A storm is coming

This is one of two units of Galdrhim that were part of my Knights of the Blood Rose army.  The Werner Klocke sculpt out front is my Stormcaller.

Each unit had a variety of spears, swords, and bows.  A few also had shields.  This is something I really enjoy about Lord of the Rings.  Each individual can have a different set of weapons, which makes creating synergy between them very fun!

Another view.  The spears can be used to back up the swordsmen, which have shields.  This gives you the fighting bonus and the defensive bonus at the same time.

The high fight skill was crucial to making this all work.  In another post, I will talk about the original plan for the army, which did not stand up to repeated play testing.

Yes, you heard that right... I actually play tested lists!  Many times, in fact.  You can see the battle reports here:

The first one was played before the figures were even painted.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/09/learning-about-recon-scenario-in-lord.html

Originally, the Army of the Dead were going to be a big part of the Army.  This was to show just how far these guys would go to hang onto their lands.

I really liked this champion figure.  He did quite well with his might points!

This also gives you an idea of the typical formation, with the shield toting swordsmen out in front of the spears...

A touch of freehand here and there.

Pointy sticks!!!

I hope to get back to playing these guys again at some point!!

Elves that I can like

Some of you might be familiar with my Knights of the Blood Rose Lord of the Rings army.  I really had a blast with it.  I have been taking some new group shots, starting with the Cavalry.

The bases were also a lot of fun!

This combined army of the Angriest Elves in Middle Earth had speed, some hitting power, and some magic.  I even put a touch of shooting in the army, which is rare for me!

This was the unit that would often zoom around with Gwahir to pounce on hapless enemy units that had been knocked prone by a Stormcaller.

I will be showing pictures of those units soon.  It was an army that evolved a great deal over many play test sessions.  This also proved to be my most successful tournament army by far.

The Knights of the Blood Rose cleared the table of child races a number of times.  This particular group of elves had no intention of leaving Middle Earth, leaving all they had built to such creatures as men and orcs.

The early stages

Once all the glue and green stuff cured, it was time to start painting.

I wasn't really sure what color marble I wanted, so I just grabbed a few colors and started mixing them together.

I ended up with more of a greenish gray, which will eventually be tinted other shades as well.

You can see the marble veins emerging already.  It is important, of course, to make one edge be 'lost', or soft, and the other very sharp.

You can even work the other way, and add some darker color to that edge to enhance the sharpness.

I may or may not do the same color on the other bases... but let's see.

Most of the other marble pillars will likely be a darker color.  I'm thinking a darker, warm green perhaps.

Marble slowly begins to emerge...

A bit more as lighter colors are added, all the while enhancing the vein effect.

Now the lightest colors have been added.

So I went back in with a few darks, as I mentioned before.

This shows the "before and after" of the marble effect I have been painting.  Much more to come!

Green and Happy

OK!  Time to add some rocks and gravel!

As you have heard many times, the rocks and gravel are not simply cosmetic... they offer strength and stability to the edges of the sculpey pieces on the cork.

Here's a very good example of this idea.  The sculpey overhang is now supported by glue and rocks.

I also wanted to try out a few of the Happy Seppuku moulds which arrived just before I left for GenCon!  These were very fun!

Hopefully this offers a better look at the individual moulds.  I am really looking forward to trying the Treasure theme on the bottom!

I made some green stuff pieces that had more yellow than blue mixed in, in order to make the mix softer.  This would be easier to press into the moulds and capture more detail.

Green stuff pressed!

But how does one get green stuff out of the moulds without waiting for it to cure?  Pop it in the freezer!  This makes it far easier to remove it from the moulds a lot faster.

A quick placement of the skeleton.  Sadly, my regular sculpting tools are not with me, so I had to make do with what I could find.

I tried out this small area of the treasure mould.  It definitely beats trying to cut hundreds of pieces of polystyrene tubing!!

While I had the green stuff out, I put some vines on my bases...

I may even try to add some mica flakes to these to create leaves...

Vines everywhere!

Not kidding at all.  Vines all over the place.  So, go check out these moulds from Happy Seppuku!

Pillars and Plinths

Remember that last session of sculpey baking?  Time to use it!  My eyes were just too watery from allergies to do the miniature painting I had planned, so I tried to wash them out, take some Sudafed, and do this!

Here are all the freshly baked parts.  Pillars, sheets, and bases.  Some basic carving tools as well.

As you have seen many times before, the piece of sculpey is carved and shaped with a simple wood carving tool.

Cat.

Cork combination!

And now for one of Mr. Justin's Secret Weapon plinths.  A few of them, actually, starting with the cork.  Secret Weapon has a huge line of plinths, with the widest variety of shapes and sizes you will ever see!

A sheet of sculpey, vaguely shaped to fit.  Don't forget, rocks and gravel will be glued to this in order to stabilize and strengthen it.

I put a few broken pieces directly on the plinth.

The pillar base is placed to leave enough room for the figure. :-)

I used a few different wood carving tools to bevel the edge of that base.

Here's a tight curve tool that finalized the shape.

The pillar in place!

The remaining piece is broken up a bit more and put on the floor next to it.

Texture lines are added to create individual tiles.

This is an even larger plinth.  I wanted to go directly onto the plinth with the sculpey, since I want to have some additional vines and roots go down the sides of this plinth.  That will be done with green stuff.

This was the thickest piece of pillar that I had.  It was the one piece where I scored the lines before baking.

I dropped another broken piece off to the side, held in place by some smaller broken pieces.

With the fine scoring tool, I was able to get some nice subtle cracks carved into the tiles.

The two large plinth side by side with a much smaller 25mm round base.  This is to show that I achieved my goal of being able to have the pillars on all sizes of bases and plinths!!

The collection as it stands now.

A great deal more awaits.  I will be adding green stuff vines, but also some other items pressed with my new Happy Seppuku moulds!!!  Stay tuned!!