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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Middle-Earth medley... Wood Elves, Ale Carts and Durin's Causeway...

A bit of a mixed bag this blog post...

First up... I finished the four Wood Elf models that were part of Tim's transpacific parcel of goodies I previously received. Tim had used them as a paint test scheme I believe, and whilst perfectly serviceable, I wanted them to match in with my existing figures, so into the stripping jar they went. The original wood elves came in for a fair bit of criticism, being considered rather naff sculpts, but I think they have a certain charm of their own and still paint up reasonably well...


I like them anyway! I still want to get some of the new Mirkwood figures from the The Hobbit of course, the Rangers and Guards look great. Oh, and Tauriel is of course on the wants list - babe! As much as I liked Arwen, Tauriel has a bit more 'Xena' about her, if you get my drift!?


Next up today...whilst rummaging through old figures with a view to selling stuff off... I came across an old Dwarf Bugman's Beer Cart, that I had got to go along with my old Warhammer army... looking at it I was immediately struck by the similarity to the Southfarthing Beer Cart at the Hobbiton set:

South Farthing Ale cart at Hobbiton set
... and so a seed of a plan began to germinate...

A little while later whilst Chris and I were looking through the series of Journey book scenarios, with a view to models we would need to get to complete all the scenarios, one scenario Chris looked at and proclaimed, "We'll never be able to play that one properly!" ... "Why not?" I replied..., "You need Treebeard, but without the hobbits riding on him. You already made ours with the hobbits on him..."

Right thought I, not to be outdone...I later came across a new unmade Treebeard set on ebay and managed to win it for a small amount, compared to new...

And so the kit arrived with all parts complete and now I can make Treebeard by himself without being bothered by hobbits along for the ride. But it did give me a spare two seated hobbit models...Perfect, just what I needed...

And so Bugman's Beers cart went in to the stripping jar, after the dwarf driver was snipped off... a little clean up, filing and greenstuff and here we have a Hobbition Ale cart...


Complete with two hobbit drivers...


It was rather interesting to get it stripped back, it just showed how much I was still learning back then... several mold lines hadn't been filed away! So I had a bit of work to do. Also interesting seeing the copyright date on the pony's base tab ; GW 1987 I think, the last number was a bit deformed, fairly sure it was a seven, it couldn't have been a 1 as I was only 11 then and hadn't started gaming... ah well, a brief return to my youth and nostalgia!

... I'm rather looking forward to painting this up. I'll mount it on a 60mm round base in keeping with the rest of the basing for the LOTR SBG game...

Lastly for today... I couldn't resist doing a bit here and there through the week on my Durin's Causeway... adding a extra width panel throughout. Its given the whole a far more robust feel, more solid, more dwarf like!


Of course still a long ways to go, but I feel the foundation is now well made.


I am now pondering ahead to the best way to effect a sense of flame and fire below...


... and was pondering recessing a load of the those yellow twinkle LEDs into the base and covering with some diffuser and resin.... or perhaps I am going a bit over the top again???


Food for thought anyway :-)


Right, enough blogging for now, back to painting the Hobbit Dwarfs... I have a free arvo as my son is with a mate at the cinema watching Spiderman... not my thing!

Till next time...

38 comments:

  1. Nice work, Scott. From the tiny icon, I thought you had some samurai :) I see they're actually wielding weapons like falces. The terrain is coming along very nicely too. Dean

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    1. Thanks. Ah yes the long handled elven glaive - I think PJ and Weta drew on eastern/oriental influences when they designed the look of the elves for the movies...

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  2. Not a fan of those plastic WEs at all, but you did a great paint job on them regardless. Love the Bugmans conversion. I love wagons, carts, and barrels as battlefield litter, so I might just have to convert up an Ale Cart for a sweet objective someday too. The modeling project is coming along nice too.

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    1. Thanks Jason, I agree I love of those little bits of details on our battlefields - all manner of battlefield-debris adds to the whole :-)

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  3. I love the bugman's cart! It looks superb with the seated hobbits. I had one I used as a Blood Bowl apothecary, but yours looks so much better!

    The causeway is coming along nicely! In a potentially fortuitous coincidence, I literally came across this post two minutes ago:

    http://wappellious.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/never-be-afraid-to-experiment-part-one.html

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    1. And a bit of progress: http://wappellious.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/the-results-of-mad-science.html

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    2. Thanks for that - rather interesting! I have certainly followed James' work and really enjoy it when he finds time for some LOTR painting.

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  4. I can actually hear the music from the movie playing when I see your causeway!

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  5. Can't wait to see the causeway finished. Already shaping up to be one pretty darn epic terrain piece

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    1. Thanks... I was watching the DVD again over the weekend and also the Making of stuff, I'll be having to do bigger side walls for the goblin archers to be sited on too!

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  6. The wagon looks very cool and I am impressed with the Causeway too!

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  7. Nice find with the cart, looking forward to it painted.

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    1. I think it will look cool, I'm just not looking forward to trying to freehand 'Southfarthing' on the Cart!

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  8. To be fair Scott, if I was as good as you at scenery (here's hoping one day I will) I wouldnt be able to resist working on the Causeway through the week either! It's coming along nicely. Keep up the good work,
    Brandon.

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    1. Thanks Brandon... It all just takes a little practice and these days theres so many how-to's on the web - youtube is full of terrain ideas... we can all get the hang of it!

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    2. Er, actually no! I'll leave it to the experts!

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  9. I think the plastic elves are perfectly usable only one or two poses are a little off. Love the re-purposing of Bugman's cart it fits in perfectly. Durin's causeway looks amazing so far nice one Scott!

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  10. Those wood elves look nice and the poses are perfectly fine, but that causeway is looking simply wonderful Scott!

    Christopher

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  11. That dwarf board looks sweet and so does the Wood Elves. I am one of those that despite thinking the Wood Elf-sprues were a bit meh, I still bought three or maybe four boxes!

    That's a pretty nifty idea with the ale-cart. I've been brewing a little bit myself this last year, so perhaps I should do me a barrel cart both in miniature as well as in large scale!

    I read on another blog that you perhaps were going to the States in 2015 (or something in the likes), you wouldn't happen to have any plans to go up to Scandinavia anytime soon? It's not thaaat far ;)

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    1. Thanks Llama... I was also pondering getting back to a little homebrewing myself... Yeah we want to do a family holiday to DisneyLand while the kids are young enough to enjoy it, and old enough to remember it!

      A visit to Scandinavia would certainly be a tie-in to some of the background Tolkien drew on for MiddleEarth... Typically I missed a much easier chance to visit while I lived in the North East of England - I'd just need to cross the North Sea... Its a bit further now... but hey, you never know!

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    2. Yeah, I hear you about the distance between GB and Scandinavia: We went with the ferry in 9th grade to England and Scotland. Super simple. And the last time I was in the UK, I went with SAS, took 1,5h! That's the time it sometimes took me to get to my old work located on the other side of town!

      When I traveled to Australia, it took me nearly two days, so I can't imagine you guys visiting the Old World all that often. Too bad, I'd gladly give you a little tour of the colder parts of your old home-continent!

      - - -

      Finnish, I recall reading, was apparently one of the inspirations for Elvish, by the way... not that I speak more than a few words of that weird language. Elvish, that is, can't speak a word Finnish ;D

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    3. The thing about being a Brit, living up north, was as the weather was general naff, if you had the chance of a foreign holiday, you headed south to get some sun! So the idea of heading North to Scandinavia never really cropped up. Plus mates who had visited always came back with stories of how expensive it was... so that was off putting too!

      Now as an older maturer chap, not just wanting a beer in the sun... its going to be quite a jaunt to get there to check it out as a tourist! Still who knows...one day...?

      Yes I was watching LOTR Ext Ed and on it they discuss Finnish being used as an inspiration for Quenya, and Welsh for Sinadrin! I certainly cant speak a word of either (Finnish or Welsh)!

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  12. The elf's came out good.

    The mine is really coming along, the figures really scale it for us

    Ian

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    1. Thanks Ian. Must admit I have never made such a tall terrain piece before!

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  13. Loving the ale cart mate. The causeway is really coming along too and is definitely better for the additions.

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    1. Thanks Millsy... I'll hopefully get some paint on the cart shortly, though I am still trying to finish the Hobbits dwarfs at the mo'... 8 down, 5 to go...

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  14. That causeway looks impressive. It would make a great display game somewhere.

    Have you thought of using a real fire at the bottom?!

    Seriously, though, what about one of these: http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/flame-lamp-Art-lamp-fire-lamp_233348923.html?s=p I think the flame effect comes from yellow light being played on flimsy gauze fluttering above a fan.

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    1. It would be an eye catcher certainly!

      Real 'flame'? Hmmm interesting... it would be an interesting effect... thanks for the link :-)

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  15. Your LotR projects are coming along nicely. I can't wait to see them completed.

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    1. Thanks Scott, I'm just chipping away at them, bit by bit... I'll try and keep posting some update pics...

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  16. Splendid painting as usual, some of the LoTR sculpts are a bit ropey however if you can imbue a little life into them with the right paint scheme then it all works out ok.

    I too have the Bugmans cart and never even considered its use for LoTR. A little green stuff and it can serve duty in WFB 3rd and LoTR, after all Bilbo did leave Bag End with several of the stout little devils! Hmmmm, you're giving me ideas.

    The terrain looks great, maybe once finished you could game it in the dark (a la you're EoTD houses!) with maybe a flame effect light through the doorway (ooooh Balrog!!).

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    1. Many thanks :-) Good ideas too...I had been wondering if I could managed to sneak some Yellow LEDs in too as perhaps recessed torches, perhaps gluing some black painted smokey cotton on them too...?

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  17. Very cool idea on the Cart sir. Love the look of the shire myself:) Keep up the Great Blog!

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