We've moved!

This blog is now locked and await destruction. Google+ is partially deactivated and I will never come back to that mess, that means that some of my pointless pointers and comments might've been removed from your place.

I took my neat guys and moved to wordpress: https://llamaringwar.wordpress.com/

Moving to wordpress...

This will be the last post on jaows.blogpost.com. I have changed up, e-mail and stuff. Using ***, as well as started a more intense encrypting, as well as being better at having a separate computer for important stuff that is always off-line. Also, made some changes elsewhere. Adapt and regroup, or whatever it is called. 

 Li Keqiang in one of his super-fine suits, which 

I could litery walk over corpses to own (the suit, that is).

It is interesting how lax we all are when it comes to internet. I have very little to be ashamed of, I am posting about wargaming - but it is the principle! How on earth does old - supposedly deleted - information jump back via Google+? Never have I thought that the powers that be left us alone, nor have been so naive to belive that the same people wouldn't check my diary under my pillow - no, I am just weirdly annoyed with them being so bold to not even try to hide the fact: My bed that was made is now clearly disturbed, and the little lock on my pink diary has been broken.

New address is - yes, yes, they are nearly the same - on Wordpress. There are some fundamental differences, such as not being affiliated with Google+:  WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. It was first released on May 27, 2003, by founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It is being developed continuously by the WordPress Foundation [info cut from internet, somewhere, perhaps Wikipedia].

Wordpress really likes Facebook. Facebook is not a good thing, nor is the oblivious behaviour of people using FB a good thing, but what can you do - I will try to stay as far away as possible with my new accounts.

So, it goes: Automattic is owned by Wordpress Foundation, which in turn is owned by some shady, probably ultra-liberal, post-natal abortionist, leftist Frankfurt-schoolers, I.E. NSA or SÄPO or GRU - probably Vladimir Putin himself or perhaps mr Li Kechkiangs (Keqiang). But I can't be bothered with this further, I just want out of Google+.

Further on, Wordpress has her own problems. Most notably, besides a few security problems of old, are the need to learn HTML to make a text that doesn't mimic a 19 year old "woman" typing up an essay for her gender studies... So expect some shitty formatting in the beginning.

New address is https://llamaringwar.wordpress.com/. Llama's War of the Ring moves to here.

After 991 comments (of which over 9000 probably are by made by myself, or at least 50%) and nearly 500 posts of which 60-70% actually are of okay quality; and after nearly 170 000 H.I.T.S (How Idiots Track Success) or pageviews, as it were, I am leaving this place. Jaows.blogspot leaves his wife and 53 followers behind. R.I.P. in pieces, LOLOLLLOLOLL!!!!111one!1*

*) A fitting eulogigigio (or whatever it is called) for the Internetzzzz lolz lolz upboat kekekeke

- - -

The full transition will take a few days, but I have already put a sock in the biggest breaches and already lost a bunch of info, but I intend to take care of some of the posts which I like.

Issues with surveillance, Google+ and removal of an account

When I was checking the status of my Google+ account, which I rarely do, I noticed that some information that was not supposed to be there had leaked in. This was information supposedly deleted before 2007.
     We all know how everything stays on the internet, but this was just silly, so I decided to delete the Google+ account, regardless of how it would limit my possibilites to complain and comment on other blogs. Removal of my Google+ account would work fine I thought, as I had tried to remove a semi-fake account with a fake-blog attached to it - which I of course did before connecting this blog with Google+ (in order to make some pointless comment on someone else's blog), but tonight, Google wanted to remove my blog, all the uploaded images and all the texts published on this blog. No other options were available, in a way that I could only interpret as a way to make people that felt "too invested" to remove themselves from this FRA/NSA-haven...
    Of course... once you're in with the hydra, it never releases you... unless you accept death in return. Death in this overly dramatic example, of course means removal of my blog!
     This can of course not be tolerated by a paranoid blogger such as myself, so I will stop updates on blogspot and move my well trained bum elsewhere on the net. Also, I will stop using anything remotely affiliated with Google and other similar 1984-thingies... A bit of an over-reaction, but a prudent reaction, I do think, especially considering the fact how dissidents are persecuted in my shit-country Sweden. Fuck you Aftonbladet.

I will update this post later this month with the new platform-adress, if a better one exist. If not, I will bite the sour apple and stay here and eat my words.

Wood Elves!

Since there is only one phase left on Thranduil's sculpt (namely the antlers), I have started to work on a project that is related to the king of Woodsies: Wood Elves - be it from Mirkwood or Lorien! My old project was called Edhedu (from Sindarin, though I've lost the translation of it), a way for me to crowbar in some WHFB-models which I liked, and still do like.
     Today, I post this in an effort to force me to finally finish the project, but in a better way than first intended. This time, I have a dream to make the whole army usable for either Mirkwood or Lorien. As one or two of you dear readers might remember, mr FoB was so kind and gifted me a box of beautiful Mirkwood Palace Guard for my big b-day, and I have every intention to make a themed tray for them and use them in a battle or two. Also, I have got some unassembled Galadhrim warriors and knights which crave usage on the battlefield... still unassembled...

I have removed this old guy's 60mm base and replaced it with a homecast 64mm base. It lacks vegetation.

I cut myself! It looked like a happy mouth, so there you go...

When searching for inspiration I found this Napoleonic diorama with a really well done grassy terrain, something to strive for... Also, it doesn't hurt that the picture is well taken. Something I still am totally incapable of doing.

Scale-match of my sort-of homemade/DIY Thranduil's size contrasted versus Galdriel the Godess. Her spouse, I cannot for my life remember what his name is. Ever!

I can remember reading about Galadriel storming The Necromancer's keep somewhere, and that they used all sorts of battle-stuff, as well as magic to fight him... in the movies, it was just dueling. Cool, yes, but not what I had waited for. So, I am currently planning my own "official" Galadhrim War Catapult (LoME) and am currently constructing this super-woody catapult. Semi-living. We'll see how it turns out. Indentations are made for two crew.

Unpainted, really large Giant Eagle from The Hobbit-SBG-line. The base for it used to be occupied by a WHFB Warhawk which I got for a really good price. It has been since demoted to filler in the big Wood Elf-warband.

Swans got their wings redone since I had the opportunity to watch some flying swans and noted that their individual feathers are impossible to discern from one-another; just smoothed the wings with GS.

I've also demolished the old and clumsy sky chariot. A new one is taking form.

This has to be favourite homemade model. Made out of polystyrene and pure happiness. Look at that little face! It is an animated púkelman, a stone guardian.

Not finished with Thranduil's face. His sword is a bit on the large side... So are his rings, but that is just according to the movies. They actually look quite alright! Always something to be proud of!

One day my pictures and painting will be like this (picture from Warseer, thread "Every Tzeentch model ever made").

Not sure how to go further with this WHFB-bird. It is not even done paint-wise... It is heavy and keeps breaking off the transparent pin.

Typical forest filler. Not sure of it's place in the army, but it is made purely from scratch and I am proud of it and want it in the army. The majority of the army can be seen below:

This is the paint-state they are all in. Black, blue and basecoated faces.... not sure how to harmonize them with the Mirkwood Palace Guard and Galadhrim Warriors and Galadhrim Knights. That, my friends, is the question!
    Have a nice weekend hobbyists and addicts, alike!

Phase Phive, Phranduil...

This project seems to take it's time with me...

When it was time for the GS that is attached to Thranduil's mantle and the upper arms, it had nearly cured without my knowledge - I believe I was making dinner and forgot about how much time that had actually passed, It was without a doubt the most annoying time I have ever experienced in sculpting - furious, I was, because the idiot-GS wouldn't stick on the cloak because of the vaseline/olive oil-residues that I'd used as a release agent for my sculpting tools at earlier stages in this project, which of course wasn't the true reason: No, the GS was hardening whilst I was trying to attach it and wasn't pliable enough.
     It reminded me of Peter Griffin when he tried to get a dead frog out of his house using a piece of cardboard, pushing it up against a wall and towards a window. Except this wasn't funny, just hell. So, I've just went through hell.

But eventually the crap stuck and I settled for the next best thing and never redid it. Then I got some white paint on it, as I usually do in the ending phases of a sculpting project in order to "see better", which now, evidently was a bad idea. It is also impossible to get a decent picture with the camera when everything is white and I insist on putting it under my daylight bulb AND use flash on my camera.

His forehead [fo'rri(t] got some GS, as was done on the foot-and-unarmoured version of Thranduil I made earlier this year. But this time, some space was saved for the little tiara-crown that Thranduil likes to wear when he fights orcs and goblins and trolls and dwarves and giant worms.

Extensions, I believe it is called amongst the female part of the human population.

The elk is currently female. The last part of this project should involve sculpting new antlers and a giant dong so we can all see that Thranduil rides into battle on a guy and not a girl.
     Not sure on the sword... it is a bit on the long side and I am on the fence whether or not I should try to sculpt the decorations that we can see in the movies...

Sculpting Thranduil - Phase 3!

Only five phases left. He is still missing his sword and pieces of armour as well as missing a scabbard (to sheat his sword in; am I using the right word here?).

Took me the liberty to look up some stirrups and saddles for once - although the Elves did not need such things in the books, the new [movie] canon seems to disregard that fact so we'll go with that then...

This is a good picture to get a look at his armour. As you can see I have simplified it heavily on my sculpt. I should probably add that he has his gambezon/cloak/elf-parka-thingie open when he fights so that the harnesk shows, instead of the gambezon. Mr FoB can probably correct me on the correct terms when it comes to correct armour and such correctivness (which I hope you do!).

His shoulder pads were designed in a very impressive way in the movies: Some sort of very interesting feather-like armour is strung from the lamellar-shoulder-pads which in turn are attached to the mantle. Hence the weird shape of the mantle in the picture above. Numbers 1 and 2 are there to show where some serious GS:ing is needed.

The arrows shows how I sculpted the fluting and armour-decorations.

When searching for inspiration regarding the armour I did take a look at Games Wokshop's armoured Thranduil. The shoulder pads and the lamellar armour on his upper arms are much better than what I have done, but I did allow me to take some short-cuts. My skills aren't there yet - too fiddly, especially considering the continuation on this post: The fluting of the Elven armour!

If one compare the saddle-person above with Thranduil you may very well see that I sort of succeeded in my intentions of having him lazily stand in the scabbards while the war-elk is rearing or traversing some piece of terrain.

Above, we can finally see how I am faring with the fluting or decorations of his armour - EDIT: No we can't, I messed up the pictures.

The fluting has taken some time to do, but I do feel it looks acceptable now. Also, he's no longer as bold as I am.
    Things left to do, a list mainly for my own sake:

1) Scabbard.
2) Finish the stirrups.
3) Finish the hair in such a way that the armour doesn't get too obscured.
4) Make a scabbard and attach it.
5) Make the gambezon look more like fabric.
6) Sculpt a simplified version of the feathers on his back - as well as finish the mantle.
7) The elk must be elkified.

Sculpting Thranduil the Man-crusher on Stag

I am beginning to get a serious man-crush on Thranduil after perusing a dozen pictures of him in order to better this limping sculpt. I suppose it is only a side of my narcissism (with Thranduil being close to a mirror image of myself with the long, golden hair and so forth). The sculpt is going in the right direction, but very slowly so... Mr FoB gave me some pointers, albeit very slow ones, but still, they eventually arrived.

Okay... looking... good?

In this picture I had started to work on the cloak as well as building up some parts and pieces of the armour.

Repositioned on the saddle, a bit closer to the elk and also a bit further down. Arms attached, mock-up shoulder-armour sculpted - view them as '80s shoulder-thingies...

A very cool and relaxed Thranduil on his giant moose. Here I have added some GS on his cloak, or mantle, rather.

Here I've started to work on his shoulder pads. Shoulder pads à la 40K. Armour is missing all the flutings. The flow of the fabric looks fine, at least when it comes to our hobby. He sits fine on the elk, I think. Well, stands...

I used this thin curtain to try to see how fabric would flow on a rearing elk. Worked not so well.
    The armour has been reworked since the pictures above were taken, by the by, but no updated ones could be find on the phone. 

Tomorrow will be lost since I managed to get me into a weird date with the wrong woman! These things occasionally happen in my life, and I have learnt to take it with a shrug of my shoulders: Also, if it weren't for my immature behaviour, I would not have anything to cringe to. Cringing is funny if you do not really care.

PS) Hahahah! Look at the Elves in the top of this update and pretend you are a Japanese and look at their noses! Is THIS how our European noses looks like? Gigantic, straight things that stick straight out of our faces?! Suuuuper funny! Ah, racism! 

It reminds me of an old work-mate who lived in Japan for three years with her husband, when they'd gotten their firstborn and she rode the subway or commuter train: The Japanese schoolgirls and mothers would come forward and touch the baby's non-existant (in our eyes) nose and say "Kawaiiii!" and giggle. My work-mate said they thought her firstborn girl's nose was cute because it protruded 2 mm more than the average Japanese nose XD