Black Orc Down

Some daylight shots of the Black Uruks...unlike other Orcs, these guys don't shun the yellow face in the sky.

 What is it with Elves and arrows? Lets hope they have plenty of them because these guys are coming in fast. Best not shoot anymore It will just make it worse.

Finished Enamel and Oil Horse

So here is the officer for my parliamentarian cavalry regiment. I think the Dun coloured horse came out okay and certainly has some subtle tones to it that would have been difficult by layering. First one down and another five to go.


Figure from Essex Miniatures.

Orc Standards have dropped

 Here are two standards that I have knocked up for my Gundabad legions. Whilst sorting through a box of Romans i found some large vexilliums I think from Essex miniatures. They could make nice orc banners I thought to myself and so made up a plastic orc to carry it. I'm looking forward to painting this guy up and he will go with my centurion looking Orc captain, I think they were made for each other.

This guy is another hybrid between Perry Miniatures and Warlord Games's plastics. It's great to get some actual banners with the eye of Sauron on for the Mordor armies, It really helps with the look of the army, all my other standards are totems or skulls on sticks so these banners make a nice change.

Enamel and Oil paint Horses

Here is the first and not really the best example of my horse 'Oil' batches. Still a nice effect though and the skin tones are very subtle which is perfect for horse flesh.

The best thing about painting horses like this I have found is that you clear all of your horse backlog in one fun filled go. I must have around thirty horses ready to go now. I found it really enjoyable painting them in this way, I have around five that didn't work for various reasons but these will be repainted using the fail safe browns.

The Chestnuts are probably my favourite so far as they are the most effective and realistic in colour. I will post more on this later.

WIP Black Uruk beserkers

 Finally got these Black uruks on to a base last night...It's taken long enough!

 In Dragon rampant they will be classed as Bellicose foot with venomous trait to give them two hits for every D6 rolled in combat. This is to hint at their strength and frenzy in battle. Lets hope they chew up the Dwarven shield wall and make way for the rest of the dark horde to pour through the gaps.

Enamels and Oil Horse figure painting.

 A second night of messing around with enamels and oil paint and things are starting to take shape. Yesterday I bought a tube of black oil paint and this worked really well on the dark browns (Bays). I was amazed to see that the dark bay colour matched exactly the colour I had painstakingly mixed and painted with foundry paints. I had painted all my horses dark brown as it was a very easy colour to do, now I will have more options with the full spectrum of horse coats. One of the nice things about the Oil results is that they have a warmth to them as If the animal is alive.

 Horse reference

Time for some Chestnut horses with MATT 100. This warm colour should give a nice glow when uncovered from the dark burnt Umber oil paint. I have a range of Oil paints but they are all dark Umbers and a black.

painting Horses with Oil Paints

  Well for many years I have thought about doing this, it's kind of like the next level up on the  painting horses scale, so I was keen to give it a go. At the moment I'm just jumping straight in and experimenting with colours and drying times etc. I read a little on line to give me some pointers but the best thing to do is get stuck in and get your hands messy.

The smell of the enamel took me straight back to painting D&D figures when I was 15, great stuff.

 Out of all the colours I tried I think the chestnut Bay worked out the best. I'm off to buy some black Oil paint now and so will try that on the dark Bay colour to see what it will look like.Once I have worked out what works and what doesn't I will do a follow up post with some tips.

 Not so keen on the Dun coloured horses but they still work, I think I will try some more browns and even a white or cream colour next. So far quite happy with the results and It gets a lot of horses painted quickly.

Gondolin Blades

This is an idea I have for a unit of Elves for Dragon Rampant. They will be classed as light Infantry as with all my Elvish warriors but will have the 'venomous' trait added to them. This gives them a double hit on any six rolled on their attack. This will equate to the excellent quality of their Elven blades. The blades being able, on a good stroke to cut through two opponents at once.

My Elven units are very heavy on points coming in around eight points a company (12 men). They will be classed as Light Infantry but will also have Elven armour to give them a six saving throw ( to make up for their Light status). Being Light Infantry, they can move fast and really move some distance when needed.They will also have the aggressive trait to make them better in melee.

 A house rule I intend to use is to ignore the rule that says 'wall of spears' (shieldwall really) has to be dropped if the unit is classed as aggressive. Both my Elf and Dwarf units will have both of these traits and It should go some way to show how skilled they are in combat compared to their human counterparts. All great fun.

LOTR Easterlings

High Elves

A quick Doodle to clear my mind so I can get on with thinking about work.


 It's also a good excuse to try out some new grey marker pens. These are based on the old grenadier Mark Copplestone sculpts. Now available from Miriliton Miniatures and Forelorn Hope Miniatures.

Painting Orcs can be a real pain in the arse.

That's the problem with painting anything for the dark Lord, once you start he doesn't let you stop.

Happy Belated New year Everyone.

 Here come some dour Round heads to crush Christmas.

 Well I hope you all had a good Christmas and a New year. I was away for the holiday and so didn't really get a chance to pick up a brush or even read any rules. However, I'm back now and It's nice to be posting on here again. Here's to the next one, cheers all the best Simon.

Orc Captain

Orc helmet

Creating Gundabad Orcs

 I have been having great fun with these Warlord plastic orcs and various Perry plastic box sets. To add a little variety to the unit I bought some 'War of the Roses' plastics for their nasty looking bill hooks. Again they work well with the orc torsos. The orc captain above is styled on the various captains taken from the Peter Jackson LOTR films with the side crest like a Centurion.

 Another little thing I'm excited about is the discovery of plastic card. I did buy some thick stuff but it proved a little too thick to cut into detailed shades, however, I found some really thin stuff which is excellent for armour etc. Orc armour is pretty rough and ready so it is great to mocking stuff up, the crapper the better with orcs.

Here I am also using the thin plastic card to create shields. The wood is cut up lolly sticks with the tiny rivets being created by Gel super glue. Looking forward to painting this lot up and seeing what they look like.

Gundabad standard reference

Found this great standard design on the internet, could prove very useful. Creator unknown.

Making Gundabad Orcs

Just trying a few different ways to introduce character into a unit of Gundabad orcs. A crude 'green stuff' face mask and helmet blades made from plastic card. The helmet blades are a nod to Peter Jackson's films and I think they will look good once painted up.

Got to Love Charity Shops!

 My Wife snapped up these two amazing bargains in a local charity shop. £4 for the 40K and £5 for the massive WarHammer book. I don't imagine I will get around to playing either soon but they are a wealth of artwork and eye candy. I think they must be quite recent as the figures inside are very current. I feel sorry for the guy who had these then decided not to play it anymore, they have hardly been touched. I wonder if these books being dis-guarded are the result of the Age Of Sigmar...properly not who knows.They have found their way back to the Imperium now.

A steal though which ever way you look at it, brightened up my bad day any how. I was interested to read up about the races but found the chapters short and full of new guff which didn't really get me.

Orc vs Elf

Green Stuff the Bear

I decided to issue a 'HOLD' order on any ECW activity until Pikeman's Lament is released in January.

So all my ECW stuff is packed away and out of site which feels good as now I can concentrate on the Hobbit Project again and start chipping away at these lovely armies. Above a fantastic Dire bear from Reaper Miniatures is having his joins covered ready for his role as Beorn. I really want to paint him in brown but Beorn was actually meant to be black, maybe I will give him a brown muzzle to break up the overall colour.

In the back ground is a Ral Partha Ogre who will be doubling as a Hill Troll, there will be four of these on two bases for Dragon Rampant. together they will act as a 12 point bellicose foot unit so each Hill troll is 3 hit points each.

 I don't really intend to use the point system from the rule book and will tailor the units to fit the feel of  Middle earth better. For example the Hill Trolls will end up being around 9pts a unit, with armour ( thick hide) and Great strength being added to them.
Like wise my Dwarves (8pts) and Elves (7pts) will come in very pricey compared to the massed units of Goblins (4pts) and Wargs (4pts). Really looking forward to getting some more units done and trying out some different troop types in the game. Wolf riders are on my list...

Thinking I can use the Plastic Saxon box set from gripping Beast to add some variety to the weapons of the Wolf Riders, as there are only three sculpts from Ral partha ( the best Wolf Riders around at the moment).