Tuesday 20 December 2016

Barrel-rider

In my last painting post, I mentioned the trouble I was having with my eyes when it came to painting miniatures. While I still need to look into reading glasses, I have made some good progress with my new 'super light' in place. In fact, I decided to challenge myself and paint one of the smallest, most finely detailed miniatures in the Games Workshop Middle-earth range: Bilbo on a barrel. [For some reason the blog is displaying the image at slightly lower resolution. Click on the image for a clearer shot.]

Of all the thousands (yes, I'm pretty sure its thousands) of miniatures I have painted, this has to be one of my favourites. It's just a perfect.

It's probably also one of the most useless wargaming miniatures ever sculpted, which for me just increases its charm. In fact, I liked it so much, I've decided to go ahead and paint all of the dwarves that came in set as well. Honestly, I think the scene in the movie is ludicrous, overdone, and generally a missed opportunity, but the miniatures look good!

While we are on the subject of Bilbo the barrel-rider, I think Tolkien's own painting of the scene is one of my favourite pieces of his artwork. There is just one thing about it that has always given me pause. In the painting, Bilbo is very clearly wearing shoes! (or boots). How did Tolkien come to forget such a central fact about his own creation?

5 comments:

  1. Niece piece and I never noticed that about the painting...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Joe
    Bilbo was supposed to be wearing boots after Rivendell, and kept them on all the way back again. Tolkien rejected some early artwork for the Hobbit because Bilbo wasn't in boots. I don't recall reading about Bilbo acquiring boots in the book. Interestingly, did Tolkien also presume we all knew the Hobbits of the Fellowship were given boots in Rivendell as well?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice job and I never knew about the boots.....you always learn something new😀

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely piece of work Joe - bravo!
    PS I have PM'd you on the LAF regarding this mini...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Absolutly fabulous, congrats!

    ReplyDelete