2012-02-28

Orc conversions (from PM MaA)


Not much to say about this. They are painted, they look okay... but they somehow remind me of some really old Prince August Orcs - not especially dynamic. They will look more than okay when blended in with original GW LotR Orcs, however.

Thanks to Captain Chaos for the suggestion of this project!

2012-02-27

Men at Arms turned into Orcs!

You notice the exclamation mark after the headline? What an indulgement. First, bacon and egg, and then an exclamation mark...

Orcish weapons and a more rag-tag look will be applied on mentioned Men at Arms. These are mainly archers, methinks, from Perry Miniatures War of the Roses line. Someone will gladly correct me on this matter, should I be wrong.

Will be painted in Orc-related colours, have sparsly added iconography. Thinking of adding one or two OTT-objects, to overcompensate for their not-so-orcish stature and general looks. I will leave the bases alone, since I want them to cohere with the rest of my Orcs.

Currently doing eleven of these. Three for the GBoG and eight for a company. The heads are badly copied from Morannon Orcs and then tidied up with the help of a coarse sculpting tool.



OLD NEWS

1) The Warhammer Forum will move to another place and also get a little name change.

2) GW seems to concentrate on SBG (or a new equivalent system, who knows) in the future.


QUESTIONS

1) How do one change the font and text size on blogger?


GOOD BYE

1) Good bye.

2012-02-26

Bacon and egg

Bacon and egg before a nightly game of War of the Ring.


This is a get-well card for mr FoB, with many wishes that his health may return soon. Thank you for inspiring me to indulge in these food-items.

New page: Fillers



I will try to tidy up my own humble library of unit fillers and post it on a page on the blog. Other than that, no other news that haven't been thoroughly mangled on other blogs and forums.

In the future, this is what you can expect from Llama's War of the Ring-blog:

- A mini-article on Theming.
- More painted minis, it seems these are more interesting than just bare conversions - which I tend to like, since they are so promising and unspoilt. Pure (eew, going to far here). In the words of Eduard Lanteri: "A sketch promise everything, but achieves nothing."
- Updated army pictures. Mainly for my own satisfaction since they mostly are stored in boxes, safe from prying little fingers and observing eyes.
- More BS. It seems this more mature blog is boring me somewhat:

BS (Almost Famous "Feck you").


Oh, and Captain Chaos, I think the idea with the Men at Arms will turn out to something actually quite allright. Post will follow on this matter.

2012-02-22

Homemade Goblins

Continuing my serious problems with hipjointed limbs, I present to you: The slaving Goblins of the Misty Mountains. They all have dislocated joints and extra-long arms from lifting stones in the caves.



Regardless, I am pleased with the three stooges - perhaps not so much with the poor fella who's... "flying"...

They all got their arms away from their bodies since they might get into the mould workshop. And no weapons yet, snagas don't have weapons, they have rocks and stick, I guess.

There is lot still do on them. Good day!

2012-02-19

Painting of homemade Great Beast of Gorgoroth

The Great Beast of Gorgoroth, once again, this time with some paint upon its gracile body.


This is basically just two steps from the basecoat, so there's a whole lot still to do.

2012-02-18

Finished Sand Wyrm

Honestly, I don't know if the white-yellow will fit in at all with my Harad army... If used only in my "Desert Palace" project, then the colours of this beast won't matter since you'd be so disturbed by all the other geeky contraptions and carpet riders and whatnot that you wouldn't even notice it. Anyway, here it is (pics taken, as always, without sunlight - it is almost bone white to white yellow IRL):

2012-02-17

Great Beast of Gorgoroth, howdah continued

Howdah version two. The beast itself got a bigger head, a tad longer neck and some evening out of the skin. It's still rather crude. With a better base it'll look good.


I am having some minor technical difficulties, the picture should be uploaded within the hour... And there it is...

Anyway... the plans for the back of the beast and the howdah is to have four removable Orcs (which is why the howdah is slightly less slim than the original) and - here's where I want your input - perhaps two permanent Orcs, sitting on the back. What do you think?

Sculpting project: Goblins

Armatures getting fleshed out:

I just point this out before someone else does: The faces are plain copies of one of the plastic gobbos from GW. If the bodies turn out hot I might just try to make the faces myself, but for now, they'll stay as they are too keep me going on this project without losing the motivation.

Now, time for jaffa cakes and coffe before heading out into the world for more work!

Best of wishes to you all in this upcoming weekend. Good day!

2012-02-15

Time flies

And Llamas slide:


Pictures from an alpacka-blogg somewhere in the Norths. Thank you for letting me use these, obviously after I asked for permission.

As you all might have guessed by now I ain't got:

... ain't got shit to post. Too much work, work, work. However, the money generated by work will be converted into hobbyrelated things, so it will all be well in a few days. I have managed to start sculpting three little goblins that had been in an armatural state for five or six months. They are finally getting fleshed out.

Remember to check out the Hall of Fame of the Glass Cabinet of TWF! Here you can find the Narnian army and a whole other bunch of characterful armies:

Hall of Fame of the Glass Cabinet of the WF of the internet!

2012-02-11

Great Beast of Gorgoroth redux

Just a small update on how the GBoG is faring:



One may say many things about realism within wargaming, and I say this: I did a little guesstimate on how much the howdah done for my Great Beast of Gorgoroth would weigh, Orcs included, and concluded it would weigh almost a metric tonne - the wood and rope structure alone would have been over 120 kg. Iron around 400 kg etc. Elephants can carry around 500 kg so I tried to stick with that and added a few extra kilogrammes since it is a fantasy creature AND it looks a bit more powerful than an Asian elephant. This means I need to loose a whole bunch of kilos from the howdah, which suits me well - the whole thing looked like "too much"* already.

By popular demand I cut off its head and am now replacing it with haste, since I am already bored by this project and want to finish it.


*) Bunny ears added for "clarity".

2012-02-10

Men at Arms - faster than the speed of love

Perry Miniatures Men at Arms. Painted Faster than the speed of Love.


Probably as well painted as Brian Griffin's book is well written. The client can be pleased with the following information: Faces will be quickly shaded with some light green and the metals will be tidied up as well as all the white areas - not that you can see how messy they currently are.

The evening will be quiet (not quit, nor quite) with little hobby done, I am in a state of sicklyness. Suffering from burnt skin on various parts of my chest as well as a lost tooth! This is what happens when you work and work and work and don't hobby* enough. It's a hard world for us R-tards who pick fights with dentists and tanning salons.

Serious stuff on the blog, but I managed to get this update off - that's dedication. I think I'll ghostwrite the second novel in the series "Faster than... " now that I can't do much else than sit like a stick on a chair. I wish you a seriously suntanned weekend, dear readers!

*) The jaowsblog do NOT sanctionize the use of verbalization!


EDIT: Almost forgot to post this, another great batrep that totally kicks the ass of any WD battle report:

Isengard versus Mordor

2012-02-08

Sand Wyrm, soon finished

Old news, yes, but this is just a preview, it'll get its correct colours within the end of this week. Some sort of khaki/yellow/beige mixture.

I normally prime my projects to make it more easy to spot all the various misses and thumbprints and such. Because I will redo the face with smaller eyes and perhaps add some details and wrinkles, there is no good picture of the face.




I have been swamped with work - eleven hours, home for some sleep and then back to a thirteen hour workday. And now, some more crap to do. I guess there will be Llama-hobbying done on Friday this week, and then a little update. We'll see. Have a nice day, good people!

2012-02-05

Monsters and creatures for the good guys

I never use the Orc and Goblin shamans produced by GW for our game. The reason is because I somewhat respect the canon of Middle Earth: Magic is rare. And Orcs generally can't use magic. Obvious geek-knowledge.

But when it comes to creatures and monsters, I have a rather more relaxed and un-geeky approach, which is mainly because of a few sentences in Silmarillion where Morgoth's (?) monsters were described a little too unspecific. This allows for all kinds of creatures for the followers of general bad behavior to be created and used in the game.

I am surprised with GW that they haven't gone totally over the top with monstrous creatures in our games of Lord of the Rings. The only problem with this unusal show of restraint – from a company infamous for its giant skulls and giant weapons and spikes and bones poking out of everywhere – is that there are too few monsters and centerpieces for the goodguys in LotR. There are the Ents and Great Eagles. Sort of Glorfindel, at least if you play WotR. So, how to beef your armylist out? We have:


[] Ents and Great Eagles (let's ignore the named variants for now).

[] War Machines. We already have the Avenger Bolt thrower and Battlecry Trebuchet for Gondor. And a Siege Bow for dwarwes.

[] Beorn. Guessing it will be released as a large monster (64mm or more) within a couple of years.

[] Beornings. On 40mm bases? Feel free to do these yourself and use Cave Troll rules or whatever fits. In WotR they are intended as infantry, but nothing stops you from doing your own thing. Personally, I think bears are boring.

[] Huorns. Remember that Huorns were fighting almost alongside with Rohan in one of the books. Thats canon right there!

[] The Legions of Middle-Earth (LoME) speaks of Elf Chariots and Elf Catapults! These two entries opens up a whole new world of interesting (and highly decorated) projects. I will try to make one or the other before the end of 2013!

Above are more or less the official monsters or centerpieces for the good guys. A meager list. The following are my Golden Ideas. They are intended for people who can use their own minds and actually enjoy doing so. This is why each entry is explained in a slight way and is not minutely detailed.

[] The Stone Guardian. Based on the púkelstones, or Pùkelman. Mentioned in the Books. I did my version very un-canonical because I wanted a more high fantasy look for the Edheldu army, since it was a more relaxed project. One could easily do it more understated, more "realistic" and overgrown with vines and branches and roots.

[] Some sort of un-canonical Tree Spirit (also for Edheldu), I guess you could excuse it with some texts regarding Huorns or some First Age Elvish mumbo-jumbo, I haven't really bothered with that since it looked nice enough when it was done and suited well with the theme of mentioned army.

[] Chariots or wagons can be done, IMO. They aren't that offending, even if there are no mentions of Gondor or Rohan using these. Why would they though, their horses are strong enough to carry a fully armoured rider.

The Dwarwes on the other hand are mentioned using wagons in Bilbo, but I guess those were civilian…

[] Perhaps even a large carroccio (big wagon) rip-off for Gondor? Something with large flip-off banners and Citadel Guards with trumpets and more banners and more guards and armoured oxen or armoured horses pulling the whole thing!

[] The centerpiece Trebuchet. With a nice base and some barrels and a banner blowing in the wind. And of course: A captain on a rock.

[] Spawns. This one is the most controversial. At least for a gamer. For a person more concentrated on the pure hobby-part I guess you could do it. With "Spawns" I mean something good-natured that has been spawned by some Elf mage or whatever. Like the White Water horses in the books, and the movie. It would look a bit stupid, but not that much more stupid like the Kraken – a model which I, at least, like.

The "Spawns" will excuse a lot of creatures for the Elves, even if it is not in accordance to their description in the books, as pure and simple, everliving people etc etc, but whatever.

[] Headquarters diorama. On a 64mm base, for Gondor. Just a collection of regular WoMT:s, with lower ranks, with maps and some special weapons or a signaling lantern. This idea I find interesting. It would in a way remind of the King's Champion.

The ideas above are more or less uncomplicated to crowbar into your hobby, except for possibly the spawns and Tree Spirits, but with some good will it's possible. So, how about Rohan and Erebor?

Rohan should stay what it is with its infantry and cavalry.

Erebor, though… hmm… perhaps a warmachine on wheels, with the risk of making it high fantasy, though. And besides, the dwarwes already have their Siege Bow. How did the dwarwes look at magic? Can one make some sort of Tolkinesque golem-like statue-whatever? Not that I would want to game with such an abomination. But we keep our minds open here and still stay within canon (sort of).

Is there any chance that the coastal parts of Gondor could have brought something back to fight for the main city? Some sort of beast from the South, or why not something from the North? One should look into Pelargir and the Fiefs and especially the sea-faring parts of Gondor for inspiration.

There you have it. I have decided to make the equivalence of a carroccio for Gondor. Already got the two ox-teams from Perry Miniatures, some piping to make wheels and a blister of old Guards of the Fountain Court and a few Citadel Guards and maybe even a regular Warrior of Minas Tirith or two to modify. The cross will be changed to something suitable, perhaps an "everburning" cauldron of fire from the top of the Citadel in MT and use dried tomatoes as flags (yes, burnished and washed with vinegar) with huge white trees sloppily painted on them. All based on a grand dragon base. Just need a better name and some rules. Just like this blog...

2012-02-04

More Men at Arms


Sorry, not the Men at Arms for Dol Amroth, but the ones from Perry Miniatures. How good aren't these? I've got myself a bunch of them as well now. But these I am doing for mr FoB, so I thought I'd show him I'm on top of it.

You can see my Warriors of Minas Tirith-command project in the background. Eight archers will be vanilla archers (much needed) and the other sixteen plus three special WoMT:s that are more or less homemade, will be the golden companies, inspired by an OTT formation I saw in the WotR-rulebook many moons ago and fell in love with. That was the plan, but now I am thinking I will base four special WoMT:s on a 64mm base... More on this in the next post in about 13 hours ;)

Games of WotR played in 2012

I have now played a game of WotR. Just 99 to go.

Reading for the language-impaired:
"I won!"
"Nooo!"
*Guy shooting himself*


In other news, I stopped my plans of doing a Carroccio, because mr FoB did it himself. And a good one, at that, it seems:

Flower of Battle Carroccio

In other news (again) I have been thinking(!): Currently, there are thousands of different kewl monsters for the dark side in WotR, but very few for the good guys. So I am brainstorming some things regarding this issue. I will spare my Gondor army from these abominations, though, but it surely needs a centerpiece:

This is a trebuchet I found on an island.


Bathing time. It is, after all, lörgar-dagen or the Washing day, as you say in Westron.

2012-02-01

Gorgoroth Beast DIY, progress

LotR Orc Rhino (or should I say hippo?) slash Great Gorgoroth Beast, progress.

Didn't do the hump that the hauling beasts had in the movie, if I remember this correct... didn't they have humps? Who cares, my beast is progressing without a hump. I must say the howdah on the official GGB is much better planned, but then again, their GGB is substantially larger than mine. I settled for a howdah-area of six 25mm bases.

How much will I ornament and "pimp" this ride then? Very much. There will be fabric like on the original, not as much and only to hide some lazy sculpting. Toyed with the idea of mounting a Siege Bow, but that's more because I want to make a little mini project to relax, and the idea was binned. And banned, when I realized how close to WHFB it came.

I have a serious shortage of Orcs... something needs to be done. But I really don't want to buy any more since the last sprues were in such a crappy state. There are some plans, but we'll see in the future what'll happen.

Anyways, I wish you all faithful readers a nice finale of this week, just two more days and then we're free for the weekend!