Barad-dUrbama

Morannon?? Nah mate, it'll Barad-Dur for me!

"'ere, put this in ya army, do a force with a good mounted unit. I'm not usin' 'em.", says my brother BarbarianJ, showing me 5 wargs riders.
"We'll form an alliance and get quickly to 1000pts of Mordor."

Interesting.

I made a first order: a box of Morannon warriors and 2 captains.

I've always had a soft spot for Skully. He looks a bit of a chinless wonder in his demeanour and physique. No? Clear skin, quite smooth, rather delicate really. A-ny-waaay...

I can tell you all is assembled and ready to paint!



My first thought was to avoid red. It can look a bit kitsch, and I wanted a bit of a change. But after a trial of grey, ooh no! It would not look right with my plans for after.
I wanted quite rusty armour

My main idea was: dirty is more important that dark.

My colour scheme may surprise you.

After using red, beige, grey-brown on 6 figs, I stepped back to check my work. Hmm, not bad. Funny, from the back they don't look like orcs, they look a bit [A BIT!] like bretonnians actually. Hu.


In that case...

Why not try a more original paint scheme that goes with it!





And now with a sepia wash. I chose this because it's the colour of the liquid that runs from the muck piles on farms. You can't get dirtier than that!
I use it over the whole of the model and leave lots of liquid in the dips.





It's subtle, sure. The only thing that shows up like a sore thumb in painting, my friends, is a mistake.

I didn't really know what to do for the shields.

Eye of Sauron and Mount Doom?



FAIL!

Eye of Sauron on a background of Mount Doom? Well, let's say it looked more like a dot in brackets, on a black triangle.
No! It needs to be bolder, brighter, like fascis- wo wo, steady, not quite that far.
But bloody red! Nick something from the Mordor book. Alrighty then.









And a month later, Bob's your uncle. Dusty, dirty and stoned [tough weekend!] stands painted reddy-browny-black.

I tried them out this weekend against Shizzle and Barbara. T'was a very small victory, even being modest about it would be over-doing it! But it confirmed the tenacity of their armour.

Need to paint the wargs now.

Autumn Warfare 2010: The Armies Muster Anew!

Ahoy! After an almost unforgivable absence from the wargaming scene, linked to starting a new job in Paris, I finally gave myself some much needed me-time and sat down to finish a figurine. And my my, doesn’t time fly! It turns out that, during my 5-month break from wargaming, G.W. brought out a new edition of the Warhammer boxed set, L.o.t.R. dwarves and gobbos, Warlord started selling Crimean Brits, E.C.W. highlanders and dragoons, and my brother put together a Russian F.o.W. batallion (see the French language version of this blog… I’m still trying to get him to write in English as well)!

But give in not to fear, my friends! As the oppressive heat of summer gives way to the gentle breese of autumn, so our new campaigning season begins. Kicking it off, Limey’s assembling a force of orcs from Morannon. I’ll be carrying on with some E.C.W., trying to catch up on the F.o.W. front with my German infantry company, as well as picking up where I left off with orcs from Cirith Ungol. I’m hoping to hassle the Kraut into finishing his Minas Tirith company and I’ve not yet given up hope of finally seeing an L.o.t.R. company rising up painted from the vast mounds of grey plastic in the Frog’s pond.

Without any further ado, here is my take on Grimbold of Rohan!

I decided, following a discussion with the Frog (always useful when seeking a theme), to opt for a less conventional colour for this fellow's cloak. Green, brown and red are all very good and proper for Rohirrim, but Grimbold had to stand out! A bit of a gamble, of course, but one which might have worked. I'll let you be the judges of that.

I really love the dynamic posture of this figurine; sheer power! The style is no undoubtedly that of a Saxon thegn, which is much to my liking. I had already tried, by way of the shield designs, to 'Saxonise" my infantry of Rohan.

I had great fun using various techniques on the cloak, and I'm rather pleased with the end result.

To war!

Dylanon Morannon

The Haggis is set to start a Morannon army.
A new chapter is beginning, a new story to follow, only in your, well our favourite blog!

Mortarfied

Sorted. 600pts. Ready.
Sorry, in the cabinet rather than on the lawns but it's all you're getting, you ungrateful sods!
The mortars are behind.

And where be the Germans? Blitzkrieg, my arse. Ha, that shut their von trap!

Places, people! Places!

To let you into my plans.

What's my army like? Like so:

HQ

- General + sergeant + standard-bearer

- Second-in-command + soldier

- Komissar with soldier

P1, first squad
- 5 stands o 3 men with rifles
- 3 stand of 4 men + HMG + sergeant
- 1 stand of 3 men - HMG + lieutenant

P3 same

P2 same but with SMGs

These 3 squads make up a company led by:

CPT, a capitain + sergeant + standard-bearer

K, a komissar with a soldier

3 SU122 mobile guns

The army will be finished with mortars

- a capitain + sergeant + soldier

- 2 squads of 3 mortars

In good campany

About time I gave an update on Flames of War.

I've spent yonks leaning over my desk to paint all the figs I've got for this game.



"Here's one I made earlier!" These 2 I did maybe 6 months ago. A good look for winter but these guys are far too similar! For that reason and also due to the lack of winter figs other than basic soldiers, I decided to MIX IT UP! Explained previously.

Presenting you the first finished items.

Me likey.

With my will power at its highest (like the YEaah.. you would get after a Waterstone's pep talk), I got my head down and got stuck into the 2nd squad.

Good start: I painted almost everything in one afternoon/evening. But then, the days went by without progress. I made myself finish them to show Joe (the barbarian) this weekend when we meet again! snif, ehem.

In the end I finished well within the time last wednesday.

So I set myself the challenge of doing the 3rd squad before the weekend!

Dodgy! But upon receiving this on friday:

A light mortar company, I just had to get it sorted!

With painting till 1 in the morning on friday and a few finishing touches at half 6 on saturday before leaving, job done!

So here's ya lot.

And I'm chuffed! Painted figs is still pretty new for me. So long have I faced unpainted piles.

Pics are a bit bit dark, but it's war for fook's sake!

The men are more or less disciplined. Note the bloke having one for the road. Well, it'll probably be his last...

Brave fellows! They advance knowing not fear!

Oh, I see. This explains that. A komissar and his right hand man.

And here's the HQ one. "The first man to retreat shall be shot by this man, comrades!"

My Cossack HQ.

"Get down, fool!"

It's the hardened veteran blisters that really give my army life and character.

Just the mortars to do. I've put 6 in my 600pts list. Pity, all the figs are the same. I'll try to swap some.

Drawing short at a straw target

After having gone 2 years without doing any, I've decided to get back into archery! I fell in love with the sport when I spent a year at Northumbria University, at which the team was then lead by David Wright, a British champion who came 3rd in his BUSA category at the tournament I attended in 2008.

Here's the bow I bought at the time; it's a Prostyle recurve with a draw weight of 34Lbs. Quite a light-weight bow, ideal for a beginner such as myself. Prostyle is a pretty common brand, available in most archery stores. I got mine at a great little shop in Notts called Custom Built Archery. The owners are extremely helpful and kind.

When I told one of my uncles that I was taking up archery, he produced a longbow seemingly out of knowing stating matter-of-factly that it had been "under his bed for years". He generously gave it to me. I have yet to string it and purchase suitable arrows, for budgetary reasons, but I did restore it by sanding off the old cracked varnishy coat, oiling it and repainting the tip markings. Of course, one has to use suitable arrows for each bow (weight, body and length), other wise the archer's paradox can cause this to happen! There are 3 markings on the front of the bow in 2 circles which I have yet to decipher. The draw weight is 46Lbs.

Among my recent purchases are a 3-tube quiver (about time!) and an arrow puller, used to safely remove arrows from the target without bending them.

I also bought a target bosse and target face! The bosse is 90x90cm and is made to withstand arrows shot from 25 to 30Lbs bows from a distance of 5 to 30 metres. None the less, after testing it in my garage, I've found that it can stop an arrow from my bow drawn almost to the max at barefly 6 paces! Good stuff. I now can't wait to go back out into a field to test it properly!

Although I'm a traditionalist, when I bought the bow, I decided to also get a sight and a push button, just for kicks.

Joe the Barbarian, glad to be back doing archery!