A few things for the New Year

In between Christmas and New Year, I have had a little bit of time to do some painting. So I finally finished off the last of the rescue Lord of the Rings miniatures - this time Aragorn from the warg attack. 

Another arm from the Gripping Beast Vikings. Not a bad effort on this one - I didn’t quite get the gauntlet right on the replacement arm. Interestingly the sword does seem to be the right size for the miniature. 

The other miniatures completed are 2 versions of Æthelflæd, the lady of Mercia (bad squiddo) and a non winged Valkyrie by Shield Wolf.

Again quite pleased with these ladies. So these will be available for SAGA and KoW and Rampant games.

Happy New Year  

Morts 

Glorfindel - a hero of middle earth - the Christmas Elf!

In the push to complete stuff already to go - a GW Glorfindel foot and mounted version has been completed before Christmas - which means i might have forced this one a bit, as I’m not sure I have got the paint job quite right. I was keen to paint this chap, as I liked the figure and he will be used as an elf hero in more than one game system (Dragon Rampant, KoW, MENSG). 

But I’m not sure that I have got it right - I was hoping to get the painting done before Christmas and rushed some bits. I will have to sleep on it for a few days. 

If I don’t post for a few days - Happy Christmas!

Morts

Some more Adeptus Mechanicus

With the week off nearly over I managed to sit down and paint the last Ad Mech miniatures I had picked up. I think the plan is to play some One Page Rules Grim Dark with them - as I am too tight to get 40k (although I believe the rules etc are available for free online), there is also Xenos Rampant to use as well. 

None of these can be used in Kill Team - so bigger games are needed. 

First up the Tech-Priest Dominus. 

He has got greener robes in comparison to the rest of the army - I should have mixed in more of the standard green with the scaley green. But it looks pretty good. I picked up the model assembled from eBay - I have to say that with this model and the Kataphrons to follow they can be a little challenging to get to all of the model with the poses they are in. 

The Kataphrons;

No 1 - Heavy Arc Rifle and Hydraulic Claw

No 2 - Heavy Arc Rifle and Arc Claw

No 3 - Torsion Cannon and Arc Claw

I went for a mixed load out on these, as I don’t think I will get anymore and it seemed to be more interesting - I imagine in games (unless skirmish type) they would all count as the same for ease of play.

These were assembled and painted with the tractor unit and torso separately - which I think worked ok.

All I have left on the 40k front is a farseer to paint for the Eldar and when I get them for Christmas Voidscarred Kill Team.

In between jobs I painted an eBay rescue - Theoden King - from Lord of the Rings. 

He arrived missing his sword arm - fortunately on of the Gripping Beast plastic sets does have left handed sword arm, so with a little carving and paint he was repaired - it’s only taken about 5-10 years to finish him - ridiculous! 

I have been stalking eBay and Etsy recently to see if there is anything I might want and sadly there isn’t, which is probably a good thing as I will hopefully get on with working through the metal/plastic back log.

Morts

Not all those who wander are lost ….

It seems appropriate to title this post with a Gandalf quote, partly because I painted one last week.

A Gandalf the white - this was a repair of a bargain off eBay years ago, missing his staff arm. I used a gripping beast spear arm and some green stuff as a replacement (this was done back when I got the figures - there are Aragorn and Theoden, also with missing arms floating about to be painted). Not too bad a job job on this version of the famous wizard, might start painting some more Lord of the Rings stuff.

The other reason for the Gandalf quote is that Steedo and I went for a wild camp and hike out on the moor this week - although I will have to confess to getting lost …. Took the wrong path from Norswothy Bridge, I knew it didn’t seem right, but decided I was, then compounded the error by not orientating the map before take a “check” bearing, which I fudge to make it fit the ground … not good at all, I should know better. 

Anyway the hike was really good (Steedo will have to confirm this …). 

Friday afternoon/evening saw a mist walk from Princetown, around to Fogintor, Kings Tor and Ingra, then over around Sharp Tor and Leather Tor, through the woods north of Buritor reservoir and up onto Sheeps Tor to camp for the evening - the Wayfarer Chilli and Korean beef getting a thumbs up. Steedo had also brought some port as a rather nice night cap. 

Wednesday morning started with more mist, we headed down Sheep’s Tor with original intent to then go over Down Tor (some nice views from there, bottom right picture), but decided head back (woodland picture top right) to Norsworthy bridge (which is where the navigation errors occurred, adding an hour plus …) and up to Crazywell pool (bottom left). We followed the Devonport Leet to Older bridge then back over South Hesery Tor and back into Princetown for a will deserved pint at the Prince of Wales!

A really nice little hike with places to extend and challenge yourself if required. Thanks Steedo for your company!

Morts

The great CORVID-19 Lord of the Rings clear out!

Mainly because I haven't posted much recently (and re-basing lots of Orcs and Uruks), I thought I would post the Lord of the Rings collection which is hitting eBay .....

12 Mordor Orcs - Hand-weapon and shield

10 Orcs with 2 handed weapons

4 plastic Warg Riders.

6 plastic Wild Wargs

4 Mordor Uruk-hai and an Orc captain.

8 Uruk-hai with pikes

9 Uruk-hai with swords and shields

4 metal Warg Riders - based for HotT

A war Troll coverted from the metal Isengard model

6 High Elf (Noldor) cavalry - converted from riders of Rohan (apart from the Knight of Rivendell in the centre).

12 Noldor Spearmen - all metal apart from some press moulded shields.

12 Noldor archers - 10 plastics from the Last Alliance box and a couple of metal command figures.

More on versions of the the Riders of Rohan into Men of Gondor Cavalry. An Aragorn the King being used as a commander of some sort .... perhaps even the King.

A few more with swords and bows.

12 plastic Men of Gondor swordsmen.

8 Men of Gondor Archers - I was pleased with the standard bearer conversion.

9 Men of Gondor spearmen - 3 metal the rest plastic conversions.

I am pretty sad to be parting with this lot but I haven't used them in years - originally planned as HotT armies to fight DK - I think the elves had a couple of outings back in the days before the blog - pictures lost in the mists of time. This posting is so that I can look back at what I have had. There are a number of figures which I don't have a record of .... nevermind.

I haven't got rid of all the Lord of the Rings stuff - I will endeavour to post pictures of the survivors of the cull. Some were kept to be able to play the actual GW Lord of the Rings and to support Kings of War armies (unit of 12 wood elves - still to see paint).

Hopefully some of the proceeds will be reinvested in the futures!

Stay safe!

Morts

The Witch King ....

Well after many years in a box I have finished off the Witch King on a fell beast (well a cheap plastic wyvern for D&D I bought long ago).

On the whole I think he has come out rather well - the base needs doing, but I am after some sharp sand as the building sand I am using for basing is a little too fine. Although I have come to a decision that I will be selling off my Lord of the Rings forces - not characters and a couple of units rangers and wood elves as these can easily be included in other games.

Also completed is a mirror of Galadriel (or frostgrave objective) made from an acorn cup and green stuff.
Planning another virtual game this evening - which should be fun.

Morts

Pottering along .......

So my work is shutting down for the virus, but I have to go in a couple of days this week to cover and to make sure work is set. I imagine that I have to be available most of the day to deal with things .... This means I don't get lots of time to do important things such as paint little metal and plastic people and play solo games .... I think I will return to the Warriors of Athena Frostgrave scenarios I started ages ago.
I might try doing the labels on the blog sometime (as the app has stopped working on this very old iPad) .... But then again I might not!
I haven't gotten any further with the plastics started last week, but I have finished off some ancients civilians (useful for something I am sure) and a unit of Polish guard for the Saxon GNW army - got to sort the flag.

Both these need a varnish, as do some plastic warg riders (I now have 12 in total) which I picked up to "finish" off the units for Dragon Rampant (or the GW game in Middle-earth), but I'm not too keen on Dragon Rampant at the moment, so I'll have to think about it some more - I don't really need 3 "Orc" armies -
1. Hobgoblin army (very old 80s figures), used for Kings of War.
2. A HotT (60mm frontage) based Ral Partha Orc army.
3. A Lord of the Rings Orc army ..... Which I am in the process of rebasing from HotT to individual bases.
Quite a lot of duplication there, but .....

Also started to put together some of Conquest Games early medieval archers for the SAGA forces ....

Vikings on the top a Frostgrave barbarian pressed into service and Saxons have 3 Gripping Beast Dark Age archers. The figures are interesting to put together lots of cutting to get them to look "right" (having said that I have found the sprues useful for parts on other projects, such as the LotR men), and now require some green stuff to fill the gaps, make sleeves and necks for the GB heads. This lot won't be particularly historical with helmets and the like, but the should fit with the other parts of the armies.

On other matters I almost ripped the derailleur off my mountain bike AGAIN! It's now quite right so I might need to see if Dan the bike man get have look at it, but I completed 16.5 miles on it. ...
I have managed  to read Tolkien's translation of Beowulf ..... Interesting but heavy going - the sentence structure is tough going for modern English readers (like me, just about). Obviously Old English is a totally different language to modern English, the book contains part in actual Old English. The better half and I looked at some of these (I skipped them while reading the translation) and couldn't make any link ..... I did show one passage to my Danish sister-in-law and she could recognise some words .... The Norman conquest has much to answer for.

Off to bimble for a bit!

Morts

Lord of the Rings - Dragon Rampant.

So before my nephew departs dear old Blighty for Daneland, he was desperate for another game and in particular another chance to use my Lord of the Rings miniatures. This is sort of a problem as the Men of Gondor and High (Noldor) Elves are individually based and the forces of Mordor are still based up for Horde of the Things ..... So step forward Dragon Rampant! To solve the problem of mixed basing.

To keep things simple as I haven't played the rules (apart from a run through of Lion Rampant - years and years ago) I avoided most of the fantastical rules as I would be running the rosters for both sides. Orcs were light foot, Uruks heavy foot, Trolls bellicose foot (3 figures to a unit), Warg-Riders light cavalry, Wargs were lesser war beasts and the Nazgul General elite cavalry (one model). 

The Elves foot units were 6 figures each Spearmen were heavy foot, Archers light-missiles (with sharpshooters) and heavy cavalry with missile option. The army of Gondor Archers light-missiles, 2 units of heavy foot and 2 units of heavy cavalry- one with the missile option. 

Pointed up there was 50 points of evil and 48 points of good - way bigger than the 24 points for a standard game - and squeezed on to a 3 by 5 table rather that a 4 by 6!

Set up was done as in Kings of War as I wasn't properly prepared (no surprise there). 

Initial deployments!

The little Dane stared advancing across the table - I was hindered by failing my first 2 activations (poor dice in this game is a killer - to be fair that is true of any game involving dice throwing). 

The pictures show the lines moving towards each other - initial charges by the Gondorian cavalry weaken the centre of the Orc line - the trolls not doing much. Out on the left the Elven cavalry force the Wargs back and routed a unit of Orcs and on the right the Warg-Riders were routed by a combination of melee and archery. 

But the attack was causing problems for the forces of good - weakening the cavalry considerably. One unit of Gondorian cavalry down to half strength and the Elven cavalry running out of strength points completely.

Below the final picture of the game where in conceded the field of battle - even though I had routed more units, time was against us and the little Dane has the fight to the death attitude of Harald Hadarda! In any event it would have been a close run thing - the Elven foot were all at 100% and not engaged, but the Gondorians were suffering and the Orcs still had the Wargs running about, 2 units of Trolls, 2 of Uruks, 2 of Orcs and the Nazgul. 

The rules play fast (and I was fairly lax with the spacing and forgetting things) - I will be giving them another bash sometime - but next week is the annual Twilight Imperium event game! 

And Happy New Year!

The Elves of the Second Age

Well I have rebased my Lord of the Rings 2nd Age Elves - so now they can be played as GW intended as individuals for the "Battle Strategy Game" - well large skirmish game, or as a force in Dragon Rampant (planning to run them as reduced model units so the units are smaller than the Orcs) or with sabots HotT. Of course there is nothing to stop them being press ganged into Kings of War - but that would indicate that. Actually played some of the games I have .... Haven't been doing too well with that recently as work has been pretty busy, weekends taken up with weddings and parties .... It's been a tough time (the less said about the "dancing" the better). And the hot weather and the World Cup (it nearly got home) isn't exactly conducive to painting and gaming. 

That and the "gaming table" needs sanding and painting .... Along with the decking and garden furniture. 

Anyway I managed to rebase Gil-galad, Elrond and their forces (at some time these will be supplemented by some Elves from Lothlorien when they get painted). 

The Elven Lords and their forces arrayed..

  The Lords themselves. 

The light horse. Mainly conversions of the plastic Elves and Riders of Rohan. 

The Spear Phalanx. All metal - with a few press moulded shields. 

The Archers. Mainly plastic apart from the command figures. 

The army need some light troops, but as already suggested they will come from the forces Lothlorien. 

Hope you like them. 

Also got a lot of rebasing of Orcs to do ....

Morts

Army of Gondor

Today I present my first army showcase. 

This is the completed Gondor (Numenoreon) army from the Games Workshop range based on the Peter Jackson movies. 

The units are designed to be used for the Games Workshop game of Lord of the Rings, but with the cunning use of sabot basing it makes a Horde of the Things (HotT) army. The units are 12 for infantry( 6 for the Rangers) and 6 for the cavalry also making them ideal for Dragon Rampant. 

Heroes and the Cavalry

Boromirs, Denethor, Elendil, Isildur and Faramir. 

In HotT terms 3 bases of Knights and 1 of Riders. The Aragorn the King can just counted as the leader rather than a hero depending on the scenario. 

Ranged troops - not a lot more to write to be honest. 

Heavy Infantry

Spears and Blades in HotT. 

I do need to do some work on the sabot bases (grass and bits of wood/stuff) and the infantry flags require finishing off - but I needed to tidy up the painted area and I wanted to post something. 

When I can I need to get Gandalf (both Grey (2) and White - mounted) and Strider (foot and mounted) to get more options. 

A bit of rebasing of Sauron's and Gil-galad's forces is on the agenda. 

Morts

For Gondor!

Managed to paint some more troops for Gondor. 12 spearmen and one mounted archer.

I only have 13 to go and Elendil and Isildur and I'll have finished a Dragon Rampant force or a small force for KoW. Obviously they can be used for Lord of the Rings games as well. I would like to get some new spearheads - some plastic high elf spearheads by GW or Mantic would fit the bill if I could fine some. 

Next to the painting table are some Dwarf pikes ... Then it is some zombies or skellies or some zombiecide heroes for Steedo (as he gave me 6 zombies to make a unit up to 12 for Rampant or KoW) .... Hopefully there will be time over the festive season. 

Morts

What I have been up to over the week ....

Well managed to get some painting done over the past week.

First up some Mordor trolls by Dark Alliance (of the Ukranie) so unlikely to be troubled by the I P police of either Peter Jackson or Games Workshop. 

These are quite big figures - made of the same type of plastic as my old Airfix figures from many years ago .... So a little worried that the paint might flake in the future - but at £10.99 for 8 figures a good buy. There are a couple of figures in the set which aren't up to much, but still a good price for 6 figures. 

I also painted up these Elven Knights for Lord of the Rings - one is a Rivendell knight from the Hobbit (GW price about £30 for 6) which I picked up damaged at the Plymouth show for 10p! The other is a quick conversion, so that I would have a 6 figure unit. 

Also pictured are a couple of the Elven mounted archers I did for a HotT army years ago and have only been used 3 times I think - they will be rebased in the near future.

Also managed to get a frog painted for when spells go wrong for various games .... And 3 dogs to complete a unit for Kings of War or war hounds in Frostgrave. 

So I have some basing to do and to build some more ruins ....

Morts