pva and cinnamon of all things, mmmm... tasty







I got a bit carried away with the painting and forgot to take pictures but here are a few as I was attaching the willow leaf strands:







Check out my awesome desktop background! Bugatti, still the ultimate production car, just set the fastest speed record for a production car at 267 mph or 434 kph!!!! Anyway, back on topic.

Here's the finished product:



















I know there are a few glaring mistakes but overall I'm happy with him. I couldn't quite get the eyes right, the resin is riddled with tiny bubbles which I'm annoyed about and I tried to add some lichen too which ended up looking like someone barfed over the back of his head!

Thanks to Dave (ukfreddybear) for an awesome sculpt

Comments and criticisms are welcome!

Cheers,
Pinky

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

Great model, makes me feel like painting mine aswell! (sadly enough that wanna-paint-feeling is always over by the time I get home from work)

The base is just awesome! I love the colour of the water! So realistic! Very well done mate!!!

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CMON-gallery

Cheers mate.
I added a couple of drops of green and brown wash to the resin to give it that nice murky look.

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

Wow,that was worth waiting for

I don't have a criticism, I will speculate on the air bubbles. I have not used the product so this is only a guess. If your test pore turned out ok, I think the depth of the pour caused the air bubbles to become trapped. Some resin products recommend you pour as little as 1/4 inch at a time. Some catalyst generate a lot of heat but thin pours allow more gases to escape. You can make a vacuum chamber from duck tape and a shoe box for next time.

Overall,the model and stand look great. The air bubbles make the water look murky. Now we know the secret of the fire swamp
I like the magnets good idea..

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

looks very nice

One tip ive picked up when casting resin is once you pour the resin into the mould is to tap the surface the mould is sitting on to get the air bubbles out. Also carefull thought about where you pour from, the most obvious place may not always be the best.

Usually it isn't really a good thing when someone likes the base of a mini more than the mini itself
But in this case....
That must be one of the best bases I've ever seen.
You did a very good job on the ent aswell.

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“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up.”
My wip

Thanks guys.

One of the tips included in the instructions that came with the resin was to use a hair dryer and pass it over the surface of the resin and it is supposed to cause the bubbles to release. I did this and it all looked good until I peeled the shell off. I would agree that maybe it is a bit too deep but the instructions said that you could pour up to 170 mL at a time with no problem, I think I may have been a bit too vigorous when mixing it. Another tip I've since seen is to run the resin down a paddle pop stick (popsicle for you yanks ) which helps to remove the bubbles. Now I've had a taste of it expect some more water to turn up in the future

Cheers,
Pinky

Edit: I used the magnets to help with storage because as you can imagine it stands quite tall. Now I can separate them and put them in two separate containers which prevents it form getting wrecked. It's amazing how strong those magnets are, I can turn the model upside down with no fear of it falling apart!

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

170 mL that's almost 7 inches that must be some good stuff. I still think a vacuum chamber is in order.

[quote]I used the magnets to help with storage because as you can imagine it stands quite tall. Now I can separate them and put them in two separate containers which prevents it form getting wrecked. It's amazing how strong those magnets are, I can turn the model upside down with no fear of it falling apart![quote]

I thought you were going to make a ordinary base so you could use it in a game
The model is really nice.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

That's the good thing about the magnets, I will be able to make a gaming base up and just transfer him to it if I ever get around to playing!

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

That base is awesome!


The ent is fastastic too.
I feel that the ent (both leaves and bark) may be a wincy bit too dark and lacking in colour variation but what you've done is utterly superb.

Good job!!!

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My old WIP thread - http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16246&start=0