Moria Rocky outcrops

More pictures rescued from the depths of the PC photos folder!

I made these Rocky out-croppings a couple of years back.

They were made from the white polystyrene packaging material you get from TVs fridges etc etc.

This was cut up into chunks and glued together onto an MDF sheet base. This was then covered in chunks of Bark chip mulch from the garden. The gaps between were then filled with a flexible filler from a mastic gun.
Then this was covered in sand textured paint, leaving the bark texture showing through.

The whole thing was then painted black and then worked up through various shades of dry or 'overbrushed' grey to finish.

Heres some WIP shots:

Helms Deep - revisited

A couple of years back now it must be, I played a game with a mate of the second Helms Deep scenario from the Two Towers sourcebook. I was going to write it in a snazzy Battlereport. Sadly it never happened at the time, and over time I forgot the play by play and mislaid my notes... but I stumbled across some of the pics I had taken, whilst cleaning up PC photos folder:

Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment:

The scenario starts off after the bomb has blown down the wall. All on the wall are lain down except Gimli. Aragorn waits ready to charge forward into the breach. Other Rohan warriors are waiting to rush in.
I played the evil side and chose to lead with the berserkers.

It was a hard fought battle, and a tough one for the evil side to bring the greater numbers to bear.

The good guys heroes plugged the gaps and I never really managed to get my troll into the fight until the end when it was too late.

Here's a link to earlier Battle Report, in pdf form:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33375474/Helms%20Deep.pdf

Ent spotted at Mount Victoria Wellington!

I took these pictures a wee while ago, yet came across them again today and thought they'd be a fun little blog interlude.

Look about halfway down the trunk, but above the foliage, I am sure there's a pair of eyes, closed as if sleeping..., perhaps a nose below those, and a large v shaped mouth... its all in the eye of the beholder I guess.

A closer view:

You make up your own mind.

They're real I tell you!

WIP - ACW & Zulus

A work in progress from the painting table for you. I don't normally do this kind of blog post, but perhaps it shows I am still working away and wets your appetite to see the final finished unit...?

I apologise for the poor colour quality of shots. Whilst my angle poise lamp gives plenty of light for me to paint by at night, it has rather poor lighting for photography work. But hopefully you get the gist...

Plastic Zulus from Wargames Factory. 28mm. These are the first sprue of figures done. Painting is complete, just need basing and varnishing.

Perry ACW. 28mm. These figures have finally been fully base coated, as shown in the picture. I have since washed all figures in a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Dark Brown and Black washes. I am now about half through working the highlights back up. Then basing and varnishing. I didn't do the eyes though. Eek! perhaps I have turned a page in my painting technique. At least for the bulk troops of units. I have to say it was a lot quicker and the Perry sculpts have such fine features (small say compared to Foundry), that I think I would have struggled to achieve a good looking result. So I have left the eye orbits as a horizontal dark brown line from the wash... I hope the painting gods forgive me!?

I'm getting there! Slowly but surely...

Paint Grasshopper!

Paint Grasshopper…

Nope not him...

As a youngster, my dad often called me “grasshopper-minded”, as I would jump from one thing to the next that caught my interest and attention.

I now find that this commonly occurs while I am painting.

No matter what I sit down to paint, once I get started on it, I immediately start thinking about painting something completely different, which makes sticking on subject rather tricky.

I think its partly down to wargaming having so many periods and scales that can be played, and I want an army for ‘all of them’…

I also think, whilst painting is a leisure past-time, in reality its also a bit of a chore, its quite hard lengthy work (far easier to play with the figures than paint them after all!) to do a good job and satisfy yourself you’ve done as best as you could. So whenever I get to a tricky or fiddly bit in painting something, I immediately start thinking of something else that I perceive would be ‘easier’ to paint.

A ‘wee while’ ago I started painting up some Perry ACW figures, thinking they would be easy to do (compared to Napoleonics) – just shades of grey and brown for the ‘feds. Then I got inspired and distracted by all the pirate malarkey, which has been a fun interlude, and there’s more stuff there I like to add.

So having completed the current batch of ‘piratey’ stuff, I thought I’d better clear the painting table and complete the ACW figs which have been staring at me for months. Well I have pressed on admirably and blocked in all the base colours, and then came to painting in the fiddly straps and belts, and immediately I started thinking about painting Flames of War tanks…! (Just ordered some Plastic Soldier SdKfz 251’s and Panzer IV's, and some Battlefront Typhoons) They always seem easy. Heck, they're just 2 colours; the tank itself and the tracks. And the tank can be spray base coated…

Reality is they are just as time consuming and fiddly, when you have paint the commander and crews, the camo pattern, the stowage and then get the decals on right…

And I still have Black Powder armies for ACW, Napoleonics, and WSS (cavalry from WF on their way from Maelstrom) to finish & start! Oh and there’s still the WF Zulus to finish (first 5 test figures done – just got base them and varnish) and their Colonial Brit adversaries. Then the 6 Cowboys for 'Rules with No Name', and a whole pile of Prussians for my VSF project…

…and I’m not even going to mention the bunker that is the Lord of the Rings pile, that may well get some attention again if the Hail Sauron group kicks off, and I need to start building big ‘Hail-Caesar-style’ armies for LOTR (I’ve ordered the armies book for Hail Caesar too from Maelstrom – may give some ideas for the conversion work for Hail Sauron).

So a painting, period and scale grasshopper? Yep that’s me!

Technology saves my Painting space.

I have always enjoyed listening to music while I paint. Usually through headphones connected to my mini-portable cd-player thingy perched on the edge of my painting table or on a side table.

However I recently caught up with technology (in some ways I am a bit of a technophobe). I bought an Ipod Shuffle. Wow, how things have changed!

For $60NZ I have gone from something the size of a couple of housebricks that plays one CD at a time, to something not much bigger than a large postage stamp that holds about 20 CD albums and will randomly play tracks from all the albums endlessly without stopping or me have to change discs or anything.

Amazing!

And it takes up a fraction of the space as before, so my side table can hold refreshments or other modelling paraphernalia!

Plus I got a set of Skull Ink’d canal-phones. These fit in the ear canal, so effectively block out background sound, like an ear plug, and obviously plays your tunes too. The nice bit is it stays quiet between songs and I don’t get intrusions of SWMBO’s ‘pap*-TV’ breaking through. They're also more comfy than the standard earphones that come with the ipod. Bliss!

I’ve dug out all my old 80’s & 90s rock albums and uploaded them. A trip down musical memory lane indeed.

The only problem now is getting a thick ear from SWMBO when I can’t help break into song at the best bits, as I listen along. ;-)

Oh and it works equally well under my ear defenders when I’m doing the garden – riding lawntractor or using weed-eater (strimmer for you UK types).

So for any of you technophobe-grognards like me out there, go get yourself an Ipod shuffle – it's the ‘Sony-Walkman’ you always wanted ;-)

*pap: “pathetic and puerile!” ;-)

Update 13/11/11

I just went and bought some new ear phones, after getting a recommendation on kiwibiker forum:
Sennheiser 30mmi

I got them from Dick Smiths for $110. Ok thats more than I paid for the Ipod, but these ear phones are smaller fitting, yet better sound quality than the Skull ink'd ones I'd got, and they fit comfortably inside my tight fitting Shoei helmet, so my bike riding has become blissful. I can now ride for hours without stopping, because my ears are sore, or the disc needs changing... just fuel stops and toliet breaks ;-)
I've waited years to be able to enjoy this music and biking combination properly.

Hail Sauron (now renamed Hail Caesar Fantasy)

Having become somewhat disillusioned with GW's War of the Rings rules, and having a great appreciation for Warlord Games Black Powder and Hail Caesar rules, I have set up a yahoo group called Hail Sauron as a place for discussion to convert WOTR army lists to Hail Caesar format, and to discuss their required special rules and magic etc etc.

We're also going to try and handle 'generic fantasy' and other realms like Narnia and Warhammer as they crop up or people show an interest.

Feel free to pop along and join up if you are interested.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HailSauron/


Cheers
Scott

PS Subsequent to this post, with possible recriminations due to IP infringement, it has been suggested to rename this group - it is now called Hail Caesar Fantasy.

The groups new address is  http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HailCaesarFantasy/