Weekly Un-Earthing - (26/02/2016): Busy, Busy, Busy

This week has been frantic for my hobbying!!

Right, lets kick this off last Saturday where I was feeling under the weather and therefore didn't go and play hockey as usual.....which meant I had the WHOLE day to hobby. T'was a good day!!

I started by remodelling Treebeard into a much better and powerful pose with him striding forward, arm outstretched looking for vengeance. I manage to bend the leg at the hip quite easily, with just a bit of brute force and muscle but the lower leg was much harder to shift. This meant I got out my saw and cut about half way into the back of his knee, leaving less metal to bend and giving the striding forward look that I am really really happy with.

If you are wondering where my Mahûd are then I will explain, it was raining.....REALLY heavy!! Meaning I couldn't get the base coat sprayed on until Sunday morning, giving me all Saturday to do other random things, and it got really quite random.

Next, I saw my Nihilakh Oxide and then saw The King of The Dead next to me, so I thought about all the Army of the Dead I have and wanted to give a ghostly look a try. Instead of stripping my attempt from before, as I didn't have any Dettol plus I didn't want to wait, I just put a base of Ceramite White and then washed with Nuln Oil, as I tried putting Nihilakh Oxide on straight away and it didn't quite look how I wished. So once the Nuln Oil had dried I applied the Nihilakh Oxide which gave the ghostly vibe. Another coat of Nuln Oil was added, followed by a heavy drybrush of Fenrisian Grey with a edge drybrush of Ulthuan Grey. Overall, I am so happy with the result and once I had based them with static grass and some rocks but once that had all dried I added some Nihilakh Oxide to the grass to give it a little "glow".

Also, as I had a spare Saruman and Grima, as well as some broken Riders of Rohan my saw same out again and within minutes I had chopped them in half. Quite satisfying if you ask me. I managed to get the fit roughly right and I am waiting on rubber tools to help with sculpting, after getting some good tips from Flame on The Palantir on the GBHL Podcast I will sculpt the rest of their cloaks to make the fit look near perfect, giving me an excellent option in game.

Finally, we get to Sunday where I get to spray my whole Mahûd army and get started with just applying some base layers to the standard warriors. As they're supposed to be warriors of the desert, I am keeping the colours simple and rustic.

Using Khorne Red as the base for the cloth, Rakarth Flesh for the wicker areas, Rhinox Hide for all the small wooden parts, Ushabti Bone for the clubs and string attaching the wicker to the wood on the shield. Lastly, Kislev Flesh is being used for the skin but instead of a fleshwash I will be using Agrax Earthshade on all parts of the model including the skin to give them a distinguishing look.

I came. I bought. I painted.

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Weekly Un-Earthing (19/02/2016): Making them Pop

This week I have just been finishing up basing my Mahud by adding a few larger rocks to the bases so that when it comes to painting and detailing the bases I have some scope to work with to give it the extra edge.

However, the majority of this week I may have got a little distracted and wanting to completely finish models that I have painted but have plain bases. A lovely painted model looks good but it is has a fully textured base to go along with it it makes it look that extra bit special. The first models I saw in my cabinet which I painted not too long ago were the 3 trolls: Bill, Tom, Bert. As they obviously have bigger bases it enabled me to try to get a bit of variation and height whilst keeping the dirty Trollshaws aesthetic to them. I think I have achieved this pretty well so far and I might add a bit more to give mossy-er feel to them, so far I added small rocks to give a bit of height once I added flock on top. Also, using 3 different shades of flock I hoped to add natural variation and depth to each base.

The other models that caught my eye to try my hand at more basing were Aragorn and Gandalf the White. A similar technique was used to the Trolls, but a different type of rock was used but painted grey instead of the muddy rocks of the Trollshaws. I went for this extra colour because eventually I wish to have 2 versions of Gandalf the White; one to ride with Rohan so would need a Rohan style base using flock and grey rocks, and another to ride with Gondor with a stone base to match Gondor and my Fiefdoms models. Once again I am really pleased with the outcome of these models and I think they really complete the look and feel of what I was trying to achieve.

I eventually got round to doing what I intended this week and that was stripping models. I have managed to strip my 8 Half-trolls of Far Harad and now I am just getting them ready for basing and base coating. This means that all my Mahud warriors will be ready for spraying and then the simple task of painting them, however I feel this will take a while as I have about 30 models to paint. I am going to aim to get them finished by the end of March, which would take me up to 50 models painted for the year already!!

I came. I bought. I painted.

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Weekly Un-Earthing (12/02/2016): The Camels are coming!!

This week I didn't get as much done as I thought because of Into The West tournament and working a lot.....plus going to back Cardiff for a night out with friends, but you have to have a little bit of fun.

So what have I done, by the title you can probably tell, I started my Far Harad army. I had already glued all these guys to the bases when I first got them but hadn't done anything with them. The lunging Mahûd spearman at the back I had to pull of the bases, as I had already done away with the slotta part cause they just didn't sit right. So like when I did my stone bases for the Fiefdoms, I glued part of a matchstick into the slot and stuck the men back down nice and evenly. The rest didn't need any changing apart from the odd one need to be re-stuck back into the base.

Once I had tidied up all the models and made sure they were secure I just had to start basing them, because from now on I am going to make sure that models are completely finished, bases and all. I want to do this because I have quite a few painted models on black bases and add the bases just makes the whole model come to life that little bit more!!

As you can see from the picture above I have a fair few Mahûd Warriors but the majority are 2 poses and I am not entirely sure how I am going to change them up to vary them. I have the 2 poses a lot from a purchase on the Trade Group on Facebook with the extra pose being changed to 2 banners and 1 Mahûd King/Tribesman. My aim is to convert 1 Raider to a King/Tribesman and 1 to a banner plus possibly purchasing a proper King at some point too.

Finally, I have the Mumak Mahûd and an already converted King/Tribesman that I am really pleased with that I did a couple of years ago. For now this is my force and I want to get it done cause it'll look so cool!!

I came. I bought. I painted.

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Into The West Review: Day 2

Starting day 2 on 3 wins and a 1 loss made me feel pretty confident about what I could do and how to approach most games.

Game 5 was against Jack Render and his Malbeth, Arathorn Arnor army playing Supply Run, a modified Seize The Price with 3 objectives. I managed to get the jump on all 3 objectives and picked 1 of them up straight away. However, it took 3 or 4 turns to pick up the other 2 objectives. This lead to a huge shield wall battle between Warriors of Arnor and Knights and Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth. Eventually, Arathorn killed one Knight with an objective and a few Warriors of Arnor ran away with it but I managed to get the other 2 off my own board edge and won 10-5. Next up was.........Goblin Town.

Josh Triffitt was waiting on table 2 with 1 game to go and his Goblin Town, including a Shaman and a Dweller which made his list less flithy from my point of view and cool cause.....it's a Dweller. The game was Total Domination, with dead models coming back on with a 4+. The game was very tactial from the start and neither wanting to engage due to the charge of the Dol Amroth or the mass number of the Goblins. But 4 plucky Knights on foot fought the Dweller and this carried on all game until 1 was left alive but not close enough to charge so the Dweller could kill a Blackroot Vale Archer in the last turn. Nevertheless, as time was running out the lines clashed. Imrahil and his banner affect was winning combats and the fight was even........until Imrahil charged the Goblin King. Heroic Strikes were called by both and Imrahil got to Fight 10 with the Goblin King only getting to Fight 9!!! BUT.....BUT.....BUT.....Imrahil choked!!! He rolled a 3 highest and lost even with a support. Gradual fighting and tactical with the final score being 10-6 to Josh as he had more kills than me plus the 1 contested objective.

With a sorry heart, I had to play my last game of the tournament. And Game 7 was against the Chieftain of the Hobbits, Mr Ian Spiller. To put this into some perspective, for those who don't know, my army had 26 models in it.......his had 67!!! We were playing Cut of the Head custom scenario where points were scored for each hero killed, breaking and extra points for leader wounds and kill. I knew from the start it would a tough game and a small chance of winning once he starting running heroes to the back of the board and lying them down. This just left the small issue of 60 Hobbits in the way of my objective, and once I got close Ian launched 2 massive volleys of stones killing 3 Knights on foot, a couple of Men-at-arms and Imrahil's horse. From this point, I was just trying to break him so that it would finish 1-1 but this meant throwing Imrahil into lots of Hobbits and on the last turn he managed to get a cheeky wound on him as he eventually lost a combat. This left the final score 4-0.

I finished the tournament on 4 wins and 3 losses, which I think isn't too bad for a first tournament, giving me an eventual finish on 11th out of 24 participants. Also, in the closing ceremony I won Most Sporting with 4 votes from my 7 games which made me feel that people really enjoyed how I played and all my games were very enjoyable and tense. The 2 weeks before frantically painting earned me Best Army Runner-Up too, just amazing to see people's enjoyment at the sight of my army and made me feel like all the work was worth it.

Thanks to all the folks I played and I loved my weekend thoroughly, and most definitely will go to another one as soon as possible. Look at my prizes!!!

Into The West Review: Day 1

As this is my first tournament I just wanted 2 wins if I am honest. I went with a theme-y but I thought relatively competitive force, this consisted of:

Prince Imrahil with armoured horse and lance

2 Knights of Dol Amroth with armoured horse and lance

2 Knights of Dol Amroth

8 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth with pike

Duinhir

4 Knights of Dol Amroth

8 Blackroot Vale Archers

I always thought that if Imrhail stayed alive I would have a chance in each game as I would have banner re-rolls for 2/3s of my force and Duinhir and his archers would only go into combat if it was needed. Plus any monsters would be target priority with handy re-rolls to wound.

My very first game was against Kieran Street and his mounted Witchking with 4 other mounted Ringwraiths playing Rescue with me as the defender. Turn one was not my favourite due to Imrahil having his Will sapped, then channeled Black Dart with a further Black Dart caused his end. For the next few turns I chased a few Wraiths and eventually combat started with quite a few men from Dol Amroth dying. This caused me to walk up Duinhir to pass the courage check and his Stand Fast! after 2 Wraiths had already run out of Will and vanished. Then Kieran played to the spirit of the game and didn't run away for the 40 minutes we had left, even though his last 2 Wraiths had only one point of Will. Despite only causing a single wound (saved by a wraiths fate) a managed to draw the game 3-3 but due to their being no models on the table for Kieran, I won.

This took me to table 2, where I faced Chris Murfitt and a bit of filth. Gwaihir, an eagle, Radagast on eagle all fine but Alfrid and Fatty Bolger meant that he had an extra drop and extra might for 2 heroes that eventually get huge. A loss of a roll off for a heroic move turn 1 meant Imrahil and the 2 mounted Knights couldn't hit Gwaihir and gain vital VPs. Nevertheless, Radagast and the Eagles got to work hurling and Immbolising Imrahil giving Chris the 3-0 victory after he broke my force.

David Farmer was my opponent for game 3 playing Take and Hold versus his Morannon orcs with Shagrat, Gorbag and a Troll Chieftain. This was the first game where Imrahil didn't die early on but he did lose his horse straightaway, this is a recurring theme, but the Troll Cheiftain was certain that he was going to hunt him down. The game ebbed and flowed with my force gradually swinging round away from the Cheiftain and back towards the middle and the objective. Once I managed to break David's force, a failed courage test meant that the Troll fled and this left my archers to fire straight at the banner denying vital VPs, due to double points award if he was also in the objective range. An Orc spearman stood in the archers way and another one behind him to pick it up if I killed him. Thankfully, my one shot that hit the front Orc killed him, then I caused a wound on the banner and Mighted another so that the other Orc that could get the banner would die too, essentially winning me the game. Lucky escape 12-8 win but nothing compared to the next game.

Game 4 was against Damian O'Byrne with his Elf Dwarf combo including Legolas and Throin. Breakthrough was the scenario and I think our reactions on Damian's journey vlog some up the game better than I ever could do in words, so I will link you to our reactions and a talk through of the game.

To end day 1 of my first tournament with 3 wins and 1 loss, I really can't complain. After winning 1 roll off all day, I can definitely say I have had luck in other places.

Weekly Un-Earthing (05/02/2016): Finishing my Into The West Army

Before we start yes the date is wrong, but hey.

So this week I managed to finish 10 Knights of Dol Amroth, 2 on horses and 8 on foot, plus Imrahil foot and mounted. This allowed me to feel so happy that my force was done the day before the tournament, giving me time to relax and have some practise games to test my list.

After the black base coat and painting the bases, I started by giving all the armour a base of Runefang Steel, the inner skirt with Russ Grey and the outer skirt with Caledor Sky. Finally finishing off the base layers with Kislev Flesh on the skin, Rhinox Hide on the belts and Shining Gold for the swords handles.

Next, I applied Nuln Oil to all the armour and gave it a highlight of Runefang Steel to make the armour brighter, adding Ceramite White to some sections such as the shoulder pads and wings around the thigh. Drakenlof Nightshade was added onto the outer skirt with another layer of Caledor Sky and a final highlight of Teclis Blue.

The last small sections were to layer up white using Ceramite White and then White Scar to get the final inner skirt finished. Small details such as the eyes were added plus a little extra gleam on the golden parts and extra edge onto facial features.

I came. I bought. I painted.

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Weekly Un-Earthing (29/01/2016): Duinhir and his Blackroot Vale Archers

Well this week has been my most productive for a long time in terms of painting miniatures......just as well really as my first tournament is next weekend and I still have about 11 models to finish.

This week I have only been working on my Blackroot Vale Archers for my Fiefdoms army which I will use as part of my 450 point tournament list. I have painted some Rangers of Gondor before and didn't wholly enjoy it but the different colour scheme and doing Duinhir alongside them has actually been quite fun. It does also help that I need them done for my list as with my Knights of Dol Amroth and Imrahil I need to do this week coming!!

The way I like to paint is to apply all the necessary base layers and then gradually highlight them all up, so that I can see as I am painting which colours work with each other and get an overall look to the model before I commit to finishing the details. As well as this I paint the largest area colour first so that the details can just be picked out, allowing me to be quite liberal with the initial colour meaning quicker painting.

Firstly, I applied Russ Grey to the cloaks which may sound strange and look bizarre at first but it all comes together. After applying XV-88 to the jackets and trousers, and the main Fiefdom colour of blue, Regal Blue in this case, to the leather skirts this gives me a more general effect of what I want to achieve. The last base layers I chose, were Rhinox Hide for the bow, strapping, braces and boots. Mournfang Brown for the last bits of cloth on the arms and the quiver, with Ushabti Bone for the arrow feathers. And finally Kislev Flesh for, you guessed it, the skin. For Duinhir, I used Runefang Steel for the chain mail he wears but didn't need it for the rest, as regular Rangers don't have any on their person. Only on the swords were left to base coat with Runefang Steel with the hilt of the sword was based with Balthasar Gold.

The washes are then what gave me the desired colour for the cloaks, and I found this out after painting the Blackroot Vale Command a couple of months ago. Firstly, I washed Waywatcher Green over it with quiet a thick layer to get some deep greens in the recesses and once that had completely dried it was washed with Agrax Earthshade, a staple in all of the next steps. Then each other section was also washed with Agrax Earthshade, except the chain mail which used Nuln Oil and the skin, using Reikland Fleshshade.

Finally, the Blackroot Vale Archers were ready to be highlighted. The jackets and trousers had the edges picked up with Zandri Dust, some extra Mournfang Brown was used to pick out the quivers and an extra bit of Kislev Flesh was used to just pronounce the face. Using Shining Gold, the edges of the hilts were picked out to match them with all swords from Gondor and the Fiefdoms.

Lastly, I added the white to go with the blue of the Fiefdoms by giving each section of the skirt a white outline with Ceramite White and White Scar. Plus adding a simple motif where possible to give them uniformity and more distinguishing attributes to make them stand out from the other Rangers from across Middle-Earth. Also eyes were added using, White Scar and Abaddon Black as I want to get as much detail into all my models from now on.

I hope you like the effect I have achieved, and personally I know that I am getting better with my painting even from 18 months ago.

I came. I bought, I painted.

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