I'm still here!!

Hey gang,

If anyone happens to be following this, I am still here!! I haven't kept up with this project lately for 2 reasons:

1) I need more paint to paint the next models on the backlog.
2) I started a second job, leaving me with less free time.
3) I took on responsibilities as Commander of a unit for the upcoming Mechwarrior Online. Which basically means I've been playing video games in my spare time instead of painting!

Well the whole two jobs thing has paid off, so I'll be able to get some paints this week at some point, and hopefully start working on the next batch of models following that. In other news, I found the plastic Ent box set, and a box of 6 plastic warg riders for $15 each, so stay tuned for more LOTR and...stuff!!

Dúnedain

"Survival" Story 

 

Okie Dokie. So, if you don't know I live in New Orleans, and if you don't live in a box you know we got hit by hurricane Isaac this past week. The city itself didn't suffer much in terms of flooding but because the storm was so slow we got pounded with high winds for 2 days. So like 90% of the parish lost power. Isaac since went on to do a lot of damage and levee bursting further north, which sucks. On top of that I only just got power back last night.... Now the funny thing about New Orleans is that its really F'ing hot in the summertime here. And no power means no A/C, which means sweaty, angry, depressed people. I literally sweated non-stop for almost 3 days unless I was in a cold shower. Not too fun. However I did get some good painting done!

History of the Dúnedain:

 

The Dúnedain (as I am presenting them) are the descendants of the original Numenorean exiles to Middle-Earth. The name is a compound word which in Sindarin means, "the men of westernesse". Adûn is a Westron word meaning Westerner, while Edain is the proper name of the elder race of men in Arda (whereas the elves are the Eldar, and the dwarves the Naugrim).  After The Voyage of Eärendil, wherein the mariner convinced the Valar to send aid to the elves of Middle Earth in defeating Morgoth Bauglir, the Men who aided the Valar were gifted with the land of Numenor. Eventually some of the Numenoreans got all angsty and broke some rules, so the Valar sank their continent (they have a habit of doing this when you piss them off). The faithful who survived settled in Middle-Earth under Elendil and became the Dúnedain. Elendil is the father of Isildur, who eventually strikes down Sauron and takes The One Ring from his severed fingers. Pretty epic stuff. If you want to know more check out: The One Wiki to Rule Them All or even better, read Tolkien's Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales. If you can make it past the Ainulindalë chapter its a goddamn awesome, epic book, if a bit flowery in the language department.

Anywho the kings of Gondor and Arnor (Numenoreans) slowly dwindled, and eventually Arnor collapsed all together. The distant and sundered descendants of the kings of Arnor took to the wilds and became the Rangers in the North, of whom Aragorn Elessar was the leader. They tasked themselves with guarding the northern borders of Eriador from the encroaching darkness of Angmar, and ultimately Sauron. This was mostly centered around protecting the nigh defenceless hobbits of the Shire, and the folk of Bree and the outlying areas. Which is why they feature in The Fellowship of the Ring at all. Now on to the models, with paint schemes to follow!

Bristles in the Dark

 

As I had no power starting last Tuesday afternoon I put on my trusty headlamp and banged these guys out over Tuesday and Wednesday. I think they look great for having been painted under LED light in a totally dark room.

So there you have it. I mixed the cloak and tunic colors to provide a bit of variation after all these guys are supposed to be fairly solitary, and don't have a uniform as such. Anyhow here's the schemes I used, all are over a black base coat:

Grey Cloaks/Tunics: Codex grey, badab black wash, codex grey drybrush

Green Cloaks/Tunics: MM Acryl Dark Green, Thraka Green wash, MM Acryl Interior Green Drybrush.

Leather Armor/Vambraces/Boots: Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown highlight.

Leather straps/pouches/etc: Vermin brown, Vomit Brown highlight.

Pants and quivers/arrows: Reaper Master Pure Black, Codex grey drybrush.

Spear and bow staves: Reaper Master Pure Black mixed with scorched brown, Scorched brown highlight.

Steel: Boltgun Metal, Leviathan Purple wash, Chainmail highlight, Mithril Silver Highlight

Gold: Tin Bitz, Leviathan Purple Wash, Shining Gold highlight, Burnished Gold highlight.

Skin: Tanned Flesh, Flesh Wash, Dwarf Flesh.

So what do you guys think? I think they could've looked a little more weathered, but either way they look pretty neat in my opinion. Notice I didn't paint eyes, and probably won't on a lot of these LOTR models, as their a bit smaller in scale than Warhammer and 40k, so its less essential typically. Plus I suck at painting eyes.

Lots of work ahead of me

 

So yesterday I also received that trade I mentioned. And boy is it awesome. Not only did it include everything I wanted, the guy threw in a bag of random goodies from blisters that had fallen apart. I got ALOT of awesome stuff. Here's a picture:

In that box you see:
3 Cave Trolls!
72 Warriors of Minas Tirith
18 Riders of Rohan
48 Mordor Orcs
20 Uruk-Hai
12 Warriors of Rohan
5 Knights of Minas Tirith
Ambush at Amon Hen
Attack at Weathertop
Heroes of the West
The Fellowship of the Ring

And lots and lots of awesome metal models too. Too many to list actually. But there were dwarves, elves,  lots of heroes, and some of the awesome OOP metal orcs. I've got a lot to paint, but my next big goal is to get the wargs and Moria Goblins I need to finish some scenarios. I also need quite a few more mounted Nazgul and some alternate sculpts for the foot guys.

Thats a lot of robes!

Just a bit of humor there for you (a la the post title)

Anyhow, down to business.

This post is mainly just to show off the finished Nazgul Riders, and the spruced up Ringwraiths on foot! Now, as my camera is terrible (its my phone camera, 5.1 megapixel) you may not be able to see a difference from my last post. However all I've done is add a drybrush of codex grey. I think this game them a good pop as they were looking a little bit boring in my humble opinion. Below are two lighting options as well, one with flash, the other with just my desk lamp. I thought about adding some dirt around the bottoms of the cloaks but don't have the colors I would want to use for that. I also got lazy and I'm really tired of painting Nazgul (which is funny because I have a lot more to paint).

Now here are the mounted guys, all finished and done. I got really lazy on them, as I despise painting horses (too many hard to reach places with large surface area). Also one of them was kind of miscast on one side but you can't really tell from the pictures. Anyhow, dont judge too harshly. I also ended up adding the codex grey drybrush on the rider's cloaks as well. However I do regret that I did the horses in black now however, as all the GW pictures I've found show dark brown horses, so on the rest that might be what I do. You can also tell from the detail shots that the primer coat got really grainy, probably due to humidity (its hot here). So I'll try to avoid that next time. I'll shut up and show you pictures now.

So that's all for now. Look for an update sometime later this week or next as I'm itching to start my Dunedain/Rangers.

Nazgul and beyond

Catch-up

So, sorry it's been so long for an update, but life takes precadence over painting unfortunately. My vacation was lovely, and I spent some time at home in the mountains and managed to find some old supplies with which to build some terrain. Also the previous trade I mentioned fell through :( However I set up another one on www.bartertown.com and I just shipped my end today! This trade has a ton of good stuff and will mainly satisfy the later books. Anywho on to the painting!

The 4 (out of 9)

So the idea of painted a dude whos just wearing a black cloak and hood sounds kind of boring to me. So I decided to switch it up a bit. The normal way I would paint a model like this would be to start with a black undercoat, and work up through mixes of grays and blacks using dry brushing. However thats way to easy. I also don't have any black primer, so that option was out as hand basing takes forever!

However I do have grey spray paint. So I did the only natural thing and decided to paint these guys inside out. That is to say, start with gray underneath and go from there. How you may ask? Well a long time ago I saw MightyChad painting some sort of beastman or something (It might have been a PP model) and he was painting the skin by layering on thin layers of wash over a white undercoat. Well I had a gray undercoat and black wash (badab black to be precise), and VOILA! I ended up doing three coats to get the color dark enough, and that almost cleaned out a pot of the stuff as I layered it on very heavily. However I think the effect works great. I got lazy when spray coating them so there were some spots where the metal showed through, but like I said, its hard to get excited about a guy that looks like a 90's horror movie killer without his mask.

I think they turned out pretty good! The metal bits (swords and armor) were painted by applying a layer of Tin Bitz followed by a drybrush of boltgun metal. Usually I would have proceeded to a further drybrush of chainmail, however I wanted these guys to look extra grungy and nasty (as Nazgul should).

I also painted two mounted Nazgul at the same time. However I haven't made it to the horses yet, but they'll be coming soon. Here's a sneak peak!

In other news...

My previous trade I had lined up fell through, however I have another one which should be here by sometime next week. Its a whopper amount of stuff and includes the following, mostly stuff thats useful for later scenarios. Also, as soon as I'm done with these Nazgul I'll start painting up some Dunedain (I'll be using plastic ranger models as the Dunedain are hard to find and expensive).

Blisters:
Merry & Pippen VS Grishnakh
Moria armoured goblins
Glorfindel mounted and on foot
Gandalf on Shadowfax
Elladin and Elrohir
Mounted Boromir
Eomer Mounted
Legolas and Gimli on horseback
Gandalf the white
Warg Riders x3
Uruk Hai Warriors (LoTR)
Sam, Frodo, Gollum on rock (two towers) x2
Cave troll
Cave Troll w/ spear x2
Rohan Royal Guard on foot
RingWraith on foot
Lurtz
Gorbag and Shagrat
Sam and Frodo in orc armor

Box sets
Heroes of the West
Ambush at Amon Hen
Attack at Weathertop
Fellowship of the Ring

Starters
Return of the King x2
Two Towers x1

Army Box
Forces of Free People

Vacation Update

Well I'm here in sunny Florida for a few days so I thought I'd shoot out a quick update to prove I'm still intending to follow through on this whole mess. Before I left for vacation I got the last Journeybook (Return of the King) I was very lucky and found the second two for super cheap. I also got a Faramir model for $5 ($0.99 plus $4 of shipping :P) The ROTK book is different as most of the scenarios don't have recommended participants beyond key hero's. It bothered me at first, however I think by that point I will want to flex my creative muscles and that will give me an opportunity to mix and match some things. Also from a scenario design standpoint it makes sense as the forces are so much larger and varied than any battle from the earlier books. You've got a lot of players in the final few battles: Easterlings,Southrons, Khandish Mercs, Knights of Dol-Amroth, Lossarnach, Lamedon, Grey Company, etc. etc. etc. So being less restricted means I can have a smattering of whatever I want without having to shell out too much money for 30 Knights of Dol-Amroth.

Anywho I've been scouring eBay for deals. I've struck well too. I have in the mail:


10 Warriors of Rohan (all with bow)
12 Rangers of Middle Earth (these will become dunedain more than likely)
1 Ringwraith Blister (includes foot and mtd. version.)
17 Warriors of Minas Tirith
AND
Classic Fellowship poses of Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir. So I have almost all the fellowship except Gandalf, and I would like alternate versions of the hobbits but thats not vital. So I'm doing pretty good. I will also be acquiring (through a trade) the following, which will put me in great shape as it has lots of hard to find and expensive stuff:
 
 Aragorn at the Black Gate (Mounted)
Aragorn at Amon Hen
Boromir with Gondor Standard (Discontinued model)
Halabarad with Aragorn's Standard (Discontinued model)
Gil-Galad
Glorfindel on foot and mounted
Haldir in Mirkwood (discontinued model)
Legolas at Amon Hen
Gandalf at Khazad dûm
Balin
Elendil
Isildur

Infantry

8 Minas Tirith Bowman
6 Minas Tirith Swordsman
6 Minas Tirith Spearmen
1 Minas Tirith Standard
3 Rangers of the Gondor
3 Fountain Guard
3 Knights of Dol Amroth
13 Numenorian Swordsman
5 Numenorian Spearmen
1 Numenorian Standard
3 Rangers of the North
5 High Elf Archers
2 High Elf Spearmen
2 High Elf Swordsmen
1 High Elf Standard
8 Khazad Guard

So be ready for lots of updates when I get back (hopefully)

Also I got a part-time job playing with Lego Robots! Yes I am an adult!

Quick Update

Laziness

So I got a little behind my planned schedule due to work and an upcoming vacation. I need some black primer anyhow so the Ringwraiths will be on the back burner until I get back from vacation. Since I didn't have any primer, and I got bored, I decided to build a fort! I also found the other two Journeybooks I will need. These are the hard part as their out of print and hard to find. I have The Two Towers, and Return of the King should hopefully arrive before I leave for vacation. The scenarios in Two Towers have me itching to skip the Fellowship book because their so cool, but I'm sticking by my guns! Also no luck on ebay auctions recently :( but I'll be selling a lot of 40k and WHFB stuff when I get back so I'll have funds to bid more aggressively.

FORTitude

This is based on the basic templates featured in the main rulebook, as well as the old Siege Of Gondor Sourcebook. I had to alter and hand-draw the templates somewhat however as I used 13mm foamcore, being unable to find the 10mm thickness suggested. I plan to paint them, add brickwork (using pencil) and some balsa wood accents (trapdoors and a gate). Here are the results:

I think they turned out pretty good!

Special Guest

Since I don't have much to offer I thought I would feature my wife's art on the blog! These are 6x8 canvas boards with tapestry thread dipped in elmers used to create the shapes. I think their really pretty and simple and a great thing for her to do while I'm absorbed in painting or cutting up foamcore :P   (for some reason blogger keeps auto rotating this pic, so just turn your head to the side XD )

What to look forward to:

After vacation I should be able to start more earnestly (hopefully) its hard when life gets in the way of hobbies. On my list are:

-Keep hunting for ebay deals, specifically nazgul and dunedain.
-Buy some 1" insulation foam to start building terrain
-Sell, sell, sell. Get rid of 40k and WHFB stuff to fund this project and make space for the new stuff
-More TBA!

So what's next?

Striptease....

So I started stripping my Ringwraiths. Those robes just don't wanna come off ;-) 

 So since I got the Fellowship of the Ring Journeybook, and finished painting my holbytla so I figured I should start on the stuff required for the first scenario, The Hunt Begins. This first scenario depicts a skirmish in Eriador, on the northern border of the Shire, wherein a group of Dunedain rangers (think Aragorn's cousins) are hard pressed to prevent the Nazgul from entering the Shire and capturing Frodo and the Ring. The participants are a force of 9 Dunedain, each a minor hero in game terms, with 1 might/will/fate, a spear and a bow. Their opponents are a force of 2 Ringwraiths and the Witch King of Angmar, all of whom are using the minimum stat-lines to represent their distance from the Dark Lord and his not yet dominant power. Honestly it seems pretty unbalanced, and I've read elsewhere that it is, however it's a very thematic scenario I think, despite its simplicity. Here is the board layout:

So it looks like I've got some work to do! Right now I'm scouring eBay for a good deal on some sort of Ranger models. I've decided to use a mix of models to represent the Dunedain, as GW's are too expensive, but at this point my plan is to use the plastic Rangers of Middle-Earth box, which comes with 12 Rangers. In terms of terrain you can see from the picture that it's fairly simple, and the cool thing about this book is that all the previous scenario's build on earlier ones. For instance the little rock outcrops are used later in the Moria Scenarios to hold up the bridges of Dwarrowdelf!

I also just ordered The Two Towers Journeybook, and it should get here sometimes this week or next, very excited.

Wishlist/what I need!

So I have glanced through the future scenarios to kind of glean an idea of what I'll need to buy, and here's a rough list of the models I'll need to acquire and paint to complete the Fellowship Journeybook. And in case any wealthy benefactors are reading this blog, I do take donations! (That includes my parents xD )

5 Ringwraiths (unmounted)
1 Gildor Inglorion (OOP)
4 Hobbits (for pre-Lothlorien version)
1 Tom Bombadil and Goldberry
4 Barrow-Wights
1 Gandalf the Grey (pre-Khazad-Dum version)
1 Aragorn (either the Weathertop version, or any other normal version of Amon-Hen Aragorn)
1 Glorfindel
7 Mounted Ringwraiths
1 Boromir of Gondor
1 Legolas Greenleaf
1 Gimli Gloinsson (<mad that one up)
1 Wild Warg Chieftain
18 Wild Wargs (3 boxes worth :( thats a lot)
1 Watcher in the Water (or at least 6 tentacles worth)
2 Goblin Captains
24 Moria Goblins (with 8 of each weapon option)
1 Cave Troll
1 Balrog (another ouch here)
1 Haldir (Lothlorien version w/o armor, OOP)
6 Wood elves w/ bows (OOP version preferably, but I can always just buy the elves box)
1 Lurtz
1 Uruk-Hai Captain
18 Uruk Scouts (6 w/ bows, 12 w/ shields)


Sooooo. Thats a lot to acquire, and it could take a very long time. My next big decision is should I just buy the Mines of Moria set to acquire all the Fellowship models or should I buy all the pieces separately? I'm pushing for separately because I hate the sculpts of the Fellowship in that box, and the cave troll looks like a cheap toy, however it would be convenient. Thoughts?

Next on the menu....

So my next purchase will probably be the Ringwraiths as they feature in quite a few of the scenarios in this book, including the first 4 or 5, so thats important. Painting wise I'm currently stripping the Nazgul I had and will prime them tomorrow or the next day probably. So expect some work on those before week's end. G'day!

4 Little Hobbitses

Let's Dive Right In!

So, I got these models last week from an eBay auction, and as I was waiting for the first Journeybook, I went ahead and got to painting. Here's what I got in the auctions, for just above $10 (it was a steal).

1 Mounted Ringwraith (unpainted)
3 Painted (poorly) Ringwraiths on foot, includes the Witch King (Weathertop edition)
4 Hobbits (primed): Merry, Pippin, Sam and Frodo.

Here's some pics (minus the mounted Wraith):

As you can see I had to label the hobbits as its hard to tell them apart before they're painted. Once my paintschemes started to come together, and I stared at their tiny faces for long enough, you can really appreciate the detail the sculptors used, as the models really do look a lot like the actors who portrayed them in the films.

Planning:

As I couldn't really decide how to paint the hobbits, and I don't have every paint made by GW, I had to be picky when deciding how to paint the hobbits without making them all look alike. So I did this:

There, that was easy! And with this figured out I launched into painting the four smallest biggest hero's Middle-earth has ever seen. Here's the little fellows with their base clothes painted:

Now for the paint scheme I used for the clothes, I'll use the format of base/shade/highlight to keep it simple (MM is "model master" acryl, made by testors):

Green clothes: MM Acryl Dark Green, Thraka Green wash, MM Acryl Interior Green highlights

Brown Clothes: Scorched Brown base, Bestial Brown highlights (no shade here)

Now that I had the basic clothes down I moved on to the next largest surface, the cloaks. In my haste to get started I forgot that the hobbits weren't gifted their Elven cloaks until they reach Lothlorien, well into their journey with the Fellowship, but I plan on having another set of models to represent the hobbits, pre-Fellowship (as long as I win this damn auction!!) So I dove in and painted the cloaks, and they rock. Cloaks are one of my favorite things to paint as its not hard to get a really nice looking one with a little work. In hindsight I feel like they should be a little darker, or muddier I suppose, maybe with a little green in there somewhere, but I like how they turned out. Here they are:

Here's the scheme:

Elven Cloaks: Codex Grey base, Fortress Grey highlight #1, Astronomicon Grey highlight #2, Skull White highlight #3.

So now the major surfaces were covered. That was the easy part, the details are always the hardest and most time consuming part of any painting project. Anyone can drybrush or highlight a large surface, but detail work is pain(t)staking (I couldn't resist), requires a steady hand, and can be un-fun sometimes. However the rewards are always worth it.

And here's this picture, right after I put Flesh Wash on their skin. This was only taken because they look like oompa loompas. Which is funny because their tiny.

So after much work (really only a few hours) I managed to finish these guys. I had some trouble with the hair as I'm color blind (SURPRISE!) and my pallet of browns is limited. But I had my wife help me by looking at pictures of the actors (in costume) and telling me what color their hair was, because to me if its not red, blond, or black, its just "brown". Anywho, here's two pictures of the finished products with different lighting. I'll post schemes following the pics:

Ok, so here are the schemes for everything but the cloaks, pants and jackets.


Swords: Boltgun Metal base, Leviathan Purple wash, Chainmail highlight, Mithril Silver highlight

Sword hilts, buttons, buckles: Shining Gold base, Burnished Gold highlight

Meriadoc's Vest: Mechrite Red base, Blood Red highlight

Skin: Tanned Flesh base, Flesh Wash wash, Dwarf flesh highlight, Elf Flesh highlight (basically how I do skin for all fair skinned races. Note the feet, the furry hobbit foot-hair is sculpted on, so i just didn't highlight those parts after the wash, I think it worked well to make them stand out without being too pervasive.

Pippin and Sam's scarves: Regal Blue base, Mordian Blue highlight

Frodo's hair: Chaos Black, painted in a thin layer, the white basecoat showed through meaning I didn't really need to highlight xD

Merry and Sam's hair: Bestial Brown base, Bestial Brown/Reaper Ivory mix highlight, Reaper Ivory final highlight.

Pippin's Hair: Vermin Brown base, Vermin Brown/Reaper Ivory mix highlight.

Bases: MM Acryl Dark Green edging, Elmers and flock on top!


Conclusion


At this point I feel pretty good about this project. These are the first models I've painted in about 8 months or so, and I think they came out pretty good. My next post will probably deal with stripping and repainting the Ring Wraiths. Also I got the Fellowship Journeybook today:

The first mission requires 9 Dunedain, The Witch King, and 2 Ringwraiths, so I did well in my auction! Now I just need to track down some Dunedain, or just use the plastic rangers. What do you readers think?

Introduction

 Who am I?

Well first things first, my name is Powers Wartman, I'm a 22 year old college graduate living in the deep south (for the time being) with my wonderful wife Julia, and very cute and spoiled dog, Tonks (I'm sure I will be posting pictures of her eventually.) I have a long history of gaming, starting around age 9 when I conned my mom into buying me the 4th Edition Battletech Box Set from Pastimes in Asheville, NC. (Thanks mom!) Later on I went through a card game and clicky game phase, which was only natural given my age (I honestly didn't understand Battletech at all until many years later). Sometime around age 13 or 14, while hanging out in Pastimes playing Heroclix, my eye was drawn to the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers starter box set produced by Games Workshop. Eventually I saved up the $40 bucks it would cost me (a joke when you look at GW's current prices). Thus began my life as a wargamer. I later was drawn into Warhammer 40k, and Fantasy and have continued gaming on and off ever since; collecting and selling many different armies.

So what is this blog anyhow?

This blog will serve as a project log concerning Games Workshop's wonderful game, The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's cycle of novels, and Peter Jackson's epic films. I plan to collect the now out of print Journeybooks produced by GW, which detail the events of the films and novels through a number of scenarios. What I plan to do is to start at the beginning, and collect and paint all the historical participants and terrain, and, if I ever find anyone interested (not my wife) play them! My main goal however will be do get everything used, secondhand, or on sale. I.e. I don't want to pay full price unless I have to.

I have decided to undertake this project for a number of reasons, which I will list now:

• Warhammer holds no lasting cultural significance. In 20 years, when I'm hopefully done with this project, people will see my collection and say, "Wow, thats all really cool Lord of the Rings stuff!" If I had an awesome Warhammer army out on display, no matter how awesome, very few people would appreciate it beyond the initial awe at the scale that we gamers paint in.
• Warhammer is too darn expensive, and the rules have totally turned me off from 40k.
• I have matured to the point where I am just fine making my toys look pretty, I no longer *have* to play with them. (i.e. the hobby aspect greatly interests me)
• One day, if I finish the collection, I can pass it down to my kids or grandkids, and that would be awesome.

Shout-outs!

I would like to give a shout-out to some people first of all: The top three would have to be Khavor, MightyChad, and sm51498 whose work can be found on Cool Mini or Not (not their real names) who are three Golden Demon Class painters (2 have actually garnered trophies) who I know IRL, and have had the honor of watching paint. I never really took the time to learn actual painting from them (silly me), as I have no interest in competition, however their skill and dedication is very inspiring. Also thank you to all the guys in Boone who kind of brought me out of a gaming hiatus I was in after my first year of college, which was pretty important in my gaming career. And my brother because he was always a lot nerdier than me growing up, which was good as I found out about a lot of stuff I never would have another way.Also my wife is awesome for putting up with my nerdy hobby which she had no idea about until far too late in our relationship!



Now don't wait long for the first real blog post, which will be a long one, as I will start typing it right, about, now.........