Cleanup

I had to go back over a bunch of the balrog's black areas. I noticed that the grey from the base had spattered a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to sit down and finish him off over the next few days.

I also prepped a couple GW minis from the "Skull Pass" WFB set, just because they looked like they'd be fun to paint.

Progress Behind the Scenes

I haven't worked on the Moria stuff in the last few days, but I have been painting a bit. I also finally got around to fixing my painting table. The surface is a metal tabletop that hangs on a free standing frame with shelves (IKEA, I think). I'd had to move it about a year ago. When I reassembled it, I hung the table two notches too high (about 36" off floor). It made for uncomfortable painting, but I didn't realize my mistake until much later and I'd put everything back. As a result, I was painting less. On Father's Day, I spent some of my "Me" time fixing it, and now it's back at proper desk height.

I also painted a few older figs to practice some layering techniques I'd been studying from Miniwargaming.com's videos (I recently signed up for their Vault membership). I will post some pics soonish. I also worked a little on the GW Dark Elves.

Lastly, I made a purchase last night. I picked up a Paintier 80 carousel from my FLGS. It should make seeing and finding my paint colors a bit simpler than the box cases I've been using.

Pseudopod

I primed and painted the test tentacle. Take a look.

1" grid on the Chessex mat for scale.

I think the color scheme is okay. The base is frankly a mess. It's mostly some watered-down blue paint and the ink washes just pooling there. The surface is lumpy from greenstuff too.

The whole this is too top heavy (falls over easily). But, I think the method will produce some decent Watcher in the Water tentacles in the end. 

Looking Ahead

 'What are you going to do then?' asked Pippin, undaunted by the wizard's bristling brows. 

'Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took,' said Gandalf. 'But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words.'

-FOTR

I've got several things to work on for the Moria project already, but something that's been on my mind lately are the doors. While I don't know that opening them should be too large a factor in the skirmish's tactics, I do want something cool for the doors themselves. Also, I may need to work in the holly trees.

Currently, the water is a terrain piece WIP. I'd like it to be fairly modular so it can be used in other games/scenarios; middle sized murky pools are always a good addition to a fight! So perhaps the entrance itself will be its own, more distinctive piece of scenery. I am imagining a stone cliff with a narrow path at its base, the trees, and the doors between them. The door should open and close too. Checking the FOTR text, I see that it describes them opening as: 

"Slowly it divided in the middle and swung outwards inch by inch, until both doors lay back agains the wall."

The arch is said to have been "As high as Gandalf could reach," So about eight feet then, I guess. 

I will have to think about the best way to make that. 

76 minutes

Some progress on the balrog at painting club Sunday (though I need to re-glue and pin his sword hand). Today I painted an old Reaper vampire for fun. It took from 2:21 pm to 3:37 pm, bare metal to drying. Which is not too shabby I thought, especially just for tabletop.

2:21 pm - Ready to prime

2:23 pm - Spray primer applied and drying

 3:37 pm - Ink Wash applied and drying.

I put a couple coats of spray varnish on about 4:15 (one gloss, one matte), so now it's table-ready.