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!!

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!