Sunday 18 December 2016

Oh Christmas Treeman

On the eighteenth day of Advent the WoffBoot brought to me ... a Yule log - with swagger!

What a very artistic way to kill a tree.

See it while you can - it's going on the fire on Boxing Day!

It was around the time my Sylvaneth guys were getting tabled by Kraken's Chaos monsters (say what you like about 8th Ed, but that *never* happened), that I reckoned I could do with some more arboreal heavy hitters.

And lo! As if it were meant to be, I spy this LotR Ent going cheap. And I'm glad I didn't pay full price: he's a lovely model and he's a big model, but as painting challenges go, the Cave Troll was harder.

Basecoat of Dryad Bark, successive highlights of XV-88, Zandri Dust, Rakarth Flesh and Ulthuan Grey. Elysian Green/Biel-Tan Green for the leaves and lichen. Slayer Orange for the eyes.


You'll recognise this guy if you've seen The Two Towers as much as I have (and I'll wager that you have). But it's a shame that, aside from Treebeard, this is the only generic Ent on offer.

The LotR range doesn't really do options in their plastic kits, but they've surely missed a trick here - for an additional sprue, you could throw all kinds of options on this single tree-frame and sell a couple of boxes. But who would want multiples of such famously individual characters?

For all that, I like the way this treeman was assembled. Rather than Treebeard's awkward outreaching arm, this one has a real strut to his hips and swing to his arms. He's only missing a moss-covered Zoot suit.

Uptown Trunk

My next opponent in 8th Ed had better bring flaming weapons!

2 comments:

  1. Love it. Nice work on the base too, that foliage is smashing stuff.

    If I ever get round to treemen, I'd be going for the new Mierce ones. Stumpy, stocky heroes, everyone. Mind you, their chaos monsters are excellent as ever, and I know where my loyalties lie if it comes to a wallet based showdown.

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  2. Do you mean the Mierce's Fen Beasts? Yes, stumpy and nasty - they'd make good Huorns.

    That leaf litter is remarkable - glad I saved it from being squandered on some model railway.

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