Skeletal Champion

 

I'm continuing to populate my (not yet existent) dungeon with undead. Most notably, I have added a skeletal champion. Skeletons are such great bad guys, it's nice to have a few more powerful ones to increase the challenge. 

After painting a lot of GW Middle-Earth minis earlier this year, it's refreshing to switch to the bigger, chunkier Reaper Bones models for a bit!

The Archer, the Skeleton, and the Mystic Basin!

A few more pieces for my dungeon crawler. The skeleton and the kneeling archer are both Reaper figures while the basin is from one of the Mantic terrain kits. 

As you can see on the skeleton, I accidently hacked off some toes while getting him off his integral base. Then I learned a neat trick. If you soak the feet of bones figures in boiling water for about 20 seconds, the material becomes much softer. Doing this, I was able to easily slice the archer of his base, despite a much thicker connection.

I also got a new can of 'Colour Forge Matt Varnish' to try out, and made my first test on the archer. I've got to say, I'm very happy with the results. The can had a more powerful spray than any I've used before and gives a very pleasing finish. I'll need a few more tests, but I might have found my new go-to varnish! 

I am awaiting delivery of some Hirst Arts molds to start making my dungeon tiles. I sold off my original molds long ago - which I regret. I'll do another post going into why I've decided to go that route for dungeon building when I get them.

Guardians of the Icon

I had a good weekend of painting, moving ahead with my 'Dungeon Crawler' project. First up, I painted two skeletons from Reaper. These were part of one of their Bones Kickstarters, though I bought them from a reseller. In the past, I have been somewhat critical of the harder Reaper Bones material, but these painted up really well. Although, there seem to be so many different varieties of the Bones material now, it's hard to keep them straight. Anyway, the challenging part was cutting them off their integral bases and gluing them to GW style bases. I think these look a lot better in the dungeon with their uniformity and the way they sit perfectly in a square. I used the Army Painter 'Pallid Bone' speed paint for the bones, because honestly it does a better job than I could. The rest is painted with more traditional layers and washes. 

The little shrine was something I threw into my order not knowing what I would do with it. At first I thought it would be a tombstone, but I thought that would just look too plain. So, I decided to see if I could paint it like a medieval icon, an artform I've always been attracted to. I tried to copy a depiction of St. Nicholas that I found online. While I'm no great freehand painter, I think it came out really well. It'll make a striking little piece in the dungeon... and who knows what special properties it might have! 

Dungeon Base

The above figure is a plastic boardgame piece from one of the Cthulhu: Death May Die sets, and the paint job I gave it is nothing special. In fact, I was less interested in the figure itself as I was the base. I wanted to experiment with painting a 'dungeon' base. You know, a base that looks like the irregular flagstones of some forgotten underground corridor.  It's a technique that Kev Dallimore uses in the work he's done for the Frostgrave photography, though he usually goes with more regular looking stones. Obviously, my work isn't up to his, but I think it came out pretty well for a first attempt. I even added a few little blood splatters for colour! 

The doorway is also a bit of an experiment. It's from the modern HeroQuest game. I painted up a bunch of these figures last summer... unfortunately, most of them became 'sticky'. Some of you will know what I mean. Essentially, there is some combination of plastic (usually of the cheaper, bendy boardgame type), primer, and varnish, that sometimes causes figures to 'sweat'. This can make them very sticky and unpleasant to use. I tried hitting them with another layer or two of varnish, but it was only semi-successful. It actually killed my enthusiasm for the game. However, over the weekend, I pulled out an unpainted doorway. I used brush-on primer (a first for me!), gave it a quick paint job, and then used brush-on varnish. Hopefully, this will keep it from getting sticky - though it may be a few months before I really know for sure.

Anyway, as you might be gathering, I'm thinking about constructing my own dungeon crawler set - just for my own hobby amusement - it is not part of a professional project, though that distinction can grown blurry at times!

Hairfoot Jousting!

It exists! Osprey sent me an advance copy of my new game, Hairfoot Jousting. The first game I have written that could probably be called 'cute'. I believe it will be available in late May! And yes, you need 4d6 to play the game. More information coming soon!

The Muster of Dol Amroth

There is some talk amongst my friends of doing a bit of Middle-earth gaming, so I thought I'd better break out my Dol Amroth forces and see what I've actually got. I've been (very slowly) working on this army for a few years now, but never put it all on the table at once. Here's what I've got currently.

12 Spearmen

10 Swordsmen

10 Archers

6 Knights on Foot

2 Mounted Knights

3 Rangers

2 Men-at-Arms

1 Knight Captain

Prince Imrahil on Foot

I've got 5 more mounted knights waiting to be painted, which is the biggest hole in the army at the moment. Cavalry just takes so long to paint! I'd also like to get a few more rangers to get that unit up to 6 or 8.  And beef the swordsmen and archer units up to 12.

I really should paint up the mounted Imrahil, though I'm not a huge fan of the official figure. I've been thinking about conversions. For the moment, I might just use my 1 metal knight to represent him.

Longer term, I'd like to get a ballista for when they are fighting on the defensive. I'd also like to make a supply wagon as a scenery piece / objective marker.

The War of the Rohirrim - No Spoiler Review

I went to see The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. I was the only person in a 200 seat IMAX theatre…

Being a hard-core Tolkien nerd, I’ve known this movie was coming for a long-time, though I was undecided on whether to see it. Would it fill me with joy like The Fellowship of the Ring? Or fill me with bitterness like The Battle of the Five Armies? I read a few reviews, but they were so mixed as to be unhelpful. Eventually, I decided I was overthinking it, and I should just go and try to enjoy it. And even if I didn’t enjoy it, at least I would be able to talk about it!

I prefer to go to the cinema at off-peak times, so I knocked off early yesterday. It was only showing on the IMAX at the big multiplex, so I overpaid for my ticket and then overpaid for my popcorn. There was no one else in the theatre when I arrived… and so it stayed, a vast, empty room. Thankfully, I’m generally happy with my own company, and moved to sit right in the middle! I read a book while the adverts played, slightly worried they might decide not to show it for only one person (which did happen to me once!). Eventually, the movie began.

It was a strange ride, but I enjoyed it. The story itself is strong. It includes the whole tale of Helm Hammerhand as Tolkien wrote it – but obviously needed to add a lot to turn 3 printed pages into a film. Most of this addition comes in the form of Helm’s heroic daughter, Hera. She get’s her own story, intertwined with her father’s. Both are well told. The characters aren’t particularly deep, but this is fairytale not literature, and on that level, it succeeds.

Where it is less consistent is the animation. The movie opens with a beautiful shot of the map of Middle-Earth fading into actual mountains. A moment later, a giant eagle flies past… the eagle appears hastily drawn on top of the gorgeous background. For a moment my heart sunk. On the whole though, the animation is good, and sometimes it is utterly fantastic… but there are moments throughout that look either unfinished or rushed, which is a shame. A couple of moments did seem more ‘anime’ than ‘Middle-Earth’. The animation is going to lose a lot of people.

I have seen complaints that the movie is too long. I don’t agree, most of what is there is necessary. 

I have seen complaints that Hera is a ‘Mary Sue’ (a flawless heroic woman). These are baseless. She is heroic and competent, but she needs help as often as she gives it.

I was hoping to take my 8-year-old son to see the movie, but there are a few character deaths that are too rough for a sensitive soul.

The War of the Rohirrim is far from a perfect movie, but for my money (and I spent plenty to see it), it is a good one. More than a Tolkien fan should ever expect for the story of Helm Hammerhand! I probably won’t rush to see it again in theatre, but I’m glad that I went, and I will buy it on Blu-Ray when it is released. 

If you want to see it in theatre, I suggest going soon. Based on my own experience, it won’t be there long…