Lord of the Rings Khandish King

This weekend is the Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game independent grant tournament (sounds impressive). Each year there is a painting competition and I try to have at least a couple of entries. Usually I have something already painted that I can just touch up and enter. This year I started with a couple of fresh models and spent more than a week painting them up. I wanted a model that would really be unusual and stand out. My Khandish King on a chariot would be perfect. You just don't see too much Khandish stuff around.

I must say I was really pleased with how this turned out. And then I too high resolution pictures. I have come to the conclusion that I have 2 megapixel eyes, which is not good with 8 megapixel photos. It blows me away how many things jump out at me in these pictures that I literally cannot see in person. I really hope the judges don't look at these pictures before the judging. Oh well, maybe there won't be too many entries.







I really hate the way GW painted this model for the box. They took an amazing sculpt and then painted it in a generic black and red scheme. For my model I wanted to really bring out the Asian influences in the sculpt. There really are a lot of different Asian influences here from the Mongol, to the Chinese and the finally Japanese. To me the Chinese and Japanese influences were strongest. I wanted the cloth to be more elaborate than just a solid color but I did not want to get too bogged down in an intricate pattern. I think I pulled that off. The Samurai inspired armor needed to be more subdued to keep the model from being too busy. I went with a simple red-brown color which ties the model to the chariot but still allows the colorful fabrics to stand out.

It was a really fun model to build and paint and makes a nice addition to the collection.