Speaking of Middle Earth

After playing in a mammoth (400+ minis) 1st Age ME Chainmail game at Garycon last month, my Moria project is all the more on my mind. Beyond that though, I'm looking at getting things together for a broader LOTR scope beyond Khazad Dum.

I picked 30 or so WFB High Elves on eBay recently to represent some 1st Age Gondolin-style fun. And I also unearthed several sprues of WFB dwarfs I'd bought years ago on a charity auction. Between those, the Rohan cavalry, all my orcs and goblins, and the Minas Tirith soldiers, I think I could field some gnarly battles!

So my goal now is get the elves and dwarfs and horsemen prepped for painting. Warm weather is here so spray primer opportunities should be easier to come by (at least until the humidity sets in). I think I will try some TAP color primers to speed the paint process along for these minis.

Apart from that, the Moria terrain still addressing and I'll probably want some ME scenery for "normal" surface battles.

Cats & cats & cats

Still plugging away on the Catthulhu Kickstarter minis. I think I will forgo tiny animal minis for a while after this project. I'm about 2/3 done, so I figure 3-4 more sessions should do it. They don't take long to paint individually, but the strain on my eyes limits brush time for such small figures.

Looking ahead, I want to get back to the LOTR stuff. I figure I need to focus on the terrain a bit, as most of the minis I need are really done. There are plenty of odds & ends to fill in (Rohirrim, Smaug, Gondorians, etc.), but the Moria section is pretty well stocked with goblins and so forth.

I made a recent purchase that I am excited to try out. A bunch of my paints are getting dried out, so rather than making a careful inventory of what is good and what is gunk, I bought the Army Painter Mega Set. It's a good deal for all you get. I've not tried their Warpaints before, but they get good reviews. I'll post my impressions after I have a chance to use some of them.

Update Madness

I managed to prime the minis yesterday (Yay Me!).

Bilbo and Gollum (on 1/2" bases)

The Average Wight (war) Band

Ent-y!

The wights got stuck onto 1" squares for uniformity, but I think the basing will need to be prettied up a little. 

Treebeard (on his included 2" metal square) got spray-primed with a green undercoat. I was going to use black, because I wanted to make sure the leafy recesses were –ahaha– shaded. But I was out of black, so I used the green instead. Why not?

Next up: 

THE WATCHER IN THE WATER!

Yes, the pool is done. Granted, I still need to do something about the Doors of Durin, etc. But check it out (I put the bead there as a "Transfix/Entangle" marker):

Bad day for Gandalf!

The water is coated with gloss Modge Podge for sheen. I tried to make the color sort of murky. I also painted the tentacle bases with the same shades. The process was basically the same as the river pieces.

Another finished (but not varnished piece is Balin's Tomb from the GW set. 

Also, I did a color test for the Minas Tirith soldiers. It's a very quick & dirty job, but I basically went with the movie look of black and silver.

Winter Woes

It was sunny and 73ºF here on Saturday. NOT typical December weather! My Reaper order was estimated to arrive Saturday, so I was stoked to get the figures prepped and primed while Mother Nature was cooperating. Sadly, the holiday shipping madness delayed the box and I didn't get it in time. (Insert sad trombone Wa-WAAA) Now it's raining and cold and the stuff will probably arrive today. Such is the life of a mini painter in winter on the East Coast of the US.

In different news, I have yet to receive the reference photos for the Catthulhu minis, so that's on hold (at least the kitties are paint-ready). In the meantime, getting ready for X-mas has eaten up a fair bit of weekend/evening time (NTM wasting time on Minecraft :-p ). I'm thinking the next thing for Moria is to finish the water terrain.

I've started the GW piece for Balin's sarcophagus too, so that's almost done. You can see the piece in the foreground here. I'll post a pic of my finished version once it's done.

Teaser: Smaug is coming down the pipeline, too! I've had this fig for a while, but I haven't really put paint to brush yet. I really want to make him nice. This is the biggest dragon mini I own. Check out this old bare metal pic I took for scale (the Reaper elf is on a 1" Hirst block base):

It's now assembled and I spray primed him "Dragon Red" with Army Painter primer, so I guess that counts as started. I also have a wooden display base I want to use for him on the shelf that he can come loose from to put on the table (probably on a CD base for SBH rules' purposes).

What IS that??

A pretzel gone horribly wrong?

No, it the water outside the doors of Durin. You know, the water part of "The Watcher in the Water"?


Remember when I started making the lake/pond for the terrain? Well, this is (finally) the next step. The border was covered in a mix of sand, PVA glue, and water and left to dry. I purposefully wanted it a bit sloppy to give it a natural look. The brown rectangle outside the edge is just a scrap of cardboard I laid down to catch the drips. The few edges and corners of foamcore peeking out will be further obscured by flocking and paint. The center of the MDF board will get a water effect similar to my modular river pieces. Though the pond will be more a murky greenish shade. Once the water and the border are painted, I'll add a few bits of scrub brush on the edges and some grass flocking. The piece should be usable as water terrain for any scene, but should serve admirably for the tentacle fight at Moria's entrance.

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. 

Sucker Punch

I worked on the Watcher tentacles last night. I used a tip from Sytgianheart and added suckers using little press blobs of greenstuff. I super-glued them to the dried tentacle and pressed in the center with the wooden end of a detail paintbrush. Overall, I am pleased with the results. This arm may have to be just a prototype, though. I think I can do better with the sizing and spacing of the suction cups. You can see the effect is cool, though.

I also worked on the cracked lava skin of the balrog. Both shoulders are blacked in now. I added a yellow ink wash to tone down the white parts that showed through, but I think it may be too much yellow. A little more white left showing would have been better, IMO.

This weekend I may try working on the pool some more. 

Watery Works (many pics)

I was going to work on the balrog last night, but that didn't quite work out. I did manage to do some work on the Watcher in the Water portion of the set.

Back when I had made the modular river for Song of Blades and Heroes skirmishes, I had cut a bunch of other pieces of MDF in various shapes. The plan was to use them for things like swampy ground and ponds. The largest of them was for a small lake.

I pulled that out and decided it was big enough for the pool in front of the entrance to Moria. First I placed the board on a piece of foam core.

(The grid in background are 1" squares from a Chessex mat)

Next I traced it. Since the foam core was black I used a white correction fluid pen.

Once the trace was dry, I cut it out with an Xacto knife.

I traced an internal line about 1" from the edge of the foam core and cut that out.

The resulting ring will be the "shore" of the lake. I glued it down and put a couple heavy books on it to hold it flat while it dried.

The next phase will be to shape and bevel the edges a little, as well as fill them with some spackling or pumice to make them seem more natural. When that's done, I'll paint it. 

While that was drying, I took a first stab at a greenstuff Watcher tentacle. It's about 3 1/2" long, rolled around some copper wire. I made the sucker marks with the end of a detail brush handle and the point of a toothpick. It's pretty basic, but I think I'm on the right track. I may have to paint it up before I can decide.

Prepping for a push

I haven't gotten much painting or sculpting done the last week or so, but I have gotten the basement cleared out a little. That will make working on this project (and painting in general) a bit easier. Also, the warmer weather will make things like outdoor spray priming or sealing easier to manage.

I'm on the precipice of a major surge of painting & terrain productivity. Honest!

Old Moria Pics

Here are some shots of the minis and cardstock scenery I used in the old terrain set.

 

The orcs rushing Balin's Tomb with the Fellowship inside.

Awaiting the assault

 The trolls fording the fire with stone slabs as the Fellowship races for the bridge.

The bridge ahead

My original balrog. Reaper's Narglauth. He's obviously balroggy, but the GW is a goodly bit bigger.

To give you an idea of scale, those are 1" squares on the mat below Nargluath, and the balrog's base is 2" in diameter. I'll post a pic of the unpainted balrog I have at home later tonight or tomorrow.