See Ya' 2010

Well, I only managed 13 posts this year (14 if you count this one)...better than 2009 but not where I want to be. I've had some real life stuff taking up time and just haven't had that "hobby" drive I need to focus and do things consistently like paint and blog! That said, here's what I've done off of my "wish list" for 2010:

1-Finish Uruk-Hai scout army for LOTR: Done, but I will eventually be adding stuff to the army.

2-Do terrain for Gathering in the Desert 2010: Done. I've toyed with the idea of getting rid of the Osgiliath terrain because I no longer have armies for any game that fit that basing, but I still have it.

3-15mm Napolenics: Done...kind of...I ended up selling/trading what I had acquired off. The guys I game with have more than enough 15mm Nappy's and anything I was going to contribute would be duplication.

4-Finish Trucks for my DAK FOW Army: Work in progress...I'm a lot closer than I was last year...just some detailing and basing to do. I would have been done, but I did some additions to my 8th Army force and also additions to a Late War Soviet force that I acquired instead.

5-Chariots for Mitanni WAB Army: These have been passed off to Tim K to finish up as the final part of a trade that we entered into years ago.

6-40k Stormtroopers: Done...mostly...just have some detail and basing to do. This went to the back burner pending the new DH codex coming out.

7-WHFB Army: I have a Tomb King army that I had previously owned and I think I may get rid of it. I won't play WHFB competitively so I may just stick with my Dwarf Wars stuff when I get around to playing this game.

8-New 40k Army: Didn't happen...

9-Base up 15mm Marian Army: Didn't happen...but I did have Tim K paint up a 15mm Mongol army that I have to base up as well...so something did get done on the 15mm ancients front.

10-Start new game: I purchased stuff for Dystopian Wars...and I'm also thinking of Warmaster...

Well...it was an "ok" year...at least I got to play a lot more games than I thought I would. Now I'll mull over what I want to accomplish in 2011 and post that up when I get if figured out!

GITD 2010 - The Return of Osgiliath!

Well, I had set a date of February 1st to be done with my army and terrain projects for this year GITD...it turns out I needed a few extra weeks, but I got it done! Here are some pics of a possible layout for "the dreaded Osgiliath" table this year. I eliminated one of the larger buildings from last year and replaced it with the "weathertop" Hirst Arts kit I won last year. I also eliminated a few of the smaller building pieces and added more rubble. It still will be a challenging table for all hopefully. One note...the large 3 storybuilding doesn't have the floor pieces in it for these pictures...it will for the tournament though. See you all there!

GITD 2010 Terrain Progress Report 1: Osgiliath

Well I've actually been doing pretty good with the terrain I've been working on for GITD 2010. Here's the Hirst Arts piece that I won last year for the Osgiliath table I did. Thanks again to Tim K. for putting it together for me. I did some light rubble on it. It will make a good addition to the Osgiliath table for this years tournament! Once I finish off the pieces for the Rohan settlement I'm doing for this year, I'm going to figure out how I'm going to rearrange the Osgiliath table.

Terrain for the 2010 Gathering in the Desert

Last year I supplied a rubbled "Osgiliath" table for the Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings tournament. I received an award for the table which consisted of a nice kit from Hirst Arts. After much procrastination I finally broke down and had Tim K assemble the piece. I just got it back last week and added some rubble to it and just got done priming it. It will be part of a slightly modified "Osgiliath" table at this years GITD next month...many of the same pieces as last year will be there, but it will be reconfigured somewhat.

When I won that Hirst Arts piece, I got thinking about another table I could do at the same time I got thinking about what army I'd like to field. Since I all ready had a Rohan force and had some figures to start an Uruk-hai scout army, I figured I'd do a Rohan settlement. The settlement will have consist of pieces mainly from Old Glory, JR Miniatures, and Pegasus Hobbies along with some scratch built pieces. I spent this morning priming everything using Krylon Ultra-flat black and Ultra-flat brown (for the tree armatures). Now I just have a month to finish it! The good news is that I like painting terrain and can bust through it pretty quickly once I get it primed and ready to go. The hardest part will be the trees which I'll seperate into smaller groups, glue to bases (which will need additional detailing) and flock with leaves.

Here are some pics of what I have to tackle:

Wish me luck!

Pegasus Hobbies Terrain

OK, here's the last pictures of the Osgiliath terrain that I'm doing for the Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings tournament. This first piece is by Pegasus hobbies and came all ready finished. I mounted it on the display board, rubbled it, repainted the small roof sections, and gave it another dry brush to help it blend in with the rest of the pieces I'm doing for this project. Each of the corners in this building come with 2 removeable floors which are not in place for these pictures.

Now this Pegasus hobbies piece was is a plastic kit that had to be assembled and painted; this is the only plastic kit I'll be using...everything else is resin. I didn't want another building ruin with the center collapsed like the one above, so instead I decided to set this one up with 2 adjacent corners still standing and make it a longer piece.

Crusader29 Terrain

Here are some pieces I put together using resin Crusader29 terrain. This stuff started out as completed wall sections provided by Tim K (thanks Tim); Tim said he never thought he'd get around to using this stuff so he donated it to the Osgiliath project. I had to break apart the full wall sections and damage them some to get the look that I wanted. I also took modeling putty and filled in the inner facing of the walls; the outer facing has great detail, but the inner facing was recessed in the center and the edges were raised...this was due to how the molds were set up by the company. Using the modeling paste allowed me to give a stucco looking finish to the inner walls. Overall I am happy with how they turned out. Here are a couple of pictures of one of the ruins...there are more, but I only took pictures of this piece.

Armorcast Ruins

Well, I've gotten some flak recently about not doing anything for myself except purging stuff from my collection...so to prove my nay-sayers wrong, here's some terrain I've been working on in support of the Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings tournament which will be held in February. I'm going to provide the terrain for a 4x4 ruined city representing the beaten and battered city of Osgiliath. I'm using terrain pieces from Armorcast, Pegasus, and Crusader29. I would like to thank Tim K for cutting the bases the building ruins are on. So, here are some of the pieces:

Armorcast ruines and ruined walls

Armorcast ruined cathedral
Another view of the cathedral

Armorcast ruined building

Another set of Armorcast ruins