Project log 1 – A Blast from the Past


In the words of Theoden ‘so it begins’.

Fortunately, the first scenario, The Battle of the Last Alliance, is one of the easiest to prep for.  Although requiring a large model count on both sides the foundation, model and painting wise, was set down over the last few years.  My Mordor army is largely painted (including Sauron) from many moons ago, and I spent most of my painting time in 2018 on a large Rivendell High Elf army.  Liv is bringing the Numenorians via proxying her Minis Tirith army but has the correct models for Elendil and Isildur.  Particularly looking forward to seeing Elendil in action, his new profile makes him an absolute beat stick. 

However, I have found that I am short of 15 painted Mordor Orcs for the scenario, so I’ve had to spend the last few weeks with the functional, but a little uninspiring, Mordor Orc sculpt on my painting table.
 does give me an opportunity to update my Mordor army as I think my painting has improved from the 10 year plus gap since I last painted basic Mordor Orcs.




I confess I haven’t spent too long on these, they will die in droves and unlikely to be seen individually, more as a mass of models, but pleased they are done.  
Battlefield/scenery wise we are guided by this passage:

…Sauron and his host advanced to the slopes of Mount Doom. There he was encountered by the captains of the Alliance, Gil-galad and Elendil and to their side stood Elrond, Círdan and Isildur.
My existing lava board seems a suitable battlefield for this, so mercifully no work required on this. 

That has meant that my mind has been wandering farther down the line and giving thought to the river Anduin needed for Gladden Fields and the Dale board required for Smaug’s destruction of the city and his devastating entrance into Erebor.  Those two scenarios will require a huge amount of buildings to represent the town, the large Smaug model glued and painted and the army of Erebor painted ready to be splatted by the mighty worm.  Oh, and not forgetting two gaming mats to represent Dale and the grand entrance hall of Erebor.  I’ve spent a silly amount of money getting some of this ready but will look at that in detail on another log. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project Log 4 - Forking Rivers

Image
Our first game in the campaign, The Battle of the Last Alliance, already seems like an eternity ago, but i've been beavering away on bits and pieces over the last six weeks that will all, eventually, contribute to the campaign. First bit of news was that a kick starter that I backed some months ago, Stormguard, providing files for 3D printing, has been completed.  The terrain pieces looked perfect for Arnor/Gondor so I took the leap and backed the full range at a cost of £75.  Fortunately I have a friend, Richard, who has a decent 3D printer and very grateful for him printing off the first two pieces which I am supremely happy with, here they are based coated grey: I wanted to see how this new stuff stood up against the only official GW kit for Middle Earth scenery, the Osgiliath Ruins.  I put one kit together and based it on MDF and added in a cobble stone interior by using clay and the rolling pin I bought a few years ago.  It's a really nice kit and...
Read more

Project log 3 - King of Bling

Image
It's all been about Dwarfs recently.  They will make an appearance early in the campaign futilely trying to defend against the awoken might of Durin's Bane, Smaug then serving them an eviction notice and then the three linked scenarios representing the Battle of Azanulbizarl.  So they are at the top of the need to be painted list. Ive had an army of Thror tucked away untouched for a few years now, always on the eternal 'to do list'.  I mainly picked them up because one, I loved the sculpts, and two, because they were the cheaper Dwarf army option.  Both those reasons remain valid and they will serve as the main bulk of any Dwarfs we need for the campaign.  I love the other two Dwarf armies, Iron Hills and Kazad-Dum, but both are expensive and in some cases are hard to get hold of. Although the army of Thror lacks a lot of variety compared to the other two armies it received a significant power boost in the new army book.  The main boost...
Read more

Lazy Summers

Image
y. Where did the time go?  Yes it has been a while.  A combination of starting a new job and a busy fun summer meant that opportunities to blog have been few and far between.  That is not to say that hobbying has not bee occurring, it has.  As mentioned in the previous blog Liv and i found ourselves with a bit more to do than we planned painting wise to get ready for the War of the Ring scenario, The Battle of the Gladden Fields, but i am pleasd to say we are now ready. Projects completed over the summer on my side have been: the 30 more mordor orcs i needed done. 15 warg riders, some plastic and some the original metal sculpts. Shagrat, Orc Taskmaster and Khardush the firecaller.  All three metal sculpts i bought recently and a nice distraction to give a bit more attention to. Cirdan, bought in the MTO and wanted to get him added quickly to my Rivendell force.  Stormguard 3D printed buildings and Osgilaith ruins sets. Finished the river! ...
Read more