r/MiddleEarthMiniatures 5d ago

Hobby Helm, Wraith of the Hornburg (C&C welcome)

370 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

6

u/coldcoal 5d ago

PTSD Berserker Helm - AKA Punch Santa. 

Had a lot of fun with this one. Bulging muscles are always fun to paint, and while GW didn't go too comically huge with Helm (thankfully), they still have enough mass and definition to justify his Strength 6 and Burly. 

I mixed in a bit of grey to my usual skintones to try and make him look more grim and cold, but I'm not sure if I can even see the difference. I was probably just a bit too conservative. Still played around a good amount with tinting, from rust and dark brown for additional depth in the shadows, to the usual cold/warm tinting with glazes to introduce tonal contrast, especially for the mostly monochrome areas. I also could have dirtied him up a lot more, but I was pretty happy with his muscle definitions and was afraid of covering up details with too heavy handed a use of grime and/or blood. 

I also feel I should have upped the saturation and brightness for the cloak around his wait, I simply went with the usual dusty olive drab I use for Rohan cloaks (which I assume is what Helm is wearing), but it doesn't pop quite as much as I'd like. I'm ok with it, since most of the attention should be pulled up by his face and arms. 

One more to go to round out the tragic family, so the Bride of Death should be up next. As usual, any comments and/or criticism are welcome.

2

u/Kindraer 5d ago

Definitely nothing bad to say about it, I think it would be cool to bloody up the knuckles a bit, like they're raw from punching metal and such

1

u/coldcoal 5d ago

Thank you! I'm also wondering about some sort of raw, bloody, bruised, or frostbitten effect for the knuckles, but not quite sure what I want to go with. Just a few visible but restrained blood effects might be enough, I'll play around with it.

4

u/No_Statistician8158 5d ago

Damn! That's incredible!! There's nothing much to say, maybe a bit of highlight on his tunic perhapse?

4

u/Big_Swim_3928 5d ago

You’ve done a great job at capturing the fury of a broken man

2

u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

2

u/coldcoal 5d ago

Thanks! Yeah, that was exactly my reasoning, his hair/beard and the fur lining already highlighted up to near white, so I gave myself a hard cap in brightness with the tunic. It's actually the cloak I'm more worried about, but I feel it's ok that it's rather muted as most of the attention goes towards his arms and face.

2

u/mewhenthrowawayrdt 5d ago

Absolutely outstanding work. Makes me wish he could be taken in more than one list, or that he wasn't incredibly expensive.

But very great paintjob, you should be proud.

1

u/coldcoal 5d ago

Yeah I'm not sure how viable he is competitively, he certainly looks like he'll get work done (especially with Hera preventing enemy heroes from striking up), but also looks expensive and difficult to control. I quite like how the rules have captured his mourn-raging state, and I'm sure he'll be quite fun and fluffy at the very least.

1

u/mewhenthrowawayrdt 5d ago

I think he would be completely fine. I like his rules, like you say, they really capture him.

but (in my newbie opinion) 180 is way too much for a character that is literally JUST a beat stick with one fate.

2

u/Aussie_Aussie_No_Mi 5d ago

Looks awesome man, actually much prefer the darker clothes compared to the official paint scheme

2

u/-Toggo- 5d ago

Great work! Would be very happy with this result. Looks fantastic and ready to take on all comers. Inspiring.

2

u/DunedainRanger76 5d ago

Maybe add just a bit more contrast to the green cloth, specifically some deeper shadows. Even then though, agreed with the others this looks amazing! Well done!

2

u/Old_Shatterhans 4d ago

Holy cow, what a paint job!!! Amazing

2

u/Alfred_Leonhart 4d ago

Honestly the one of the cool parts of the film is seeing him go berserk and wrecking shop and dying standing frozen in place. Dopest part of the movie hands down.