Waiting for fall...

With the crazy way these last few weeks of summer have gone, I will certainly take fall... if not winter, over this.

Between many tasks today, a few layers of paint were applied to that base set.  I decided to go with a darker red to contrast the previous marble color.

I also brought out a few weathering powders to tone down some areas and smooth out some textures.

Not quite done with these yet, but I may wait until I have some minis to put on them first.

They were more for testing some things than anything else, but I'm sure I can find some fun Reaper or Dark Sword minis to put on them!

You may not remember that huge batch of Mica texture forest bases, but I had some colors out already for something else, and I wanted to use them up!  This is the benefit of having those million and one simultaneous projects :-)

Painting the Mica is more art than science.  Sometimes the layers don't separate quite as much when you apply them, and you have to "paint in" the leaves a bit more.

This can be done by either painting some darker colors under those 'edges', or doing some brighter highlights along those edges.  I try not to get too crazy with those highlights, as the goal is to enhance the miniature, and not detract from it!

Doubling Down

All right!  Time to see the Castellax side by side.

Soon a third will join them!

It will also have a different set of markings...

Marching away...

Lots of shooty stuff here!

Adjusting on the fly

As I show the images of the other unit of Elves, I will bring in a few links to battle reports where Rich and I play tested the army for Bilbo's Bash tournament.

In this unit, I used a few Reaper figures for characters such as the Stormcaller and the captain.

The army ended up being mostly infanty, with less cavalry than the original build.

To demonstrate how desperate these guys were to hang onto their lands, I wanted to incorporate the Army of the Dead in some way.  They would go so far as to ally themselves with the Army of the Dead.

Plus, I was having a lot of fun painting the Army of the Dead minis!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/09/first-army-of-dead-grunt.html

I think the original list even had Radaghast the Brown.  I know I was including him in the regular army that Rich and I used in our games all the time.  He hated that guy :-)

However, the Army of the Dead would just not work as we play tested it.  While the defense value was high, the fight skill was too low.  Even the terror factor could be easily overcome.  The original intent for them was not meeting practical results.

I think this was the last time they were included in a test battle:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/09/lord-of-rings-last-days-of-king.html

This battle shows something much closer to the final list.  Gwahir was added in place of the AOD, since the enhanced power, speed and fight skill worked with the offensive style of the elves.  Lots of movement, hitting from behind and above, and so on.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-blood-rose-go-to-war-to-death-part.html

Check this out

Now for some images of the second Castellax!

As I mentioned with the first one, these are certainly a different type of Imperial unit to paint.

After painting all the 'current universe' dreadnoughts, these rounder, more organic Castellax seem like they belong somewhere else :-)

Another one on the way soon!

Anzac Day

Well, actually that's in April, but you get the general idea. :-)

Marty managed to dig these gems up to improve our variety for the Pacifi theatre.  The sprues offer some nice options for special weapons and the potential to create our own scenarios.

The mould lines are excruciating to remove, so I didn't get too crazy about that.  I did want to get them on some bases which would be similar to the Memoir bases.

A bit of rocks...

Ready to paint up.  I figured the first batch would be like the box cover.

Putting down the most basic of light colors for some tiny shaded basecoat.

Glazing time!  Again, very simple colors.  If I have too much variety here, these tiny minis won't be able to handle it!

Once the darker glazing and tinting was done, it was time to get back into those middle tones

Some quick images of what I cane up with...

Once again, the idea was just to see how these lads would take paint.  They should be pretty nifty!

I still have to paint a unit of Japanese now to complete the set.  Oh yeah, and there are some surprises coming there as well!

I tossed the unit into a few "accent" forests that we made for the Pacific campaign.  I am also creating some bamboo forests.

The Anzacs fight side by side with some US Marines!

Advance Australia Fair!

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!!