Osgiliath Veterans

As we are playing our campaign in Osgiliath and I am using the Osgiliath Veteran warband for it, I felt that making some Veterans would probably be a good idea as I can upgrade to them in the long run. I didn't want to buy the nice but expensive models that Games Workshop were selling so I made my own. I like the models but only having three poses rather limits their use in my opinion. If there were a few different poses then I may have been tempted. Still the basic Gondor Troops are good enough and converting them turned out to be simple enough. On the front of the models I made small green stuff bags and pouches. These are simple enough to make and I didn't try anything complicated with them. I also added some extra belts to better match the commercially available models.

The finishing touch however was the addition of cloaks. These are taken from an old skaven kit and fit the scale perfectly. I wasn't sure how to best attach them and I only got it right on the final attempt. The first one I just glued on as it came and while its simple it doesn't look overly great. The next two I added some greenstuff to have the cloak come around the front of the neck. Its better but I didn't account for the bulk of where the cloak attaches to the model. After I had painted the model I felt the cloak didn't fall correctly over the shoulders. It looks fine enough and so I didn't correct them. The final model was done with the attachment points removed and this gives a much more natural feel to the cloak.

I don't know if I will need more of these Veterans in the future. I don't really think the spear option or the bow option is that much better than what a ranger or standard warrior would offer in most cases so I haven't made any. Maybe when I get to playing with the army I'll reconsider and get back to doing more.

Osgiliath: Week One

Last week we kicked off our Battle Companies Osgiliath Campaign. As I think I have said before this is mainly to familiarise ourselves with the rules and also to give us time to build up the armies and terrain we need for the full strategy game. The rules are similar enough to Legends of the Old West and this has caused a little bit of confusion. Still our first two games played out well and we didn't feel like we made too many mistakes. I've since gone through the rules fairly in depth and picked up a few nuances that we missed in the excitement. The purpose of the map for Battle Companies is simply to record who is doing the best in the campaign and records total victories and also territory controlled. Once the total victories of one side reaches the edge of the page the campaign is over and a winner declared. While there are empty territories on the map the players can chose one empty one to occupy for each victory. Once they are all filled they can then only take a territory that is adjacent to one they already occupy or directly across the river from one already occupied. This shouldn't result in the exact same tally as the total victories as territory can end up getting swapped back and forth a few times before an overall victory is declared. You might have a slight advantage in territory but lose the campaign and this could be considered this more of a waste or too high expenditure of resources on behalf of the loser.

The first game featured the men of Gondor trying to hold the Ford of Ranbarad against a marauding band of Orcs. The Gondorians couldn't prevent the Orcs from making the crossing they were just too numerous to hold back for long. The ford itself was bombarded with arrows forcing the defenders to duck for cover while the Orcs crossed in numbers to the North and South. Two forays were sent against them with the Orcs to the North being stopped with a bloody slaughter while those to the south rampaged past the beleaguered defenders to make it to the ruins of Osgiliath and the relative safety of their foul brethern's company.

The second game was a closer affair. The brave men of Rohan were ambushed by marauding Goblins along the Anduin and took to higher ground while awaiting reinforcements. Thinking that their rear was protected by a small river they were quickly surrounded by an unseen force of goblins rapidly crossing the river and charging uphill to take them in the rear. It was a bloody affair but the Goblins scattered the Rohirrim and claimed victory.

Moria Goblin Warband Speed Painting

Here is what I have completed for my Moria Warband, a motley crew if ever there was one. It's small and will probably grow fast but as the models are cheap and readily available I don't mind. I have to still get some captain and lieutenant models for my Battle Company but I am confident enough that I can convert some from what I have. Adding a cloak and some helmets can't be that hard, right...? I did the bases on these to fit in with my standard terrain and I think it works quite well with the models, accentuating them without drawing the eye overly. Now I think next up will be a Balrog...

Here is a WIP shot of the Goblins so you can see just how easy they are to speed paint. I based them up beforehand and then just sprayed them all white. As I warned before, the models have some delicate details on the fact and so you should be careful when it comes to actually spraying them. I then washed the entire model with Agrax Earthshade to define the detail, my old eyes are failing somewhat so every little helps.

In this shot you can see the first washes are laid down before I really build up the colours to be a bit more vibrant. I experimented with various washes, glazes and paints. In the end it was best to go with a dilute paint for the most part as its more defined than using just washes or glazes. Having said that however I used a wash and a glaze for the skin to keep it as pale as possible.

Moria Cave Troll

No Moria force would be complete without a Cave Troll right? Well to that end I picked up one from eBay. I should say rescued one from eBay really as it was in quite a state when I got it. After some quite rehabilitation in Biostrip and a complete disassembly and clean up I managed to get him back to a basic standard. There are a few gaps on the model that I didn't fill but the mould lines are all removed and was the thick layer of paint. In keeping with the speed painted goblins I did this guy very quickly. I have been practising stippling a lot recently and though that this model would be another good way to practice. In the end I really don't know where I am going wrong with the technique. In certain places with certain colours it looks great but in other places it looks terrible. The grey skin here came out well, I'd have liked a little more contrast but its a good solid example of the technique. The lighter skin however just didn't get any contrast over some much darker layers. I'll still continue with the technique but I don't think I'll try it across a whole army just yet.

Boromir

I picked up this model of Boromir for €1 on eBay, a bit of a bargain considering that he is metal. I need some form of character to lead the army heroically against the forces of Mordor and who other than Boromir could do that? I kept him in the grey scheme of the rest of my force who I have started referring to as the 'Grey Watchers'. I'm not sure that this isn't a reference used elsewherebut its what I am using for my Lord of the Rings Gondor force. I see them as a more guerrilla force amongst the ruins of Osgiliath rather than as a force that will stand up and have a pitched battle with the Orcs. He will also be standing in for my Captain until I can either convert (unlikely) or buy a proper captain. The smaller scale of these models plus the lack of alternative parts make these quite a challenge to convert. I can't even do a head swap as any replacement heads that I have are way too large.

Speed Painting: Moria Goblins

This is possibly the fastest that I have ever painted models and well it definitely looks that way. However these are going to be fielded enmasse and as such the individual details aren't all that important. I started with a solid white spray primer, too solid in places. These models have rather fine details so its best to go gently with the spray. Over this I washed a few different colours and well they are done. The only real painting I did was on the black where I wanted to achieve a solid coat. The green is Athonian Camoshade followed by Waywatcher Green, both GW paints. The red was Hull Red from Vajello that has been diluted a lot. The browns were various shades, too numerous to name. Just go with any paint that has been diluted or even just a straight up wash from Agrax Earthshade by GW.

Osgiliath Campaign: Introduction

On Thursday we will kick off our lord of the Rings Battle Companies campaign in our local game store in Hamburg. We haven't really planned much with regards to it but to help track how the progress is going I found a map online and made it into something we could use for the purposes. Each victory allows the victor to colour one of the territories shown on the left. Once the map is filled we will use it as a basis for a campaign using larger forces. I have a lot of other things to paint before I get more involved with the lord of the Rings Battle Game and so having a slow grow campaign like this is just perfect. The forces arrayed against each other is slightly nebulous at the moment but we have confirmed that Mordor, Moria, Gondor and Rohan will make an appearance. I intend to keep the map updated with progress reports here every few weeks so that the players can check it out too and see who is winning.

For Gondor

Despite the absolutely tiny scale of these models I persevered and managed to finish twelve of them over the weekend, twice of what I need to play Battle Companies. I knew the miniatures were 25mm scale before I started but I am so used to the larger heroic 32mm of Games Workshops other models I really struggled to paint these. They aren't the most fantastically detailed sculpts, mainly being one piece. They are fun to do however and I discovered a few short cuts to make them much faster to paint, undercoating them grey was a big one. I also sneaked in Boromir with these. It's a quick paint job again but the objective of these is to get them onto the table for two weeks time and not spend an age painting them. I still feel like I did the model justice but I wasn't going to spend a whole day painting him. Two hours was long enough. now that my good warband is done I have to look to the Mines of Moria for my next! I have a bunch of the goblin models that I will be stripping paint off of tonight and then hopefully making quick progress on. They'll possible be my next update here but I have also been making slow progress on the Nighthaunts.

Gondor BattleCompany

What are these I hear you ask. Well they certainly aren't Nighthaunts. I picked up two cheap Lord of the Rings armies a while back and I decided to get some work done on a Gondorian Battle Company as a break from the Nighthaunts. I had thought that these would be fast to paint but even just getting the basecoats onto them took a lot longer than expected. These are still very much WIP but I'll hopefully rectify that over the weekend and continue to make progress with my Grimghast Reapers.