Fimbrethil had been missing since Sauron’s forces destroyed the gardens of the Entwives during the Second Age. At the time of the War of the Ring, Treebeard had not seen his beloved Fimbrethil for over three millennia.
I have a thing for Ents (hence my Avatar) and was drawn to this miniature because it is a female Ent and I think she looks quite cool and rather pretty.
I started the base coat back in 2010 and have since then worked on the flesh/wood tone on and off. I wanted to go for a light wood colour, her hair and flowers contrast nicely against the light wood. I am really happy with how the skin tone turned out the highlights especially on the face. I remember Azazel recommending that I read a painting guide/tutorial in a very old white dwarf on how to highlight/paint a face.
I wanted to go for a red/yellow/orange autumn leaf colour for the hair, and lavender type colouring for the flowers and stems. The fine details made me nervous to paint and gave me an actual headache especially the flowers in her hair, I use a magnifying desk lamp to see/enlarge the detail. I was too scared of loading the brush so ended up using/putting too little paint on the brush, oh well better to be over cautious than be ham handed.
The big motivator/push to get this miniature finally done was when Azazel mentioned a ‘competition’ and ‘prizes’ at The Temple of Morikun and I jumped on board. Although I did think of working on her for the ‘Fembrurary’ challenge earlier this year.
Before this last week the model was just the skin. I have completed the rest over the last week or so.
Paint List:
Hair: Base Colour: is Citadel Troll Slayer Orange, highlight: Reaper Miniatures Golden Yellow. Wash: Citadel Baal Red
Bunch of Flowers: Base: The Army Painter Warpaints Alien purple. Highlighting: Zombicide Toxic Boils. Wash: Purple Tone Ink Wash (Quickshade) The Army Painter.
Flowers in Hair: Base: Ultramarine Blue Game Colour. Highlight: Glacier Blue Game Colour.
The Skin Tone was done with browns and greys it was such a long time ago I can’t recall the exact paints. I remember it took me ages to do, the highlighting and shading. I think it put me off getting the rest of the model done. I think I need to take a lesson from Azazel’s book, it’s better to get a model to good enough and finished instead of trying to be a perfectionist and not get anything finished.
For the base, clay cat litter rocks for the stones and real twigs for the twigs/log. I picked out some light moss and some white and yellow flowers.
This model is now out of production but can still be purchased from Mithril Miniatures. They have 38 still available when I last checked. Azazel told me that he bought this miniature back in the 80’s (before we had met) to use in Bloodbowl.
I am very happy that Azazel let me paint her, I think she looks beautiful. What do you think? She’s a bit heavy on the flower power, but I think she can get away with it.
Hopefully the next project wont take me 10 years to finish! I think admiring this one in the display cabinet should be motivation enough to get another model done. Maybe you guys can help me pick out my next project?
Cracking job, great mini, and a very Entish rate of painting if you don’t mind me saying so! 🙂 Shame she didn’t make Fembruary, but lovely to meet her.
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Thanks Alex, I Iike your comment about the ‘Entish rate of painting’,rather appropriate. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish her in time for the Fembruary challenge, but after completing her for ‘Jewel of July’ I have now learned to set small targets at a time for example today ‘I will work on…’ and after a few days or a week, I am getting the model closer to completion/finished.
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Better to take your time than rush things – especially for a big centre piece like that. It’s amazing what can be achieved when we break it down into manageable chunks though – half hour here, and hour there… it all adds up 🙂
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Hi Alex, you are right, it doesn’t look as daunting when it’s broken down, and each completed section is a motivator to then get the next bit done and then the next.
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Very nicely painted. Judging by the other figures she’s quite large which might also explain why it took you a while! If you enjoy painting female fantasy figures take a look at the Reaper Legends range, they have some great and highly detailed ones you might want to do.
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Thanks,I will have to check out the Reaper Legends Range. I was painting two units of Harpies a couple of years ago, one unit with feathered wings and one with bat type wings I got stuck on deciding what shade I wanted the skin so they still sit unfinished to this day!
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That’s a great paintjob — and actually a pretty cool model, too: She manages to be obviously feminine and also positively ent-ish at the same time.
I wouldn’t worry about the flowers — in fact, I do enjoy more “wholesome”, vibrant bases like that every once in a while, especially since I seldom get to do something similar on models in my own collection.
Anyway, excellent work all around! 🙂
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Thank you! I really appreciate your comments. Yeah I was worried, I over did it with the flowers on the base but I think it sort of balances the model, and she’s allowed to be pretty.
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She looks great! Really like the wood effect you got there. Some parts, particularly on the backs of her legs, remind me of some pieces of ornamental driftwood that my dad used to have around. The extra little touches with the real twig and the flowers on her base are nice too, helping to show more of her character and nature.
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Thanks Alexis, you are right she does look like drift wood, now that you mention it. I am really happy with how the wood effect turned out in the end, I wanted a pale wood colour.
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Very nice! The colours all go together well, but I really like her hair! Very vivid! Great stuff!
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Thanks, the hair turned out how I had imagined it. I love that it is so bright.
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What an interesting miniature. The pose is really nice and the paint work is exceptional 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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Thank you, glad you like the model and the paint job! I’m so happy she is finished.
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Nice work Marouda, really enjoyed seeing another Mithril gem. The nice thing about Ents is the scale – you can do whatever you want with them in a game as they of course are trees! I love them too and don’t have this one from Mithril, but I did have Treebeard and the hobbits. Your work on this puts mine to shame I must say – I love the softness of her character under all that bark!
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Thanks Mark for your comments. I am glad you like my work on this mini. She turned out a lot nicer than I thought I could manage. I haven’t painted very many miniatures before. My first ever attempt was some teenage mutant ninja turtles back in the early 90s. I’m not sure if I still have them in a box somewhere?
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Hope you paint more!
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With such encouragement from yourself and ohers on this blog, I think I just may have to keep plodding along, that is the only way I will improve both the quality and quantity of what I paint. I think I may be helping Azazel paint some sand crabs unless he finishes them before I even get a chance too! Also some wargs are next as I selected ‘Warg Riders” as my starting army for the Middle Earth SBG which we hope to start playing soon.
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I just dug through my blog to find my Ents – and I have to say my painting is better now – I’ll have to see if they are so glossy but it was mostly the lighting which I’m better at now too…still…but thought you’d like to see some old school Ral Partha Ents and Treebeard from Mithril. I’d love to see your work on these if you can find them. https://markamorin.com/2016/01/23/ral-partha-tree-shepherds-es-49-and-mithril-miniatures-treebeard-and-the-hobbits-m185/
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Thank you Mark for providing this link to your ‘Ent Project’ such an interesting and insightful read. Wow, those Ral Partha Tree Shepherd minis are so old. I really like them, they are gorgeous! I like how you individualised each one, with the different wood tones and the bases came out amazing. I also like the ‘Treebeard’ mini, I think I may have to try and get myself one to paint, now 🙂 I really like how you made ‘Treebeard’s’ face a luminous green, I think my search for more Ents has begun!
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Very kind of you Marouda – and I know there are a lot of older Ents out there on eBay (just saw this one for cheap (IMO – I’m not the seller!): https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ral-Partha-AD-D-Treeman-Ent-unprimed-metal/332529131284?hash=item4d6c47df14%3Ag%3AAdYAAOSwm~daZln9&_sacat=0&_nkw=ral+partha+ent&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313&LH_TitleDesc=0
I keep a search up for the older stuff as that’s my niche. I’m glad you like them – gotta get them in a game soon (but methinks I’ve got a lot of painting to do!).
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She’s ace, you’ve done a really good job on her 🙂 She looks both feminine and like a tree. I remember when my dad first read me Lord of the Rings (when I must have been about 5) and I really loved the Ents, and wanted the Ent Wives to come back somehow. It’s odd because you’d expect a small boy to be drawn to the more obviously heroic, macho characters (and fair enough, I basically wanted to be Gandalf or Aragorn) but the Ent Wives really struck a chord with me. Even now I still wish Ents were real 😀
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Thanks Wudugast 🙂 That’s so cool to hear that your Dad read Tolkien to you when you were just a wee lad of 5. I read the Hobbit when I was 10. That would be awesome if the Ents were real!!!
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It was very definitely a formative experience for me, even though he’s not particularly into fantasy or sci-fi himself he set me on the path of being into those genres as an adult. I read it again when I was a teenager and realised that he’d skipped or pared down a lot of the more violent stuff and there were a few bits I hadn’t understood when I was little but it was enough to get me hooked 🙂
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Great stuff here. Back when I was a kid, Mithril miniatures were THE stuff. They’ve held up surprisingly well, and you’ve done a lovely job with the painting. Keep up the good work.
(I also appreciate the painting speed. Azazel’s “had an unproductive weekend and only managed 30 miniatures and touched up some old pieces” can get a tad depressing for a slow painter :D)
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Hi Mikko, Thanks for comments on my work and encouragement. Appreciate you sharing your comments on the painting speed 😉 Azazel and I are at polar opposites on that one. I just need ‘10,000 hours’ of practice…Azazel has collected so many miniatures over the years, I think he’s on a mission to paint them all or as many as possible and has come to a realisation that time is not on his/our side.
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It’s not everyday you see a female Ent, and a nice one too! Great selection of miniature and nice painting job. I like all the flowers and the hair, they add interesting bits of color. That “log” is awesome. It hadn’t even registered in my mind that it was a twig, until you mentioned it. Very convincing indeed. She might be in tune with nature and have lots of flowers, but I doubt anyone is going to challenge her power at that height!
I wonder if Azazel was planning on using her as “Willow Rosebark” in Blood Bowl?
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I’ve not heard of WIllow, so I’ll guess that I picked up the figure long before her time. It was during the days of BloodBowl Second edition, with the expanded polystyrene “Astrogranite” pitch and such. I think I just wanted a generic treeman figure, and given the lack of choices, let alone *quality* choices in those days…
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Willow has been around a long time. 2E BB, hmm, would have to double check. She’s not a “Treeman” though, she was a Dryad, so should technically be shorter than an Ent. Though I’m sure I’ve seen people use large models for her too. I’m also fairly certain there was no official mini for her. Which makes it even harder to figure out exactly when she came about, as it could have been some supplement.
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Not sure. I have the figures for players like Greaser Geargrinder, Eldril Sidewinder, Frank N Stein and a bunch of the other muties and such of that era. Actually, I don’t think dryads were yet a thing in WHFB yet at that time. Maybe she’s a Citadel Journal/Blood Bowl Magazine/Annual entry? I have a bunch of those, though they’re put away.
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Thanks Faust, glad you like the model and appreciate my attempt to bring it to life. No, you wouldn’t want to mess with her would you? even though she’s adorned with flowers.
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I think heavy on the flower power makes up for the favt that she looks like she suffers a bit from being on the anorexia side… i like what you did and congrats on finnishing the 10 year project. Thumbs up🤘🏻👍🏻
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Thank you!!! It is very satisfying having finished this project. That now makes 3 completed models on display in the cabinet 🙂
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Hoping to see some more, hopefuly they dont take 10 years again🙂
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