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!

Cross One Off The List!

Well, I can cross one of my "to do" items for 2010 off of the list...I finished up my Uruk-hai Scout Army up for Lord of the Rings. It also has some Dunland Allies with it. I was actually done a few weeks ago, but was under the weather and finally got around to takeing some quick pictures. So, here they are:

Sharku, some Orcs (for dismounted Warg riders), and some scouts

Some Feral Uruks, more Warg riders and scouts

Scouts and Warriors of Dunland
Lurtz, Ugluk, Vrasku, and Dunland Command

The Army

Now, there is over 600 points here and I have a few different list options that I've come up with. I have tested one list and I have a game scheduled tomorrow with Tim K and I'll try another one then. I still have some time to figure out how to configure the army, so that's good. I do feel that, like last year when I ran my all mounted Rohan force, I'm bringing a knife to a gun fight.

A New Year - 2010 resolutions?

Well, the New Year and New Decade is here and though I haven't been updating this blog much I have actually been doing some gaming related activities. I had a target date of December 31st to finish off my Uruk-Hai scout army for LOTR, but I'm going to be a little behind on that...maybe this weekend...the reason I'm mostly behind is that I decided to do up another box of Warg Riders that I won at the Gathering In the Desert Primer event. So here's my "plan" (subject to change at any time, of course!) for 2010:

1-Finish the Uruk scouts for LOTR: I plan on taking pics and posting them next weekend.

2-Do a bunch of buildings from Old Glory and JR Miniatures, along with some accessories from Pegasus and a piece from Hirst Arts; I want to get this done by the end of January or so because I'll need this stuff for a couple of tables I'm supplying for the Gathering in the Desert.

3-Touch up and rebase a bunch of 15mm Napoleonics I got in a trade. I traded off a 25mm Early Imperial Roman army for these troops since some of the local guys have started playing Napoleon's Battles and Shako II. I'll likely trade/sell off the Russians I got so I can expand the French and Poles I have.

4-Finish up the 15mm DAK trucks for my FOW army.

5-Finally finish up the chariots for my 25mm Mitanni army for WAB.

6-Get some figures suitable for 40k Stormtroopers to add to my Daemonhunter Army.

7-Start on a Warhammer Fantasy Army: I have a large number of Dwarf Wars figures that I can proxy as either an Orc army or an Empire army based on how they are armed, but lately I've been thinking of starting either a Skaven or a Dark Elf army instead.

8-Start on another 40k army: I have my Grey Knights and I think I will start off by adding IGuard and Space Marine allies with possibly expanding these to full blown armies in the future. I'm also interested in Eldar and Dark Eldar though too...

9-Finish off and base up a 15mm Marian Roman army that was painted by Philgreg painters in Sri Lanka. This is for Might of Arms...a good game which I hope to play more of this year.

10-Commit to one "new" game...I'm thinking this will be Uncharted Seas, but we'll see.

That's all for now...hopefully I'll have the time (once my son's basketball season is over with at least) to update the blog more frequently.

Happy New Year!
Tom

More DAK and "What's Next?"

OK, so here are some more (poor) pictures of my 15mm DAK Flames of War army. It's playable; I just have to finish up the detailing on all of the softskin transports. Infantry are Battlefront, Tanks are Old Glory and the guns are from both manufacturers.

So, now that I'm pretty much done with that, "what's next?" Well, I'm working on another Lord of the Rings army that I'll be using in the February Gathering in the Desert (pictures of that when I get further in the project). I also want to do some terrain for the event; I like having deadlines in some cases because it motivates me. I've also started collecting up models for a 40k Space Marine Army I want to do.

Until next time...hopefully it won't be 7 months!

Busy, but not dead...

So it's been forever since I posted to this blog...I've just been busy with "real life" for the most part. Work has been "interesting" since April when I got a "temporary" promotion due to a manager leaving; after doing the job for 3 months I had to interview for it and luckily I got it...promotions from people leaving are the only way people working for the State of Arizona are going to get raises in the forseeable future. I also had a busy summer due to my oldest son playing on a club basketball team, including a trip to Vegas.

In addition to "real life" time commitments, I've strayed into another hobby and started collecting sports cards again. Right now I'm working on some sets and also collecting players from the teams I follow (Red Sox, Falcons, Suns and Syracuse). That "hobby" certainly has changed since I was a kid and there was only Topps to deal with, that's for sure!

As for gaming, I had the wind knocked out of my sails in the spring when it was announced that Warhammer Historicals editor Rob Broom was made "redundant" WHW would become part of Forgeworld. At the time WAB 2.0 was looking good and was on trackI thought; since then...well, nothing. From what I understand from talking to various authors and testers that were working on various WHW projects non-communication from the new powers that be is the new "norm". I don't know when, or if, 2.0 will see the light of day, and even if it does if there will be any follow-on supplements released. I am helping a friend on some ACW rules that are supposed to be done by WHW, but that's the extent of my involvement. The saddest part of this is that after years of no real releases and all of this crap going on, WAB, a game that I really enjoy and a game I've supported with endless hours of testing, emailing, proof-reading, and defacto editing is pretty much dead locally and even if 2.0 come out I'm not sure it will ever get back to where it was. I'm even looking at other rule sets now so I can use my 25mm armies and have some opponents.

Well, enough about the negative...time to focus on the positive...I have managed to finish up most of my 15mm Afrika Korps army for Flames of War (tanks are from Old Glory and infantry from Battlefront):

DONE!!!!!!!

Well, I can FINALLY say it...MY ROHAN ARMY IS DONE!!!! (actually shouted it...sorry!). I've been working on this army for a while now with the aim of getting the entire army done in time for the Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings tournament which is this upcoming weekend. I took some time on this army with some extra highlighting that I normally don't do when I'm painting "assembly line" style. I also didn't just do the figures that I needed for the tournament...I did every single Rohan model I had, including extras that I won't be using this weekend, so that's good. Oh, and I did up a small display board which blends in with the figure bases and I can use to carry the army from table to table with. Each of the mounted models in the entire force has a dismounted figure...some of the shields are not the same, but the entire force comes out to be: Theoden, Gamling, Eomer, Eowyn, Captain, Standard, 6 royal guard, 10 bow armed riders, and 20 throwing spear armed riders (again, all of these have dismounts...oh, and I have a dismounted Merry too).

Sneak Peak of my GITD Tournament Army:

Another view of my GITD Tournament army:

Yet another view of my GITD Tournament army:

The entire Rohan Army:


It feels good to "finish" something...as with all projects, I'm only done with them until the urge hits me to add more to them!