GW: New releases for The Hobbit

Some overpriced characters, got no comments on them. Azog looks fine and the warg looks pretty good. I wonder how long his arm will stay attached, though...

Linky to young Thorin Oakenshield.
     Also updated the sidebar with some new blog links on the "Running Updates" sidebar. There are a whole lot of great blogs out there.

Khemrian Warsphynx -> Rhûn Automaton

The Rhûn project is still running. I have gotten my order from figurspel.se and the three discount War of the Ring movement trays (needed only one package which equals three trays, in case one of you dear readers are unfamilliar with Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring) and they will be used to uniform the rest of the models in neat companies and formations.
     In an earlier blogpost I said something about a Rhûn Automaton, inspired by a small publication from Crown Enterprises' M.E.R.P (Middle-Earth Role Playing). I did a very inspired sketch and later a not-so inspired skeleton for the basic structure. Upon finishing the basic sculpture I realized it was too much work for something I could very well buy with the money I got from working a bunch of overtime. OT is not well paid at my work, but still, I thought I could indulge in a Khemrian Warsphynx (sic). When inspecting the frames, the realization came to me instantly:

Why not make two out of the kit, thus serving me twice the amount of entertainment. I have put off finishing them since, as noted earlier, my habitat is saturated with models, but I have now spoken with the person involved in storage in my flat-block and it seems I might get one or even two square-meters of storage. The storage-woman was almost as hard to find as the time needed to get the basic work on the automatons done...

... what hasn't been hard to find, though, is trouble. The warm weather have made the "youth" restless and crime has increased. As is normal nowadays, in the "New Sweden". To top it all off, the town have been invaded by pikeys, would you believe it! And gypsie beggars (granted, they've been here for almost seven, eight years, but this year it has exploded).
     But the things listed above was not the the worst part of the last week, no, the worst part is that I again got "promoted" to "overseer" at the most important part of my workplace, called the "Brain".
     The following is supposed to be taken as an enjoyable little story, under no circumstances were I feeling bad, I quite enjoyed it, just like last time when everything fell apart around me at work. It seems I have been blessed with that kind of heart.

Once again everything fell apart at work. This time I got no help and had to juggle stressed-out lorry drivers under the clock, stressed-out truckers, an under-boss with PMS, my own boss with PMS and some testosteroned-out truckers that got fed up with everything being blocked up, smashed and just turned into shits - thanks to me... heheheh... Not to mention the little "miss-communication" to a major airport handling some things for us... the last part was actually on purpose because:
       I finally realized this "promotion" was a "smart" step for the underling bosses to easier get rid of certain employees during these times of heavy downsizing. At least I managed to escape the dreaded "disciplinary talk" that another workmate got. As a Swede, all these things might not directly lead to unemployment and possibly drug abuse, but they surely are perceived equally un-enjoyable, to put it midly. And again, as a Swede, you are really not used to bosses screaming at employees. It really is a fascinating place to be nowadays, everyone's so stressed out. Especially when we have a skeleton crew during summer industry vacation and no AC to deal with the heat.
     Last time I was "promoted" (and instantly demoted) I managed to get everyone's lunch cancelled due to me sending things where they were not supposed to go, wasting huge amounts of money and telling truckers and lorry-drivers that "everything's fine, just go with your cargo" when things obviously wasn't fine. And why is that? Because the people downsizing thought it was good idea to let one man - without any knowledge what to do at the aptly named workstation "Brain" - fill the space of a formerly three man work-station. It's just not possible for one guy being everywhere, directing half wits with trucks, answering stupid and/or pertinent questions from locum-tenens, NOT being allowed a phone due to "security reasons" etc etc. It all ended well: I left early for din-dins at home. Not really employee of the month... but I got a good laugh from it.
    All in all, the above "story" was not as enjoyable as I thought it would be to read. When proof-reading it I had a blank bored face so sadly, I give the story above 1 Llama-head out of 5.

--- --- ---

In other news, I got a person willing to trade the WHFB-models I had in exchange for some LotR-stuff. I sent this Sunday, it was going to be processed by the local mail on Monday.

I have got the mail-chit that says the package the UK-person sent has arrived. Only problem is the idiot-postal workers lost the chit in my staircase. And as you might remember, my staircase isn't the best place to be or lose things in. Shoot-outs and other bad things happen. As well as me, stealing everything I see! But this time I was lucky and found the mail-chit* laying in the staircase. It had layed there untouched for two days! Sometimes you're lucky...

*) Receipt to prove you are the recipient of the parcel, don't really know what it's called in English.

EDIT: Thanks to Scott for your suggestion in what to do with the box of goblins that never showed up. I asked the Swedish Mail and they said they do nothing when the parcel is from another country. It was a matter for the company that sent the lost box. I decided not to ask GW about it, since it never was about me getting stuff. I was just, and still am, very happy that they politely answered my e-mails and sent me a box without me (sort of) asking for it.

Minor GBU

June is soon at its end. Midsummer came and went. Celebrated it in a small private oasis in central Stockholm, would you believe it! That meant: No car-fires, no police and no "youth" behaving "double-plus un-good"! We had archipelago water and sun and even some traditional Midsummer-rain. Barbecue and a series of games of kubb. No pickled herring, though... Good times.

- - -   - - -   - - -

My small habitat is now saturated with models, I do not have any space left which is why the whole hobby is put on the backburner until I find a better place with some sort of large closet. Instead, I have been reading World War Z and its prequel The Zombie Survival Guide which to me seemed like it was the frame work for the author's work with World War Z.
      World War Z have been out for quite some time, I was the last one to read it in my social bubble, which meant everyone was recommending it and saying it was such a great book. Of course, I was very underwhelmed with it. The personal hype is to blame...
     The Zombie Survival Guide is something I would have gotten very much enjoyment from a few years ago, today it was not my thing and I put it down half-way through.

My vacation is soon here and I will not be doing much hobby or spend much time in front of any screen the following four weeks. So, good bye and happy Midsummer.

Exchange of models...

I am going to post this at The Warhammer Forum, the Market subforum. I want to exchange the models below for ANY LotR or the Hobbit models. Contact me for exchange via PM after reading the post.

So, the following are up for exchange:

- 10 (WHFB) High Elf Lothern Sea Guard
- 10 (WHFB) High Elf Sword Masters of Hoeth
- 5 Ellyrian Reavers
- 10 Plaguebearers of Nurgle.*

*) Inspired by another blogger I figured these would go well with the goblins from the Hobbit, but they did not, they were a tad too large and disgusting, and so want to get rid of them.

Last Formation of Goblins for War of the Ring

The last formation of gobbos for the upcoming War of the Ring-battle is taking shape:

 Not a lot of love was given to the pictures - as tradition bides, so everything's fine.

Nothing especially complicated with the trays or the bases, really. Artist paper-boards (some sort of thick card that warps very little when glued upon but can be cut very easily with sharp scissors) without any elaborate cork or polystyrene elevations. Just decorated. Decorated with what? Decorated with the following:

- 4 large toadstools.
- 10 smaller mushrooms.
- 1 Giant Bat.
- 3 barrels with goblin chemical warfare-stuff in them. Think tiberium-water or Ninja Turtles mutating powers.
- 2 dwarven shields.
- 1 broken dwarf axe.
- 2 dwarven stones.
- 4 disgusting giant bugs (that are connected fluff-wise with the barrels and the look of the gobbos).
- 1 goblin base with giant bugs.
- 1 trophy pole with a skull (from the Escape from Goblin Town-box)
- X number of pieces of cork and small pebbles.

The whole project was a case of decoration.
    You may notice that the Goblin Scribe and his little contraption is used as a filler, though there are five goblins on the 40 mm base (from em4-minis, I think it is 41 mm because it doesn't fit on a official GW WotR cavalry tray). I think it looks funny and makes the rotten looking goblins look sturdier, like they have some sort of purpose rather than run up the enemey without descent weapons and NO armour just to die. The scribe could be given some special rule to further this narrative purpose...

I will try to mimic the paint style of a blogger that I follow, we'll see if he calls me out on it.

Lastly, the promised box of Goblins from Games Workshop never did show up. I think it might be good ol' Swedish Mail that either stole it or thrashed it someway and didn't bother to notify me.
       I did not want to complain to Games Workshop about a box they sent me just to be nice (although I did send the broken models back to them in a little parcel) so I think I'll let this one slip. Too bad, I had grand plans for those 15 of the 18 goblins I was expecting... but I just can't bring myself to actually buy another set of them. Anyways, that's the reason why this formation got a lot smaller than I originally had intended...
      What do you think, should I notify GW about this or is it perhaps a bit too much? Complaining even when they try to do right?

Domestic Vacation, museums & old ships

Visited the very well known Vasa Museum. In 1961 some guys salvaged this old ship...

... after it had lay(ed?)/lied(?) on the bottom of the sea for circa 400 years. It sank 1628 merely hours after its christening. A total fiasco. Which might explain why there was only one Swedish flag in the whole giant ship-museum: Painted on a little obscured piece of wall on the sixth floor.
       The museum-people are a bunch of no-good leftist, "humanist" globalists as well, which might explain why our guide was mainly talking about how badly women were treated and how we already in those days were "an immigration country - already a multicultural place". I didn't complain on her further bashings of Sweden and silently left the group to study the ship - no longer a wreckage - on my own. I was there to look and learn about the ship, not to get lectures on how bad white, middle-aged men supposedly were and are. Idiots...

This has nothing to do with the regular stuff posted here, but I suppose there might be some interest in this old ship... A link to how it might have looked before spending 400 years on the sea bottom.

New mount-hold but old cannon - very few cannons were left on the bottom of sea, most of them were salvaged the years following the fiasco. The cannons were needed for the 30 years war (I think).
      Below some personal things that didn't belong to Johan the skeleton. 

 A pipe and some fire utensils.

They quite morbidly had eight or more skeletons in open caskets. It was interesting to see how many of them had traces of healed wounds - was it really that tough living back in the day? Most of the recovered bodies had - except for the expected karies-teeth, lost and pulled teeth etc - a bunch of weird stuff happened to them: Amputated toes, broken ribs here and there (that had healed before the sinking, meaning they had survived the wound), some serious skull-cracking seemed to have happened to a few of the ol' mateys.
     While this is not uncommon at all - I have seen this in many other examples and museums - I must admit it was just a little too much: I wonder if my manliness would have been enough in those days. What if I could meet one of these 155 cm guys and see what he had to say about today? I can only assume Johan would kick my ass...

Johan the skeleton.

... and a total kick-ass scale model. It looked like 1:72 but I am not entirely sure. That's it for today and likely for another few days, the schedules full with pointless things to do, so see you in a while crocodile...

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - trailer!

Trailer on youtube. Looks aaaaawesome!

Mantic Pre-orders for (some) of the Kickstarter KoW

Linky, pinky....

Some of the models aren't really turning out especially well - they are okay, but you always expect something more when the company is sort of big. The werewolves look fine, if you ask me, but some of the images from the human line aren't as promising, but that might be the paintjob or whatever - I reserve final judgement until I see them or I am at an especially grumpy mood. But this one just gets on my nerves:

Boooh! The one model that was supposed to look full of life and organic and stuff is really looking like a doll dressed up as a fairy. The model above is not advance order.
      The trolls, some chariots as well as some mummies and some other things are, though. The Elohi/angels look nice... disclaimer: The Elohi is not on pre-order either. Check out their kickstarter update-page for current information.

Edit: Added 200% text and images.

Bear (28 mm) - possibly for War of the Ring

The "possibly for War of the Ring" comes from a long wanting to do either a Narnian army or an army even more foresty than the Edheldu army that I once did. Since this bear turned out not as characterful as I hoped, due to bad planning - I didn't even had a sketch, I just used the BoFA-bear as a template - this particular bear will be used as a giant bear for a very foresty army.

The nose will be painted black... otherwise there's only the claws that need some GS-work and then some paint. Only problem is, I am out of green stuff! Bad planning is to blame and I also refuse going to the local GW-store and buy five grammes of the stuff for 100 SEK. So, trusty figurspel.se was my rescue, though I have to wait a week for the package meaning the completion of the bear will never happen because I will most likely have moved on to other projects by then. That's the beauty of a hobby, it is not that important.

 Below we can see some work in progress-pictures.

GBU - General Blogging Update - War of the Ring!

War of the Ring is on the table tonight, well, on the time-table that is. I am currently planning June and shifting things along so that I will be able to book mr FoB for a game of War of the Ring - expect a sh*tty battle-report within the end of this month. Anyways, summer's finally here:

... with hopes on seeing more of the above now that the weather is getting amiable once again.


This blog is so full of creativity that I am almost speech-less. I encourage you to visit it and although the content mainly goes within the parameters of "pulp", it is still very inspiring. Colonel Truth, is the creator of said blog...

I want one of the above. Maybe there were some roaming in the far east of the Silken Lands of Arda in Second Age, or if it was First Age?

If you have a blog or website that is sort of pertinent to Middle-Earth or our miniature wargaming hobby in general, please post a little comment and advertise it and I will put it on the sidebar for my own enjoyment. After getting some help from Panagiotis of Dramatic Katastases, all blogs are shown to the right of this post, in order of freshestly (if that's a word) updated.

In other "news", the bear is getting close to completion. Since he's drying under a lamp, I didn't take any pics. He's turning out okay, but not good enough to be a Beorn. I think I'll redo him when my new green stuff arrives from figurspel.se - currently I am almost all out of GS! I still have some super sculpey, thankfully, because soon there is the National Day of Sweden and I'll get a few days off for hobby, YAY! The true nationalday is Midsummer, though, but our idiot-politicians who created this aren't aware of that.

And to finish this rather pointless update, I can inform you that I've ordered the WHFB starterset with the griffin. I intend to trade the rest of the models and bits in that box with someone over at TFW along with a few other LotR-incompatible pieces. The griffin is looking sharp, as they say.

Sculpting Beorn!

... or a generic huuuge bear. If you remember the size of Beorn on the BoFA-box, you can see this project has gone another direction. But I still feel I should have gone the PJ-way, which of course is "more is better" and "more is more" etc...

The head is really just a placeholder. I included the BoFA-version (Battle of Five Armies) of Beorn, which has been used as a template. The bear (or perhaps Beorn if the sculpting turns out okay in the end) will be rearing as to look more aggressive. The left paw was intentionally left looking passive.
     I have ordered silicone from Germany and await my payment to finally get processed and arrive so they'll send the parcel. The silicone will be used to make some homemade 64 mm bases if I want to make another bear, but this time a truly huuuge one...

EDIT: Forgot these images:

The role of Beorn happens to be played by a Swede. I will not mention his name because he is one of the biggest douches in this country-

 I really like this over the top painting above, it is very much alike the box cover for Battle of the Five Armies.

A bear looks almost boring when just depicted like this one above so I will use my artistic freedom to make the sculpt look a bit more interesting.


Other
The idea of making hobbits from Zvezda medieval peasants in 1:72 scale hasn't been forgotten.
    Also, inspired by Jamie from Rough War (of the Ring) I finally got my crap together and learned how to make PDF:s - easy as a baby's poop if you have OpenOffice! Now I only have to learn how to upload PDF:s to the internetz.

ALSO: Games Workshop promised me a box of replacement goblins. They never came. Thank you very much faith/luck, or if it was GW that pulled a number on me*.

Radagast's Racer has been put on hold for the moment - I will return to that project at a later date, as well as post some pictures of the finished Elven Swan Sky Chariot (workname). Swan Chariot sounds a little bit better... Abrupt end!

*) Is that an expression that fits here? Meaning "they fooled me"?