I found a few hours over the weekend to pick up the paint brush and work on one of the Dwarves for the Unexpected Party.  Committing to paint one is a big step as I need to start deciding which Dwarf Character will be represented by which Dwarf model.  Why?  Becuase in the Hobbit each of the Dwarves are described by the color of the hoods (e.g. cloaks) that they wear.  I’ll post a full run through of all the dwarves and their color schemes in a future post.

However, here’s a nice WIP photo of Dwalin. 

Dwalin is characterized by a Dark Green Hood.  I was very excited to start painting again as I don’t think I’ve picked up a paint brush for anything specific since before Adepticon in April!  I did do a quick and dirty paint job on some proxy dwarves for playtesting puruposes but there wasn’t much care put into the painting of those.

As far as the painting of this model.  I’m very pleased with how he’s turning out.  In my opinion its one of the best faces I’ve painted on a miniature.  I’ve still got some work to do on the metal parts as well as the cloak as those have only received a basecoat so far.  However, the face, leather armor, boots  and tunics are nearly finished.   The only real complaint I have at this point is the speckliness (is that word??) on his left arm.  When I primed the model, the primer didn’t go on that part very flat and I probably should have tried to smooth it out a bit more.  I was hoping the painting could hide it to some extent.  In person, this is a very small area and its not nearly as noticeable; however these pictures do make it stand out a bit.  Oh well, I’ll learn more as I continue to paint the rest of the dwarves.

I’ve spent some more time working on adding new conversions to the Unexpected Party.  Some have come out very nice and others I’m still on the fence about. Here’s the first three which were mostly straight forward weapon swaps or head swaps.  You’ll notice two of the bodies are exactly the same.  This happens to be my favorite Dwarf Ranger pose.  I’ve seen this same body make an excellent Thorin Oakenshield conversion on its own.

These next three involve a lot more sculpting. I’ve been using ProCreate as the sculpting medium here. Several people I know through the interweb swear by this stuff being even better than Greenstuff. I’m no sculpting guru so I don’t have a strong opinion yet.

This model started its life as Gimli from the Death of Gothmog. Add in an Iron Guard sword arm, Gimli from Mines of Moria arm, and some generous amounts of ProCreate and you’ve got a suitable take on an Iron Guard-Ranger-esque model that should fit the army nicely. So far this is one of my favorite conversions.

Next up is some more work on old Bombur. I’ve really bulked him up here and did my best to try and sculpt a shirt and trousers. I’ve also added a heavy hood and started working on the cloak. I really should get a picture of him next to one of his thinner kindsmen. If you can envision the original Balin Model who “dwarfed” (pun intended) most of the other Dwarf models and then added another layer of bulk, I think you’ll definitely agree he is the fattest of all my dwarves.

These conversions have been a fun excuse to try and improve my sculpting skills. I’ve got a long ways to go but I do start seeing some levels of improvement. This blog has been very helpful for me and I purchased Sculpting Tutorial by James Van Schaik which gave me a lot of insight into the world of miniature sculpting. I’m no wear close to being considered a sculptor yet but I do see some baby steps. These larger than life pictures certainly highlight the imperfections in the work. At a more natural size I think the miniatures look pretty good. As always, I’d love to hear any comments or criticism.

I’ve got some other WIPs cooking on the workbench but they aren’t quite Blog-ready yet. More to come soon!

Wow, way to long between blog posts…  I know many people promise this but I’m going to try and post more frequently over the next few months.  All my primary 2009 tournament events have been completed and I’ve started to look towards 2010.  I’m looking at trying to make my 2010 tournaments more about fun/themed armies and no worry as much about their level of competitiveness.  Well at least I’m saying that right now, we’ll see how things go if I start getting my brains beat in.

First up in 2010 is the Gathering in the Desert which is an annual tournament organized by my friends Tim and Dean.  This is a very hardcore LOTR tournament with a ton of excellent players and painters.  I’ve wanted to try something new for a while and I know that I’ve blogged about this in the past.  I’m planning on playing an army based around the theme from The Hobbit – Thorin’s Company, aka, the Unexpected Party.  My plan is to have all 13 Dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf.  Given that it is such a small army, I really want to do something special with the hobby piece of it.  I’m going to convert each and every model for this army and hopefully, if I’m stick up to my end of the bargain, I’ll document the whole process on the blog here.

Here are some early WIPs of the first few dwarves.  For the most part, I haven’t decided already which dwarf will be represented by which model yet.  My goal is to have 3 dwarf heroes (Thorin, Balin, and Gloin), 8 Iron Guard, and 1 Dwarf Warrior with a banner. 

This model represents one of the Iron Guard. They are based on Ranger Models as Thorin’s company is described as wearing caps, hoods, and robes. However, to make the combat effective, I used the most elite dwarf warrior profile I could use – the Iron Guard. I like to think of the Iron Guard as the armored rangers anyway! This particular model was a simple conversion using a Dwarf Ranger and the left arm from Gimli from the Mines of Moria set.

This model is another of the iron guard. He was converted to hold a different Axe. I also added sculpting putty (ProCreate) to create some new hair for the model. The rangers are cool sculpts but some of them are lacking a bit of detail. Sorry, not the best picture of these.

This model is a third in the Iron Guard Series. He’s started as an Iron Guard body with a Ranger head transplant. A lot of putty was used to try and blend in the hood with the tunic and beard.

This is Dwarf Warrior. Eventually he’ll be holding a banner as well. He’s going to represent Bombue. The fattest and most comical of Thorin’s company. Hopefully I’ll find some way to put some extra life into this model. He’ll certainly be bulked up to have the most girth.

finally, in addition to the dwarves, I’ve put together a simple conversion for Biblo. Just a quick headswap with Bilbo and Frodo.

Hopefully, much more to come in future days!!

I’ve been meaning to update my blog with this information for some time.  I’m involved with the running of two very different Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game Tournaments coming up in the very near future.

Event #1:  The March to Mount Doom Madness – July 26, 2009 at the Chicago Games Day Convention

The March to Mount Doom Madness is a Single Elimination Tournament that will be a FREE event at the 2009 Chicago Games Day Convention (did I mention this was FREE once you get through the GamesDay doors?)  This tournament will feature a unique “bracket-style” pairing system and players will play their way trough a single elimination tournament during the course of the day.

Space is limited to the first 12 players to sign up.  If you want to register either post a comment here (I’ll email to confirm) or the better option is to send me a Private Message over at the AWC Forums.

Army Requirements are 500pts following typical Legions of Middle Earth rules with the following exception:  MAXIMUM model count is 15. So bring out your heroes for this clash as you fight your way to the top of Mount Doom.  Army lists will be checked for accuracy the day of the event so be prepared with extra copies of your army list.  All models must be painted to a minimum three-color tournament standard.  All games will be limited to 50 minutes in length so prompt play is required.  Games will kick-off at 10:30 and the winner will crowned at around 4pm.

In addition to the tournament, the AWC LOTR club will also have some extra space throughout the day for pick-up games for LOTR:SBG as well as host a demo table showcasing the SBG.

I hope anyone thinking of attending Games Day will help support the club by coming over to these events.

If anyone has questions, feel free to leave a comment or head on over to the AWC Forums and post your comments.

Event #2:  Bilbo’s Birthday Base, and Independent Grand Tournament – August 22-23, 2009 at the Chicago Battle Bunker

Come join your friends as we celebrate Bilbo’s elventy-first birthday at an Indy Grand Tournament for the Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game.

Tournament Logistics:
Location: The Chicago Battle Bunker (1524 Butterfield Road, Suite A, Downers Grove, IL)
Day 1: Saturday August 22nd 10am-8pm. 4 Games
Day 2: Sunday August 23rd 12pm – 6pm. 2 Games plus Awards

Entry Fee: $40 (Pre-registration before August 2 gets a $5 discount)

Tournament Format:
Each player will play a total of 6 games – three games with each army. All match-ups will be arranged as good versus evil only. All games will be 90 minutes in length with pre-set terrain.

Army Requirements:
Each player will be required to bring TWO armies with them, one representing the Free Peoples of Middle Earth (Good) and on representing the Forces of Darkness (Evil). Each army much be no more than 350 points and must follow the normal army building rules outlined in Legions of Middle Earth (LOME). Army Lists must be selected from LOME or any subsequent sourcebook. Profiles for heroes and warriors published in White Dwarf (up to and including Issue 354, July 2009) may be included in your army following the rules in the relevant articles. All players are expected to bring copies of the rules and profiles for their own armies (including extra copies of White Dwarf articles).

A note on painting…Both armies must be painted to a minimum standard of 3 colors plus a base.

Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded for Best Overall, Best General, Best Appearance, and Best Sportsman. Depending on the number of pre-registrations, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards as well as some additional categories may be added.

Tentative Schedule of Event:

August 22nd, 2009

10:00 – 11:00 Registration and Check-in
11:00 – 12:30 Game 1
12: 30 – 1:30 Lunch – Paint Judging
1: 30 – 3:00 Game 2
3:00 – 3:30 Scoring Break
3:30 – 5:00 Game 3
5:00 – 6:00 Dinner – Paint Judging
6:00 – 7:30 Game 4

August 23rd, 2009
12:00 – 12:30 Check-in
12:30 – 2:-00 Game 5
2:00 -3:00 Lunch
3:00 -4:30 Game 6
4:30-5:00 Scoring Break
5:00 Award Ceremony

Note: We are still working out the final details on the schedule of events. These times might change but we don’t expect to fundamentally change that we are playing 4 games on day 1 and 2 games on day 2.

To Register for this event, go to our event website:

Bilbo’s Birthday Bash.  If you pre-register, your entry fee will only be $35. Pre-Registration closes on August 2nd.

Following up on my post from yesterday… I was fooling around with Photoshop trying to create a “Splash” image/logo for the event. Here’s what I came up with.

Wow, I can’t believe its been this long since I made a post.  I never even said anything about my Adepticon Experience or post-Adepticon decompression.  I’m going to try and rectify that in the very near future.  In the meantime though, I’m excited to share some news on a new event that I’m going to help run at the 2009 Chicago Games Day…

Do you have the will to make the journey all the way to Mount Doom?

Come find out as the Adeptus Windy City Lord of the Rings Club is proud to present the March to Mount Doom Madness Tournament for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game at the 2009 Chicago Games Day.  This tournament will feature a unique “bracket-style” pairing system and players will play their way trough a single elimination tournament during the course of the day.  Space will be limited and registration will officially open soon.  I’ll post full details on the registration as soon as I can.  Until then, here are some details regarding the tournament…

Army Requirements are 500pts following typical Legions of Middle Earth rules with the following exception:  MAXIMUM model count is 15. So bring out your heroes for this clash as you fight your way to the top of Mount Doom.  Army lists will be checked for accuracy the day of the event so be prepared with extra copies of your army list.  All models must be painted to a minimum three-color tournament standard.  All games will be limited to 50 minutes in length so prompt play is required.  Games will kick-off at 10:30 and the winner will crowned at around 4pm.

In addition to the tournament, the AWC LOTR club will also have some extra space throughout the day for pick-up games for LOTR:SBG as well as host a demo table showcasing the SBG.

I hope anyone thinking of attending Games Day will help support the club by coming over to these events.

If anyone has questions, feel free to leave a comment or head on over to the AWC Forums and post your comments there.

Starting this weekend, the greatest miniature gaming tournament of the year kicks off! Adepticon has really exploded over the last few years. As an avid Lord of the Rings player, Adepticon has grown to accomodate us amongst the hordes of Warhammer and 40K players. My good friend Jamie Welling is the primary driving force between the LotR Adepticon presence. As players, we are lucky to have a hobby champion like Jamie!

Stealing an idea from my friend Tim, here’s a rundown of my Adpeticon 2009 plans.

Thursday:  I’m picking up a friend at the airport in the afternoon.  I offered up a place at my house on Thursday night to off-set the cost a bit for him.  Although we are staying at my place on Thursday night, we are driving straight to the hotel on Thursday to help Jamie set-up the Lord of the Rings tournament terrain.  Most of the terrain is currently sitting in my house anyway.  We’ve got 20 tables planned for tournament gaming – ranging from the Mines of Moria, Angmar, Eriador, Rohan, Osgiliath, Harad, and Mordor!  The Adepticon terrain was created by a group of individuals including me, Jamie, Chris B, Tim K, and we also received a few donates of pieces from CastleKits, and fellow gamers Jeremy and Ambrose.  I hope to bring full coverage of all the Adepticon tables after the weekend is over.

Friday:  Friday kicks off with the Lord of the Rings Singles Championships.  We are sitting at 31 tournament players right now and I expect to get up closer to 40 by Friday morning.  At 30+ people, this makes the Adepticon the largest singles tournament for Adepticon since the early GTs hosted in Baltimore shortly after the first edition of rules were published.  I’m playing one of my favorite armies for this tournament, Rohan.  I’ve put together an all mounted Rohan army led by Erkenbrand.  I’ve been anxious for a reason to paint Erkenbrand and now I had it.  After the tournament, I’m signed up to play in Legends of High Seas Pirate Treasure Hunt game being hosted by Tim Kulinski. 

Saturday:  Saturday marks the return of the Lord of the Rings Team Tournament.  This is the 3rd year for this tournament and is usually the highlight of LOTR tournament season.  Once again, I’m teaming up with Frank Brown as we hope to lay claim to the title, Lords of Middle Earth.  In reality, I’m just hoping Frank makes it to the tournament on time this year.  Last year, with all the fiasco around the grounding of USAir planes, Frank didn’t actually arrive to Adepticon until half way through the team tournament!!  

Sunday:  I’m debuting in a new game system on Sunday.  Frank has convinced me to play in the Warhammer Ancients Battle Team Tournament.  I just finished reading the rules this week so I’m a total newbie.   Frank is bringing the army.  He said something about Persians and Macedonians (whatever they are).  I assured him, I’d at least be able to recognize the front of  Phalanx, but that’s all I’ve promised.  However, having said that, it should be a blast.  A lot of great guys are playing in the tournament and it will be a fun way to wind down the weekend.  The other ting going on for Sunday is the Lord of the Rings Demonstration Table.  Our gaming club is running a Rohan vs Isengard Demo game.  I built all the terrain for the demo and will be supplying the Rohan Models.  Jamie is supplying the Isengard army.  Hopefully, the people attending the demo will enjoy playing on the table and with the miniatures.

Last thing about this weekend…. April 4th marks the Debut of War of the Ring.  I’ve got my copy pre-ordered at my local Games Workshop.  I’m not sure I’ll actually get it until after the convention but I’m looking forward to learning those rules and developping my Rohan army to be worth of War of the Ring.

Stay tuned for future coverage of Adepticon!

I few posts back, I mentioned the Round Robin painting experiment that we’ve been doing over at Adeptus Windy City. It was my turn to paint Legolas (original owner Jay). As best as I can remember his pedigree, Legolas was basecoating in California by Tim and his detail work was done in Massachusetts by Jeremy. He found is way to me while I was in Phoenix (yep, Legolas has been getting around). My job was to highlight/wash the model so that he could be returned to Jay for final basing.

Jeremy had done such an exceptional job painting the eyes on this model (he says its the best eyes he’d ever painted), I was really, really worried I’d screw him up. I decided to keep the highlights to a minimum and I just used the Citadel Washes to provide the contrast on the model. I washed down everything using either the brown, black or sepia washes and this provided a lot of depth to the basecoat that was applied. Bravely, the last thing I decided to do was add some very subtle highlights to the face. I didnt’ dare use any washes on the skin as I felt like it would be way to sloppy and not have enough precision to ruin the eyes. Being careful, I think I was able to bring out a bit more depth in the face.

Well, I’m hopeful that Jay is happy with the way his model turned out. Here are a few pictures:

The Prince of Mirkwood

I wish I could paint eyes like that!

2009 Marks the third year that Adepticon will be hosting a Lord of the Rings Team Tournament.  The last two years, I’ve teamed with Frank Brown and we are preparing for our third tournament together next month.  People who have been following my blog will notice that I’ve been working on a lot of Adepticon related projects including a number of terrain projects.  In addition to the terrain, Jamie Welling (the tournament organizer) has asked Frank and I to assist in writing a series of short articles leading up to the “Road to Adepticon”.  Our first installment was published in January and was entitled “Building a LOTR Tournament Army:  Developing a Theme” and we obviously focused on the was we go about selecting our army theme each year.   The follow-up article, “Building a LOTR Tournament Army:  From Theme to List” was just published and it documents the process of building specific army lists based on the criteria that we set forth in the planning process. 

Happy Reading!

Here’s a Link to the Adepticon Website where you can find out more details on both of the very exciting Lord of the Rings Tournaments, a bunch of 40K, Fantasy, and Warhammer Ancients tournaments as well as a host of other Hobby Fun!

‘Let Ghân-Buri-Ghân Finish!’ said the Wild Man.  ‘More than one road he knows.  He will lead you by road where no pits are, no gorgûn walk, only Wild Men and beasts.’

–  Chapter V, The Ride of the Rohirrim, Return of the King

As part of the Gathering in the Desert, the Organizers were running the Red Dragon Painting contest.  I knew I wanted to support the competition but wouldn’t have time to paint an entry.  So what I did do, was pick out some of my favorite models.  Tim Kulinski managed to get this great photo of my Ghân-Buri-Ghân so I couldn’t help but borrow it and post it on my blog.

Ghân-Buri-Ghân

I painted the old Ghân to lead my Woses warriors as part of my  “Passage through Drúadan Forest” army that I used at the 2008 Chicago Grand Tournament.  The Woses models are fun to paint and give you a chance to experiment with some small freehand tatoos (nothing too fancy).  I went the extra mile on this this figure and gave him a scenic base.  Some day, I’ll paint up the rest of my Woses and be able to field up to 50 or so of the Wildmen.  That should make the Orc players crazy.