Painting update - new phone too!

So I've got a new phone! Finally I've moved to become a smart phone user, which suddenly means that uploading stuff to this blog will become easier!

So, here we go with a mix of stuff from my desk at the moment...

The fantastic original Bilbo sculpt - I'm also painting the new plastic one, but this one is just a joy to paint.

I got Bolg from my wife for Christmas - he is massive! He's also been fun to paint so far, although the skin has been tricky and I'm not 100% happy with it.

I'm painting these guys for the One-Ring.co.uk painting challenge. The topic is warbands, so I have a warband of citadel guard led by Beregond. Lots of black and silver to paint - can't wait!

I've painted 7 of the Dwarven company so far, here is the current progress on Oin:

So, a whole lot of stuff on the desk at the moment, with a few other side projects developing too. I'll try and keep this updated more now.

I actually managed a game of Strategy Battle Game!

So Josh and I managed to get a game in on Saturday. We were keen to try the new Hobbit rules (and in fact it's only the 2nd or 3rd game we've managed using the warbands system!).
Josh chose Dwarves, although eneded up allying in some Rohan as he forgot all his plastic miniatures. I went for a Goblin alliance (Moria and Misty Mountains) as it gave me a chance to field a whole load of newly painted miniatures. Each army was 1000 points.

The scenario we rolled for was domination and it gave us a chance to use my new river pieces and the bridge as an objective.

The only photos I managed are of the board immediately after set up:

The goblin hoard had 91 miniatures to the Dwarf 56, and the numbers certainly had an impact. The end result was a clear victory for the Goblins who brought the dwarf army to 25% with a loss of only 20 something minis. The Spider Queen made her debut and was amazing taking down a number of grunts plus Balin (original rules), a Dwarf King and a Rohan Captain. She suffered no wounds.
I have to put it down to Josh not having his whole army with him (particularly bows) as we normally have very close games.

Afterwards we discussed the new rules and concluded the following:

• Monsters are now very powerful - should they be easier to target when shooting?
• We don't like the new shooting rules - particularly for throwing weapons. We will probably ignore the -1 modifier in the future.
• The hand weapons gave some good variety, but would be tricky in the bigger games we also like to play.
• The new rules for spear support seemed good, but they took a while to think through -  calls for more games I think.

In other news I have started playing the new Fantasy Flight Games X Wing Miniatures Game and it is brilliant. I'm sure it will feature at some point soon.

Replacing Badab Black - a review of Black Washes

I don't know about you, but I was pretty disappointed when the old GW washes were discontinued. Badab Black and Devlan Mud were pretty key in my painting. I've been seeing my pot of BB slowly diminishing and knew I had to bite the bullet and find a replacement, so I ordered some washes from Maelstrom Games and tried them out. The ones I tried were Nuln Oil (GW), Dark Tone (Army Painter), Black Shade (Vallejo) and obviously Badab Black as a comparison.

I sprayed 4 goblins silver using Army Painter Plate Mail, and then gave each a quick base coat in my Moria scheme.

 

 

I then applied the washes over the whole model to see the effect on normal paints and metallics.

Here are the results:

Conclusions

Dark Tone (Army Painter): Looks the same as BB in liquid form. Is slightly softer in effect than BB, so where details on the model weren't great it looked a bit indistinct. The effect on the metal was very similar to BB (which I love). The overall finish was slightly glossy. The bottle is a dropper bottle which I really like for normal paints but actually prefer a normal pot for washes. This may end up in my old BB pot when it is empty.

Black Shade (Vallejo): Gave a much more matt finish than any of the others and pooled well in recesses giving very clear shadows. It was far more effective on the non-metallic paints - it made the metals look slightly dusty. This wash is also available in a huge pot for only three times the cost of the any of the other washes. This obviously makes it very cost effective, and if you want you could dip the whole model in the pot. (You can buy it as a dropper bottle too like the normal Vallejo range.)

Nuln Oil (Games Workshop):  Initially made the whole model look a lot darker than the others and also took much longer to dry than the other washes. It gives a slightly glossy finish and doesn't give quite such clear contours as the Vallejo, but is clearer than the Army Painter. It gives a decent finish on the metallic areas, although not as nice as BB or the Army Painter wash, and the normal paint areas look better than the Army Painter, but not as clear shadows as the Vallejo.

I actually think that at least two of these will find a regular use in my painting. The Army Painter wash will be used on metals, whereas the Vallejo will be used on other paints. The Nuln Oil does a decent enough job as an all rounder and will suit some people who only want one black wash, or who only want to shop at GW. If I had to choose just one I would probably go for the Vallejo wash as the price would just tip it over the edge for me - such great value!

Project Gondor

Well, I've not been on for some time. The summer is always busy for me, and this summer added in moving house too. I've managed to get some painting done though (and am managing more now that I have a dedicated space!

Project Gondor has progressed well, with all the basic troops and siege crew being finished. Out of the first batch I just have 6 command to complete.

I also completed a Warg Chieftain to relieve the boredom of painting armour and black cloth!

Great Beast Completed and Project Gondor

Well, I've finally finished the Great Beast. I'm really pleased with the final thing, and painting it was good fun. I'm looking forward to trying it out on the table now! I decided in the end to pin all of the orcs so they can be removed as casualties.

 

I've also completed some orc archers that weren't used on the beast and a second barrow wight for scenarios:

And now the Beast is done, it's time for the next task - I bring you "Project Gondor!"

Last summer I went a bid mad on ebay and bought over 100 Gondor models. Many are elites, but I'm starting on the basic Warriors of Minas Tirith, plus a few siege crew, captains and Faramir (54 in total). To save time I sprayed them with the Army Painter platemail spray which seems great on the few test pieces I've done. I've also base coated all the faces. I hope I can get these done before I bore myself too much!

Wow - 2 updates in 2 days!

Having completed the Great Beast, the crew are next. These orcs are fantastic sculpts, using bits of the previous plastic and metal orcs and even the helmet that Frodo wears through Mordor. I'm tempted to swap 2 of them for plastic archers just to give some variation to my orc infantry.
I'm also contemplating some sort of pinning system so that they can be removed from the Beast when dead. That may be a while off though.

It looks as though one of the crew has sneaked into both photos!

In other news Josh and I have recently finished off some rocky outcrops to use in the Fellowship of the Ring scenarios. Really simple stuff - just chunks of slate on bases, but they look good. One of them is bark instead of slate as a test. I think it makes a great rock substitute, and is a whole lot lighter and less likely to chip.

Half Term Painting

So I haven't posted for a while, but half term a teacher is a great time to paint, so here is an update.

First off Erkenbrand is finished, and with him a detachment of Riders of the Westfold (signified by the red shields to go with his). I'm not sure which is better with flash or without?

Also, the main body of the Great Beast is done, now onto the base and the crew: