8th Edition.. What is all the hype? WH40K

Ok, so I have been doing a lot of painting and expect to do an update on my warriors of Minas Tirith from GW for their Lord of the Rings skirmish game soon.... but because I have the attention span of a gnat... and all of the articles and angst about the "shiny new 8th ed " for Games Workshop Warhammer 40k.... I have been drawn back in. In my blog intro I expressed the love-hate relation ship I have had with WHFB & WH40K.....


Flash forward... I still love the game/genre and have always followed the fluff as my friends still play and I visit the GW webstore often looking for Lord of the Rings miniatures.... Anyway... I have found it very hard to not jump back on board... hype is like that I guess.... so, in an effort to scratch that itch, I had to dig out some old Imperial Guard I picked up from my friend Donnie a while back.... the funny thing is.. some of the units used to belong to me and I sold them to him when he got into the game.... you have to forgive the chipping, etc... the bases are again the old early 90's goblin green with rail road green sawdust....


So without further ado... some old time pics....

This is what I discovered in my miniature collection.. I was skeptical at best. I immediately set about organizing, etc... looking to see what I actually had. It turns out there was a nice bit of stuff here...

 

 Above is a 10 man lead box set squad of Catachan that I painted sometime in the mid 90's... no worse for wear. I was glad to have these back... along with the ONLY old style Imperial Guardsman from my huge IG army that I sold off... it was huge, but back in those days.. we didn't have vehicles like they do now and you could actually use a Rhino as transport! With some work, these will be beautiful... especially after the rebasing.

 

The timing here is interesting as I got out of 40K a while back, but held onto the figures I mention above... In GW terms though, when Donnie got into the game, they were making yet ANOTHER edition change... and they were starting to move to the plastic kits... command and special weapons were still in metal blisters though. Here you have another lead 10 man Catachan squad with the sniper blisters and incomplete heavy weapons teams.... there are also some Necromunda figures in the back left and some plastic Catachan he picke up somewhere. The metal snipers are on the right... I am assuming that they are Catachan based upon how they look.

Next up is a squad of Steel legion, man, how I loved these guys, but at this point, I had had enough of GW and the rules changes... These were my figures also, but I sold them to Donnie unpainted.

Up next are the lead box set of 10 Cadian storm troopers.. the original hot shot lasers I think... I don't remember if I sold these to him or he picked them up afterward... this is a unit of 7 lasguns, 2 plasmas, a flamer, captain and some other guy.. not sure... what...

Last up is the plastic Cadians.... I am not sure what he bought, but they are mine now... from what I have on hand, I have 2 platoons of the new plastic Cadians and some options... for weapons teams... plasma and melta and flamer.... Included in this is the original lead Cadian command. The wounded Cadian I have still, just not pictured. The command team has an officer, standard, com guy... apparently with the old style vox  and then an additional lead blister that had the melta and plasma.


There is a variety of the extra hand held weapons... there is one guy modeled for a grenade launcher and the other plastics are flamers...


So now the question is.... how do I scratch this itch? I have plenty to do here.... and, God only knows I already have a huge mountain of lead, resin and plastic to work on already.... If I were to get back into 40K... The Catachan would definitely be going.... in fact, I think everything would be going except the plastic Cadians.... I would pick up the new plastic Cadian command and some additional units. As much as I love the older figures, I like the newer ones better and I am sure that out there is someone who is looking for the older style figure to go with their army form that age in GW history... They will be making it to a flea market table at one of the HMGS conventions soon enough. The important thing is that with the plastic Cadians, I have the basis for an army.... I can buy the starter pack and the assault pack and get basically a Leman Russ and Chimera for free with 2 more squads of IG, command and a Kommisar.


For now.. I will continue working on my Lord of the Rings figures.. the warriors of Minas Tirith.... but soon.... I will swap out .... it is good to have so many options.... I am never bored!!!

Finished GW Knights of Minas Tirith Unit with Faramir

Well, at long last... I have finished the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings Skirmish battles Knights of Minas Tirith!!! It is a small unit of 5, the standard bearer and Faramir mounted.... Working on this unit made me do a lot of soul searching.... I have come to the profound revelation that I am NOT an artist... or at least I don't have those skills honed.... I still do not paint eyes or do fine detailing well yet... I did manage to get some additional small detail on Faramir. I gave him some facial detail and picked out his teeth as they do in all of the GW pictures.


I discovered while painting these I want to get better at it.... and I remember how relaxing and fun it is to paint, but first I will need to get some better brushes... I currently have a large selection of brushes from many manufacturers and always find myself going back to certain ones as if the others were not even there.... to every thing you want to do in painting miniatures, there is a paintbrush for the job... DON'T buy cheap brushes.... This was another lesson I learned from HMGS Hobby University... more importantly from Heather and John! You will instantly see a marked improvement when you start using good brushes... I'll talk about brushes and paints at some point I am sure... primer too!


For now, I'll get back on topic....

Like I said above.... I need to concentrate on fine detail work and faces.... These are better than table top quality in my opinion, but they are far from master pieces.


I was able to complete the figures using only a few paints.... for flesh tones I used two... Iron Wind/Partha Dwarf flesh as the drybrush and War machine flesh from the Cygnar pain set. I used a few shades of browns, from both Games Workshop and Ral Partha. I cannot remember what their names were... The leather work was all Games Workshop black with highlights in grey from Ral Partha. The armor was done with a base coat of Iron Wind Chainmail and drybrushed with GW Boltgun metal.... The lance hafts were a GW brown, no highlights. Again, I went to Ral Partha for their bronze as the GW shining gold, no matter how much I shook it, would not turn gold, but rather kept that coppery color... I'll go back and mix it better later.


The bases were simple enough... basing gravel glued down with Elmer's school glue, painted flat brown from Iron Winds,  drybrushed with GW snakebite leather and then the base band was done in the shinier GW Balor brown I believe... (GW changes names with every edition it seems). The scenic effects were DP9 for the static grass and Army painter for the flowers.


The final models got a seal of Army Painter matt varnish. I usually hit them with a couple of coats... just enough to start looking on the verge of glossy, but remaining the flat finish... I do this because I don't like shiny, but lots of people will handle them... when they get used... I want all of my figures to be durable.

Boromir is up next and he will be a quick study. I have painted many of him dressed that way on foot. I have also been doing a lot of research online and there are still some very nice examples to look at for inspiration. Below on the left you can see the bright green rail road saw dust I used back in 2000.. it was all the rage back then. I have to go back and find him shot full of arrows as I want to complete the set... I believe the figures below were also painted up around 10+ years ago.... I know the one dynamic action pose is the plastic figure from the re-released Mines of Moria box set from 2005... so these were painted in 2005 and beyond.

After Boromir will come more warriors of Minas Tirith. I started painting them a long while ago... I honestly think I painted these and about 8 others almost 10 years ago... and now I feel the need to get back to them. They should be an easy paint as they are basically 2 shades of flesh, black for all leather and exposed clothing with grey highlights, steel highlighted with boltgun metal and gold on some shiny bits.

I have about 30 more to go, including heroes and command/standards. I chose this group of 6 to get me started.... 4 spearmen and a couple sword and board. I am hoping to someday do some serious battles in and around Osgilliath. One can dream, right? I just hope to live long enough to enjoy playing with them!

I think after I get through some of these, I will have to switch up to some orcs or Uruks... maybe even some Warmachine, 15mm Napoleonic, Flames of War or even sneak in some one off 1:144th WW1 Shapeway planes or 1:1200 ACW Langton ironclads!! Who knows.... having options means I will never be bored or have a lack of interest into what I can do next!! And, God only knows how many projects and miniatures I have that have yet to see the light of day!!!


I have to add, I was asked by a close friend last week.... not only why I started the blog, but why all of a sudden have I been feverishly working on my mountain of miniatures....  My answer... I was inspired by a close friend who blogs a lot and the thread topic on The Miniatures Page (TMP) "Why do you share pictures of your miniatures"....


Life is short my friends.... enjoy it! Always make time for your loved ones, but also.... always make time for YOU!

ACW game... 1:1200 Langton miniatures & Sail & Steam Navies

What a great night... well, it is always great to be able to get away and get a game in. To top it off, it was with my regular group and I got to see some faces I haven't seen in a long while... even a new guy... well, new to me because I don't make many games, he's been around a while.... needless to say... he is a great addition to the group!


As the title indicates, we played Sail & Steam Navies, a naval battle system for 1840-1880 with Langton Miniatures (1:1200 scale). I am a pretty huge ironclads and pre-dreadnaught fan... so I was pretty excited to be playing.


To start off with, Sail & Steam Navies (by David A Brandon 2010) was a very nice miniatures game which, to me, heavily resembled a very streamlined version of Yaquinto's Ironclads, even down to the individual ship cards. It uses d10's for all action rolling and small d6 for reminders of how far you need to go to turn again (you have to move straight between turns and if you make turn at the end of your turn, you make how far you need to go straight before you can make another turn... I digress... the rules were fairly straight foreword having one main page for all charts and game information.... you have to love games like that especially if they turn out to be fun and realistic.... and this game certainly is! At 1:1200, the ground scale was basically 1:1... even better. All a player needed was a small handful of d10's, a quick reference sheet and their ship sheet and they were ready to roll. As for turn flow, I know our group did a little tweaking, but it was hard to determine where. The basic turn ran in initiative order with winner deciding who moved first. Gun fire was simultaneous and it had two movement phases, you could fire only once per turn but in either movement phase.


So... all in all a GREAT game to run at a convention.... I will have to consider it when I get some of my miniatures done!


The scenario was modified slightly because of the number of players who showed up... we had 3 per side USS & CSS and my brother-in-law was the game master. Historically, this would have been the battle of the CSS Arkansas breaking through to Vicksburg 15, July 1862. While en-route, she encountered three federal vessels, the Carondelet (ironclad), Tyler (wooden gunboat) and the Queen of the West (ram).... Historically, the Arkansas caught the Federals by surprise, exchanged some shots and was through before they could get their steam up. In the encounter, the Carondelet was damaged and ran aground, the Tyler exchanged some long range shots and the Queen of the West never got into the battle.


For us, the fleets were expanded, the Federals had 6 ships, the three listed above with the addition of one more gunboat and an additional ram... they also had one other ship that started so far out, it was really there for fluff and didn't see any action in either game.... the Confederates had 5 ships, the Arkansas and 4 small-ish gunboats/paddle wheelers... I am not sure I said that correctly, but still, it was great fun.

The initial set up had the Federals coming around a bend in the river with the CSS fleet at long range. In the first game, I played Federal and was in command of the Carondelet. Our mission objective.. to stop the Arkansas from getting off the board. being a bit unfamiliar with the rules and fire templates I thought to fight upstream and try to deliver a broadside, while the rams and smaller gunboats went in for the kill.

the Carondelet



 

turn 4, both fleets advancing to engage

Well, with me to the left bank (in the image above), the Federals got pretty lucky... the Confederate fleet went totally to the right bank to try to avoid the USS Carondelet... this actually set us up the win in the following couple of turns....





As the USS Carondelet turns to come across the river, the Confederates and Federal gunboats open up on each other... all the while driving closer to the right bank at high speeds to try and scoot past the Federal navy. This set up a prime opportunity for the two Federal rams in a target rich environment... so they picked up speed and did just that.... the results were devastating...



 

The rams chose their targets... the lead gunboat to try and create an obstacle for the CSS Arkansas to have to avoid... and at those speeds it would be very difficult indeed.... but that was never to happen as the second Federal ram squared up against her and made sure the Arkensas wasn't going to see another day.

The aftermath.... one Confederate gunboat down and the Arkansas heading to the river depths in short order.... it was declared a Federal victory.

Now, as far as the game goes... there was a lesson to be learned... as it turns out, the Carondelet wasn't as big of a threat to the Arkansas as the Confederates thought and by clumping up on the far bank from her, they put themselves into perfect position to be rammed as they engaged what they thought was the weaker side of the Federal navy... I saw very little action and did hardly any damage, but the tactic worked... and it set us up for the win. The second game would not go that way as the ex-Confederate players, now running the Federals knew the biggest threat and it was considered to be the USS rams.... I would find this out personally.

Because the game went so fast and played so smoothly, we found ourselves with a lot of time left before the brick and mortar closed.... no one wanted to really be finished, so we opted to play the scenario again, but we switched sides. The lessons learned in the first game would ensure that the second game played out differently.

Turn one and the CSS fleet was poised to make their run down the river to Vicksburg! Three ships were on the board with the following gunboats to enter on the second move phase of turn one. I had two gunboats this time... one with pivot guns fore and aft with smaller cannons at mid-ship and the other (the one to enter later in the turn had one lone pivot gun on the bow).

 The look down river at the Federal fleet....

As I said... this game moves fast... 2 turns went by with both fleets maneuvering and taking long and medium range shots.... The CSS plan was to run as fast as we could down the river and not stop to fight. We were going to use our speed to make this happen as the Federal navy was fighting their way up river against the current at slower speeds. By turn 3, we were heavily engaged and on our way past the entire Federal fleet. I also now I learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of a ram....

        

Shots are fired as the fleets race to engage and my lead gunboat is rammed!             

The important thing in picture two above... my paddle-wheeler got rammed (and sunk) and in the background, you can see the Arkansas slipping by... I lost my best ship, but for some reason, the Federal captain chose me to ram... during the movement phase he was trying to maneuver to ram the Arkansas, but with our speed and winning initiative.. we chose to move first and he lost his opportunity to hit the Arkansas... instead of turning around and laying chase to the her, he opted to take out a wooded side wheeler... At this point, we knew we wanted to keep up steam and run past at all costs... my last gun boat was to play a blocking roll and take all of the heat I could from the Arkansas as she steamed down river.... one point I failed to mention so far was another little twist to the scenario I didn't know about until we played the CSS fleet... the Arkansas had poor engines... and each turn we had to roll to see if they quit.. thank God they didn't... the chance was small, but there was still a chance.. this could be a game changer if it happened.

The next turn would be the last due to time, but the game balance was critical.... the ram that had taken out my gunboat was facing upriver and starting from a move of zero because of the ram.... The CSS fleet had speed on their side and pretty much all of the Federal fleet was still headed upriver except the Carondelet... she was poised to lay chase to the Arkansas. I knew with my last gunboat being at top speed, if we got he initiative, we would choose to move first  again and try to outrun any ram attempts and I would try to run interference for the Arkansas to get away....

Well, in picture one you can see the other Federal ram taking it to my last gunboat.... with dice like that and only 12 hull boxes, my gun boat was toast... 3 times over!!!! Another Federal ship would be starting at zero movement against the rive current. This would leave 3 Federal ships left to try and regroup and give chase... all the while being chased by the other two CSS gunboats. The important thing here though is that the Arkansas was free and clear of any Federal ships at this point.... The entire Federal starting fleet was behind her! 

Stepping back, you can see... the other 2 CSS gunboats were still in fighting shape and the other Federal gunboats along with the Carondelet were a ways off. In the very back of the photo, by the point of blue, you can see the last Federal ship entering... it would be the only threat to victory... to me, if the Arkansas kept up her steam and her engines didn't fail her, it could have been a CSS victory as the other Federal ships were pretty much out of the fight and would only be able to turn, pursue and throw some parting shots at the Arkansas... the only threat was the 15" Dahlgren onboard the Federal vessel that had just entered the board.... Between that gun and the possibility of the Arkansas engines cutting out, allowing the other Federal ships to close, the game was deemed a draw....

So, in essence.. I had a great time, yet was very ineffective..... gunnery wise... In the first game, fear of engaging me/the Carondelet set us up for 2 rams which won the game for the Federals and in the second game,  I was bait.... having lost both of my ships to rams, the CSS navy was poised to make the run to Vicksburg and victory.

I wanted to say though, the captain of the Carondelet in the second game got right into the thick of it... I think at one point he got to fire almost ALL of his guns in one turn! One thing I thought would have been more interesting was that she also had a bow ram.. but not a powerful one.... apparently though, the other two Federal ships... having no guns, had tough ass rams on the front! We saw this in both games.

As this was my first game using these rules, I found it to be very fun, easy to learn and historical. A great set of rules for a larger battle or a convention game.... but personally, nothing will or can ever replace Yaquinto's Ironclads board game, because you know... Nostalgia.... I have to still say though, Sail & Steam Navies from David A. Brandon is DEFINITELY worth the buy!!!

The only thing that left me wanting about the rule system though is that instead of talking "guns".... it was all "fire factors" and numbers... I missed the flavor of..."I fire my Brook Rifles!".. and instead it was a lot of "I fire at you with 5 fire factors.... " The language could still be used I guess, but in an effort to move the game along.... it became all about the numbers....

And speaking of numbers, here is a look at the quick reference chart for the game.... It is pretty straightforward and, better yet... all on one sheet....  

Knights of Minas Tirith, another update...

What I said about those horse ankles... damn you Games Workshop!!! I swear that they knew about this issue and could have fixed it!!! I broke another.... AFTER it was painted..... talk about poor cast! If this was a car it would have been recalled! I got through it, but now I have the ugliness of the repair work to deal with....

While on the subject I will mention something Games Workshop DID fix.... when they went from lead models and plastic horses to pretty much all plastics they solved one major problem.... a lot of their kits that have lead riders and plastic horses or mounts, it doesn't matter the range, you have the issue of metal shrinkage.... that is what I will call it because the lead riders NEVER fit well on the plastic horses.... not without a lot of bending and tweaking...  I did the best I could with the ones I had already painted... beginners mistake.... the last ones will be matched up better and I will make sure I have no glaring gaps between the rider and saddle this time around.

Anyway... This weekend was busy, when is it not in my house! I did manage to get some time to myself and polished off 3 of the Knights of Minas Tirith and started on the others. They were all regular knights as I usually tend to hold off on the personalities or heroes until the last few models.... Faramir and Boromir will have to wait until another day.

I am happy with how they turned out and I really only have 2 things left to do.... highlight and then seal them in matt varnish... I'll get this knocked out before I move on to the next batch.

I do need to pick up some more mithril to pick out the highlights on the armor and weapons. They are ok for now, but I think would look better with the raised edges picked out better. I also opted to leave the horses pretty much one color as that is how they appeared in the movie and I need to take the horse painting class at one of the HMGS Hobby University classes.... they regularly offer the class and I am never available to take it.. I'll have to commit sooner or later!

I kept the paint jobs rather straight foreword for the riders also. I think that is why I want to go back and highlight them, I used a lot of black leather and the rider's skirt and the back of their leggings are also black... this caused an issue where the leg armor and straps kind of disappear where they overlap. I will hit the leather with a grey lined highlight to pick them out where appropriate. This worked decent enough with my Warriors of Minas Tirith that I have already painted. I also used the Ral Partha bronze instead of the Games Workshop shining gold.... it was just too bright for me... I like the subdued look of the bronze. I will pick the highlights out with the Ral Partha gold.

The bases turned out decent enough, but I think I brightened them up a bit too much... I had a decent amount of repair time/work on the horse's ankle... not only did it take forever to align the small parts and glue them, parts of the base had to be redone as I used a decent amount of glue to try and build up the thickness, strengthen it, smooth out any issues and just make it look better. I think they turned out well enough. Both horses pictured above with one contact point had broken ankles and I had to repair them. If I didn't have to contend with the repair, I probably would have gotten another, possibly two knights completed.... I am glad I got them repaired as I really don't have any extra horses and most times, I have seen other folks just throw them out and grudgingly move on... only to have lost one of their mounts and riders for a unit.... and when dealing with Games Workshop prices, the price can add up quickly! 

Next up will most likely be the last four Knights, including Faramir.... The horses are all the same, so there will be no issues getting them done and I really only anticipate having issues with Faramir's face and tabard.. I hate painting faces and small details like laces or thread on clothing like Boromir's and Faramir's... Yes, it makes them stand out and gives that added detail, but damn is it hard.. .even with a small brush, this is always intimidating and time consuming.... but I will press on! Boromir will finish the lot... and maybe, someday, I'll go back and pick up some of the plastic knights to see how they paint up and add to the strength of my unit.... I'll need them if I want to do the scene form the movie where my heroes, I mean the Nazgul come in a decimate the retreating knights, only to be saved last minute by Gandalf..... this will be a fun scenario!!!

Depending upon how long it takes to get these last 5 done, I might switch gears and move to Flames of War or perhaps some 1:144th WW1 planes. The Ironclads will be on hold until I gather materials for basing, etc... Speaking of which.. tonight I get to PLAY!!!! At the local brick and mortar my Brother-in-law will be running an ACW game.... we will have probably 8 people, so it looks like one ship each!!! It will be a fun night.... the update and pics will follow! As will also get the name of the rule set we use and a copy of the rules!



Short update on LOTR Knights of Minas Tirith

As promised... just a short photo update of what is going on with my Knights of Minas Tirith for Games Workshop's Lord of the RIngs Skirmish game.


As I said earlier... not much to report other than getting three of the horses based up and ready for the riders.

The rider pictured is nowhere near complete, but I wanted to add a splash of color to see how it would "pop" against the base.

I think the little bit of static grass and perhaps a small grass tuft will brighten up the dark image of the rider. I really like the dull steel color... GW Boltgun metal and Ral Partha Steel or chain mail... mixed... I will hit some of the raised edges of the knight with mithril or shining silver... just to make it pop a little more. I think the dark base conveys what I was trying to do... a war torn land, ravaged and barren.... the little bit of grass I will add will represent the hope that still remains... the strength of the Numenorians... nearly vanquished, but not beaten!

When the 2 models are complete, I'll go back and touch up any issues I find, do a little highlighting and then add any scenic materials before I finally seal with a matt varnish....

Another project arrived the other day!!!

Ok, well it arrived almost a week ago, but I am just getting to posting about it....


I am a pretty huge ACW naval fan... after all, who doesn't like tales of the Monitor & Merrimack? Unfortunately.... I was quick to learn that most battles were all lopsided.... meaning there wasn't a huge amount of ironclad on ironclad action... most of it was ironclad vs wooden ship or something else.. tinclad, cotton clad... etc.... Well, it still makes for great gaming no matter how you slice it!


I went with the Atlantic fleets for my target gaming... this is going to allow for a lot of "what-if" games as a lot of CSS ironclads never got built or got scrapped before they were finished to prevent them from falling into the USS hands. Anyway you slice it.. they are going to be tough games... not all out slug fests, but rather games with objectives.... I am especially looking forward to land batteries, blockades and blockade runners!


I can admit my knowledge is pretty weak here on naval actions, so I recruited one man I know that knows it all... my brother-in-law.... he came up with a list of ships I should get, well.. really in minutes.... I would have taken days or weeks to decide what to get or even what I should get to effectively play the East coast Atlantic action during the US Civil War.....


List now in hand.... I decided to stick with the same scale our group is currently already using... 1:1200. They are big enough to be pretty and very manageable on the table top.... any smaller and too much detail is lost.. any large and the although the ship are absolutely beautiful.... any large scale games become hard to play due to size.... I really do like the 1:600 ships..... I just don't have a gymnasium at my access to play any time I want.


That said... I started shopping... there are now a few companies that do 1:1200.... I went with Langton Miniatures because that is what everyone else has.... Next up was finding a place in the US that carries them. I found a few, but the prices were quite steep.... I took a chance on going direct to the source in England.... It was actually CHEAPER to buy direct because of the strength of the US dollar now... Even with shipping.... I saved almost $85USD!!!!

Needless to say, I wasn't in any kind of hurry to get the order... I have plenty to keep me busy, we all do. To my surprise they came very quickly.... USPS is kind of funny.... the package went to a import mail facility only a few hours from my house only to be sorted and then sent even further away to a distribution center.. then to be sent to me.... Opening the box was a pleasant surprise.... I was smiling like a kid on Christmas! As the endorphins surged... I unpacked my addiction....

I know what a lot of you are thinking... why so few CSS ships? Well... the south had so few designs that got built and since most ships were of the same design and didn't all show up at the same battle.... it is easy to use the same CSS ironclad class to represent many different ships.... so fewer models are needed in the long haul. For the USS though.... there were lots of different classes and manufacturers... thus requiring a heck of a lot more models to effectively play out anything in the US Eastern seaboard.... at least that is how I understand it and what I was told....

Anyway, I am very much looking forward to working on these.... currently, our group is getting a lot of play time in and unfortunately (for me)... both of my kids are involved in sports right now.. so if I don't have practice, I have a game.... and it isn't a miniatures game.... I wouldn't give it up.. the time to play will happen.

I will post updates on these as I set to work.... you can probably guess... the ironclads will see attention first.... they will be based on balsa squares with magnets on the bottoms... I will forego the epoxy wave effects unless I can find something that doesn't yellow over time... maybe painted epoxy? We'll cross that road when it comes up.

You might be thinking.. what rules am I going to use.... Not sure of their exact name, but I'll post them when I get it. It really is great, a lot like playing the original Ironclads board game....

Update on the Knights of Minas Tirith.. and Boromir....

Well, nothing really to show for my efforts this week... lots of family stuff and travel for work...  I spent half the week in Sanford NC reviewing a facility there. I digress...


On the modeling front...


Out of the gates, I want to say..... damn... I have the same complaints as everyone else when it comes to the Games Workshop LOTR horses..... I don't know what plastic they used or what process they used, but damn!!! The ankles on their horses are FRAGILE!!!! Just the horses.... I had this issue with some Riders of Rohan too..... with very little pressure, they snap at the ankle.. in the same place, every time..... unbelievable!!! So far, 2 of my Knights horses broke at the ankle and needed some serious attention to get them to look right.... thank God for Locktite industrial super glues!!!! While on the subject.. I found some of the Rohan weapons or spears to be very fragile too.... Just a warning... to anyone out there working on these.... be aware of the issues!


Ok, now on to more productive notes..... I did get all of the Knights of Minas Tirith bases started... flocked.... It is amazing how far this has come in the years I have been gaming.... when I started with Games Workshop figures, I used to use the dyed green sawdust on a dark painted base... damn, they were pretty then.... Hell, I even used the green saw dust for my LOTR figures back in 2001 because that is what the folks at GW were doing!!! Flash forward.... we have glues, paste, scenic additions such as grass and tufts, even vines!


For the most part, even for my smaller models (15mm) I prefer to use some sort of rough base now a days.... that being low grit sand for 15mm and a variety of gravel sizes for anything larger.. 25-28mm. The base material gets glued down.... once dry then I do a base coat of the color I plan on using as the main base color.... again, when dry, I will dry brush a lighter complimentary color to bring up highlights/ridges in the gravel/rock mix. Afterward, when the whole model is complete.. I'll go back and do any touching up on the base and then, if I feel it needs it, I will use Scenic additions... I really like Silflor for grass tufts, etc.... but I also really like Gale Force 9 for the static grass as they have a nice variety. I also use a LOT of Army Painter products and find them very good too.


I will segue a short rant about Army Painter spray paints..... when you buy them.. use them.... if they sit, a lot of times the seals give at the bottom rim..... I love them, but I am not happy with their quality control on their cans!!!!


Anyway, in the case of the Knights of Minas Tirith for Games Workshop's LOTR miniature battle game.... (what a mouthful!).. I went with a chocolate brown from Iron wind Metals Paints and Games Workshop's similar brown.. I'd tell you the name, but it has changed so many times, I don't know what to call it.... I think it used to be bestial brown.... I then dry brushed snakebite leather over that... It gives a great effect. I am undecided on whether to use any tufts or not.... I will be using static grass... I want to give the feeling of life & death on the base.... green grass for hope and the darker grassless areas for the scorched earth the war has brought to the gates of Minas Tirith.


I did manage to get three of the bases done to the dry brush stage.... I worked on the horses... I kept the paint simple with few highlights.... I also matched up the riders with which horse they would eventually be glued to. I did start on one of the knights just to see what the overall model would look like when complete.... I have to say, I will be happy in the end.. and, that is what really matters....


That is a very important note to take away.... you game for you.... if you are happy, don't worry what others think... PERIOD. I have been painting miniatures for over 30 years on and off.. my skill has peaked and dwindled.... you don't get better if you don't practice.... yes, there are naturals, but any good painter will tell you... skill is earned through hard work.... If you are a member of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society (HMGS) or go to their shows... be sure to stop at the Hobby University.. sure, they make it look easy.... but they put the time in to get that good... they are always available to help.... and they will!!!!


I cannot tell you the amount of figures I have seen online that folks are selling or the huge stacks of figures folks are hoarding in their mountain of lead at home because they are intimidated or feel that they cannot paint well.... you have to get over it.. bite the bullet and practice!!! For me, one of the hardest things to see is the amount of GW stuff you see in flea markets at shows or on eBay.... badly painted or barely painted.... all because ADVERTISING WORKS!!! Folks see the colorful rule books and models at GW stores.... (all painted by professionals of course) and the people think.. "WOW!.. I want to do this!".... they spend all kinds of money, get a pile of lead and paints.. and then try their hand..... and often times fail to get the desired look.. thinking that they can make their models look like the ones in the books.... on their first attempt.... it makes me sad... but I would like to say to anyone reading this.... keep at it.... you do get better, it just takes time!!! Don't give up....


I'll get some pictures up of my knights when I get further along in the project... I just felt compelled to put an update up to satisfy my mind.....


I also want to add.... to go with my first rant in this post about Games Workshop horses for LOTR miniature game.... if you can.... buy the kits with the plastic riders.... as much as I prefer to paint metal.... the horses are frail.... the older kits that came out before the "War of the Ring" rules had all lead models and plastic horses.... the heavier lead will, eventually cause the horses to sag under their weight.... this is a given.... I even put wedges or supports under the horsed that have one contact point with the base to support them and prevent this from happening when they are not in use.


I also decided to play catch up on some of my models... I'll be posting some of my stuff that I painted for other games long ago.... just to add some color between my long, rambling posts.....