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.

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.

Here's my new project. 600pts of Soviets.

What I like about our Russian neighbours is the romance (in the artistique sens you understand, Hugo, Byron, Pushkin. The XIXth century emos) of the harsh climate, the living conditions and the propaganda. I like the power and boldness of communist icons and art.
Russian soldiers, while maybe not being the best fighters, have always been known for their sturdiness. These men suffered far worse conditios of climate and hunger than the rest of europeans. But they shown incredible risiliance against Napoleon, and in the 2 world wars. That inspires me.
So it seemed logical to go for a winter army, in longcoats.
For the army format, waves of men, the soviet image we've come to know, with the terrible losses.
My first purchase was a squad of soldiers in longcoats. There are unfortunately very few figs of this type. Thought to myself "Don't forget the lact of equipment!".
So to represent this along with le chaos in the ranks, men struggling to survive, I bought a squad of regular soldiers and a squad of hardenend veterans, to mix them all.

Before receving them, I undercoated all my winter dudes in an hour and a half. 28 figs. That seement like quite a lot and I was pleased with myself. But now with the others, Yikes!

But the small size and even the Russian armement production style go well with my painting style. Simple but quick. With some embarrassing faults that show up later.

I started by organising each type of fig (normal, winter, veteran) ilteams. Then I randomly re-arranged them.

I spent ages trying to decide on the styles of figs to represent at best the rangs of NCO, lieutenant, co comander, komissar, 2nd in command and general; while at the same time having figs that all the the same for eack rank. You follow? No mean feat! With the various helmets, hats, caps, fur hats and bare heads...
My aim was for brave NCOs, a proud and inspiring co commander, blood-thirsty komissars, 2nd-in command and general with all these qualities.

I'd bought a cossack command for fun and I thought their savage look, fur hats and the sword would be good for the HQ.

I'll give more details when painted.
But here's a pic, with 2 of the 3 SU122 tanks.

To complete my 600pts, I'll need another squad, or heavy support.

I think you'll see a big difference in numbers with BarbarianJ's Krauts. And having the advantage on my side is far from unpleasant.

Their blood shall flow like vodka

To remind people that BarbarianJ is not the only person using this blog, and to fill up the time between his projects which are as plentiful as they are varied as they are violent, here are some Russians, of the Soviet type for connoisseurs.

I'm starting a modest army. More on that story later.
Here are 2 SU122 self-propeled guns.

Bit of a problem on opening the blister pack.
But with a bit of this...

And a spot of that...

Sorted.

Painting may commence.
Some black.

One green.

2 green.

Mud. LOTS of mud.

Nice motivational slogans. Here, "For the Motherland" and "Onwards to Berlin".

Just the red stars left to do. Or buy...