On the Painting Desk 109

A decent week this time, as I managed to get some figures to the "set aside to flock a bunch in one go" stage.

And as a result, the desk slowly and steadily is starting to look empty...

Both the Elves as the Tau Commander as such are now aside for this purpose, so that's a good amount done.  I have a busy weekend and upcoming week, so it might take a while before they are totally finished, but heck.

I also progressed on the lot of Minas Tirith warriors on the desk, and hope to finish the whole lot by the end of september.

In other news, my "break from pink" has lasted long enough now, and I`ve started painting on a havoc squad armed solely with missile launchers...

Let`s see where we end up by next week!

What I Painted in August 2019

Another month gone by, and while the works are progressing smoothly, the painting went quit allright as well this month.

Which is more a result of various wip`s getting finished in various short sessions... because most of them now only required basing after working on them for weeks.

More forces of Mordor swelled the ranks, as the "regular" Orcs got a boost together with some movement trays to line them up in the cabinets.Well, apart from Mordor, they are also the core of more evil armies with Angmar, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol and Barad-Dur for example... can't beat the multi purpose Orc rabble x-D

Of course, without leadership these Orcs are nowhere, and some low rank command model in the form of a captain has been completed as well.

But they will be opposed, as a model for the Good Side was finished as well, and what a heroine indeed!

And a small in betweener, a ruined building I painted up.

For my 6mm Emperor's Children in Future War Commander, reinforcements have arrived with some more stands of infantry as well as some armoured vehicles.

And the first Gundam for my Cav Open Market force in FWC has also been completed, with this Gyan.

The last model painted this month is a small piece of scatter terrain in the form of some tentacles...

So that means no less then 49 models got rounded out, quit a feat considering my agenda!

Armies of The Hobbit

The companion book to Armies of The Lord of the Rings, this book is understandably a bit thinner.

Because while the movies where just as long, the sourcebook was only a fraction of Tolkien's masterwork after all.

Coming in at 160 pages (that's 80 less then it's companion tome), it does feature the same style and structure, filled with pages of gorgeous movie stills and miniature pictures.

The largest section of the book is once again for the army lists of course, as it features 20 lists for you to play, divided into 13 Good and 7 Evil lists.  Now mind you, two of those are one figure lists though.  Wanderers in The Wild allows you to take Thrain the Broken only, while the Desolator of The North features only our beloved (and magnificent model) Smaug.

Now, this book also features two of the strongest lists in the game, with on the one hand The Iron Hills dwarves of Dain (the chariot alone takes 4 pages of rules!!!) which are little tanks that can deal a lot of punishment, and on the other hand the Azog's Legion with it's very strong leaders and heroes in it.

The next part of the book are the narrative scenarios for the forces from this book, 11 in total to try your hand at, going from the coming of Smaug right up to the Battle of the Five Armies.

The final section is the alliance matrix of course, to check your possible alliances...

Now, there is one big downside to this tome, and it is not the fault of the rules or the book itself.  A lot of the The Hobbit material is produced now by Forge World (the Nine, the Iron Hills, Gundabad, ...), more so then mostly some minor heroes for the The Lord of the Rings book.  So expect to pay a premium price for some forces out there if you want to play them!

But another well made, gorgeous to look at army book!  Next, I'll be starting to type up the reviews of the new campaign companions for the game that have been released so far...

The Middle-Earth Hobby Bingo update 4

Hello again, and welcome to the update post the summer vacation.

Not that that made a huge difference for painting time, as while work at work died down for a few weeks, work in the new place picked up...

Still, I managed to scratch away something on the roster in this period!

The first of those being "Build and Paint a Scenery Kit" in the form of this ruined corner set, a resin model that has been round for ages in my stash and now restored to be used at the club in events.

Now, I do admit, for the next one I sort of cheated.  "Read The Hobbit or any book from The Lord of the Rings trilogy".  Fact is, I`ve read them already so many times, I wasn`t going to re-read them just for the Bingo.  But I did scratch it out as I finished The Fall of Gondolin recently.

I also scratched of "Buy a Model and paint it within 48 hours of receiving it", as I received Lobelia (I LOVE that model) on the 9th in the evening as I opened a parcel from Italy.  Now, I have a bit of a reputation of being able to paint "good for the tabletop" models really fast, so I immediatly assaulted her that evening with my 3-tone style.  Saturday morning I based and flocked her, I didn`t do it in 48 hours, I did it in less then 24 ;-)

Going onwards now, I estimate the next update near the end of november...

Goal Completed: 700 points Mordor force

And then some...

With the completion of the Orc warriors and the captain last week, I rounded out the goal I set myself, painting a 700 point force of Mordor.

Now, the total will go even higher then that over the coming weeks and months, as I`m still working on more Morannon's, a shaman and a standard bearer, but then they will be put aside for this year.  Though after the move, the legion of the Dark Lord will grow a lot more, as I still have tons of them lying around...

Now, to get the Ring back for lord Sauron...

Alita: Battle Angel

Based on the 90s manga of the same name, this movie has been the years long in development "pet project" of James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator, Avatar,...) that finally hit the theatres in 2019.

And it paid off, placing itself in the top 10 of highest grossing films so far this year...

Scientist Dr Ido discovers a cyborg body on the Scrapyard, dumping place of the floating city of Zalem.  This city is the last remnant of the great war called "The Fall" which took place almost 300 years ago, and which took place between Mars and Earth.

When Alita saves Ido, who is a Hunter-Warrior (basically, a bounty hunter) she strats to remember more and more of her past, and soon after she discovers her true origins when she finds a cyborg body called a Berserker.  When she gets heavily damaged in combat with a villain called Grewishka, doctor Ido reluctantly installs her into this body, making her a feared angel of battle.

She goes after the criminals that are out to get her instead, and most importantly a man called Nova who is responsible for the loss of her love, Hugo.  While she doesn't reach Zalem yet, she becomes the star of Motorball, driven by a desire of vengeance...

Okay, so I know the source material from when I was till a young otaku (we are talking the VHS era here) and that is always dangerous when watching these adaptions (I fear for that reason the Gundam movie in development).  But even though it deviates understandably from the original, it isn't that bad at all.  It definitly isn't a mess like Ghost in the Shell, and the visuals are awesome.

And no, I wasn't bothered at all by "the eyes"...

The Fall of Gondolin - JRR Tolkien

The latest Tolkien book I devoured, the Fall of Gondolin, like Beren and Luthien before it, handles the tale from the Silmarillion, but also looks deeper in how the tale came to be through it's various iterations.

And it has those gorgeous Alan Lee illustrations again.

In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world.  There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband.  Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwe, chief of the Valar:  he is called the Lord of Waters, of all seas, lakes and rivers under the sky.  But he works in secret in Middle-Earth to support the Noldor, the kindred of the Elves among whom numbered Hurin and Turin Turambar.

Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable... until it becomes under siege due to an act of supreme treachery.  Balrogs and countless orcs assault the city, dragons burn down the towers of the cities, and mighty sacrifices are made for the Elves to survive the assault...

Another great journey on how the story evolved from Tolkiens notes to the full tale...

On the Painting Desk 108

Another week gone, and another week closer to the moment I`ll have to pack up all my stuff for the move.

So in an effort to get as much done as possible, some strokes where brushed.

I did some first colours on the drones for my Tau Commander, hoping to round that unit out in the not so far future.

I also been doing some more work on Noshi`s Elves, but both units didn`t make any huge progress, just slow and certain steps forward.

I did finish a small piece of scatter terrain though, as you could see in a post earlier this week, so that is something at least...

The Haul Report 195

Well, it`s a good one this week, bit less for my mailman but hey... can`t have it all.

The selection has been very varied this time, and we`ll look at them in the sequence they arrived.

First off, my SBG issue 8 came in the mail, I just love this fanzine.

Next to arrive, a heap of stuff for my 9th age project, with large bases for big beasts, tufts for the basing of the models, and some more Bushido characters to create characters for the force with...

Okay okay, I said I`d stop my Emperor`s Children, but then I came across a squad of Noise Marines on Facebook for a price to good to pass over.

Talking Facebook, I also made a trade with a fellow FHL'er through there: some painted figures in exchange for 3 blisters Outriders, a heap of Lothlorien elves and some dwarven rangers.  So awesome, thanks Geert!

 

A very varied and impressive week of looting... and those Make to Order MESBG`s have gone up yesterday...

Tentacles!

Okay, a shorty today...

Well, in painted stuff that is, the better hentai connoisseur probably pales by now...

These 3d printed tentacles are a small piece of scatter terrain, or suitable for rpg gaming, that I quickly painted up for well, no apparant reason actually.

But heck, it's done, so it counts x-D

Nani?

The Great Wall

Okay, I LOVE this movie.  I'm grabbing the BluRay and it goes in my "often to rewatch" collection.

And while many will disagree with me... I'll tell below.  And no, it's not for the gorgeous Jing Tian...

William and Pero, two european mercenaries looking for Black Powder, a mythical weapon they want to bring back to Europe.  Surviving a night attack by a strange creature, they arrive at the Great Wall of China, commanded by General Shao and Strategist Wang.

Here they learn the creature that attacked them was Tao Tei, a demonic race returning every 60 years to punish China for it's ancient greed.  And the wall and it's protectors are all that stands between them.  William joins the forces, and he sees a magnificent army at work during the desperate battles.

But it turns out to all have been a distraction, as the Tao Tei had been tunneling underneath the wall and lay siege to the capital...

Okay, so the movie in itself is your average "desperate historical fantasy battle" movie, but for me... it was a fantastic source of inspiration.  I am so going to paint my 9th Age army in the colourschemes of the chinese force for sure, to make a striking and "wow" factor force.  And the sequence where the Wall opens up to allow scissor blades and catapults to come out was just spectacular...

So yeah, for me this is a keeper... and the night assault was still better made then the Battle of Winterfell

Wooptiewoo, I'm ranked!

Yups, managed to get myself into this year's FHL ranking, olay!

Following the tournament in Turnhout that I went to play end of july, the newest updated ranking for 2019's Flemish Hobbit League has been released this week.

And I'm in there nice and cosy on the 26th spot, not bad for a single event debutant.

Surely, there are some more ranking tournaments coming up, so I'm bound to shuffle around quite a lot still, while I myself will be playing one still the 11th of november, meaning I should be able to add a few more points to the tally for this year.

But it doesn't seem like the red lantern at least will be mine, oof...

More FWC reinforcements

The big benefit of 6mm is that it paints rather smoothly, and this post I boosted some extra models for my Emperor's Children.

After the previous "necessary" batch of Predators and Land Raiders, this batch makes for some nice variation, but not necessary reinforcements per se.

The first models, painted in the "pre heresy scheme" of 30k style, are a Spartan (who will be used as a Land Raider as well, but adds some miniature variation in the force, and go to battle in smaller games where I field only one them) and a Sicaran who will get the AA SPG role of the Marine Corps list.

Two Razorbacks, as above also 3D prints, are added as well, one with the anti infantry turret and the other with the anti tank one, to have some more cheap support tanks (cheap with Marines being relative of course) for the force.

The final addition for this post are three bases of Marines, but this time painted up in the pre Heresy scheme as well, in order to have more variation from the pink and black stands of my regular force.

Now the next thing I'll need for this force is some much needed air support to counter Nemesis's gunships...

White Dwarf August 2019

Another month has passed, and the newest issue of White Dwarf found it's way into my greedy paws this month.

So as always, let's have a look at what is in the issue, and what actually catches my fance (marked bold).

We start as always with the editorial, letters and reader's models sections, parts which I tend to flick through rather quickly.

In Worlds of Warhammer, we take a look at how narrative stories are tying games together.

Jervis's Rules of Engagement take a look at how difficult rules questions are tackled in Age of Sigmar, something I can`t imagine in GW games popping up... (end sarcasm).

The new army list of the month is, oh suprise, Stormcast Eternals in the form now of the black-armoured Sempiternals.  Looking at the back cover, it is already teased that next month it are once again Primaris marines, come on boys, you have tons of other armies out there bar Stormcasts and Space Marines!

Paint Splatter takes of course a look at painting the above Anvils of the Heldenhammer, as does the Showcase.

In Fantastical Realms we visit the Realm of Light and all it's pale coloured inhabitants.

Echoes for the Warp echoes (no pun intended) it's AoS counterpart this month, also taking a look at narratives in your game.

We return to the Tale of Four Warlords - Vigilus edition this month, as armies have taken a huge leap forward for this instalment.

In Kitbash, we have a look at personalizing your Chaos Knights.

For the Emperor is a short story that features the Astra Militarum, entrenched against a horde of Tyranids.

The Battle Report this month is a huge, multi-player Apocalypse affair with some impressive armies pitting two Primarchs against the might of the Adeptus Astartes.

Realms of Battle looks at the Nemendghast Forge, which was the centerpiece of the Vigilus storyline.

Golden Demon is huge this month, as it goes looking at the Winner's Challenge, putting the cream of the cream against each other.

Blood Hunt is a piece of Warcry fiction centered around the Untamed Beasts warband.

In Glory Points we take a look at the use of wizards and magic in the game, intresting as me and Noshi with all the work haven`t gotten round playing season 2, while the next box is already on the horizon...

Precipice Awaits is the newest set of rules for Blackstone Fortress.

'Eavy Metal Masterclass details Object Source Lighting this issue, a technique I one day would like to try out... but it is not this day...

Classic Plays is a rather new column, allowing you to replay the infamous Blood Bowl XVIII finale game.

And we round out this issue with Inside the Studio.

Not really the greatest issue for my tastes, and I am starting to get bleugh'ed with the constant Primaris and Stormcast army list material to be honest, but heck, it can`t be christmas with every issue I guess...