Back in February I proposed a switch to Google+ for comments on the blog and received thoughts and opinions for and against.
Over the intervening weeks, I have continued to blog; writing my own and reading and commenting on others...
I have to say, I continue to find the interaction with the Google+ comments an easy exercise... first up comments can be edited if you stuff your fat-finger typing up as I frequently do! Also weblinks are easier to add in the comments field, and there is automatic notification to comments made, and their replies making for better and easier interaction, back and forth, I find.
So I have decided to turn on Google+ Comments for the blog here, at least as a trial... I believe I can turn it back again should I so choose...
This will sadly mean that if you do not have a Google+ ID, you wont be able to leave comments at all. You will of course still be able to read the blog!
So I sincerely hope those inconvenienced in this way, still continue to patronise my blog... I mean no disservice to you, and may I humbly suggest you consider setting up a Google+ ID - it's easy to do.
Thanks again. Kind regards, Scott
PS - If you still want to contact me, but can't now leave a comment, there is still my email contact link in sidebar...
PPS... one thing I have noticed, the comments indicator below reads Zero, when there is over 20 comments there now, so not sure why that is...?
It's now glued to the base, and the main upright glued to the stair. I've started cutting out gullies into the base to further give the impressive of height in the stair columns. This has also allowed me to fashion the stony bridge section from bottom of the stairway across gully there.
I have decided I am going to make it corner-centric, and am going to back the structure in MDF and along its left side, so I can effect a rocky corner area, into which a gallery with pillars will be cut, for the goblins to shoot down from at the Fellowship as they flee down the stairs...as per movie...
I've also started cladding the lower areas in off-cut broken bits of poly I had left over... just to start to build up the structure and give it some texture...
I left it with the smaller side panels of MDF gluing , to give the base more strength...
I am still pondering how best to model flames and smoke in the gullies...
-----o0o-----
So while that was drying I moved back on the the Khazad Dum board... I attacked the surface of the pink foam stuff with a box cutter knife, and quickly effected a rocky surface. In that respect this material is very easy to work with.
I then also started to clad the sides of the board with more MDF, again for structural strength of the board.... and left that drying too... one side at a time as the PVA glue dries... though had to re-clamp down the end top surface to get a better fit after further trimming down the end piece of foam.
-----o0o-----
Back to modelling, and I decided that my Hobbit ale cart drivers would probably want a little comfort for their journey, so I fashioned a broad cushion out of greenstuff for the seat. This actually allowed me to push the hobbits into it, to allow their seating posture and angle to look better, more upright... I've also based the cart on a 60mm MDF round base, 3mm thick, and sand textured it.
And showing the hobbits in place. I plan to paint the cart and hobbits separately, and glue the hobbits into place at the end. This will allow me to try and freehand some words on the cart plaque behind their seat. That's the bit I am not looking forward to as my freehand skills are not the best...
-----o0o-----
Oh, and if you hadn't guessed, I've also moved on to the next model painting requirement for the Fellowship campaign; the Uruk-Hai Scouts... a boxed set of 24 plastic figures up first for starters... I've also got a handful of metal ones and Lurtz in the stripping jar from 2nd hand purchases... and am thinking of getting Vrasku and Mahur done at the same time, while I am working on the Uruks...
Making steady progress with these guys... they are fairly easy to do - dark armour, shades of brown and gray throughout and the majority wear full face helmets so no having to spend ages getting the faces right!
-----o0o-----
Back to terrain and the Watcher board, and my tales of woe... I am frustrated to heck that the bit I had expected to be the easy bit to finish it off, pour the water... has caused the most grief!
The Golden brand acrylic resin had dried but not clear, it was still opaque white over most of the water area. I am guessing this has either been because the layer applied was too thick or there was too much humidity as it dried, or both. To try and fix this I decided to try heating it with a heat gun... Whilst at first I thought this was going to work, suddenly the resin ballooned up off the surface, then shrank back down as heat was removed, drying in an awful wrinkly mess...
I let it dry, then tried peeling off the top surface, cutting slits in it and peeling bits back... then one piece came away thickly, lifting the whole resin thickness, exposing the base foam layer underneath... "Bollox!" I thought, and pulled... and the whole lot came off... back to square one!
So I have resurfaced this foam base in paint and glue to seal it, added pebbles and gravel and twigs to effect fallen logs, branches in the water etc...
Having watched again some of the Terranscape videos on Youtube, I have ordered some Envirotex Lite and some colouring pigment translucent dyes, and some Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium. The first product is poured in layers to effect water depth. The last product will effect a wavy surface ripple.
I am going to keep the Mod Podge for the river sections and redo those with a more realistic surface texture - I hope!
With luck I may have the Watcher Board finished for next weekend... fingers crossed!
PS - Bugger, just checked the stash - I don't have Vrasku afterall! Another one to source...
My daughter Becky has been gurgling Gollum impersonations for months now...
In the end we just had to video it...
This was done in one take, after a few practices... she's reading the subtitled words off the screen behind me as the movie plays, with sound off, but she pretty much knows them off by heart now anyway...
She's a bit camera shy to start, but quickly gets into it...
Well its been a long journey, but I finally, almost 18 months later, finished my set of the 13 dwarves from The Hobbit, Escape from Goblin Town (Ltd Ed) set...
So to set the scene... cough, deep gravely voice..."Far Over,..."
I started off quite well, and even DIY-ed a whole Goblin Town layout, then got the Goblin King and the minions of his subterranean kingdom all painted up... then stalled at getting the dwarves done... not sure why, I guess I got distracted by other things and disillusioned at the time over subsequent pricing of the forthcoming GW range...
Months later, Balin managed to sneak back into the painting queue as part of this seasons painting challenge, but still the rest went for quite sometime before I knuckled down and got them finished, probably again at the instigation of my son saying he'd really like to have a play of the Goblin Town scenarios, having watched the DVD movie several times over...
So finally I can present The Company of Thorin Oakenshield!
Thorin
Dwalin
Balin
Gloin
Oin
Bofur
Kili
Bifur
Ori
A little enforced conversion work, for Ori; I recall two summers ago now, trimming these dwarfs outside in the summer sun quaffing a foaming ale whilst doing so...everything on a tray, sitting at table on the patio...when I brought tray back inside I couldn't find Ori's catapult holding hand, so had to do my own. I trimmed off a hand from a spare plastic figure, and fashioned a catapult out of melted and stretched plastic sprue, then used some fuse wire for the sling shot part. I thinks he's come out OK, and it makes him a little unique!
Dori
Bombur
Fili
Nori
"Nori" or Jed Brophy, is our local celebrity, as he's from my home town vicinity, here in NZ, and also played, among other roles, Sharku, captain of the Isengard warg riders in the Two Towers...
I think perhaps part of my delay in getting them done was actually a little apprehension, that I was rather conscious of the fact I wanted to do a good job on them and that meant trying to get the colours right. Most of the time painting mini's you can easily decide on colours; brown here, green there, vary the shades a bit, and all is well. But when you are painting something that everyone is familiar with, there then is the expectation to get it 'just right' - and that means the right shades...
I looked over the painted examples from GW, and also got the Visual Companion, to further give me clues, but if anything this further muddied the waters as the shades seemed to blend together before me into so many subtly differing shades of browns, grays and reds... I also endlessly poured over the making of DVD of the Extd Ed of the Hobbit, just for differing lighting shots of the costumes, as lighting makes all the difference in the way colours look on screen...
In the end I more or less followed the GW painted examples as a guide, matching the colours as best as I could figure out with the paints in my collection; a mix of GW, Foundry and Vallejo...
I hope they meet with your approval, and Chris and I can now look forward to some games, "Down, down, down in Goblin Town..." :-)
I just need to finish the weapon pile and then get the Ltd Ed Radagast model done to complete the set... after which I might be eyeing up the boxed set of the three trolls I have on my shelf...
I'll sign off with Neil Finn's Misty Mountains Cold... enjoy!
It seems its that time of year and the Liebster award is back. I was a little surprised to be nomintaed as its generally for newer blogs, typically with fewer than 200 followers, to raise their awareness in the blog-o-sphere. Plus I was nominated last time around!
So many thanks to Brendan "The Kiwi", at the Gamers Table blog.
But still, in receiving said award, again, I get that warm fuzzy feeling that someone likes my blog, and I get the chance to nominate some I feel need a little more awareness...
This years award seems to revolve around the number 11, with eleven blogs I must nominate and also 11 questions to answer.
Since I am currently enjoying the whole Middle Earth genre, I have decided to nominate blogs that feature Middle-Earth content in their recent output...
If your blog is not in the above list please do not feel snubbed or ignored, far from it, I could only pick 11!
Keeping on the theme of "11", this years award comes with 11 questions to which I must give answers! So here goes;
Why did you start blogging? Originally just to be able to post pictures of my painted models on the web, and as a source of logging the colours used for reference etc.... its has since grown to include terrain making, gaming reports and the odd 'ramble'...
If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be? Reduce the ridiculous pricing of the current state of the "GW Hobby". Buy something else I hear you cry - but I'm a sucker for their Middle-Earth figures...
What is best in life? Enjoying quality time with family, and if that includes my hobby, then gaming with my son has to be up there at the top. And now little daughter is showing an interest in wanting to learn how to paint mini's... she's certainly more artistic than my son!
Do you want to live forever? If health and wealth stay in the black then most certainly!
Fame or fortune? Fortune! You can keep fame! I couldn't be bothered with the intrusion into private life.
What miniatures are you most proud of having painted? Generally my latest work, so long as it stays up to scratch, but I am terribly aware of gradual eyesight decline so hope I can keep churning out the goods! Favourite stuff includes my LOTR figures - probably my Elven heroes and Galadhrim.
How do you deal with burn out? I'll admit, I'm not good at dealing with stress. I don't tend to get burn out from painting miniatures, rather the game they maybe linked to, so if I go off a game, I go off painting those figures, and then switch to painting some thing else, and I keep coming back to LOTR for my love of the books and movies, despite GW's best attempts to piss me off with their pricing!
Why is a raven like a writing desk? Haven't got a clue mate, I guess I could try googling the answer but that would be cheating right? However, just pondering this now, there possibly seems to be a MiddleEarth connection? In the Hobbit we have the portents about the ravens returning to the mountain, and of course we see Bilbo's writing desk featured at the start of the movies... am I close? Plus I guess its a riddle, and we know how much Bilbo liked riddles!
Star Wars or Star Trek? For Trek I like Kirk and Piccard. Couldnt stand Voyager or DS9. But do like the new movies. For Wars, the first three, or IV, V and VI. The others, other than special effects, were pretty naff... whoever created Jar Jar wants shooting as it put the nail in the franchise for me... But if I must pick one over the other then Wars! May the force be with you.
If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be? Honestly that's a tough question. If I would have to answer where I feel right now, as much as it goes against the grain, with my love/hate relationship with the company, I would pick GW, purely for their Lotr/Hobbit stuff, as I would happily stay buying and painting that genre indefinitely. However, if I was to choose an 'overall' company it would probably be Foundry, as they do excellent sculpts on the whole and cover an incredibly diverse range of periods and genres.
What is your favourite takeaway? Chinese - I like noodles and nearly always pick a Chow Mein.
UPDATE: Couldn't help but google that Riddle - seems I was off the mark,... but I have never read the book it came from... ah well...
Continued work and play over the last week or so...
On the terrain front: I continued work on the causeway, widening the whole structure, by adding another layer of the styrofoam against each facing. I increased the length of the broken stairway section at the top, and then, after watching the movie footage again realised there was another turn and more stairs at the bottom... so I added another stair section and raised the whole by another ~ 6". I also started on the base board using some of the foam material that was packed with the Styrofoam delivery. This new pink material has a consistency very similar to that green spongy foam florists use for flower arranging... its very light weight and fairly soft and crumbly. However its going to get coated in Polyfilla so should hold up OK...
I also had tried etching in a brick pattern with a ball point pen. This process worked well ( a lot easier than the DAS clay etch of the Victorian Buildings though yielding a wider mortar join.). However after finishing a couple of facings I couldn't help think it made the whole thing look like a Victorian rail bridge structure... so I am going to skimcoat filler over the top and not bother with a brick pattern... I think if the filler goes on rough, painting and drybrushing should yield a good enough texture to it, making it look either hewn from the rock or with some kind of render applied by the dwarves...
With the rest of this pink foam, I cut it to 5" thick widths and used to make a raised board for the Bridge of Khazad Dum scenario. I'm going with the description for the scenario from the new The Hobbit rulebook, so a 4'x4' board with a 6" wide chasm across the middle...
Tins of paint weighting down the top sheet of 3mm MDF. The bottom sheet is my left over piece of 12mm MDF from the sheet used to make the Pirate Isle. I figured this thicker sheet would be best for the base of this structure to stop it flexing through the chasm area.
On the miniature painting front; I have been steadily working through the Hobbit dwarves set and am nearing completion, but I'll hold off putting pictures up just yet as I feel they'll deserve a post of their own... However I did complete Haldir of Lorien, in among painting the dwarves, for the upcoming Lothlorien scenario;
Haldir of Lorien
In gaming news; Chris and I replayed the Hounds of Sauron scenario, using my tactical suggestion of backing the Fellowship up against the large rock just off centre of the board, and defending that area.
A heroic march to start, had the Fellowship pretty much in position on the first turn. Second turn had them aligned well as the Wargs caught them. Legolas climbed the rock to take up a firing position. And in rushed the Wargs. This time it was pretty much a breeze... none of the front rank defenders; Gandalf, Boromir, Gimli and Aragorn, ever had more than 2 wargs on them at any time, and Legolas was able to pick off wargs against Gandalf, who was probably the most vulnerable front rank fighter. The hobbits settled down to watch the show and the bodies of the wargs piled up...
Fellowship defends against the Hounds of Sauron
16 Turns later, and we drew the Priority roll, ending the game... The Fellowship members had not lost a single wound, though possibly one fate point, I can't recall exactly... and they had butchered dozens of wargs and the Wild Warg Chieftain.
So I'd call that a success! Chris was whooping and cheering as the game went on ... so I was happy to see his spirits raised once more :-)
So next mission and on to Watcher in the Water...
Which brings us back to terrain matters, and tales of water woe!
I have used Woodland Scenics Realistic water, for a couple of past projects, including pouring the stream on the Helms Deep, Deeping Wall scenario, and when I made my Normandy Beach section. And for the most part it has worked well. So long as you pour it in thin layers and allow to dry between each pour...
Its a fairly clear liquid that pretty much self levels with each pour... and once dry is transparent with a glossy water sheen.
Recent use though has been a little problematic as its has taken some time to dry in the autumnal conditions here. Its also not the cheapest product to buy either, and I decided to Google about and see what alternative cheaper products might be available... and I came across this webpage from a model railway blog...
If you read the page, you will see the author discusses an 'Identical' product to Realistic Water, that is much cheaper, and available through art stores. I was quite pleased with this find, and further finding the product available here in NZ, at roughly half the price of the WS product. So I ordered a pack of the Golden Acrylic, from Gordon Harris in Wello and it arrived 2 days later.
I cracked open the top, to find an opaque white product. Hmmm ok, well lets give it a go... Yep it poured out but it was very thick and was not self leveling, and had to be spread out with a spatula-like tool. It was still pretty thick after spreading, and not flat... 24hrs later with a fan blowing across it and its still white and wet... I am hoping like mad it will eventually dry out and go clear. Fingers crossed!!!
Another product I came across was this Magic Water... though it seems relatively expensive and I couldn't see a NZ based supplier so that would mean International shipping costs on top...
It does sound like a very good product.
However, yet more Googling and I came across this video: (skip past the ad at the start)
This is just the sort of finish I want for my water areas, and what a great video find, to see how its done.
Not only that but looking at the cover of the Fellowship of the Ring Journey book, shows the same water finish effect there used for the Buckleberry Ferry scenario/diorama ;
So back to that video, and the product used to make the rippling water surface is Mod Podge:
More Googling and I found this stocked here in NZ at Warehouse Stationary... so I've bought a couple of packs. So if that Golden acrylic product ever dries, I'll be using this over the top to get the surface finish I am after!
Finally for today, and on the purchase scene I managed to grab a set of Minas Tirith Walls off Trademe. Now discontinued, this is now only going to be a 2nd hand purchase from Ebay or Trademe... So I was happy to find a set here in NZ for sale, so I didn't have to pay international shipping.
I'll use these sections as templates to make more sections from yet more Styrofoam... Now I've got a reason to get on with painting all those Warriors of Minas Tirith I have!
That's the thing with gaming Middle earth, there's so much to it, so many locations and differing Factions, you never get bored!
Till next time, dear adventurer, hold true to your purpose, and make sure you have some Lembas Bread or seed cakes about your person!
When I think back to my early gaming beginnings, I always recall playing with the typical 20mm or 1/72nd scale plastic airfix toy soldiers... tipping them out on the carpet, lining them up and knocking them down to the accompaniment of mouthed sound effects... boom, bang, dakka dakka, Aiiieeeeee!!!!
Simple 'rug-rat' fun... but then of course you want to have some scenery for your soldiers to interact with, take cover behind etc etc...
The next trip to the toy store and you start picking up bits and bobs of lichen or other spongy foam stuff from the model railway section...
And I think its this close connection to model railway materials that begins to transcend our humble wargaming efforts...
I can still recall, back to my youth, when sometime back in the 70's, the fire brigade went on strike in the UK... it was a period of strong trade unions, and it seemed everyone was having their chance to hold the country to ransom by striking for more pay or better conditions or both... My dad was in the fire service, and although he didn't agree with the strike, putting lives at risk, he had no choice due to the strength of the trade unions, and being unable to cross the picket line, as such...
With the forced time off, he built us a proper model rail layout, on a 8'x4' board complete with hills and tunnels, using chicken wire and cloth bandage and paper-mache, then painting it all up and adding clumps of lichen and sponge etc... and although relatively basic by todays standards, it rocked my little world back then.
But best of all, when not playing with the trains, the board was perfect for my toy soldiers... and I think its the connection between toy soldiers, model railway stuff and cool looking terrain and layouts that's at the root of all my gaming now... I want it all to look good!
We strive, well many of us wargamers do, to paint up good looking figures to build our forces for the game, whether a simple skirmish force or a large army. But I don't really see the point in striving for well painted figures, if you then plonk them down on naff terrain. Agreed, we all have to start somewhere and we were all beginners once, but I feel if we are going to try and improve our figure painting, we should be trying to improve our scenery to 'display' them upon too.
However in wargaming, we are not dealing with a simple static display, but terrain that needs to be interacted with as we move our models over and through it. Our models need to be able to stand on the terrain without falling over all the time, so a balance has to be struck, quite literally, between looks and 'play-ability'. On top of which, we don't want to be playing over the same board every game, so we often resort to making terrain pieces that can be re-positioned to vary the layout for each game...
I have always enjoyed making terrain, as anyone who has followed this blog over time can probably tell, whether its simple hills and hedges, or trees, walls, fences and buildings of all shape and sizes... but these have always been terrain 'pieces'. My relatively recent return to Middle-Earth, and playing through many of the journey book scenarios, has now led me off down another terrain building path... no longer just 'pieces' but now entirely themed boards, to match the specific scenario... and this has had me looking back more closely to those model railway scenic items and how-to guides...
So I have been looking over the Woodland Scenics range of materials and how they work together and compliment each other, and found their how to videos on their website and Youtube very interesting...
Here's one which seems to cover most of the basic techniques and materials...
Having watched this, I was all fired up at the weekend, to have a splurge at the local store... However I saved a few pennies when chatting to the chap there, who explained there was no need to buy the branded spray glue, as its just thinned PVA (interior) glue with water about 50/50 with a little detergent added. I did buy the spray bottle and some packs of fine and coarse turf to add to the stuff I already had at home... Only downside was they were out of Realistic Water, which I need to finish my Watcher Board... oh well, hopefully have some next weekend...
So I'll be giving these techniques a try, with the Watcher Board to finish first. Then our Fellowship quest continues through the subterranean realm of Moria, so things will be mostly rock and stone there for a while, then back out in to the sunshine, with the flight to Lothlorien, followed by the scenes at Amon Hen.
Lothlorien is fairly straight forward, though I am tempted to try building a model tree large enough to take a flet; an elven tree platform.
Amon Hen has several scenics items; ruins, statues and more water to arrange, and I have been ordering and sourcing components to complete this set up too.
I think, on the terrain, and thus gaming front, its going to be an interesting year! Wish me luck!
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!
