More prep for Lord of the Rings

As I continue to work on my display projects for the Capital Palette at NOVA Open, I also continue to fit in work on my LotR orcs, in preparation for the gaming events I signed up for.

Aarrgh!!  A leader for one of my Orc warbands. 
Problem is, I'll probably need 3 or so leaders, and I have only 1 leader model!
I'll have to proxy models from the Warrior models.

I thought I had posted the next photo in an earlier blog post.  I sure wish I had, because I was going to describe how each approach was different for painting the metallics for each of the 3 figures.  Now I can't remember, of course, and it will be back to the drawing board!

Looking for the best 'assembly line' recipe to use for the rest of the army.

I think I decided on a simple 2-step solution.  Basecoat with a brownish-red and then dry-brush with metal.  Some of the experiments involved washes before and/or after the dry-brush, and I think I decided the wash didn't make enough difference for batch-painting 48 models.

The next experiment was to decide what color combinations to use for the skin tones.

Looking for skin tone combos that I like.

In a mass of 48 orcs, I don't care if the group contains some failed experiments.  For instance, I didn't like the results for the grays and the brighter greens or reds (the reds look like Darth Maul!).  But I'll keep them in the army anyway, i.e. it's not worth repainting them.  Certainly not worth stripping them.

I do like the orangish-reds, the orangish-yellows, the olives, and the chocolate browns.  Four combos should be fine.  One for each instance of each pose.

I'll be under pressure to finish the display pieces and the gaming models in time for NOVA.  This month is going to be intense at work.  I don't know what I'm going to do, if I don't have Warg riders and Haradrim cavalry painted up.  I suppose I'll have plenty of Orc infantry, but I would really like to have some more interesting units in the mix.

Eventually, though, I will need to make time to paint Darth Maul facial tattoos on that red-faced spearman...

Frostgrave

It's been quiet on the blog, I know.  I've been working on my projects for the Capital Palette, and I've been writing draft blog posts as I progress.  So there's a lot of blog activity -- just nothing that can be seen yet!

About 3 weeks ago, I did manage to participate in a game of Frostgrave.  The interest for Frostgrave is still going strong with the local group here.  I'm excited to have received the next batch of Frostgrave goodies, to use in the next chapter of campaigning.  I took advantage of the "Knickstarter" (preorder) that Warlord Games rolled out for this latest offering.  I'm particularly excited to see a whole range of gnoll miniatures.  I've always liked gnolls -- I considered them to be one of the most original and characterful adversaries in D&D.  And there were never enough miniatures for gnolls to do them justice as a warband.  Until now!

I didn't expect all of the metal figures included in this purchase.  They're good quality, and they include a half-dozen gnolls, on top of the plastic gnoll models in the box.



So, local miniatures game enthusiast, Joe, set up a great 3-player table, featuring some nice elevated positions.  I won 1st-pick, so I took the tower in the lower-right of the picture.  You can barely see my goblin wizard, Old Man Tumbergrumbler, surveying the landscape from the catwalk, enjoying a clear line-of-sight to every spot on the table.  Of course, everyone could see him as well....  One nasty Push spell could hurt pretty bad.  Of course, I physically knocked him off accidentally 3 times in a row myself!



Some nice, elaborate terrain, courtesy of Joe.

The scenario was the one with the Living Statues (I forget the name).  A random statue comes to life every time a treasure is claimed.

The statues come alive to defend their treasure!
On the right, my Trollblood Axer from Hordes finally finds a (re)purpose as a Frostgrave Templar.

I came into this game pretty strong, having collected an arsenal of Teleportation potions in my last game.

One of my Teknes crew from Wrath of Kings plays as a Frostgrave crossover, serving the role of one of my Knights.
Here, he teleports near an enemy Wizard and causes a serious kerfuffle.

Some random skeletons tried scaling the tower wall to reach my wizard and apprentice.  But by the time they got there, my mission was accomplished, and my boys were scaling down the opposite wall.  Ha!



My boys make off the board with 4 treasures!  Oh, what a glorious day!