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Revisiting the Mirkwood and Goblins

As it was mentioned in the previous post, I finally put clear coat on the old-style Lord of the Rings Wood Elves army, signifying that all modelling work was done.  My choice of colors wasn't the best. I tried to match green cloaks with grey/blue undershirts.  It never really worked.

But, I recently acquired a box of the new Mirkwood Rangers from 'The Hobbit' line and they are absolutely gorgeous! The box comes with ten Mirkwood elves and each one has a unique pose.  Each elf has separate body parts on the sprue so there are potentially even more ways to customize. I'm so looking forward to painting them. This time I'll definitely get some advice on the color scheme.


Also, I made progress on the Goblins from the Goblin Town box set I got last Christmas!  The box comes with 24 Goblins and I wanted to use some speed painting techniques. One technique is to apply a primer color that is not white or black. The Hobbit book suggests using the Rakarth Flesh from the Citadel line. Of course, I'll need an airbrush to push the paint onto the figures since that color was not distributed in an aerosol spray can.

I own an airbrush but had sold the compressor to a friend some time ago. So, I headed over to the local hobby store to pickup a can of areosol and some type of adapter for my Paasche airbrush. The store was sold out of that, but I did find a Testor's Military Aircraft Spray Set for a about $20. I bought that instead and figured that not much would be lost if it didn't work.

The kit is a poor man's airbrush but without a trigger mechanism to regulate the amount of air pushing through the gun.  That's fine for applying a base coat on a large amount of figs.  You put the acrylic paint of your choice into the small paint pot, screw the sprayer cap on the top of the aerosol can, click the paint pot into the sprayer and start spraying.  The results were very good! And the package came with six Testors colors. (Gunship Gray, Dark Ghost Gray, Light Ghost Gray, Neutral Gray, Olive Drab and Flat Black).  The paint applied in a nice, thin coat.  Some surfaces on the figure got missed, like the crotch area and underarms, but that's a problem for any sprayer. In fact, the Citadel paint product was the disappointment.  The paint was lumpy and thick.  I added purified water to thin out the stuff so it could push through the brush.

So, if you don't have an airbrush or are not willing to make the investment in a compressor rig, then this is an excellent and inexpensive alternative.

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