I am currently working on five Rohirrim. One captain, on horse and four riders. Two with bows and two with shields. I am just about done with these five, to table top quality. After that I will paint a whole bunch of horses. I already have quite a few riders done so I need to get the horses caught up.
I am painting these to a very basic level, first go around. My goal is to get them "painted" and on the table. I do play with unpainted models, but it looks SOOOOO much better with painted that it is worth the effort. I especially feel bad putting gray or primer black models on the table when my opponent has painted their army.
Once I have my army painted I will go back and do some more work on them. I am going to go over the browns and greens with a painted on furniture stain. The lighter colors will get a brown wash, as will the armor and weapons. The metal will all get a hightlight. Mithril silver for weapons and armor. Gold of some sort for the bronze.
I will also base the models once they are all painted. I am going to go with a bestial brown base. The top will have sand/gravel PVA'd (elmers) down, then painted bestial, highlighted up to khaki. Stones gray with white highlights. Two colors of static grass will go on, as well as some longer grass if I can find something I like. I always pictured Rohan as endless fields of green grass, not like the New Zealand countryside from the movies.
After that I think this army will be good to go.
Of course I may need to expand it for War of the Ring.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Current project
My current project is Rohirrim for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (LOTR, SBG). I have had some of the models for years, I picked up the Two Towers starter set from a friend and it was full of Rohan and Isengard.
Recently a fellow moved here from St. Louis. He is a huge fan of LOTR. He has been working with the local store, Collectormania (CM), and its owner Tim, to get a LOTR group going. Getting a gaming group started, and keeping it alive, are tough work. First you have to get people in to play the game, providing models and such. Then you have to organize enough events that you can keep people interested. Open gaming is fun, but from time to time you have to have tournaments or campaigns.
I have collected a few more models and played a few games. I even played in my first tournament ever, GengisCon. The Warhammer Fantasy was packed, and looked like a lot of fun, but I played LOTR, and had a great time. I have now played seven games. Three against Keith while I was learning, three at the tournament and one at an open gaming day at CM.
I like that the game is a skirmish game. Very different from my beloved Warhammer. I like that it is cheap to start an army and that the rules are both elegant and simple. I love the millieu, Tolkien being the catalyst for my love of fantasy. I love that I can actually find someone to play against from time to time. I hate painting.
I have made a deal with myself. I will paint ten models from the army I played for every game I play. Once the army is done, I can paint whatever I want. I have tried many of these deals over the years. Trying to find the perfect formula to get myself to paint. Nothing has worked up to now. This is actually going all right for me at the moment though, so I am still hopeful.
Recently a fellow moved here from St. Louis. He is a huge fan of LOTR. He has been working with the local store, Collectormania (CM), and its owner Tim, to get a LOTR group going. Getting a gaming group started, and keeping it alive, are tough work. First you have to get people in to play the game, providing models and such. Then you have to organize enough events that you can keep people interested. Open gaming is fun, but from time to time you have to have tournaments or campaigns.
I have collected a few more models and played a few games. I even played in my first tournament ever, GengisCon. The Warhammer Fantasy was packed, and looked like a lot of fun, but I played LOTR, and had a great time. I have now played seven games. Three against Keith while I was learning, three at the tournament and one at an open gaming day at CM.
I like that the game is a skirmish game. Very different from my beloved Warhammer. I like that it is cheap to start an army and that the rules are both elegant and simple. I love the millieu, Tolkien being the catalyst for my love of fantasy. I love that I can actually find someone to play against from time to time. I hate painting.
I have made a deal with myself. I will paint ten models from the army I played for every game I play. Once the army is done, I can paint whatever I want. I have tried many of these deals over the years. Trying to find the perfect formula to get myself to paint. Nothing has worked up to now. This is actually going all right for me at the moment though, so I am still hopeful.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
The history of gaming - my style
I have always loved games. Board games, miniatures even legos. I spent most of my time as a child playing by myself so games were my friends.
When I was young I would save my money up to buy board games. My best friend, Cam, and I loved Axis and Allies. I also bought Shogun, Rome, Fortress America and Broadsides and Boarding Parties. I loved all of these games, though Axis and Allies was always the best to my mind.
Legos were my first miniatures. I got my first set on my sixth birthday, starting a life long love affair. I have hundreds of pounds of legos (how do you measure legos?). In addition to the obvious use of lego people for armies, I wanted to play mass battles. This pre-dated Warhammer and such by a few years, and I was not aware of those games even after they came out.
I did collect the Dungeons & Dragons miniatures game. The cardboard cutouts never thrilled me but they did let me fight out some battles here and there. I also played the rules for armies, making hunrdreds of units out of note cards, playing out battles with the cards representing the units and tracking them through entire campaigns.
There was a period of about seven years, between 1995 when I graduated from college and 2002 when we briefly moved to England, that I did not play any wargames. Then, in 2002 we were in Harrogate. Tracy had gone home for a few weeks and I was wandering down the high street after eating dinner. I walked past the Games Workshop store. I stopped. I stared through the glass at the models. I did not go in. I knew this was a slippery slope. If I went in I was doomed.
For several days I walked past every night and did not go in. Then I crossed the threashold. I looked at the fantasy side of the store. I looked at the Lord of the Rings mini's. I looked at the 40k (Sci-fi) stuff. I walked out. The next night I went in again. The manager asked me which army I was going to play. I didn't know enough to answer him. I fled. The next night I was back. I looked at the books. I was drawn to Empire. I asked the manager questions. He was reasonably helpful.
After a week of going in I bought the starter set. Empire and Orcs. I got it back to the hotel room. I felt that old shiver of anticipation as I got ready to open the box. I pulled off the top and there it was. Sprues of mini's, rule book, quick start rules, templates and dice. I read the whole rule book that night.
I snap fitted the guys I could together. Some of them required glue. The next night I was in the store buying glue, the Empire and Orcs & Goblins army books and a paint set with paints, brush and six Bretonnian archers. (think feudal France). That night I had everything glued and was playing through the rules on the floor of the hotel. It was like I was 12 again. I was hooked.
When I was young I would save my money up to buy board games. My best friend, Cam, and I loved Axis and Allies. I also bought Shogun, Rome, Fortress America and Broadsides and Boarding Parties. I loved all of these games, though Axis and Allies was always the best to my mind.
Legos were my first miniatures. I got my first set on my sixth birthday, starting a life long love affair. I have hundreds of pounds of legos (how do you measure legos?). In addition to the obvious use of lego people for armies, I wanted to play mass battles. This pre-dated Warhammer and such by a few years, and I was not aware of those games even after they came out.
I did collect the Dungeons & Dragons miniatures game. The cardboard cutouts never thrilled me but they did let me fight out some battles here and there. I also played the rules for armies, making hunrdreds of units out of note cards, playing out battles with the cards representing the units and tracking them through entire campaigns.
There was a period of about seven years, between 1995 when I graduated from college and 2002 when we briefly moved to England, that I did not play any wargames. Then, in 2002 we were in Harrogate. Tracy had gone home for a few weeks and I was wandering down the high street after eating dinner. I walked past the Games Workshop store. I stopped. I stared through the glass at the models. I did not go in. I knew this was a slippery slope. If I went in I was doomed.
For several days I walked past every night and did not go in. Then I crossed the threashold. I looked at the fantasy side of the store. I looked at the Lord of the Rings mini's. I looked at the 40k (Sci-fi) stuff. I walked out. The next night I went in again. The manager asked me which army I was going to play. I didn't know enough to answer him. I fled. The next night I was back. I looked at the books. I was drawn to Empire. I asked the manager questions. He was reasonably helpful.
After a week of going in I bought the starter set. Empire and Orcs. I got it back to the hotel room. I felt that old shiver of anticipation as I got ready to open the box. I pulled off the top and there it was. Sprues of mini's, rule book, quick start rules, templates and dice. I read the whole rule book that night.
I snap fitted the guys I could together. Some of them required glue. The next night I was in the store buying glue, the Empire and Orcs & Goblins army books and a paint set with paints, brush and six Bretonnian archers. (think feudal France). That night I had everything glued and was playing through the rules on the floor of the hotel. It was like I was 12 again. I was hooked.
Introduction
This is a small blog for me to keep track of my favorite Hobby, Wargamming. I play Games Workshop miniatures games. I own many board games but get to play them even less than my mini's.
This blog will talk about painting, playing and collecting. My hope is that having a blog to maintain will help me to stay motivated to paint. I am always motivated to collect and play.
This blog will talk about painting, playing and collecting. My hope is that having a blog to maintain will help me to stay motivated to paint. I am always motivated to collect and play.
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