Building Stones River Battlefield, Part 1

My friends and I have started building our layout for The Battle of Stones River(Link) game that we are putting on at Historicon(Link). We are a little tight for time, 19 days, cause at the last minute we decided to go for an elaborate sculpted table as opposed to a drop cloth and some trees and hills.

Nothing wrong with the drop cloth route, we've done it a hundreds of times, but we just decided to go all out. So from now until July 15th, we've got a lot of work to do.

I'll be taking some works in progress pics as I go. I hope you enjoy the ride. So here we go.

The good folks at Home Depot supplied us with 4 2x8 sheets of insulating foam.

Uhm, my car can't fit an 8 foot sheet! As our table is 5x8 we cut off 3 feet of the board in the parking lot.

Got the foam laid out, cut to size, we are ready to go.

Laying out Stones River

 

River and hills marked

Now to make a huge mess. Using a Stanley Surform I begin excavating the river bed while Lou starts cutting hills.

Hills done, base river course done, now we both go back over the river to get the depth we need. Foam is all over my basement.

Using sandpaper we smooth down the river and widen the banks. Need more sandpaper. As abrasive as the sandpaper is to the foam, the foam shreds the sandpaper right back.

Now the hills have to be surformed down to a playable level, more foam bits everywhere. I got 4 done, but at this point I had to call it a night. Lots more to do, we've only just begun.

Xin

Otherworld Troll painted up

This is my first Otherworld Miniature[Link]. Otherworld specializes in recreating iconic Monsters from the 1st addition of AD&D. Really really great stuff. Full metal too, not plastic or Resin. A tad on the pricey side but worth it. This is Troll II[Link] from the Dungeon Monsters line. I would have bought both Trolls but the vendor at Cold Wars only had one left. If you like the old D&D monsters, do yourself a favor and check out Otherworld Miniatures.

I much prefer this version of trolls as opposed to the slightly more cartoon-ish Games Workshop style. Most likely since D&D was my gateway drug into RPG's and Wargaming, some 30 odd years ago.

I am very happy with the way that it came out, and I look forward to picking up the other sculpt at Historicon. Here's the pics.

I have an idea of a troll based warband for skirmish gaming. I need some sort of spellcaster/shaman for my warband. How about a Hag/ Banshee/ Evil women kind of figure? Anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks, Xin

Guardians of the Shire

I just finished painting up Guardians of the Shire box set. It's 6 Dunedain and the elf Gildor Inglorion. Funny thing about these figures, I had been searching for them on ebay for awhile(year+). I almost pulled the trigger on a $95 auction but I held off at the last second, thankfully. While going through my unpainted pile, I found a bag of "rangers" that I had picked up at one of the HMGS flea markets. It was all the figures from the box set. And I think I got them for $10.

Anyway, here are the pics

I think they came out "ok". I didn't go crazy with highlighting and shading. Too be honest, since I am actively trying to reduce the backlog of unpainted, I am just trying to get it painted quickly. I have too much to paint, too much to game and not enough time.

Xin

Guards of the Fountain Court

I've added some new troops to my Gondor line up. GotFC or Guards of the Fountain Court. These are some walking tanks that add some punch to my battle line. I didn't paint these, I got them off ebay in 2 different groups. But I did touch them up to give them a cohesive look and painted the bases to match the rest of my troops. I have more unpainted that I will do at a later date.

Next up to be painted will be some Heavy Metal from Dol Amroth

The Nine are abroad

Then he looked about him, as if the hedges might have ears. "Nazgul," Radagast whispered. "The Nine are abroad again, Gandalf. They have crossed the River secretly and are moving westward. They have taken the guise of riders in black."



In years past, before the evil that is Finecast walked the land, Games Workshop forged many fine figures in metal. But alas, that is no longer so. Finecast has risen up and cast a spell over Games Workshop. If one wishes to purchase these ancient artifacts, one must search far and wide.

I spent almost over a year searching for all Nine poses of the Ringwraiths. I picked up 5 to start, these were from the Attack at Weathertop set. These poses are the most common. The other 4 are harder to find. I've had them for a month or so, and just finished the last 4. So here you go.

The great thing about Ringwraiths is the paint up ridiculously easy. Paint black, metal bits and dry brush grey. Looking back at the pictures, they look better in real life. The grey highlights on the black robes doesn't show up well in the photographs.

Now I have to get mounted versions. There are only 3 poses for the mounted wraiths. I also need to get some of the named wraiths. I really like those figures as well.

Cheers, Xin

Random updates

It's been awhile since I posted. I've recently painted a random assortment of stuff that's been lying around for a long time.

First up is some LOTR figures

 I bought a random assortment of LOTR figures. Most with missing or broken parts, so I got it very cheap. This is a metal standard bearer. Cost was maybe $1. It had 2 broken legs. I pinned the bottom to the base, and I had an extra Rohan Horse that donated the other leg which also got pinned.

 The other 2 figures needed fixing as well. The one on the right I snapped off the spear right at the hand. I just drilled out the hand and pushed the spear in with some model glue. The figure on the left also had a broken spear when I bought it. Again, drilled out the hand and put in a brass rod with the spear point pounded out at the end with a hammer.

Here are Elrond, Glorfindel and Erestor. Glorfindel's sword blade snapped off during shipping from ebay. I cut off his hand, then took a sword, hand and wrist from one the plastic Elves in the Last Alliance set.

Here are 2 Reaper Bones Werewolves. I painted one a while ago just to see how the Bones line was. It was not bad. I didn't like painting on the white Bones so I primed it black. The 2nd one I did some minor repositioning of the left arm and torso. I cut and pinned them into a new position. Covered up the seems with some green stuff. I should have turned the head as well.

Here is the Reaper Figure Golgoth. This is a big guy. Lots of metal. I went with a simple paint scheme to match my GW skeletons that I will post below. Normally on GW bases I paint the edge green to match my table. In this case and the skeletons I wanted to be able to use in a dungeon as well, so I went with a brown and grey dry brush. Also I used a brown green static grass. It's not great in either setting, but I think it won't stand out in either setting, and that's what I'm going for. I'm like the bases to blend in with the table.

These are GW Vampire Counts Skeletons. I bought them when they first came out, I think 2007. They've sat on my shelf above my painting table since then. Since I am finishing up painting 3 sets of Dwarven Forge Game Tiles I started looking at my lack of dungeon crawl monsters. Once you get them together they paint up easy. Prime black, slather Brown everywhere, drybrush Bleached Bone and most of the figure is done. Paint some rusty armor bits, torn cloths and your good to go. The cool thing about GW sprues is the extra bits you get on the sprues.

Here is Golgoth and his minions ready to kill careless adventurers.

Cheers, Xin

Painted Sheep

I picked up some plastic sheep from Amazon. ERTL Sheep to be specific. It was like $10 for 25 I think.

If your going to have Vikings raid a village, they need some incentives!

Not the most exciting painting project I've ever done but I think they came out well and will dress up a village nicely. I did a real simple paint job, mounted them on MDF round bases and called it a day.

Again, not exciting but adds nicely to the tabletop.

Xin