40K anyone?

Most, if all not virtually all, of my posts have been in regard to my endeavors around the Lord of the Rings game.  However, over the last year I’ve been feeling the pull towards Warhammer 40K.  I’ve been buying a few things here and there and the next thing I know, I have a near full blown Waaagh on my hands with Orks.  As I get close to finishing up my army and trip to Phoenix, I think my next project is going to get out there and build (and paint) a full fledged Ork army for 40K.

During this same time, my son is going to be starting to learn 40K (along with one of his friends).  He’s signed up to start the Academy Program at one of our local Games Workshop stores.  He’s been looking through the army books and has settled on Chaos Space Marines.  I thought for sure he’d pick Tyranids but in the end, the access to both monsters and “tanks” won out and he’s settled on Chaos Space Marines.  His friend is building up classic SMs so they should have fun bashing each other in.

In the near future, I hope to expand this blog to cover both of our forrays into 40K.  So you’ll see being seeing both Mordor Orcs and 40K Orks.  I’m definitely looking forward to getting my Mek’s tools out and starting my Waaaagh.  I hope to bring a little Lord of the Rings flair to my own 40K projects.  More to come!

P.S.  New on advanced order are the new Ork Deff Dread and Killa Kanz.  I couldn’t resist and I pre-ordered both of them.

Painting Challenge: The Nazgûl

In 2010, the One Ring has started a monthly painting challenge. Last month, the theme was Gandalf the Grey. I submitted the Gandalf I’ve been working on as part of the Unexpected Party. This month, the theme is Nazgûl. For Christmas, I got the Betrayer model and I’ve wanted to paint him as a possible addition to my Harad Army. So it was an easy choice to paint this model for the competition. The challenge was that I was distracted with the Unexpected Party the entire month and never got a chance to work on him! So finally this afternoon about 8 hours from the monthly deadline, I put brush to mini and got him painted. Its not as great as I would have liked but given the amount of time I spent on him he came out okay. Its one of my hobby goals this year to try and enter every Monthly Challenge at the One Ring so I’m glad to have beat the deadline (had 105 minutes to spare!)

The Betrayer

More WIPs for the Unexpected Party

I’ve been making steady progress on the Unexpected Party.  I’ve got three new models to show off today and well as a group shot.

First off, a model that I finished a while ago.  He’s a replacement for Bofur (orginally planned to be Bifur as well).  I grew to detest my first conversion for this model (back when we has labeled Bifur).  So I had to go in and create a new one.  Much happier with this version.  So why the name change??  Well, when I started painting names on the rims of the bases I messed up and I painted Bifur’s base with Bofur’s name.  Huh?  Confused?  Anyway, since they are dressed the same, they are interchangable so Bifur became Bofur and Bofur became Bifur.  Got it? 

Bofur

 

Next up is the venerable Balin.  Balin was described as wearing a scarlet hood (cloak) and a white beard in the Hobbit.  So that’s what he got.  My sculpting  on the back of the cloak let me down a little so I couldn’t paint him as well I as I was hoping.  However, he still looks okay to me.

Balin

 

Thorin and Company came to Gandalf because they needed a Burglar.  And a Burglar is what they found.  Here’s the Hobbit that made the Journey “There and Back Again…”  Bilbo Baggins.  Bilbo was late catching up to Thorin and Company.  So late he forgot to pack his cloak.  So he managed to borrow a dark green one from Dwalin.

Bilbo

 

Finally, here’s a group shot of the Unexpected Party.  I’ve got all these models assembeld on their scenic bases (purchased from Back 2 Base-ix).  Missing from the group photo are Bombur and Thorin Oakenshield.  Both of these miniatures still need a significant amount of painting and havent’ been mounted on their bases.

Portions of the Unexpected Party

 

If you look closely you’ll notice that the names have been painted on the rims of the bases.  I did this to add character to the army.  I also used two different colors for the name plates to differentiate those that are “Heroes” and those that are “Warriors” in the army.  This is to hopefully help my opponents when they are facing off agains the army.  I hope that distinction works and makes game play easier.

Painting the Unexpected Party

Wow, its been a long time since I’ve updated my Blog. I’ve got a New Year’s Resolution to do more blog posting. However, that’s for a different post. This update is all about WIPs for the Unexpected Party. Most of these are nearly finished models. However on the heroes, I’m planning a bit of freehand highlights and things.

Bofur

Gloin

Oin

Ori

Dori & Nori

Fili & Kili

Bombur

Gandalf on Shadowfax

It was pointed out to me tha the beard on Gandalf is much to brown.  My colorblind eyes didn’t pick this up (though I knew I was using a bit of brown colors in the basecoat.  So I’m going to do some touch-ups on this to get the beard a bit “Grey”er.

Anyway, I’ve got 3 more models to get started painting (Bilbo, Thorin, and Balin) and then some final detail work and finish up the bases.  The Gathering in the Desert is along about 6 weeks away so plenty of time but I’m trying to get done this month.