GBU, December 2013.

Are you truly bored? Then please, go on and read this mess. Otherwise, move on, nothing with relevance to wargaming is presented in this particular post.

Another General Blogging Update. This time just a bunch of Zeldas.

Dunland and some pertinent publications on a blog.
Lonely Gamer, another blog that looks interesting.
International Geek. A bunch of LotR-model-images.
How to trick an online scammer...

Well, not just links, there's an endless rambling going on below...

The last link is really Tang0001 in it's irrelevance (and there's probably a bunch of v1ruz on the page), but I liked/linked it, since scammers are such annoying criminals, and it is funny to read about them being fooled themselves, especially since they rarely get bad stuff back due to the view on their type of crimes:
       Violence-crims often times get a knife "misplaced" in their bellies or backs by similar minded "colleagues"; and other types of criminals regularly goes to prison or aren't even respected by the police (the police dare hitting them when they're in their custody, which our blue defenders will NOT do against crims they're afraid of, which of course are the first group mentioned, the hurtophiles). With scammers, however, it is another story: Many times they can go their whole lives without getting more than a dozen slaps on the wrist, sometimes even when they've cheated old people out of all their lives' savings...
   But I digress (and somehow motivated the last link, or, as Borat would say: Nooot!)

Oh, my... !

Oh my, how very little hobby there is going on today. Just to prove that even the sun has its spots.

The plans for 2014 might include, but not limit themselves to, buying my first finecast/failcast model. For some reason I can't stop thinking of the Wood Elf king (in a platonic way, of course), Thranduil. And not because the actor and the releveant staff around his effort did a great job, but because the model's just doin' it for me. So I want to open up my wallet and just stick the bills in the GW-guy's hand.

Another "wallet" I want to "open" that's "just does it for me" is Lindsay (Portia d'R.). The inuendo is somewhat amusing. Yes, it is the same link as before. I wasn't finished with the comparisons to Thranduil, by the way: Another hand I want to "stick my bills into" etc etc etc, I'm boring myself here...
     Though, when re-googling her, I might reconsider on my effort to woe [or is it woo?] this lesbian - not due to her way of life, got no probs with that, surprisingly enough... no, I just meant she was smoking hot during that season. Oh, my...
    Sorry P., that's life for you, a hard knock life... Not the sweet life of allowance and state-support these guys live in:

This is a banlieu, by the way, I mention these contraptions (because that's what they are, magical contraptions - and not dwellings - to make life wonderful for some that live in them, and awful for their neighbours - a dark magic indeed). I live in Sweden's counterpart to a banlieu, which is called something else, a term we will not utter here (I do not want traffic from people searching for that term). It is not as "enriched" by trash as this one, but near enough sometimes:
    One evening when I got tangled in an old bike-wheel in the staircase where I live, there was a grand annoyance accumulation that started to push out the vein on my forehead (I was mad as a grown, disciplined man of Europe could be) I collected all the garbage I could find in the stairwell and threw it out on the street whilst actually letting out angry, suppressed screams. A pile almost as tall as myself towered besides the entré.
     For one year the garbage pile laid there, slowly sinking into the ground. A few of the bikes were "removed" by neighbours. The TV was smashed and then removed by someone. The chair I smashed against the stairs in a little real-life rage-quit (can't quit life, so smashing things is a good substitute, though sometimes "quitting" certain neighbours lives seems almost inevitable, but then there'd be no updates here for 10-11 years), some of the boxes were actually kindly removed by one of the neighbours that saw the whole affair.
    I had a little end point when starting typing this, but I'll just wrap it up with the image below, showing my anger at the time:

There's another reason this Tesseract-operator in green (like the Hulk, just sayin') was posted, besides making a really bad comparison between my mild face when angry and his evil green: If one were to make another Sauron model (we already have Sauron the Necromancer from when the supplement Lord of the Rings: SBG: Fall of the Necromancer were released), this model is of course way too large to use to portray the beautiful black cloud of The Necromancer from The Desolation of Smaug... the model could, however, be used as template for a design, I think. Another not-to-play-with model...

- - -   - - -   - - -

But I digest, as Peter of Family Guy once wrote...


To do in 2014: Post a little walkthrough on the casting project which includes a llama, silicone, polyurethane and some plastically injectionalized Warriors of Dale-model-miniatures.

Play some *** darn games of War of the Ring. I have been trying out some rules using tiny wooden blocks and pieces of artist's cardboard, and using the same numbers when moving but exchanging inches to centimeters - which was the only thing that worked smoothly, in fact - but it is not even close to the real del when it comes to the feeling of a game of WotR, naturally.
      There were some interesting notes taken with regards to the rules-project, so it is an acceptable form of playing WotR since it worked so well to scale it down, IMHO.

I don't think there will be any further posts of relevance to War of the Ring in the near future, so I recommend those of you interested in hobby not to read - perhaps even avoid skimming even - the next post. Possibly also this one... Good night!

Lantiroch, once again.

Lantiroch, or the High Elf Water Spawn, has been shown before. But I got me a better image now, and I also got a question for you, good reader:

In my possession, I have a bottle of Citadel Water Effects that could be used on top of all the watery surface as well as the manifestations of horses. This was originally planned to be poured over the whole thing. But never happened after me not liking the result of the water effect in another hobby project. Would it be, if not advisable, at least viable to use the stuff on this particular [kind of] DIY-model?

Remember how I said "better image" two seconds ago? I wasn't entirely truthful, to tell you the truth. But what is truth? If a tree falls in the park and no one are there to hear it, how expensive is a hooker in Sweden then? 
     The answer is "42" and I'm getting tired. Also, for people outside of Scandinavia, I can inform that the use of double apostrophes is the same as quotation marks here - the use of single quotations are reserved for quotations within quotations. Let me exemplify:

"Bob, snälla, gå till affären. Eller vänta, det tänker du inte, du tänker väl svara nåt i stil med 'Nej, det tänker jag inte din gamla snabel' och sen går du väl hem!"

The underlined subordinate clause is the quotation within a quotation.
    Observant readers may have noticed this has very little to do with the original intention of this post. Let us go back to the Lantiroch (sindarin for White Wash Water):

I never bothered to remove saddles, reins and other man-horse-interface-thingies. It would have looked better. In hindsight.

Before anything happens, though, repainting will magically** occure... inspired by Ted Nasmith...

**) Or not so magic repaint. I was pondering to let someone else just paint some better water for me, but I should stay strong and try my best and maybe even learn a thing or two... Next up: Google images and water.

Warriors of Dale and a gramme of gold

They are to get their mould-lines cleaned after finishing typing this.
     Basing will be done soon enough. A homemade resin-base is shown here. Reason: Want to make a filler for the tray. Why? Because there were only 10 warriors in the box and I want to make copies of the three bowmen to make an awesome formation of Dale Archers for War of the Ring. You see, in WotR, you need a fuck-tonne of models to play a game. Which is something that is both good and bad, the way I see things.

The box of ten warriors cost me 269 SEK. With the bases, you get almost an even ounce of models and bases in a box of Warriors of Dale. A gramme of gold costs roughly 270 SEK (manipulated "paper gold" spot price, granted). That means, if I had an ounce of gold, I could potentially trade it for 240 Warriors of Dale. I know not what more to say, other than that I like this hobby.

Anyway, I have stated now four (4) times on the internetz that I will make a mould of these guys since I paid premium for them. If one were to make a mould for one's private use, there is nothing illegal going on, just saying. When one starts to sell these casts, there might be a problem. I will not sell anything.
   Instead of making a mould of ten dudes, I have decided (after a horrible silicone accident which left me with slightly damaged warriors and wasting silicone for a few hundred SEK:s) I'll just copy the three archers in the box.
    I was looking for some historicals as proxies but didn't find anything on my usual shopping places, so I figured a mould would be better. It is also highly entertaining to not only make the mould but also casting them in resin. Sometimes the result, without the aid of a vacuum-contraption, is better than "fine"-cast. That is amusing.

A traditional EDIT: If anyone thinks I am doing hobby instead of being with the family on Christmas, you are wrong. We celebrated yesterday, as is custom here. Just putting it out there.

Also, welcome (soon) to the sidebar mr Tom Y. and mr Tom C. I have found one of the Tomses blogs but not the other... As is custom on this blog, I blame Google+ for this.

Merry Christmas!

With this grandly photoshopped Llama, I wish you, one and all, a Merry Christmas! One day too early for Scandinavians, and two days too early for others, I am aware of that.

This Christmas, I hope I get a nice Chart that Explains how every Human Functions. No matter how much simpleton-humanists and leftists and other assorted "thinkers" (parrots) extrapolate, "research" and drivvel on about humans and blah-blah-blah, none will ever outdo the elegant chart shown below. Every healthy human can be explained from this chart. And all human faults, that are not physically obvious, can be explained by the chart below. The rest of the problems that are harder to explain, comes simply from egoism and idiotism.

And this is my gift to you, a humble gift of knowledge: The Four temperaments of Man, which explains everything.

Old GW-PDF:s for you my friend, very cheap

From the desk of mr Llama, a bunch of old PDF:s that used to be relevant to the SBG and WotR. There might be some interest in these still - and if not, there should be.

Old LotR: SBG/WotR-related PDF:s

Mûmakil special. Published on the old version of the GW-homepage.
Fiefdom-conversions. Someone over at GW made som alright conversions.
Wizard's Duel! Saruman versus Gandalf. The box with these two special models are long OOP.
Elves Showcase. I remember this being a large and interesting article, but looking at it now I am not impressed. Time flies...
Offical War of the Ring FAQ and Errata. Couldn't find this on GW's homepage.
Official Update, version 1.1 War of the Ring.

The word "official" on the two later posts should be taken with a grain of salt since the firm that produced the game no longer recognize its existence.

War of the Ring magic cards. If there is anyone out there who still use the spells of WotR without any changes. Made by mr Onimusha of theonering. He did for some reason give the copyright to GW, which I think is weird, since it was he who did the cards.

Battle Companies, a small PDF

EDIT: The Us provided this link: Revampation of Battle Companies. It looks very well done. Rules and a very long list of rosters can be found there. Battle Companies 3.1.



This is an update mainly directed towards mr Dan Vincent of 50mm Game Room whom I gave the advice of testing Lord of the Rings: SBG - Battle Companies. A semi-official minigame by Games Workshop. Similar games have been developed inofficially by others, I am one of them, but we'll start with this one.

If anyone reading this can foresee a copyright issue, please let me know - or if anyone "official" reads this, please go to the About-page on this blog and read further. If I have to remove the link, I still have my own version of a similar game which uses similar models in a similar world, if you catch my drift in said matter.

Battle Companies. The old GW-PDF.
Scenarios for Battle Companies. Unknown source, but if I had to guess, I'd say it came from the dead Games Workshop homepage.

The images have gotten their palette changed and the quality lowered, so I don't think that would be a copyright issue, but the text... well, the text's boring and simple and I have typed up a version of my own which is not with me at the moment since I am on Christmas vacation.

As the girls of yotube say: "A big shout-out to" monsieur Benoît Dumeaux, for giving me directions on the best way to upload documents!

Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

EDIT: Should mention, as this is a hobby-blog, that the movie showed some orcish warriors that probably will be released as a plastic boxed set. They reminded me slightly of Morannon Orcs. Beorn in bearform could be seen, and I suspect a "resin" model. Noticed that? How the term finecast isn't as prevalent anymore?
   Lastly, here's hoping for another Sauron model! Don't really know how they would sculpt him, but if would give it a go... it would look like... hm... maybe I will give it a go? 

EDIT #2: Link to blog by mr Legatus Headlius with some nice images pertinent to above update.

I thought that GW:s bear would look very, very different from mine - and it does, but not extremely different. It was difficult to sculpt the bear below but it is satisfying to see that I didn't miss the target that much.

Just came home after watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. We were a good crowd sitting in the large theater but not as feastly as the one last year, when I went on a Saturday. Still, there was anticipating shushes when the movie started, some good laughs and a halfhearted applause at the end, which I assumed was directed towards myself, as is custom. I sat in the middle, with closed eyes and feasted on the praise of the audience.




Before saying anything about the movie, something about the 3D high definition version must be said, something which probably has been said before... We have all heard how some actors couldn't continue in their line of work after the silent movie era ended? How their voices weren't good enough or something. And some people, to this day, still thinks colorama movies are less high quality with their wizzes and bangs than the quality of movies made in the good old grayscale.
     There probably were one or two actors that looked like crap before the make-up department adjusted to colour movies, perhaps these even got their careers destroyed? Who knows, who cares... but still, keep this in mind - that I am aware of how early versions of new tech can sometimes be a bit wonky - when reading the following:
    The HDF made the movie look like it was filmed by students with handicams. The quality was great, don't get me wrong, but the difference was so big it made the movie look... DIY or cheap beacuase it was made so meticulously detailed. Like it already existed a Middle-Earth and some guys just put their finest clothes on and reenacted a bit of dwarven history in front of the camera (everyone remembering not to blink too much, because a staring actor, is a good actor).
      It is interesting how new awesome technique can make a super-high-cost production like The Hobbit look cheap - or at least be perceived like that by an untrained eye such as mine.

With that said, and probably a bunch of persons misunderstanding me with this HDF-matter - like with the cost of dwarves (not anyone commenting no, no, we all got along nicely of course. No, there was some annoying PM:s and some forum linkys which had totally gotten me wrong) - here's the tiny review.

Contains a few spoilers. Even for those that have read the book!

This movie had a lot of Peter Jackson moments, and I am not talking about the first four minutes or so of the movie, when the drunk director once again made a short and appreciated appearance, no, I am talking about Tauriel, almost all fights against the goblin-orcs and when the dwarves find themselves battling Smaug inside Erebor. They all have their place in a movie made by Peter Jackson, but sometimes I wished someone else could've done the films, someone with a more... respect... for the legacy of Tolkien. But then again, this is a (kind of) dark fairytale, so forget the above. And also, who else could have directed this?

There were fewer "hilarious" moments, thankfully, in this movie than in the first one. To be honest, the only one I can remember are when Bombur started bouncing with his barrel - just thinking of it make me snigger. It really did have its place and no critique shall be passed upon the scene.
       However, what happened before that, needs to be addressed: An arrow was at either Fili or Kili (and wounded the target), and we all know what is supposed to happen to them. But now, they are left behind in Laketown, plus the wounded one healed by the abominable she-elf, and safely away from the Battle of Five Armies. It will be interesting to see if the makers of the movies avoid the brother-dwarves final ending from the book, just to make the movie even cuter. Probably not, but there is no recollection in my mind that they were ever left behind in Laketown... Perhaps they will meet Aule after a short fight against Smaug? Instead of their booked meeting with Aule after BoFA?

The movie began with a small recapitulation of Thorin and Gandalf's first meeting in Bree. Some running and jumping ensued and soon the gang fell asleep in Beorn's cabin. As I had hoped, Persbrandt (who plays Beorn) was as weak an actor as he normally is - but this time it was even worse. I doubt he even know what Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit are. He felt lost. The drunkard's role in the third movie will likely just be him storming down a slope and tearing orcs and goblins apart before awkwardly saying goodbye in one of the ending scenes, and off he is.
    After Beorn there was a short version of the Mirkwood walk (where Tauriel was given waaay too much time and attention) and a nice, very simplified version of the feasting Wood Elves - no tables in the forest - and the eventual infiltration of Mirkwood Castle by Bilbo. The Wood Elves were well portrayed for the short amount of time that could be given them, I suppose. Minor grievances, like their lacking vigilance when the dwarves barrel-rode into their rivergate, can be excused (they were ambushed by noisy, smelling orcs).
    An amusing hunt then took place and finally the dwarves met mr Dale himself, Bard. I really liked this part of the movie, when they arrived in Laketown, and it was a good breath-taker between the action.

Inbetween various scenes there was a fantastic little thing when Gandalf goes to examine the graves of the Nine. I had hoped there was time for the fight at Dol Guldur, but it seems all the goodies are to happen in the third and last movie: The Battle of Five Armies, the battle at Dol Guldur - with elves and magic (if it wasn't omitted, God forbid(!)) and the battle against Smaug.

Blah-blah-blah, the dwarves come to the Lonely Mountain, which was a sight to behold with its ruins. They arrive, bicker about the last light, open the door, Bilbo is sent down, Bilbo wakes Smaug which is a good part - followed by a part which was too action-y and naturally disliked by me. The cliffhanger was Smaug flying to Laketown.

A genuine production. But I should have stayed away from the HDF, super framerate-thingie as I thought I should have. The 3D, I felt, were more of a novelty in this movie than in the last one, where they were used to better effect. The actors did their job - with the expected failure of Persbrandt - but Ian McKellen was excellent in this one. He is Gandalf.
    Props and effects and terrain and cities are super well done and it really feels like you're in Middle-Earth! The story is, as been stated before, quite fast paced and rightly so. It is a great matiné movie, but I liked the first one better: The Desolation of Smaug receives 44 stars of 55 possible stars. A weak "four".

Rohirrim Redux, phase 2

Entering phase two. I took two "personal days" off from work to rest and recuperate and to meet up with a friend that said she needed to do some house-warming in her temporary new place. Under such circumstances, work will naturally have to wait. The added advantage is that I, in peace and quiet, could continue my sort-of gritty basing style:

1) Carpenter glue + sand. Let dry.
2) Water + carpenter glue + CdA 112 Bone (or Bleached Bone from Citadel). Let dry.
3) Highlight rocks and details with pure white. Now it looks like crap.
4) Wash with 50% water, 30% carpenter glue and 20% CdA 116 Barbarian Leather. Let dry.
5) Black-greyish-brownish-greenish last wash. Heavily diluted. Perhaps 70-80% water. Now it looks boring but exactly like I want it.

The horselords/straw-heads in various different states of completion. They will all need some heavy painting and washing and shading.
    The last thing I do is to add some static grass and fix the rims of bases and trays.

But why the PVA or carpenter's glue, Llama? Well, little Timmy, because I have been annoyed to great anger about loose sand in every single box of models in the cupboard. With bases that are made of more glue than paint or sand, it is likely the flipping sand will stay where it's supposed to: On the beach... mowahahahaaah...

EDIT: Linky to Tell me a Tale about Eomer. I always want to start play SBG when I read their posts. I was this close *holds thumb against point-finger* to start last year... In case you've missed the blog in question: Read it and ALL the backlog if you have any form of interest in SBG or WotR, for that matter.

Rohan hero & Dwarves

The movement tray is kind of ready. The dwarves fit in nicely and there are exactly three things left to do:

1) Add some colour to the tray.
2) Do something simple and not attention-drawing on the dwarf-bases.
3) Something else which slipped my mind.

Looking at the pictures I remember: Add cobwebs (thank you Ultima VII: The Black Gate for teaching me that particular word) to the two dead tree stumps in the left corner (or right corner from where we are looking from).

Anyways, this turned out to be another little update of this and that. Don't really know why I keep doing these, perhaps I am hunting for traffic. I sincerely hope not. To be honest, it really got to do with time being sparse with regards to hobby and blogging.

Last post I mentioned Rohan heroes being large but nice sculpts. This guy is not an exception. Horses' heads are quite big and long affairs, but this Rohan guy could probably headbutt the horse to death without problem. It looks like he's riding a pony when mounted on the plastic horse. Not that I really care.


In a previous update, Los Angeles - and Elysium - was mentioned. Below we see Los Angeles before MC, after MC and the wonderful, globalist BS Los Angeles that the MSM-idiots dream about. Too many abbreviations? Well, I suppose you aren't angry enough to know what they stand for then ;)

My part of town is somewhere between the second and the third image. Hooray for MC and the all-encompassing bullshit word "globalisation"!

Wardens of the West, price in 2009

A short post whilst waiting for the green stuff to cure. The following text is merely an observation, not a rant. Long time readers and followers know when I rant, and this is not one of those times, as you will become aware of after noticing the lack of invectives.

In late spring 2009 I went down to the Games Workshop store (miles away, not a local one) and finally bought the Wardens of the West-boxed army of dwarves which I had goggled a few weeks. It cost 113 USD (converted from 750 SEK at the dollar spot trade value or whatever it's called, it was around 6,6 IIRC) and contained the following:

24 Dwarf Warriors.
24 Dwarf Rangers.
1 Dwarf Ballista (with two crew).
8 Iron Guard.
1 Dwarf Captain.
1 Dwarf Banner Bearer.

Total of 59 warriors for 113 USD, in 2009.

If I were to buy the same amount of warriors from the Games Workshop homepage today - without the minor discount you got from buying an army - it would cost me:

2 boxes* of Dwarf Warriors, 74 USD.
2 boxes* of Dwarf Rangers, 74 USD
1 Dwarf Ballista, 50 USD.
8 Iron Guard, 93 USD.
1 Captain, 16.5 USD.
1 Banner Bearer, 16.5 USD.

Total of 59 warriors for 324 USD, in 2013.


Nearly tripled in price in 4 years. With a whole bunch of caveats (the higher price comes from no discount, buying from Games Workshop's notoriously expensive homepage, "finecast" etc).

If I would like to buy the same amount from, let say figurspel.se (my favourite internet hobbyshop) I would get a substantially lower price, though I would not be able to get all the entries, so I went with the official GW-prices where availability is guaranteed but price is around 15-18% higher!
     It would also be impossible to get all these warriors at the FLGS nowadays, not without paying premium GW-direct prices and also because the local store "adjusted" their prices after release of The Hobbit. Of course, the only truly honest comparison would be with the old shop, or if they re-released this army-pack with a new price, but that won't happen.

But let's say we got a substantial discount and paid between 266 and 274 USD, the difference is amazing. I don't think I have a point besides just stating the obvious: This hobby is expensive. But as a user on The Warhammer Forum once said (you get a 404 if you search for it):

- The high cost keeps the riff raff out. 

I suppose it's worth every penny then.



- - -   - - -   - - -

*) There are typically only one sprue in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit plastic boxes nowadays. It used to be two, in case someone missed the change for the worse. Also, one sprue used to contain 10 or 12 warriors, most often a dozen. The obvious exception were the Uruk-hai Warriors and Easterling Warriors, but there were others. Today seems to have a bigger spread than the normal dozen of Before The Hobbit (BTH).

Not-so-excellent wingman...

I just came home from a company Christmas party and have a little story to share; as I have stated before, this blog is also a little bit about my life. It is interesting for myself to re-read some posts sometimes and remenisce (if that's how you spell it... ), so I'll keep those posts coming, just ignore them - typically I make it quite clear when hobby talk stops and personal ramblings begins.

So, here is the next big project. I will not have time for any The Hobbit-stuff which is really sad but understandable, there's stupid little time inbetween work and the few free hours I have - so very few that I even missed getting a ticket to The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug. I will rectify this. And of course, there must be time left over for hobby-stuff and updates on the blog!

I will make another movement tray in resin tomorrow and then I'll have a smallish (in WotR-standards) Rohan army. I have a hero unassembled somewhere that's missing from the picture. Generally I must say that the Rohan models are really, really well sculpted - and the heroes are not an exception. While some plastics in the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings line might be subpar (yes, Wood Elf warriors, I am talking about you), I think that the Warriors of Rohan are okay. The size difference between the metals and the plastics is bearable. The problem comes with some metal heroes (I think it is Eomer, in particular) when you place them on plastic horses. They look like ponies.

In this army we find (can't remember the correct names on the formations):

- Rohan Militia, 3 companies with banner
- Rohan Archer Milita, 3 companies
- Grimbold's Helmingas, 2 companies and full command
- Riders of Rohan Eored, 6 companies
- Outrider Eored, 4 companies
- Rohan Royal Guard Eored, 2 companies

And a lot of heroes.
    The above will all be repainted. All trays will get paint and washes and perhaps some more static grass. This is not a project I am looking forward to, but the result is something I am looking forward to, if you know what I mean with that.


Personal ramblings
Some qoutes below contain bad language.

This anti-wingman of mine is the workmate I've been working with the longest time in my career as a --- -------. Double-digit number of years... but he is the single most annoying little piece of shit I've ever known. I won't go into detail into why - but we'll settle with his criminal record who didn't stop him from getting his job (he got quite a few relatives higher up in the hierarchy), a criminal record that contains, but is not limited to aggravated assault, theft of different kinds, narcotis-crimes etc. It is A Clockwork Orange, this whole country!
      Of course he arrived to the party not only very drunk, but also under the influence of "coke", "pills" and the stuff you smoke, and I qoute: "To even thingz-oout... Llama... you listening! Stop looking so annoyed, what's up bro! Hey, hey, hey! I am talking to you - what's up, haven't got layed in a while?! Ey, man, whaddaya doing - yeah, leave... " And turns to the rest of our company "He's boring. He'll fuck the new boss. She's hot, I'd fuck her. I could."

When I came back to check on the female workmates (to see if he started his annual Christmas-groping and stop him from doing so), after talking to some other workmates for fifteen minutes he was the same, but now he couldn't even pronounce even the simplest words. When I finally got a moment with this new very hot female boss and commenced my tacky seduction phase (which, if it please mylord, I might add worked wonders - who knows why - but yay for Christmas parties!) he started doing some form of drunk encouragement in the form of fingerbanging in the air with his left and right hand. He didn't have any guns in his hands, just to make it obvious what he did. She left, annoyed - she wouldn't have any problems following me home, it's just that she didn't want everyone to see it. Of course. Thanks idiot. I literally strangled him in "good-humoured way" and the message went through but God do I hate this man-boy... I left early.
    I just wanted to get this off my chest. It might amuse someone. In retrospect it kind of amuse me as well. It was a nice little party in most other aspects. Heheheh, what an idiot: "Hey, bro!"

A lot more things happened, but in order to keep my Llama identity safe, I will exclude those little anecdotes for now.

Almost lastly...
I would like to welcome three new followers: Mrs Sofie Vandersmissen (whom I tried to give some feedback on a post but couldn't due to Google+ and my not-so-abundant computer knowledge), mr Legatus Hedlius and mr Mario Morrhaye!
    A beautiful day I will learn this Google+ thing.

... and lastly
This has become such a text heavy piece of post that I might as well add these links, without much further information, I just put them aside to post some time when they felt relevant, but I always forget:

The joy that is Monte Savino. I really want to go see this. Such a good natured little convention.
A google search on Dwarven Forge which is interesting from a hobby point of view.
One of mr Scott's best projects, IMO, but I am clearly biased as a LotR fan.
Mr Onyx's Lord of the Rings armies.
A blog that I must add to the sidebar.
Really interesting post on contrast in miniature painting.


This list feels a little like the spamming of that guy on TMP, what's his name... something with "01" in the end of his username. Tango-something...
      Anyways, good night!

Upcoming releases for the Hobbit

A whole bunch of (soon to be) releases... Presumably from the latest issue of White Dwarf which I didn't get, but probably will go and buy tomorrow. Just two more weeks before The Hobbit 2 is released. The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug, IIRC, it is called more precisely.

Barrels out of Bond at GW:s homepage.
Mirkwood Rangers. Looking sleek.

Also soon to be released are: Palace Guard captains, Palace Guard (seen above, the christmas gift-box is not included in the sprue), an updated Thranduil which might be the first "fine"-cast model I buy, normal Beorn, some characters - Laeglaer and his girlfriend from Lost (which I despise, and I can't imagine I am the only one, though most I've talked with seem to love her: "She's super cute - kawaaiii!". Her character in Lost was awful and I have made the typical idiot-thing to confuse her character with the real person...

Movement tray for the 13 dwarves

Two attached trays. Sixteen slots in total. I have listed each dwarf and the symbols of their journey below (they were just crow-bared in, no finesse this time):

Front row, from left to right: Dori (the "fruity" one, Thorin - leader of the expedition, Oin (the hearing-impaired one) and Fili.
Second row, left to right: A barrel too small to go down a river with, but still, a barell to tie in to that whole business. On top of the barrel sits a black-bird (I think it is) because I connect birds with dwarves after reading The Hobbit. Indeed, it was another type of bird in the book, but a bird as small as that one would not have been practical on this tray.
     To the right of the barrel we find Dwalin, the tall dwarf; and by him stands Bofur and Nori.
Third row, left to right: Bifur and Balin, Gloin and Fili. Wedged between them lies a severed warg head.
Back row, left to right: A mushroom ring and the beginning of a dead and squashed spider. Ties in with Mirkwood. Just as the arrows on the barrel does, which I forgot to mention above.
    Besides the mushroom ring we find the youngling Ori with his slingshot and Bombur, the eating-disorderly dwarf.

Left to do is to glue on some minor details and then basecoat. See you in a few days or nights.

Movement tray for Thorin & Company

With regards to rules, you could go two routes: Either, the War of the Ring-standard way, which is to let each and every character give some flair to the formation in form of a little special rule, for example, "Ori's Slingshot" giving the formation the ability to sniper something each turn with a low strength hit - whatever. Or, I could do the boring but (for me) the only way I would ever be able to use them in a game: Just make them a fighty formation, with a maximum of three, possibly four, special rules, all directed to the collective, such as "Dwarves in Diaspora" or "Fight for Our Home" which would do whatever, really. I have decided to do both, just for the fun and hobby of it.
     But first, the formation needs to be constructed.

Don't bother clicking on the image, the picture quality is beyond crap. Not like these sweeties below:

Thank you mr Dryck over at katastrofalaskivomslag.blogspot.se for providing these inspiring images.

The dwarf army was sort of finished. The image is shit, to be frank. Phase two is done, but I'll wait with phase three until I have finished renovation of either the Rohan army or the Rivendell army... I am also finally working with updating my WotR-rules, which I will publish here. If someone can point me in a direction for how-to's to upload PDF:s (and subsequent downloading here on the blog), please, do so!

My bosses (seen above, please note the guy with the nut-cracking man-camel-toe - didn't even know it was possible) have in another schitzofrenic vision decided that "Llama, he's a standup guy, let's promote him!", forgetting all the former fantastic catastrophes I've been semi-responsible for. "Okay", was my answer which I remembered to finish with a rather pertinent question of... "Who will be my work group?"
    "Oh, don't worry about that, just some guys and girls, no worries! And you'll be acting pit-boss, so you don't have to worry about signing documents or getting a payraise. It's settled then, great! See ya' in four!".
    Four weeks, he meant. And left me standing there. I later met my workgroup and presented myself: 16+3+X number of temporaries! How on earth do they think I am competent to deal with this, with my idiot-schedule and overtime? Lucky this is a menial and simple job, IMO...

Lastly, I do not get this Google Plus thing. I tried to comment on mrs Sofie Wandersmissens blog but it was impossible for me to understand how (impossible=I was lazy and had no patience for internetz at the time). I also still have no idea how to become a "Member" on a blog or "Follow", even though I have 31 followers! And what can I then do with this? Is it easier to read and see updates? I don't know...

That's it for tonight!

Dwarf Army renovation - phase two

Just a few images of each formation. After phase three I'll try to catch some sunlight and get better pics - they look very grey at the moment but really aren't that bad.

Restoration of the Dwarven army

Still in phase one. On Saturday I might get going on phase two, inchallah!
    This is not particularly exciting update, but better than nothing, I suppose.

Just kept doing the old BB-basecoat, followed by a grey-brown wash followed by another darker wash.

Noticed I missed painting the severed troll-head, so that object will get a few lick of paints as well. I really like the Grim Hammerers-models, they are ace! And I am feeling very sorry for the WHFB:ers that have to settle with WHFB dwarfs...

These have nothing to do with me, this blog or 

anything remotely WotR:y...

A-Z Blogger Book Survey

Phew, blogger went berserk just there... but everything's under semi-control now (thought I'd lost everything I just typed! A sort of late 1990's problem... ). Just thought I would like to take up on my promise to post this A-Z Blogger Book Survey, which I found on mr Laughing Ferrets blog.
     Now it is my turn, late as always.

Now, you may wonder what this lipstick-applicationist extraordinaire above is doing on post like this, but rest assured and please continue reading and all shall be illuminated.

- - -

Author you've read the most books from: Ivar Lo Johansson. Just an honest answer and not an answer I am especially proud of, not that I'm ashamed of it. It's just that he's not especially "hot" right now - and to make matters worse, his work's been hijacked by the Leftists a loooong time ago, calling him a "blue collar novelist" or something the like...

Best sequel ever: Don't really like the idea of sequels, but I looked forward very much to J.K. Rowlings last Harry Potter book. So the answer is: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.

Currently reading: One of H.P. Lovecrafts many short stories. They are on Antarctic and everything's spooky, which pretty much sums up the story. This one, however, is answering a lot of questions, in comparison to many other stories by this man.

George Clooney coffee: Smug as fuck!.

Drink of choice whilst reading: A cup of pretentious strong coffee made with the help of the good old Gaggia.

 

E-reader or physical book: In theory, e-reader, but I do not own one so I force myself to read PDF:s on my stationary computer, fooling myself to believe I am just as kewl as the kindle-readers or any apple-computer-stuff-owner.

    Of course physical books are great, they smell nice, have pieces of breadcrumbs in them and are better in every way, but when moving from one place to another, the carrying of books have gotten old, IMO.

Fictional character you would probably have dated in high school: Easy. Dolores Haze. Without a fucking doubt. The elegant "wordplay" is of course a hint to my motivation of picking her here...

Glad you gave this book a chance: L'élégance du hérisson, by Muriel Barbery. If you are ever so slightly sentimental, you should probably too...

Hidden book gem: ... hm... got to be Under the Raspberry-tree, which is a weird title for a book. A series of short stories, IIRC - read it at least 15 years ago. Very good indeed, by an author I give perhaps one or two rats-asses about: Margareta Sarri.

Important moment in your book life: Brothers Karamazov. I especially like typing this because Dostojevskij is having some sort of anti-renaisannce in some cultural spheres here in the Cold North - he's been bashed on radio and in some journals as well as MSM-papers' culture-sections. I suppose he's an anti-revolutionist, and "they" won't stand it! "They" being the ever-present "leftists". Heheheh...

Just finished: Open City, by Teju Cole. Just re-read it, a very good read indeed.

Kind of book you won't read: Crime-stories or "murder-porn" as it's been known as in some circuits.

Longest book you've read: Don't know, probably Karamazov Brothers... Or The Lord of the Rings, since it was originally meant to be just one tome. I would have liked it if it had stayed that way, especially considering the theme of this blog...

Number of bookcases you own: Just the one. I've put a ban on buying more books until I can find a bigger place. But this bookshelf happens to be abundantly filled.

One book you've read multiple times: Robinson Crusoe, O-Zone, Lord of the Rings, most of Jack London's production etc etc. A good book can be read around 9-10 times in a life, as the old axiom says.
     And not to mention another "one book" I've read multiple times - everything about captain Hornblower:

Preferred place to read: If I say breadcrumbs, you say: Bed! In the bed (not bead) is the answer to this one.

Three of your all-time favorite books: There are too many, but I'll give it a go: Wolf Larsen, O-Zone, Karamazov Brothers, the butterfly collector's most known book (one of characters can be seen in this post), first 25% of Metro 2033 by Dmitri Gluchovskij, most things written by mr Lars Gustafsson and so on...

Unapologetic fanboy for: J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter-books as well as the quite different author Paul Theroux... (different in comparison to J.K. Rowling).

Paul Theroux, "looking naturally cool and author:y"

Worst bookish habit: Eating and reading... the number of fat-spills and residual food in my books is getting silly. I have stopped doing this after getting a book back which I loaned a friend, and found that he'd been eating whilst reading my book. Since then I made a 180.

X marks the spot - Start at the top left of your bookshelf and pick the 27th book: V.S. Naipaul's A House for mr Biswas. A depressing story.

Your latest book purchase: I have banned myself to buy anymore, but I say this: It was a manga-story about a 15 year old girl that's investing waaay to much time in otome-games. A bit strange, the whole affair, especially me buying the book...

Zzz snatcher book (the last book that kept you up waaay too late): None, I read very Preussian and efficient: With clear, big eyes, ambient music to dampen and drown my neighbours arguing/knifing each other. I allocate my reading time very efficient as I do my sleep time.*'

These are not my eyes, they belong to another blogger...

- - -

That's it, thank you for your time, and thank you internet for providing a wide range of images to soften up this post. Goodnight one and all!

*) Don't really know about the grammar in this sentence...