I finished the rangers I traded for my Arnor force and I tried out some cool stuff with these. Mostly I tried what I call “lazy clump highlights” which is a very rapid very slap dash type of highlight (literally speaking I move fast and don’t focus to much on clean lines) as I saw this on a miniature recently and realised how good it looks from “tables eye view”. 

​I’m always looking for ways to speed up the process without cutting huge corners and I like the stylistic choice of the clump highlights. I think it allows for a unified look while still demonstrating a 3-4 layer highlight scheme which has been painted with intentionality. 

I also used my new green stuff world paints to achieve varying degrees of green and blue for the uniforms. I really like the result, it looks natural and calming to the eye, less abrasive in my mind than twelve “clones” running around the battlefield. 

I'm very happy with my new (very affordable) green stuff world paints. They're very matt which is perfect for miniatures and they're thick enough for some slappy one coat layers. I am very happy and I will be buying more of these. I'm off the Vallejo hype train and I think it's time to be buying stuff from smaller companies who actually have to ensure their products are good instead of much larger conglomerates who can get away with a "provide MOST people with a MOSTLY working product" approach. End of the day the bigger a company get's the more diluted quality control get's, it's just statistics. 

These are the test pics of a commission I'm working on which is a 40K city terrain set. The brief was to follow the guide of the beige buildings from the inspiriation pictures sent to me by the client. I picked up a can of matt beige (khaki type) spray and gave the set a top down highlight primer before spraying all edges with black spray and then carefully spotting grey over them. After this I picked out the pipes, wires, windows and details one by one before brown inking certain areas for dirt and grime build up and then the orange brown wash to finish the impression of rust build up. 
The result isn't quite as beige as the brief pictures but it's a lovely aproximation and I'm always proud of what I can achieve with a few cans of spray and some determination. 

Photographed here after just the beige spray. Total cost on the primer was £1.79 (as I had black and grey already). It always baffles me when people buy £15.00 cans of sprsy from wargames companies. A company like Army painter must make such a mark up from just a can of spray. This particular colour would look amazing as a zenithal type primer over some brown for some skeletons. I reckon you could paint up an entire army in a few days with that method. The only real downside - the fumes. Even after leaving outside to dry for a bit this lot stunk out my studio space for a little while. 

I really like the almost conquistadors look to these guys. I colour coded the  units, green for polearms, red for swords and blue for ranged models. I think I will find a way to use them for MESBG, perhaps as an Arnor force, since I don’t really like the original Arnor models that much (they’re ok but they’re just a bit samey and underwhelming). Given that they have mounted troops and there is "official" commandant type models in the box too (note the Jean of arc type model above and the guy in the purple and blue) I think they'll work nicely. Because of this I also picked up some Rangers of gondor tp be my Rangers of Arnor. I've been painting these in a mostly traditional colour scheme but with a dark/ pastel blue twist. ​

I also finished a bunch of the Dungeons and Lasers civilians. They are very easy to paint, mainly due them all being so different and characterful. It doesn't take a lot to come up with unique colour schemes. Again these where all very easy to assemble (despite the fact i'm a super glue guy, so I definitely glued my fingers a few times, once to my lip even). 

I'll queue another post about the 40K ruins I'm painting for an older client tomorrow. 
​Peace and love - EZPainter.