Saturday, November 30, 2013

The Dead Trees Rise!

Last February, I posted a picture of some citadel wood trees in the very beginnings of work.  Here is that picture in case anyone is curious and doesn't want to go 4 pages back.


As you can see, its minimal work I did on these.  Basically all I did was cut from the sprue, cleaned up a little bit, and some milliput to cover the seams.  Last night, I didn't really feel like painting any dwarves, but I wanted to paint.  I did a bit more work on the trees since that picture was taken, and they were primed and ready to go.  Here is the outcome of last nights work.


I opted to go with a dead look to these trees.  I remember reading a white dwarf awhile back and saw a picture with a ton of these white looking citadel trees, and I wanted to replicate this.  I cut some bases out for them, added a bit of mixed sand, and a few extra features to give it my own flavor.





Nothing says awesome quite like a bunch of skeletons laying about.  I believe I bought a box off the wargame factory which has some awesome (and cheap) skellys to add to any bland terrain item to give it that awesome battle-hardened look.  I think they're heroic 28mm scale, so they'll work with most games.  I'm thinking about tossing some more money down and buying another 3 boxes of citadel wood to do a whole dead forest.  I think it turned out pretty awesome.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Grim Hammers Finished

As promised, I managed to finish something when I said I was going to finish it.  Well, technically I finished painting these guys earlier yesterday evening but I wanted to throw a little anti-shine on them before I took pictures, so yeah.  Anyways, enough babbling, onto pictures.


Figured we'd start with a semi overhead view.






So there is a few pictures of the grim hammer captain.  I thought he turned out pretty decent.....











Groups of 4 to show off a little individual flavor with them.





And the last 2 final group shots I took.


All in all, this was a pretty fun unit to paint.  I decided to paint they're beards all different colors since all having brown just seemed rather boring to me.  I also decided to paint they're tunics blue to give them a little bit of color.  So that's my first unit done for my Erebor Army.  We're on schedule for Adepticon 2014.

Up next......


Stay tuned!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

A Little Secret Weapon Anyone?

This is going to be a quick post since my time is short today.  My bases finally came in yesterday and alas, I was like a kid on Christmas.  Well, maybe not that extreme, but I was "pleasantly delighted" that they finally arrived.


I was surprised that they packed all 50 into one packaging.  Since I ordered 5 packs of 10, I figured I'd get 5 packs of 10.  This works too though.



I needed to paint 11 of these for the rest of my Grim Hammer, so I spent the bulk of last night painting these bad boys.  I think they turned out pretty good, and I think I'm going to keep this color scheme with these particular bases.  I like the subtle earth tone and I think the black rim gives it a clean look.

Hopefully later this week I'll have the unit completely done.  I'm not in a rush though.

Friday, November 15, 2013

The starting of a new unit

This past weekend really lit the fire under my ass to start painting again.  I had a blast at Bilbo's Birthday Bash, and I'd highly recommend it for any LOTR/Hobbit player looking for a fun weekend, whether your local or a flight away.  I had an awesome time, and some of the display boards were freakin' awesome.

That being said, everyone who played walked away with a bunch of cool swag, including a box set of miniatures of they're choice.  People who won awards got extra picks.  I didn't win anything, and as far as my battle prowess went, I did average.  2 major victories, 2 major defeats, 1 minor victory, 1 minor defeat.... so not as bad as I did at Adepticon 2013 where I lost every game.  Definitely some room for improvement on both the playing side and the hobbying side.  When it was my turn to go pick a goodie, I knew there was only one box I was looking for.....




Freakin Grim Hammers!!  These guys look so awesome.  I was in awe the first time I saw them in the movie, and couldn't wait to see what the models would look like.  At the time the models came out though, I was busy on other projects and couldn't justify buying them just yet due to GW discontinuing they're 24/20 boxes with only a few left being in the stores.  Being the cheap gamer that I am, I got into a buying frenzy with the old boxes, the $33 ones being #1 priority.  Somewhere along the lines, I wanted to create a hunter orc army (which I still need to paint) and basically forgot about the grim hammers entirely.  For some reason lately, I've been wanting to pick up a box, so when I saw it sitting on the table, I knew I had to snag them.

Fast forward a week later.  After finishing the Army of the Dead box I had, I wanted to paint something else.  I was browsing a few websites, I found Adepticon 2014 registrations were open.  I was a little pissed because most of the hobby seminars were sold out, but I managed to get spots for two and signed up for the LOTR/The Hobbit championships (only 1 tourny this year for LotR.... bummer), and a spot for a Freeblades game on Saturday.  I talked to one of the owners of DGS who makes Freeblades for about an hour and ended up buying 2 boxes of figs which I haven't touched yet.  I want to get atleast one of the boxes painted, and by signing up for an event it pretty much gives me the push I need to get it done.

That being said.... Grim Hammers.  Fantastic miniatures.  I spent a night putting them together and a good portion tonight cutting the slotta off they're feet.  You'll see why....


I also bought the grim hammer captain to go with them this week.  It's a cool model, except the fact that its a failcast thru and thru.  The weapon is brittle and bent, a couple air bubbles, and the finger fell off on its own so I ended up having to re-sculpt the hand.  I was tempted to pivot the hand and make him stick up his middle finger, but alas I kept it "G" rated and just sculpted the broken part.  One thing I'll say about Finecast is it forces you to hone your sculpting abilities, and if you have no sculpting abilities.... well, you'll soon develop it if you want your models to look somewhat decent.

For anyone who counted the above black models should've only noticed 11.  No, I didn't lose one.  I decided to do a test one to see what painting these guys entail.


I think the only thing I'm going to change is the belt color, probably going with a darker brown.  Mostly, these guys are pretty easy to paint.  I'll probably randomize the beard colors.  All brown beards is boring to me as a unit.  You'll also notice this is a different base than normal....

  

I dunno if I'm satisfied with this color, or rather the black rim.  I wanted to do an earthy tone for the ruined temple bases, as I think they look freakin sweet.  I ordered 50 of these bases after getting a trial base in my swag bag for Bilbo's B-Day Bash and really liking it.  Why so many you may ask?  Well, I think I'm going to do a Erebor army for Adepticon next year.  We'll have to see if these guys keep my interest.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Gondor Pt10

On Monday, I wanted to paint something.  After some considerate thought, I decided to finally finish the last 8 models from my Army of the Dead boxset I bought a few years back.  Anyways, take a gander....




This is them clipped right off the sprue.


Built and cleaned up


Here are the 8 all painted up


and here they all are... all 20 + the king


and thus ends my saga with the Army of the Dead..... or not.... we'll see.  It was a fun and easy unit to paint.  Not sure what I'm going to paint next, but we'll see.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Mordor Shaman

I've spent most of this week getting ready for this tournament tomorrow.  Well, that and more overtime at work, but that's besides the point.  The week has flown by rather fast.  Bilbo's Birthday Bash 2013 just in case anyone is curious about the tournament I'm talking about.  I spent a good portion after work getting my lists legible and I'm about to go and start packing my stuff up.  I still got to throw a shield on Faramir, but that shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

Anyway, I'm sure anyone visiting my blog would rather see some pictures rather than read my babbling.


A little before action.  I know when I visit peoples blogs, I like to see before pictures and a few WIP.  I should take some WIP pics so you can see how I progress.




 


I went for a look a little bit different from what I'm used to seeing with this particular model.  I thought with a black cloak, the entire model looks a bit too dark for my tastes.  I decided to go with a light brown/tan cloak which I spent a lot of time on.  I had issues either not putting enough highlights or putting too many highlights on.  So after going back and forth with it for awhile, I decided to try and go for a more subtle highlighted look, which I think turned out alright.

I'm also trying to make an effort to denote heroes by putting them on rocks, making them tower over other models on the battlefield.  I think this gives them a more heroic look versus the rest of the rabble.  It also helps out on the battlefield.  I've played too many games where it's hard to tell who the heroes are.  The recent example comes to mind when I took on a Minas Tirith army and I couldn't tell the difference between a mounted Faramir and a regular Minas Tirith Knight.  Yeah, it might give my opponents the advantage, but I'd rather just play to play versus playing than win.  The older I get, the less competitive I've become.

If I remember, I'll try to take some pictures this weekend and hopefully get some quality hobby time in next week.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Gondor Pt 9

I'm back.  Plainly said, summer was a bitch and extremely unproductive as far as hobbying goes.  Motivation for painting was basically all but gone.  I knew I'd eventually return to to painting table, so it's not like I was hanging up the towel or anything.  This winter season will hopefully be alot more productive and maybe I'll finish up one of these armies.  Then again, I don't think any army will ever be "completed" in a certain sense of the word.  I'm rambling, so I'll digress.

With that being said, I got a tournament coming up this weekend.  750 points per army for two armies (one good, one evil).  After making my lists, I realized I was short a few army of the dead, one shaman, and I needed to fabricate and attach a shield to Faramir.

Yesterday I dusted off the paints, moistened the winsor newtons, and got to work.  Just like riding a bicycle I think.  Anyway, here's what I accomplished....

  

Here's a little before (sorta).  I base coated the one on the left with a grayish blue mix (Shadow Grey and Dawnstone) while the others have a little brush-on primer ready to go.




 And here's the end result.  Not bad after a few months away.  Sure, I could've layered the paint, but a simple dry-brush is affective results too.  I just based the shaman (after accidentally gluing my hand to it as well), so I'll shoot a before shot and hopefully have the end result before Friday.