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.........