Spooky Trees Work In Progress

These are my spider infested trees for Middle Earth Mirkwood and for Rangers of Shadow Deep. They are made from artificial Bonsai trees I bought from Wish.com. To make them all different I cut up the trees and restuck the branches in different positions with a hot glue gun. I then used more hot glue to fill in the gaps and to add more varied surface detail. I made bases using old CDs and bits of cork and bark, then sprayed and painted the whole thing. I am rather pleased with the outcome and have even ordered another eight!

These are work in progress so far as I am going to add cobwebs in the same style as the spider victims I have already shown of this blog. 

This is the start of my ranger and his band of followers. I am planning to theme my heroes so they can be use for Middle Earth as well as Shadow Deep (two birds with one stone, so to speak).

My ranger, Thorongil, is a warrior and a strategist. He understands the importance of coordinating attacks and leading from the front. His men are inspired by his presence.

Nori Ironaxe is a Dwarf guardsman, and a reliable and trustworthy member of the band. He is also the team's armourer.

Rolf Butterfield is a man-at arms, and is accompanied by his trusty hound Rufus.

Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Weststone Bridge

My Son and I managed to get another game in, this time Lord of the Rings. We used Charlies figures and some scenery we made for his dwarfs and goblins. Charlie played the Moria Goblins, while I played King Durin and his kin. 

"They've brought a cave troll!"

The goblin's shaman tried to soften up the dwarfs with a wave of huge spiders and giant bat swarms, all enhanced with his found magic.  

The next attack was a wave of goblins driven on by the iron fist of the Goblin King Durbaz

The Vault Wardens, lead by the hero Mardin, prepare to defend their king.

As the ancient foes clash no one gives any quarter.  Many goblins and dwarfs loose their lives this day.

When King Durin finally slays the cave troll King Durbaz' courage is broken and he flees into the dark, taking most of the remains of his army with him. The victory is bitter for Durin- he might hold the Weststone Bridge, but his people paid a high price for it...many of his kinsmen lie dead, including one of his captains. a bitter victory indeed. 

Subterranean Worm Monster Attacks New York!

"I don't know what happened! The ground started rumbling, and I though it was an earth quake, but then it got louder, like a subway train. I just looked at my buddy Max, and I was about to sey 'Hey, what the hell was that?' when the ground burst open and that giant purple maggot just out and swallowed Max whole! It's just a good job those superheroes turned up when they did or I would be worm food by now!"

An eye witness to the Worm attack in Central Park, NYC.

 Another Reaper Bones here- this one being the Purple Worm- I love this figure- its just fantastic. I intend to use it in my Four Colour Superhero campaign as some sort of subterranean burrowing icky monster, (perhaps enslaved by the Mole-men)but its also good in any sci-fi, post apoc or fantasy setting too- I could just as easily see it making it into a Lord of the Rings game, for example. I love versatile models

It's a big model- as you can see in the bottom picture- that  is with a 28mm Hasslefree figure! 

Lord of the Rings: Mayor of Bree

Bree stands in the ruins of Cardolan, the former kingdom of men. Since the collapse of Cardolan Bree has owed its fidelity to no king, and in effect the major of the town has acted as an autonomous ruler. 

The mayor of Bree is not a brave man, nor especially valiant. The blood of Numenor runs very thin in his veins, and his only connection to the Dunedain is through an ancient ancestor. He is, however, good at the day to day business of keeping his town running. If Bree was threatened by a substantial force, the mayor would be expected to lead his people into battle, but the mayor is wise enough to lead commanding the troops to the captain of the watch, or to the wandering ranger known locally as Strider. 

I am not really sure who makes this figure. It's an old one with an integral base, and I have a feeling it might be Ral Partha. I picked it up on eBay, reasoning that as it was an old figure it might scale well with the Perry Twins Lord of the Rings, which it does very well indeed. 

Lord of the Rings: Rangers

This was my third Lead Painters League entry. I won that round, which I am very glad about as I really went to town high lighting and shading these guys. I am delighted with the outcome. 

These Rangers are from Strider's little band of Dunedian  Rangers who watch over the lands of Bree and the Shire, protecting it from nameless horrors, orcs, wargs and so on. As Strider puts it to Butterbur at the Prancing Pony "...foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if it were not guarded ceaselessly."

Lord of the Rings: A Breelander and a Hobbit

Two quick additions to the blog: I apologize for the crummy photos by the camera/light wasn't quiet right.

Althric the Wanderer is a citizen of Bree, east of the Shire. He is an herbalist, who wanders across Breeland, and even as far as the Eastfarthing Wood. Most folk in Bree consider him a bit odd, if harmless. The shire-folk treat him with the same cautious politeness the reserve for any traveler who ventures into the shire.

Sandy Brandybank is a hobbit Border, which means he is among the sturdy band of hobbit-folk who patrol the borders of their lands on the look out for anyone, or anything trying to cause mischief. He enjoys regaling tales of the strange sights he has seen over a beer in the Green Dragon Inn after his patrol.
Althric is a Perry Miniatures Crusade Pilgrim. Sandy is a Games Workshop Hobbit. 

Lord of the Rings: Bree Folk and Shire Folk

My Eriador based Lord of the Rings army is at a very early stage as yet, but I have begun by painting some models I have had hanging around for ages while I wait for the new ones I have order to arrive. 

Basically, I am basing my army on the common middle-men dwelling in and around the village of Bree, in Eriador. The folk of Bree lack the noble linage and ancient blood of the men of Gondor. They can be brave, ignorant, or even foolish. They are, in short, just men: and yet their village has endured for centuries, even when their noble rulers in Arnor fell before the force of Angmar.  

Basing my army on the imagery of Bree from the Peter Jackson films, I have been souring the net for likely looking miniatures that will scale well with existing Games Workshop Lord of the Rings range. 

This is the first of my Bree-folk, a villager. The model is by Perry Miniatures  in their crusades range, and as Michael and Allen Perry sculpted a lot of the GW Lord of the Rings figures (well the better ones anyway) it is little surprise to find out she scales really well. 

 There are a few hobbit dwelling in Bree, but most of their folk live in the Shire, just to the west of Bree. Trade between the two is common, and so the inclusion of a handful of 'halflings' in the Bree army is not unreasonable. These ones are borderers, the closest thing the shire has to a standing force. 

Ruins of Arnor

Following the success of the crashed black hawk I have felt inspired to finally finish some scenery pieces I have had kicking around for ages. I don’t know what it is about painting scenery, but I always seem to shy away from it, even when it is in an advanced stage of completeness. However, when I actually start paining it, I always find it a welcome change of pace, and am generally satisfied by the results.

  This lot of scenery are from Games Worksop, for their Lord of the Rings game, and are called the Ruins of Osgilioth. Inspired in part by the Hobbit film, and because my son Charlie got a lot of Hobbit figures for Christmas- but also by Doom Hippy’s campaign (chronicled on the Lead Adventure Forum, click here for a link)- I am right back in a Lord of the Rings mood.  As I already have a Shire army (army- not sure that is the right word- disgruntled mob might be closer to the mark) I thought I would expand on this idea and make my own army up that covers the Shire and Bree-land. Mostly middle-men and hobbits, with a few Dunadain rangers to add a bit of back bone.

With that plan in mind have painted my ruins as the ruins of a villa in the wilderness of Eriador. No doubt it was once the home of a Dunadain lord, sacked by the unspeakable hordes of Angmar in centuries past. Hewn from the same grey granite as the Watchtower of Amon Sul, known the Men of Bree as Weathertop, these ruins must have been majestic and imposing once upon a time. Now they are desolate and foreboding, the haunt of who-knows-what.

Defending the Shire

Yet another LPL entry- Many of you who are on Lead Adventure Forum will have already seen this entry, but for those of you who missed it, here is the 'Defending of the Shire'.

The theme for the round was The World of Tolkein. I went for Games Workshop figures just because I had some hanging around for years waiting to be painted. The Moria Goblins are my son Charlies- he's lucky because he gets five more goblins finished. Gandalf and the Hobbits will from the nucleus of my LotR army- basically lost of Hobbits, some rangers, Aragorn and Gandalf. This is very much an on going project-I haven't painted any for years until LPL. Odds are it will be next years LPL before I paint any more too.

Old School Citadel Miniature Adventure

Many years ago, when I was a small boy of 10 or 11, a misguided but well meaning chum introduced me to Citadel Miniatures. I am, of course, going back somewhere around about 1983, so the very earliest days of the hobby. I have, since then, been irrevocably hooked on little pieces of lead.

Some of the earliest Citadel Miniatures I can remember owning were part of a box set of adventures which I had got as my 'main' Christmas present one year, entitled 'Dungeon Adventurers Starter Set'. I have no idea what happened to those figures- I can remember painting a few of them, and no doubt they got used in various games of Warhammer and Dungeons and Dragons.

A few months ago I was browsing on Miniature Heroes website- looking for old Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper miniatures for my SciFi collection, when I spotted the same box set that I had received for Christmas all those years ago. Talk about a trip down memory lane!

I bought them at a very good price, and when they arrived in the post I was delighted to find that they were in fantastic condition, and that the box was intact too!

Given the age of the miniatures the sculpting and the casting was of a very high standard- much better than I was expecting. My plan is to paint them, as a occasional range, as well as I can manage- after that, who knows? I guess I could use some of them for Conan or Lord of The Rings, but given their venerable age and sentimental value, I will probably just sit them on a special spot in my display cabinet and revere them.

This Elven mage is, according to the box, called Andriel. The pit marks are, unfortunately, on the figure, and not because I mixed my paint to thick- in real life it doesn't look half as bad as when it is blown up to this size. You have to remember that this figure is at least 25 years old.

Miniature Heroes is a great website, and they sell a wide rand of miniatures, both old and new- including Reapers Chronoscope range, and a cracking collection of vintage Citadel stuff. You can find them by following this link. Just don't mix them up with the chocolates.

More Bits of Scenery

The "Scenery Making Marathon" continues to gather pace, with some more long awaited projects being finished off.

These little 15mm scale houses are made by Sarrissa Precision, an excellent new company making scenery in various scales using Laser-cut MDF. Like their rivals Warbases, this company's products are well made and beautifully put together- I am not so pleased about the chimneys, which I feel could have been better finished, but the models are great fun to put together and to paint- much nicer than working with resin cast buildings.
Obviously I got these to use with my 15mm Flames of War armies, and as such they are painted in a style suggestive of Normandy and northern Europe, but with a different paint scheme could serve as British terrace houses for a 15mm VBCW Game (not that I am about to change scale).
I plan to do some more in the near futures too.



Next, I didn't make this one, but I bought it from the pet shop instead. It cost £12.99, painted exactly as you see it- All I had to do was cut the price tag off.
It's supposed to go in a fish tank, but instead its going to grace my jungle boards- I can see this being useful in all sorts of games, from Conan to AE Bounty. If this was sold as a piece of wargaming scenery I would have paid more than £12.99 for it, for sure. And I would have ended up having to paint it, and pay postage on it too!
A bargain, if you ask me.

Finally, for now at least, a hobbit hole- scratch built by me. With my steadily growing hobbit army for Lord of the Rings I thought I needed some suitable scenery- this is a prototype, but I am so pleased with it that I will certainly make some more.
Here's a link to a sort of WIP/Tutorial as to how I made it on the Lead Adventure Forum here.

Coming soon....Another 28mm VBCW factory, and more 15mm Flames of War French buildings.