Wet Pallet

I've read and heard about wet pallets for a couple of years now.  I did not really feel the need to try one out.  My painting was not very good and the tile I've been using as a pallet worked just fine.

Except that it didn't and I was dissatisfied every time I used it.  We generally run 25% humidity around here.  Add in the hot lights I paint under and my paint was drying out pretty quickly.  I have always hated to have paint dry out and be wasted.

I finally decided to try out a wet pallet.  I went down to Hobby Lobby and bought this:

Painting Status II

I have completed the rank and file of my army.  All I have left is to get them based and to finish up the hornblower and three heroes.  That will be my current list finished.  I'll do two more heroes, a chieftan and Suladan as well as finishing up the extra spears I have and knocking out more archers, but that's for next month.

Twelve new archers  for the force.

Basing

As noted below, I have quite a few new figures inbound.  These are all historicals, Romans and Celts.  Coming from a GW background, I like my minis individually based.  Add to that the endless variety of historical rules with their basing arcana and I have been at a loss as to how I am going to base these models.

I've decided that I will base them individually.  I can build movement trays of whatever size is necessary for the rules I'm playing.  I am, very strongly, leaning towards round bases.  The reason for this is simple, I want to be able to use them for skirmish games.  I want to use the Lord of the Rings SBG rules.  These need round bases.

If I use the GW War of the Ring movement trays I can fit eight round bases on a tray.  Two of these will suffice for HC, especially if my opponent is using the same style.  So!  Problem solved you say!  Not so fast.  I am having a hard time finding the bases I need.  I found an ebay seller who sells 100 for a couple of pounds.  Great.  Only the shipping works out to be three times what the bases cost.  There are a bunch of sellers who sell in smaller quantities for more money.  I'll keep looking for the solution to this one.

This leads to the next part of the question.  Using Romans and Celts in a skirmish game, what stats will I give them?  I know there is a yahoo group dedicated to alternate uses of the LotR rules.  I also happen to know the author of Legends of the High Seas, so could ask for advice from him.  I want to work this one out on my own, (though I may still hit up Tim for advice).  I'm thinking, right now with no play testing, that I will use Uruk Hai for the Romans.  For the Celts I'm leaning towards orcs, though that is still not a great fit for me.  It may take some fiddling but I'm going to work this out.

Painting Progress

With all of those Romans on the way I need to get cracking on finishing up my Haradrim.  I finished six more today, the Abrakhan Merchant's Guards.  That leaves me with twelve archers, the hornblower and the heroes.  These guys need some touch ups, and the whole army will get highlights and such once they are all done.  I'm trying to get these to table top standard so that I don't have to feel ashamed to throw down at the shop.

I've been nervous about these guys because I'm still not sure how I'm going to do their flesh.  They are going to be dark skinned, but I have to play with it and figure out the recipe.  Since these guys have so much flesh on them, they will show any mistakes the most.  For now I got around that by just leaving them the basecoat color.

Group shot, I need more lights for photography.

Valentine's Day Presents

My wife got me a, somewhat, late Valentine's Day gift. 

Two of these:

First Miniature of the year

Here it is, almost the end of February, and I just bought my first miniature of the year.  I'm way behind.  I bought the Betrayer for my Haradrim army.  He is thirty points more than my budget Nazgul but adds the re-rolls for poison on 1 and 2, doubling my chances for a re-roll.  He also has two more might.  My play testing so far indicates that he is a good choice.  I could also drop him and go back to a budget Nazgul.  I could then upgrade my king to Suladan, since I only have thirty six warriors anyway and only need three heroes from the Fallen Realms list.  I'll get around to play testing that one soon.