Bilbo, Gandalf and a Hummel

Well the 20th of March finally rolled around and marked the finale of the Analogue Hobbies 3rd Annual Painting Challenge.

I had a bit of a problem after finishing my Goblin Town models, my detail brushes gave up the ghost entirely.

I often make do with cheap synthetic brushes I get from the post shop, but these although cheap, only seem to last '5 minutes' before the tips curl and or the bristles start splaying out...

I do love the Windsor and Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable range, but I have not found a source of these here in NZ. They are pricey and then there's shipping too, which makes them quite an investment... So I had a look around for other options, and decided on the Army Painter range of brushes, and ordered a set from Warlord Games.

Whilst waiting for these to arrive, I got on with another item that wouldn't need super fine brushes; a 15mm Battlefront Hummel for Flames of War. This I did in my 'usual' style for German three colour camo...

Getting the Ranging Posts done was the only tricky bit, and I swore and cursed as my brushes couldn't manage this! I ended up cutting away most of the bristles left on an old detail brush till there was literally only a few hairs left... it worked but so few bristles can't hold much paint so it was a bit laborious back forth. But I got there in the end.

So this Hummel brings my Heavy Armoured Artillery Battery to 4 Hummels, which in game terms means the battery has a little longevity before it's reduced to 2 models firing with its reduced effectiveness, and at this size they get 2 observers. Of course the downside is the battery is getting rather expensive in points cost!

Finally with 2 days to go, my brushes arrived from Warlord Games...

Yippee. Well package and the bristles were good, and the brushes good to go!

I had already base coated and shade washed Bilbo and Gandalf and now I could finished them off.

In the The Hobbit starter set Bilbo, comes with a choice of two arms, one holding Sting and the other his staff. Whilst the pose with the staff was quaint and more hobbit-like, the game is about fighting and I think a sword would suit Bilbo better in these situations! So it had to be Sting.

Here Bilbo explores Goblin Town and finds a bundle of the dwarves gear...

Next up Gandalf comes to the rescue! Some folks have said they don't like the pose of the model but I rather like it.

I have been using the The Hobbit Visual Companion book, by Jude Fisher, as an aid to getting some of the colours and little details correct on the figures. One thing which I found from the book, was the colour and decoration of the belt for Glamdring, the sword Gandalf finds in the troll cave.

I would never have thought of painting it blue! But blue it is with small star symbols. I couldn't manage stars at this scale so white spots would have to do!

Gandalf catches up with Bilbo in Goblin Town.

So that was my final submission to Curt's painting challenge, and finished just in time, the flock was still drying on Gandalf's base as I took these pictures and got them submitted by email to Curt with 30 minutes to go!

I must admit I fell well short of my target of 600 points, but I knew I would have several things on the go that would score no points - during the challenge I made the Goblin Town board which took 3 weeks, and also I converted the Goblin Throne, again a 'terrain piece', and had my experience with Finecast painting up Groblog, an LOTR model that wouldn't be accepted as a model for the challenge. And then to finish off I made my paint store carousel!

I did fail to get the required Ronin figure in on time, but that is on the painting table now and will be winging its way to Curt ASAP.

Again I have to say special thanks to Curt for running a wonderful competition. He must have been working like a man possessed to get all these submissions up on his blog!

Congratulations to all that took part, the standard of work was a joy to behold.

The final positions have been noted and prizes will be awarded to the winners, but there remain some little extra spot prizes to be had, the challengers voting for their favourite submission, and the blogging public can vote for theirs too! So pop on over the Curt's blog and cast your vote, but making a comment on the blog.

Shameless plug; here's the list of my work on Curt's blog!

Vote away gentle reader...

The Goblins of GoblinTown - The Hobbit

I recently managed to get my 3rd submission in Curts, 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

As always click on pics for a larger view.

I burned a bit of the midnight oil and finished off the 36 goblins I have been working on, off and on, since the beginning of the challenge. The quality of the plastic sculpts was very good, and the amount of mould line to scrape away was minimal.

As for painting them up I was in a slight dilemma as to what colour to paint them. They were not going to be classic 'green' as the majority of the Moria goblins are.

In the movie they come across as having a yellowish hue, yet a lot of stock pictures show them with a pale grey skin colour. I can only assume the lighting effect in the movie from the flaming torch-lit caverns of GoblinTown would have cast a yellow colour to their actual pale grey skin.

So I went with the pale grey base tone. After this they had shading washes and heavy drybrushing to set the flesh tones. The loin cloths and equipment were painted up, and finally the disgusting spotty lumps and bumps were given red and purple washes and the yellow spot heads added, just ripe for popping! An adolescent kid would have a field day on these buggers! ;-)

Finally facial features were added, including eyes and teeth/mouths.

I have to confess to the eyes not being the best - normally I do the eyes at the mid point of the models, but with so many washes and dry brushing going on they would probably have got messed up, so I left them to the end.

Typically by which point my fine detail brush had given up the ghost! So with nothing good to hand to dot the pupils I resorted to trimming a cocktail stick to a sharp point and used that!

Not the most accurate way of doing things and some of the eyes went a little off centre, but in the end I think it actually added to the character of the mis-shaped limbs and general ungainly poses. Bases were PVA sand textured and painted and drybrushed.

So I am rather happy with the way they turned out. Suitably loathsome!

So whilst they and their setting are clearly suitably for playing the Hobbit games in Goblin Town... I did have a bit of a lateral thought, with all this Empire of the Dead stuff taking off...

Wouldn't they do wonderfully as evil minions of the Vampire faction? I can just see the underground catacombs below the vampire castle teaming with these little villains... perhaps there to protect the Vampire when he rests in his coffin, and aid the master in his evil plots and plans...

I could run them as a 'thrall' with a hand weapon or improvised weapon, or perhaps make them a little weaker, in stats for a suitable cost reduction?

Above you can see the Vampire Hunters searching out their prey in the catacombs below 'Castle Dracula'  !

Wehrmacht Command half tracks and Flamethrowers

Well after a lengthy period, I finally managed to get my first submission in to Curt, for his 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

And no they weren't the Hobbit set of Goblins you may have been expecting...

I had got part way through the Goblins, and then, after a little reminder from a mate about our proposed big Total War FoW game planned for the Easter Weekend, I realised I still had a bunch of FoW stuff I wanted to get completed in time for this...

So, I set to putting together the plastic sets I got from PSC of the 251 Half tracks & their conversion kit, and the set of Tiger I E's ... These were done enjoying the sun sitting out on the deck at the weekend, whilst the evenings it was back to painting goblins...

Once they were assembled though, they got the evening painting time too...

I think it was in part this issue of having several things at once on the go on the painting table, that got me a bit down, as it can seem you are working endlessly with nothing appearing to get finished, and the painting area also starts to get cluttered with unfinished products, which I find rather demotivating...

But thankfully these got finished in reasonable time. I quite like doing vehicles like this as they seem fairly quick to do, though the crews and stowage can be a little fiddly, plus the decal work too.

Well enough rambling, here they are (as always click pictures for a bigger view).

SdKfz 251D/10 Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon Command Half track.

I have long ran my 'half track horde' bristling with machine guns across the board, but whilst deadly against exposed infantry, once the infantry digs in , or the half tracks come across the slightest piece of enemy armour, they are instantly made impotent...

This can in part be helped by the addition of the PaK36 3.7cm Anti-Tank gun to the platoons command vehicle.

In game ; ROF 2, AT 6, FP 4+. Range 16".

Great in theory, but in game terms I am not entirely sure how much use they will be, as this is principally a mobile force, which drops the rate of fire of this main gun when firing on the move, probably making it hardly worth firing. And if I stop to fire it at a better ROF, then I have lost my mobility...

But they look great, and it makes the platoons command vehicle stand out. Yes, I am all for visuals and not so focused and 'game tactics', but hey that's the way I play!

Painted up in my usual three colour camo scheme, making them most suitable for mid 1943 onwards...

The only difficulty I had was the decals as I had already used the platoon command numbers on the original half tracks... I didn't want to but a whole new set of decals to get these few that I needed... So I ended up chopping up others I was not likely to use and then try and line up the bits OK on the vehicles. I think they turned out OK. (Decals from DOM).

So three command half tracks for three combat platoons...

That left two more vehicles to convert from the box... with a choice of 'stummels', 8cm mortar carriers or Flamethrowers. As I already had the stummels and mortars carriers, I went with the Flamethrowers. Again more for the look and variety, rather than the in game tactics, of having a greater number of stummels or mortars... And besides, flamethrowers can be deadly in the right scenario!

SdKfz 251d/16 Flamm

Fitted with two 1.4cm Flammenwerfer.

In game: One shot only! ROF 3(each), FP 6. Range 4"

The flamethrower was a weapon first devised in WWI as part of a way of attacking and reducing enemy strong points during trench warfare. It has remained in that role ever since.

The value in the game is it can hit enemy teams relatively easily (just requiring a skill check, with no modifying to hit), and any infantry, gun teams or 'open topped' armoured or unarmoured vehicles hit are instantly 'killed', with no saving throw, even if 'dug in'. And the enemy platoon is automatically pinned as a result.

So this is their inherent value, in supporting, or opening the way for an assault, automatically killing the front line of defenders, hopefully including HMGs too, pinning the platoon and then allowing you to roll in with the main assault infantry.

Again that's the theory, but any canny player will know what these are capable of, and they are going to end up catching a ton of fire, to try and stop them.

So one intrinsic value in them perhaps becomes as a 'sacrificial' unit, they will take the hits, allowing other units to act unmolested...

... and of course if I can get them in place through guile, cunning, terrain and smoke, so much the better!

Wish me luck!

Hobby Funk!

For some reason I feel in a bit of a hobby funk at the moment... I haven't blogged much, and my perusal of blogs I follow and comment on has fallen off of recently. So I apologise to the gaming blogging community for my apathy..

The year seemed to start well with the Hobbit starter set arriving and getting me all excited to get it painted up.

I created a basic Goblin Town terrain board, and set to painting up the Goblins as part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I got them about half done, but seemed to lose focus and interest... and opened up my pack of PSC half tracks and their conversion kits and set to making these up (mostly sitting out in the sun trimming and gluing with beer in hand, as I find it hard to spend weekend summer time inside painting). After completing their assembly, I then set to work making the PSC Tiger I kits I got at the same time as the half tracks. These went together well, and painting was commenced on these - painting is easy, a quick base coat spray , some camo stripes and a wash and you are virtually done...

And since I've been actively playing FoW for just about 18 months now, there will always be a quick and ready use for them!

But this weekend I hit a brick wall in my FoW-ing... 

 I have never been the best player, scraping out an odd win here and there in a mass of defeats, and as Paul summed up very well, in his article here; (written I suspect for my benefit), these defeats, whilst good to learn from, can also be somewhat demoralizing over time. Even Paul admitted to sulking once after I actually managed a rare victory over him. Sadly, I end up sulking just about every week! Not good for the mental state of affairs!

After Paul kindly offered to host me to a learning game, I had the usual occur; my dice were crap, while Paul seemed to pass every save that was important. Thus crushed again by either crap tactics, crap dice, or both... I slinked off home... wrestled with my thoughts, couldn't sleep, got up and thrashed about on EasyArmy at 2am, gave up and went back to bed... Got up feeling equally frustrated and decided 'bollox', I don't need to feel this way, just give it up...

So I ended up pulling out of Pauls FoW tournie that is only a week away. Yes I feel crap dropping Paul in it like this, but I think I'd feel even worse after screwing up in the tournie, so self preservation has kicked in, for my mental state...

I'll probably come back to it in time and have no plans to sell off my collection. I still like the game, the look and feel, the rules for the most part too. I still like the look of my troops for the game, (the German 'war machine' has always held a fascination for me, and the history of its action and ultimate defeat), and the time commitment getting them done would be poorly recompensed in a sale. So they will remain in the display case until I feel my Germans are worth dusting off again... and have a hope in Hell of getting a win...

So what next?

A change is as good as a rest they say... when I think back to gaming I really enjoyed I recall my Warmaster days from many years ago... Step forward to present and we have Hail Caesar and Black Powder, both rule sets derived from Warmaster, with their subtle differences reflecting scale and theatre of action.

So having recently received the Dark Ages/Medieval supplement for Hail Caesar from Warlord Games sale, my son and I broke out my medieval collection that has been gathering dust for many years, and set to with a balanced English Barons War 'civil war' loosely themed game.

So far we've got about part way through and done a few things wrong while I try and get used to the rules, and their differences from Warmaster and Black Powder, but its been fun and entertaining.

If it goes well, I'll try and get a brief battle report up on blog, as I have taken a few pics along the way.

As for painting, well I'll plod on and try and clear the back log on my painting table, finish the half tracks and Tigers anyway, and the Hobbit set, hopefully before the deadline end of the painting challenge, and see what comes up next... I made a start trimming and assembling my c18th WSS figures for Black Powder, from Wargames Factory. There's something wonderfully romantic about this period with their tricorne hats and frills, and no nonsense warfare, no messing about with skirmishers and squares, just get up there and give them what for ol' chap!

So that's more or less it for now though it still leaves me pondering about our hobby in general, and the mix of people who do it...

It has led me to conclude there are roughly 3 types of hobbyist:

The Gamer:

These chaps know the game rules inside out and the tactics of the game off by heart, and can probably look several moves ahead like some kind of chess champ. They probably manage a reasonably average level of dice luck too making them worthy tournament adversaries.

The Player:

These folks have a fair idea of the rules, and a general idea of what will work tactically, but are perhaps far for masters of the art! Their dice luck may not the best overall, and the combination of these two factors probably makes them bottom of the pile in the tournament stakes.

The Painter:

Loves the pomp and circumstance and look of the game, rather than the game play itself! Luck is rarely a factor! Wouldn't know where to sign up for a tournament!

In these rankings I am somewhere in the middle I guess, and I assume these are over generalisations, but its been fun pondering this dilemma, and perhaps will get me part way out of this current funk!

Best regards to all and thanks for reading my inane witterings.

Scott

It's still summer somewhere in the world!

To all my fellow 'northern hemisphere' Ronin taking part in the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge, and especially to Jason Meyers at Der FeldMarschall, I thought I would offer you a couple of pics to let you know that, despite you being under inches (Britain/Europe) and feet (Canada) of snow, it's still summer somewhere in the world...

Last weekend it was so hot we took the kids to a local swimming hole called Devils Elbow on the Waikanae River, to cool down...

Me, above standing in the river cooling my feet... to the left of the rocks in above pic a tiny tributary peels of from the main river , (which continues to the right of the picture), and fills a deep water / swimming hole before re-joining main river...

My son (9rs) swimming across the swimming hole...

Quite pleased with himself for making it across... in NZ we are surrounded by the sea and rivers so swimming is a must have skill... of course dear ol' dad was ready at a seconds notice to dive in to the rescue if needed... yeah right , the water was frikin freezing ;-) ... Funny how the kids don't notice it so much yet I stick my toe in and go 'Brrrrrr!' ;-)

Also thankfully NZ has no dangerous flora or fauna that would pose a risk (other than certain types of poisonous algae), so swimming is safe.

So as you can see, finding time to pick up the paint brush at this time of year is tricky ;-) But I am getting there, slowly...

Painting Challenge doldrums and Elder Sign.

For those who have been keeping an eye on the myriad of activity over at the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge, you may have noticed I am languishing near the bottom of the pack (as I anticipated), without a submission to my name, as yet...

I am steadily plodding away, and have got the 36 goblins from the The Hobbit starter set, about 75% done. I have also got the Goblin King, Scribe and the two goblin captains assembled and base painted.

 And the throne... that was quite a mission as the back of the sculpt is hollow and undetailed which I didn't like, so had to pack it with foam and filler then clad it in bark chip to texture it as rock. No small task...

 But its progressing steadily...

And Sunday night saw the Bowman family head back to the cinema to see the movie again, just to top up the motivation ;-) . I have to say, we saw the 3D version again , as that's all that was available locally at the time we could go, and as much as I love the movie, I think I prefer the 2D version, as there's less blurring, and a clearer image throughout.

The weather hasn't helped either, were finally getting some consistent summer days and its darn hard to stay inside and paint while the weather is glorious. But I did get a little hobby time in over the weekend, and enjoyed sitting out in the sun, under the patio table's umbrella, sipping a chilled beer, or three... while I sat and snipped, trimmed and assembled my 15mm PSC half-tracks (again!) this time though for the command vehicle upgrades, using the PSC upgrade kit.

I made three half tracks with the addition of the  optional PaK36 AT gun mounted up front, instead of the forward firing MG.

This leaves two more to do and I have a choice of stummels, 8cm mortars or flame throwers... I can't decide which to pick! I could add the stummels or mortars to my existing 2 of each, bumping up the platoon size of each to 4 vehicles, or I could add the flame throwers for something a bit different.

Anyone with any experience of using half track flame throwers please shout up!

While I deliberated over that, I started making the 15mm PSC Tiger I kits I got, and got the first 'big cat' assembled. Three more to go...

I picked the 'Mid period' model as my Wehrmacht forces are themed Mid-War eastern front onwards, and I just don't like the look of the Late period's wheels... so I figured if I need to use these guys in Late-War, we'll they'll just have seen a lot of action and be darn experienced to boot! ;-)

Also, last night we had a spot of board-gaming, when mate Jon came round with his Elder Sign game by FantasyFlightGames.

Elder Sign is a Cthulhu-lite themed game, which is both card and dice played.

It is a co-opertative style game, where the players are working together to beat the game, and stop an Eldritch Horror being released into the world.

A lot of fun, which my 9rd old son also got to grips with very quickly and was rapt!

We played several games over the course of an evening, interspersed with a game of Munchkin too.

Great stuff. I do enjoy a good 'board-game' in the right company every now and then, time allowed,  and I can control the guilt at not picking up the paint brushes!

Kick off!... 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge underway! And Goblin Town - WIP

Well the 20th has arrived and that means the start of the Analogue Hobbies 3rd Annual Painting Challenge!

By definition of the rules, models may be undercoated before the start of the challenge, well I have managed to get 2 models prep'd and ready to go... Groblog the Goblin King of Moria for LOTR/Hobbit, and a Police Inspector for EotD...

I have manged to trim and base the first 14 goblins from the The Hobbit starter set too, so a quick blast of black undercoat and they'll be good to go...

I'd also like to get this battalia of Gondorians finished too since I have recently got back into LOTR. I started them ages ago when I first got my airbrush, thinking, 'Ooooh I can whack some silver on that lot quick as you like'. But other than a quick dark brown wash afterwards, they have languished unfinished... I realise they wont score me any points as they are already started but I'd still like to try and get them finished none the less... (I am offering this as part of an excuse when I don't score too many points during the challenge!)

And of course I am pressing madly on with Goblin Town...

It's getting to the screaming point ! If I see another bit of bark mulch I'll flip my lid! ;-)
But here it is now mostly assembled, just needs painting. I stacked the layers together just for ease of photography....

 

I have only got a few more bits to finish off assembling.... And then there was several sheets of balsa to chop up and glue together and paint brown for the wooden platforms of Goblin Town. This old ice-cream container is brimming with them, ready to use. I'm going to give them a light dry brush to finishes them off...

So thats where I am at. In some ways the Challenge hasn't come at the best time for me as I am part way into several projects, one major one of which is terrain...

But no matter, I am just along for the ride, and just happy to log whatever I can against the Challenge.

I have set myself a target of 600 points and we'll soon see how close I manage to get to it.

Heres wishing all my fellow Ronin the best of luck!

3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

Well after having a lot of fun with this Challenge last year, I have joined in once again this year for Curt Campbell's Painting Challenge hosted at his excellent blog; Analogue Hobbies, which is actually a great blog title too in these days of electronic entertainment!

The underlying theme of this years event is the 47 Ronin, and it appears I have become one of these listed entities, presiding at an alphabetical rank of #39.

Curt's challenge has always been focused at the Historical spectrum of the wargames hobby, and I was unsure whether it would be worth entering, as I knew my personal model painting focus this year, from the time of the event, would be the 'The Hobbit' range of miniatures by GW.

There has been much web based angst at the prices of the newly released figures, but I have had to bite the bullet and press on...

Curt, has very graciously accepted The Hobbit / LotR figures into the Challenge, which is very sporting of him. So I may get a chance to score a few points after all :-)

I always viewed Tolkiens work as quasi-historial anyway; he did after all intend it as an 'alternative history' of the world.

As always I do not expect to win, as there are some phenominal painters in the Challenge, both in quality and output, but its nice to be involved and along for the ride :-)

I also have another slight problem - I have just embarked on building "Goblin Town" - a 4' x 4' terrain board full of rocky outcrops and levels, and a plethora of wooden platforms.

I know Curt doesn't include terrain in the Challenge and that is fair enough as it would be impossible to score fairly...

Now here's a thing! Curt's tweaked the points slightly this year to make painting larger models slightly better scoring, which suits me fine as I prefer the 28mm scale anyway. But, we have to set ourselves a Personal Challenge Par! In other words whats our personal target of the challenge...

Last year I managed a little over 600pts if I recall correctly. However last year I managed to do a whole pile of 15mm FoW stuff, which whilst it has its own challenges, I think can be painted faster than 28mm single models. Equating that 600pts to 28mm foot figures at 5pts per pop, thats about 120 figures!!! For me thats a lot! I think I typically average about 30 figures a month... so over 3 months of the Challenges thats 90 figures and a little more than 500 points...

As it happens I got home tonight and found the The Hobbit Ltd Ed Starter set waiting for me in the mail. Well thats going to be part 1 of my Personal Challenge Par. I'd like to think I can get that done which is about ~56 figures. Add to that the set of Trolls if I can source them and receive them and get them done in time before the challenge ends I'll be happy. Even if the trolls dont score me points, I dont mind but they are part  my Challenge to me! So thats my 'Par' at this point. And of course whatever new releases GW may do between now and March could well be factored in. So the not knowing , will be part of the excitement.

I may slot a few other bits and bobs in as time allows ;-)

So I am happy to contribute in my own small way to this Challenge and wish all the rest of my fellow 'Ronin', all the best in their endeavors!

Right, what am I doing sitting here,  in my best 'Saruman' accent; " We have work to do!"