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You've got plenty of WHFB armies for KoW as it is Archer, and it's a pretty easy game to play.

If you guys do meet up, be sure to give all of us poor armchair generals a nice battle report

Chronopia Dwarves will be quite awhile out at this stage, though Chaos Dwarves are one of my "special" projects that I'm really wanting to start on, along with old-school Crimson Fists.

The rebasing and touching up is pretty rewarding and (mostly) pretty easy I find. It's rewarding getting older models back up to scratch so I'd be happy to use them on the table rather than just being old models in old figure cases, but the best thing is getting figures and models I actually dislike to the stage that I legitimately like them - as with the old Regiments of Renown Ogres and the Bob Olley Catapult.


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It's back to Lord of the Rings models for this post. Showing off some models recently painted, as well as some models less recently so.



These four - 2 of each sculpt - are the Citadel Blackroot Vale Archers Command. Some of the last waves of metals I bought from Maelstrom Games shortly before GW brought into place the ROW embargo onto UK retailers and customers in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. They're reasonable models, though the sculpts are nothing special. Solidly on a par with many Historical sculpts - though far more expensive - and not up to the same high standard that much of the LotR range is. It appears that I started them about a year ago, and finally forced myself to get rid of them from my painting desk a couple of weeks ago by knuckling down and completing them. I'm not sure why GW decided to go with the Blackroot Vale moniker, as they're not really correct for those troops anyway and Faramir's Rangers lacked a command section for games like WotR. In my thinking they'll be used (thematically) as part of the wider force of the Rangers of Osgilliath. They were the final models needed to complete these two units for my Kings of War Army of Gondor. I had thought these were painted earlier this year, but looking through my painting list it seems they were actually finished in July last year - the first batch one day off from a year earlier to their commanders.



The troops, made from the Rangers of Middle Earth catch-all plastic box are to be quite blunt - poor models as far as modern HIPS plastic kits go. Softly and mushily detailed, slightly oversized to the rest of the LotR range, and featuring overly-chunky details in their cloaks and clothing. They are a lazy boxed set marketed in a lazy manner - replacing all of the previous metal ranges of rangers. I'm ok with mine - as I got them all second-hand from eBay - and seeing what the sculpts were actually like I decided to paint them with the effort that they deserved. So I used base coats in a series of naturalistic colours, added minimal highlighting, and washed them all in Army Painter Dark Tone (aka Devlan Mud). I did the skin in a speed-paint version of my usual way, and did bother to pick out the eyes, but they're simple wargame models painted as simple wargame models - not as "nice" pieces. They look good enough and appropriate in a block on the table.



I have a bunch of the "proper" metals, and they'll be painted either this year or next since I want to finish off all of my Gondor (and Moria) stuff ASAP, but for the time being they're down the priority list while I continue to try and clear other models from my desk. In the meantime if I get around to playing through the LotR scenarios in the SBG books, there's enough of them painted now to cover most instances from the first several battles they appear in as well as two units for the mass battle KoW tabletop.

That evil rhino thing looks awesome. Great paint job.

 Archer wrote:
Hey I would be quite happy to learn KoW or any other tabletop game going. I am far to easy going when it comes to rules and gaming that I am happy to fit in wherever.

Missed this before the reply I did earlier. KoW is bloody easy to learn - I was able to teach my 75 year old (next week) mum how to play a simple enough game, and it goes without saying that you've probably got more wargames experience than she does.

 GrimDork wrote:
You've got plenty of WHFB armies for KoW as it is Archer, and it's a pretty easy game to play.
If you guys do meet up, be sure to give all of us poor armchair generals a nice battle report

Will do. We might even have some cameos from the vicious wildlife that we encounter on the day.

I missed those LOTR models when I posted. You did a great job on them, they genuinly look like guys who spend a lot of time wandering through and hiding in woods and forests.


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 Azazelx wrote:

 GrimDork wrote:
You've got plenty of WHFB armies for KoW as it is Archer, and it's a pretty easy game to play.
If you guys do meet up, be sure to give all of us poor armchair generals a nice battle report

Will do. We might even have some cameos from the vicious wildlife that we encounter on the day.

So if you survive there will be two battle reports. A gaming one and a real life one.

They look really good Azazelx, I really like your colour choices with the green and red.

Thanks, though I pretty much just stole them from the film's costumes.

You may have done a speed painting job, but they have turned out looking pretty good. Especially ranked up and enmasse.

I really enjoy reading what you have to say about all the minis. I came into the hobby much later, so all of the old models just blend together for me as relics from the before time. But learning about them brings them to life and gives me a new appreciation for the history of gaming miniatures. Thank you for that.

Also, the painting is great and I am going to steal your techniques.

Thanks. I actually find that part of my blogging to be one of the most enjoyable. I have to think about the figures, when I got them and they were produced, and what for (originally). It also forces me to look up models I'm not sure about, and find out which ranges they originally came from. There's a couple I'll show soon that I can't seem to find, so it'll be interesting to see if anyone can identify them.

I also agree with what Bob said. I've only been around since 3rd editon 40k or 5/6 whfb and know virtually zilch about the LotR stuff, so it's neat to hear about it.

None of that today, as it's a pretty homogeneous bunch to show.

More Lord of the Rings stuff - I recently finally finished what felt like an endless run of metal Moria Goblins. I know some of them were definitely released as "Captains" while others were probably released as them, and others might have just been released essentially as metal grunts. No matter! If they're metal, I'm promoting them to captains - to keep the unruly and also-endless horde of plastic plebs in line. Remember all of those posts where I was bitching about painting Goblins? Here's some of the reason why.









Because of the piecemeal nature of how I acquired these figures over quite a few years, there was no strict rhyme nor reason why I have any given models. No attempt has been made to differentiate them from one another, with the exception of slight variations in dirty-hair colours. They'll all stand out well enough when dropped into their own units. I could do with a few more spearmen and a few less swordsmen, for their Kings of War use, but c'est la vie.

I added the little bits of slate in order to more easily distinguish them from their plastic counterparts when playing SBG and for friends less well acquainted with the various sculpts. The slate also serves to tie them in a little better with the model of Durbûrz, who will be one of the leaders of this force in many instances. Stones on bases becoming a mark of leadership - at least of sorts.



The usual group shot of the models from today's update. This many "Captains" will help fill out quite a few units for Kings of War, LotR SBG or anything else I might wish to play using them. I'd have taken pics of them slotted into their units, but it would be long and repetitive, and as such, bloody boring. So I thought I'd skip that.

They look good, although I can see how it would get tiresome painting what appear to be multiples of the same model.

Looking great! How much Moria stuff is left?

Speaking of multiples of the same models, I've got 11 sprues of the plastics (132 models - which I'll do in batches of 44, and probably sub-batches of 22), then a bunch of Gundabad Blackshields with command, Golfimbal on foot and mounted. I need to buy a couple of models from GW (the named shaman, the "command set" with the other regular shaman model, another of the same captain and the drummer set).

Also several metal Trolls, the MoM plastic Troll, the named metal (hill?) troll character, and then some Wild Wargs and Warg Riders, that aren't strictly speaking "Moria" models but will be used with them. Plus War Machines that aren't "officially" Moria-related, but will work for KoW - from LotR and WHFB.

I'll get photos of the currently finished leader models up soon, and also an army shot (I have to retake some pics). Seems I've got about 1500pts ready for KoW if I space stuff out by using 6 regiments instead of 3 hordes, reuse the Wolves from the Ogres as temp wargs, borrow the WHFB O&G War Machines, rope in some other stuff, etc

Even if a bit tedious, it's nice stuff as is usual for you. Thanks for sharing

I really like the skinny/cunning/craven LotR goblins, not goofy GW goblins with their ridiculous proportions. Could really see these guys lurking in the shadows cowering as adventurers passed by until one straggled behind a bit..

Yeah, I've never been especially fond of them myself, but since I've been finishing them they've begun to grow on me. They're the kind of models that I don't find fun to paint, but enjoy once they're done. Though I still love Kev Adams' goblins, since they were one of the things that I enjoyed all those years ago.

A bit of a sci-fi diversion today. Two of the figures that have been taking up space on my desk and in a figure case for years are this pair. Lt. Varras from the Warhammer 40k 4th Edition "Battle for Macraggae" starter set. He's also often simply known as "Imperial Pilot". In any case, he's been kicking around here for 11 years - and had his boots black and greatcoat grey for much of that time.



Dr. Diana is a cloned doctor from the Cybertronic MegaCorp faction in WarZone (1st Edition, though she's apparently still a thing now in WarZone resurrection.) She used to have a black top and bare legs as part of my nWo sub-faction for Cybertronic, back when we used to play regularly in the mid-1990's, but after the campaign expired, she just sat in a case and never got finished. Several years ago, I decided to pair her with Varras as a fellow Imperial Navy Officer and paint her outfit in a matching grey, and again - like Varras, she's been sitting around part painted for the years since. It's a pretty safe bet that she's a Werner Klocke sculpt, since she shares the same female face that almost all of his models have. Yes, she's been part-painted for going on 20 years. God I feel old. I was going to paint a red or green cross on Diana'a Med-kit, but I decided against it in order to keep her a little more generic.



So anyway, the story ends a week or two ago when I was looking for stuff to make myself finish as part of the desk-clearing project I've been on for the past severla months and spied these two. Always easy to overlook, I finally forced myself to knuckle down and got them done. Aside from using them as potential 40k objective markers and such, they'll also easily fit into my RPG games of Rogue Trader (once I get it off the ground) and both are generic enough to work for many other Sci-Fi/skirmish games from Inq28 to Judge Dredd. And now I'm actually quite happy with the pair of them. They make a nice pair of Imperial Flight crew.

They have women in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium that aren't battle nuns? Man I should brush up on my fluff...

Seriously though, nice work!

I'm dangerously heretical sometimes. I'll show off some of my many non-caucasian models sometime...

Some nice additions to the done pile here Azazel nice work.

Both are lovely models, must try and track down a Diana for my own collection one of these days.

Here she is:

http://shop.princeaugust.ie/tg9659pb-warzone-cybertronic-doctor-diana-figures/

Many thanks, one more medic for my Solar Auxilia when I get to it!


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Wow, impressive range of minis they got there, pity that a lot of the older Warzone stuff has not aged well.

No probs. Prince August bought out the remaining stock, so presumably once it's gone, it's gone.

A lot of that stuff wasn't too flash to begin with, to tell you the truth. WZ was a very uneven range even at the time, and much of it was poor even then. It's really a range you need to cherry-pick from if you were to buy any of it now. I had a fair bit at the time, and picked up a bunch more during the fire sales at the end.

They look really good, looks like they came from the same blister, you tied them together really well with your painting.

Nice job with those two. They look like they belong together!

Thanks guys. I'm all ears if anyone can think of any other figures that would also fit well with these two. I think it'd be good to have a nice little "bridge crew/away team" set.

Great progress going on. The LotR Goblins are fantastic. The group shot looks awesome, but you have done an amazing job on each one individually to boot.

A must-have (imho) for an Imperial bridge crew would be this excellent blister:

Damn, Brook. I think you're right.

Thanks Archer. I'll get the last of the (painted) Goblins up soon. I was holding off for the Mounted King, but I haven't even started on him yet, and he's going to need a GS saddle for his warg, amongst other things.