Elven Archers.

 Nearly done with these Elven Archers though the mixed herbs look more like broken branches than leaf litter.

A couple of 'homemade broken branches are included.

No sign of giant spiders though.

A few paint jobs still to do but all will have to wait on Christmas and into the New Year, I think.

Starting Wood Elf Warriors

Meanwhile I made a start on these wood elves.

These guys are from Mirkwood so I get to use my mixed herbs and Halloween 'spiders web' on the bases.

Troll op'

With five Trolls to paint and only four heads, one stance and limited weaponry, I decided to complicate matters and try operating on a Troll arm.

Hopefully, with a little variety in skin colour, he should look different to the others.



I cut off the 'blade' on the top of the helmet and I'll paint it leather rather than metal.

Cutting off the hand from an armoured arm was easy but scraping away troll flesh to match the hand was a little more tricky and I don't think the job I made is brilliant.

Perhaps a layer of green stuff might help.

The second weapon in the hand on the right is the 'handle' of the axe glued to a sawn off drumstick with a left hand clutching it.

So there you have the ambidextrous troll, looking a little pale after his op.

Troll - Blake

Here's the troll I worked on from scratch so that there was little filler required on the arm joints.

I was working on both of these at the same time.

Because I left hands, head and drums till I'd done most of the dry brushing, I could go a little lighter but then there were other problems such as the head join being obvious and a colour change from body to arms.

Again I should have worked harder on all the seams before painting.

This one was going to be Lewis but Blake claimed him on account of the drums.

I'm thinking of working on the remaining three at the same time.

I'd like to do something extra with the bases as there's no way the body can be changed and so the stance is the same for each one.

Trolls - Henry

Here's Henry's Troll who was in a bad way when he first enlisted.

His arms were somewhat removed from his shoulders and he was distinctly grey looking.

That's right - no undercoat even.

I roughly followed the painting guide in the LOTR rule book (p205).

He refused to be parted with his armour making painting and, in particular, dry brushing, difficult.

The result is rather redder than is perhaps normal for a troll but, as I'm considering going for green on the next batch it's not so very far off the mark.

I've learned, when painting this one and 'Blake', to try harder on the body joins.

Perhaps thick glue?

I used a fair chunk of green stuff (actually Milliput) to join arms to body but realise that the body seams should have received some filler too.

Morgul Knights Squadron

So here's all twelve of them finished.

I did some touching up on the original six such as horses mouths as I was doing the new ones.

Just in case you think they are the original six with new arms attached with blue tack, I include a pic of the complete squadron of twelve.

I can see that they will be fragile, in the field.

In fact, the banner carrier has already met up with some troll trouble and needed some super glue when his banner snapped off. Worth getting brass rod?

Morgul Knight bases

Just to show that I'm not totally doing nuffink, here's the bases for the second batch of Morgul Knights.

The one on the right is from the previous batch for comparison.

I'm still not happy as it's tricky getting Milliput around but not touching the hooves and more so with the Dark Earth paint.

Next time, I'll try another way.

Magwitch Hill

I should have finished the next batch of Morgul Knights,by now but I've been elsewhere.

However, this hill which Henry and Lewis made a few years ago and never painted, came to light recently.

So Maggie, with a little help from Blake, did the grass work and some of the painting.

Meanwhile, the Knights are gradually taking shape.

Morgul Knights Ride

That's the first batch finished and I've learned a few things.

Most of them I should have learned ages ago.

They may lean a little, this way and that.

I found it tricky to avoid it with a pin for one hole in the base and the other fixing points out of kilter.

Things will slow down now as I'll be busy elsewhere but I think I'll go from the second batch to Corsairs of Umber or Wood Elves.

Then the other 23 boxes and the Hobbit starter set!

Then there's that box of Skaven and Elves from the Warhammer World to tackle.
Plus. Plus. Plus.

Morgul Knights 2

Progress!

The two on the right have bases coated in 'Dark Earth', the texture paint I bought for FoW.

I figure the area is coated with dust and rocks.*

I'll do the others though I'll paint them black first.

After the Dark Earth, a bit of highlighting and then the riders can doff spears and sheilds and mount up.

*In my head originally, I had the Morgul Knights hanging out in Mirkwood and created some cute little fallen branches, had my pot of mixed herbs ready for fallen leaves and I'd scrounged some Halloween 'spider's web' to use on the bases (giant spiders in Mirkwood). Oh well! It will all come in handy some day.

Morgul Knights

After sitting, staring at tank decal sheets for the past six weeks or so and fretting about placing them incorrectly, I decided that I really must do something about my 'modelers block'.

So, screwing up my courage and several sheets of toilet paper, I put decals, tanks and FoW paints back in the box and started on these Morgul Knights.

You could say that, at last, I'm back in the saddle but actually, that's not me - just a blob of Blue Tack.

V1 Base

Here's the base which should make the whole thing a little less fragile.

Not much being done at the moment.

The combination of invasions of grandchildren, an amazing test match, War in Middle Earth and illness has meant I've done very little for the past three weeks.

I'm also a little timid of applying decals which is the next stage with the Shermans.

V1

 V1 painted but I'm concerned about the fragility.

I'm thinking to give it a base with all 7 fixing points glued to the same thing so that they all support each other.

I'll leave this one as is but if I ever do another, I might experiment with merging top and bottom colours.

Easy with a good spray gun, I guess. Less so stippling.

Stugs approach completion

I've been busy painting up these Stugs.

They are far from done, even missing a commander, but I feel I can do little more until I get some decals.

Even dirtying them up will have to wait on decals.

The camouflage gave them a lift, despite it not being all that good.

The first Ashes Test took up a little of my painting time but I'd probably have been gardening if not watching so not too much time was lost.

 Just the V1 to go and that's Open Fire dealt with.

Next up - the box of five Shermans (Shermen?) as there may be some decals left over from them to go on the rubbish Shermans in the Open Fire box.

If so, it might make sense to buy some more Stugs rather than spend out on a sheet of decals.

Lewis and I had a brief practice to check out some basic rules.

I went to lay down afterwards.

The rest of the Yanks

 Here are the rest of the American that were dropped behind the lines.

As you can see, the drop took off the muzzles of two of the rifles, never to be afixed.

Also, I think the bazooka may have to be repainted green.

Fun doing the bases but the MG assembly was a bit tricky.

These guys, even supported by the tanks, look a little outnumbered facing the Germans in the 'Open Fire' box.

Next up, the German Stug tank assault guns which are still at the assembly stage.

The Yanks are Coming

 Here are the first of the America paras.

There's a delay on the two HMGs that were with them but they'll be along when they've picked up their chewing gum.

The base edge colour may be changed to Kharki but I was hoping to save that for the British.

I used the Vallejo texture paint, for the first time and quite like it.

Thanks to Greg Pickles for recommending it.

Pak40

 The first of the Pak40s with troupers sprinkled about.

There are two who are obviously going to be on a charge as they are trying to load the wrong ammo - it's far to big!

I've no idea what the other fellows are supposed to be doing.

Only by going along to a fair or a store with a games room will I be able to correct the errors.

I've not super-glued the gun in place.

A little experiment in adhesion.

And, yes - the fellow with his back to us in the second pic is carrying a sawn off shogun rather than his regular rifle - care of a clumsy modeler.

Late arrivals

Well, here's the last of the German infantry.

Just green edging to the base to come and then I can get on with the American paras and the Stugs.

Next batch

So here's the next batch.

Just one four man team and the two four man Pak40 teams to go and then I can start on the Yanks.

I deliberately include one shot of them retreating to show that I don't only paint the front badly!

I think my choice of paint for the bases looks more like tarmac road than French countryside but I'm stuck with it now.

It rained a lot!

Popular Request

And now - by popular request -

Well, actually, grandson number one commented that my blog had shown nothing new for ages.

I've been painting in two fairly large batches, four teams at a time, so progress seems slow.

Then there was the constant interference from 'Battle for Middle Earth'!

I'm painting them stood on telegraph poles, as per 'Colours of War', and it does make life easier, though one fell off and broke his rifle.

There are now about eight new teams on bases ready for sand and grass.

I'm just starting work on one of the Pak40 gun teams too.

From now on, things may speed up a little.

Into Uniform

So here they are with an upward coat of Cam Dark Green and a downward coat of  Field Grey.

Now comes the tricky part - all that indistinct detail.

I'm worried that there may be a tinge of the base green showing through but, so far, I can see no difference between these and the black undercoat ones.

(In truth, the main reason for using the green is that I bought a can for the kids at Swell School and it's hardly been used!)

I've sent off for 'Colours of War' a painting guide, hoping it's much better than the FoW one.

If so, things might improve though I already realise that highlighting needs to be 'louder'.

German reinforcements approaching slowly

I've faffed around with the Shermans enough and, as there are no decals (!) I've returned to the German troops.

I've base sprayed Caliban Green thinking if I missed any of the dark green, it would be invisible.

Nope. It doesn't disappear into the background as it's such a different green.

As well as that, I now have to paint odds and ends black as a shadow before painting them. (such as the ammo for the machine guns)

As well as the remaining troops, I've dealt with the two gun crews at the same time, including the Cossack acrobat.

3 and a Firefly

I've zipped through the armour paint on two of these as I used the cheap and nasty GW spray gun.

Not knowing much about it's use, I think I thinned down the paint too much resulting in a puddling effect which required three thin brush coats to improve things.

This post is really to comment on the quality of the Shermans in the Open Fire box.

Frankly, they are very poor.

A great deal of fiddling is required to avoid the right hand track being decidedly knock-kneed and there are serious gaps everywhere.

The tanks in the new (ebay) box look much better.

Oh! And there are no decals in the box. How mean can you get!

A British Sherman

 The first of the British Shermans is nearly in action.

The decals will have to wait till I've painted them all.

The green paint I eventually bought from GW.

Loren Forest is the equivalent of Russian Uniform.

Though I've tipped with metal the outer edge of the tracks, I believe this may be incorrect.

I think I've read, somewhere, that British tanks had all rubber tracks.

Won 3 boxes on ebay.

A Sherman Armoured Platoon, a Panzer 4J Platoon and a British Rifle Company.

Now feel I have to make good use of all those paints, you see!

(Germans about to blow the tracks off, no matter what they are made of.)

Books and paints

A rarity. Text only.
I did send for the full size rule book collection which, as well as the large rule book, includes the 'Hobby' book (as suspected, very basic) and the 'Forces' book which gives points values and is therefore essential. Actually, all three useful though the 'Hobby' book is probably the least so.

I'd bought a package pf paints before that which comprised the basic Quartermasters Paint Set, German SS Paint Set, British Paint Set, US Paint Set, German Armour Paint Set and Soviet Paint Set. 42 pots of paint in all (many repeats) but damn it, not one of them is the correct colour for British tanks! British Armour or Russian Uniform has to be bought separately.

3 Shermans and a Firefly are made up but cannot take the field in black.

Flames of War Reinforcements

Reinforcements have arrived fairly quickly due to rather casual painting.

Having realised I'm not going to get things correct without a great deal of study and itching to get back to Middle-Earth, I'm doing a hurried, tabletop paint job on these troops.*

PS Maggie did the grass!


*I'm tempted to send for the larger rule book package which includes a painting guide but I'm fairly sure it won't help much. I think it may be a start-up guide rather than containing detail of troop uniforms and equipment. However, it may have some decent photos.

FoW Retreat

The other problem I have with them is that I find even the normal kit on their backs difficult to decipher.

Is that a water bottle or a hand grenade?

It might serve one well to know the difference.

From the back, it's even worse as they carry stuff like radios? and possibly cooking implements.

(I think I'm getting the hang of this now)