“Now for wrath! Now for ruin!”

I’ve been plugging away at a bunch of Rohirrim for some time. I’ve been batch painting, which never goes that well fir me, but I’ve finally finished to batch.

First up is Eomer, one of my favourite characters from the books, who gets the raw end of the deal in terms of having his role reduced in film adaptations, mainly because it saves explaining who Erkenbrand is.

The model is one I’d never liked when I saw it painted by GW, but I think that was because they went for a red that was too bright. Actually I really liked painting this one, and I think the more subtle red not only looks better, but is also more true to the look from the movies.

Next up is a Royal Guard banner bearer which turned up as a nice surprise in a second hand batch of Riders I bought off eBay. The model actually looks better in the flesh, I think I’ve zoomed in too much.

Having this model provides me options, as he can operate as a banner bearer, a regular Royal Guard, a captain or even Gamling (more on that later). I haven’t added a banner yet asi haven’t decided whether I want to add one or shorten the spear to make it a regular throwing spear.

Four more regular riders. These arrived already painted, and I intended to just tidy them up a bit to match my other Riders. 

However, not only did I need to essentially repaint the whole models (hence the time it’s taken), but also several of the horses’ ankles had snapped in transit.

Broken ankles on the horses has actually been a fairly regular occurrence with my purchases of second hand Riders of Rohan. So much so that I’ve become fairly proficient at equine ankle surgery.

In future, I’ll stick to buying them new.

The Rider with the throwing spear also had a fairly mangled shield, and as these are currently in short supply, I needed something to explain the damage and draw focus from the ugly boss.

Therefore, I made use of another arrow and placed it in the crack in the shield. I actually like this enough that I might do more arrows in shields to add a bit of variety to the force.

I’ve also painted a few more foot troops. One of the (many) down sides of cavalry in this game is that you also need dismounted models, adding significantly to the amount of painting that needs doing.

This is also true of characters, and so despite not having a mounted version yet, I’ve painted Eowyn on foot. Despite being a hero, the fact that she was in disguise at the battle of the Pelennor Fields means that there’s nothing particularly interesting about the model. However, I’ve given her a tiny bit of red in her armour to tie her to the colours I used for her brother.

I’ve also painted a foot version of Gamling, which was a really nice model to paint. The sculpt did a lot of the work for me.

I do have a mounted version of Gamling in the paint queue, but until that’s done I can either use this as a dismounted Eomer or use the Royal Guard as Gamling.

So that’s my full contingent of Rohirrim, and I should be able to put together a 300 point force without too much trouble. I have a few more Riders, a mounted Gamling and an Eomer on foot still to do.

If you’re tempted to start your own Eored, I’d avoid the ankle surgery and skip buying second hand horses (seriously, I’ve had more broken horses than complete ones) and get new Riders of Rohan from Outpost. Follow the link below:

https://www.the-outpost.co.uk/product/lord-of-the-rings-riders-of-rohan/aff/37/?campaign=Rohan

Zomtober: “Oh dear...”

This Zomtober hasn’t exactly been a roaring success for me. The combined factors of work pressures, family commitments and my motivation lying elsewhere has meant that my zombie output hasn’t been what I would have hoped.

And on this final weekend of Zomtober, I found myself with nothing started at about 2 o’clock today. Therefore, with a deadline to meet, I selected the zombie with least amount of base area exposed (simply because I didn’t have time to wait for Agrellan Earth to dry) and set about a quick and dirty, deadline meeting, largely all the same colour palette, final zombie for Zomtober.

This is a zombie that comes in the show exclusive Lee & Clementine booster for Mantic’s Walking Dead: All Out War Game, and he’s a call back to a specific moment on the Telltale Games adventure where Lee stumbles on the zombie out in the woods.

Sat down eating the remains of a deer, it’s more of a diorama than a game piece, however it does have potential as a lurker in rural games.

The fact that it’s eating half a deer does raise a number of questions too. Did it kill the deer or find it? If it found it, why do other zombies regularly ignore the dead? How did the deer get ripped in half? Was it roadkill or the actions of a zombie horde? If it was a zombie horde, where are they now and why did they leave?

So many questions we’ll never know the answer to.

However, one thing we can be certain of is that this is the fastest I’ve ever painted a zombie (deploying a hairdryer after the final wash helped), and it means I’ve at least completed Zomtober with my dignity intact.

Yes, of course the Nazgul count.

As ever, if my offerings have tickled your fancy, The Walking Dead: All Out War can be bought at 20% off rrp at the Outpost. Just follow the link below:

https://www.the-outpost.co.uk/product-category/miniatures/the-walking-dead/aff/37/

“And now...perfected.”

Work continues on trying to add to my Isengard force to give me some options. Although Saruman is a powerful leader, he’s not a front line fighter. So up steps Lurtz!

Lurtz is one of the better additions that were made to Lord of the Rings for the movies and in game he adds some much needed combat power. 

The model is actually second hand, and cam painted. It just needed a bit of touching up on some chipped extremities, a wash and a bit of detailing, such as the teeth, eyes and white hand - this was something I couldn’t avoid for Lurtz as it’s very much part of his look.

Seeing as I was going to have to paint one white hand, I decided to inquest my fears as add some to my berserkers (the one on the left had one on his helmet). They could be better, but they look okay.



Whilst I was tidying things up, I decided to cut up one of my unpainted Uruk-Hai to add a shield to my banner bearer (for added defence) and switch my captain’s axe for a sword. As an axe is not actually an option for an Uruk-Hai captain, leaving it as it was would cost me five points for no massive gain.

This isn’t all I’ve been painting, my other work will be along in a few days, and if you listen closely, you might just hear hoofbeats in the distance.

As ever, if you’re interesting in starting an Isengard army, pop along to Outpost Miniatures to pick yourself up a box:

https://www.the-outpost.co.uk/product/lord-of-the-rings-uruk-hai-warriors/aff/37/

Zomtober: The Gang’s All Here

Zomtober has been a bit of a struggle this week. I’ve not been in a painty mood, I’ve been quite busy and the little motivation I have had is coming mainly from Lord of the Rings.

However, I have managed to get a single model done, as per the rules.

Not my best work, but job done.

This is Carlos, one of Derek’s scavengers in the Walking Dead comics. He also adds to the gang that came in the Walking Dead: All Out War starter set.

Here they are as they appear in the comics:

And here’s my version of them:

If you look carefully you’ll see that Liam isn’t in the picture from the comic as he’s dead by then. I’d say it’s a spoiler but the others last about three more pages.

That means there’s one more Scavenger to get at some point.

As ever, if my ropey painting has inspired you to buy the game, it can be found here:

https://www.the-outpost.co.uk/product-category/miniatures/the-walking-dead/aff/37/

Zomtober: Proper Zombies

After last week’s controversy surrounding whether the Nazgul qualify as zombies (hint: they do), I’ve returned to safer groun this week with three zombies from The Walking Dead: All Out War.

I’m now moving on to Wave 2 of the range, which actually feature proportionally less zombies and more new survivors, as the story heads out of Atlanta and culminates at the Greene family farm.

First up is a bike, who appears to have sustained injuries more consistent with coming off his bike rather than being mauled by the undead. Perhaps he crashed as he was fleeing the apocalypse and then was unable to escape pursuit.

The wound on his arm isn’t actually sculpted on the model, but is there to cover an ugly mould line that I somehow didn’t notice until the flesh was painted.

Next up is a chap who has had something rather horrific happen to him whilst at the beach, and has had the flesh torn off half of his body.

What I don’t understand is how he managed to keep flip-flops on his feet whilst his arm was ripped off, when for me, keeping the damn things on my feet whilst simply walking is tricky enough.

Last up is a child zombie. There should be more of these in the genre, especially as almost all survivors we encounter are adults. Where are the children during the apocalypse?

I’ve painted this one to match my Sophia model. Although Sophia doesn’t meet the same fate in the comics as in the TV show, I still like the idea of having her shamble out of Herschel’s barn.

That’s it for this week, but if The Walking Dead has tickled your fancy, it’s at its most affordable from Outpost Miniatures, where I’ve picked up most of my boosters from after my initial Salute binge. Follow the link below...

https://www.the-outpost.co.uk/product-category/miniatures/the-walking-dead/aff/37/

An Army Worthy of Mordor?

The breeding of my Isengard army continues to outstrip the muster of Rohan by some way and my Army of the White Hand has now reached the vicinity of 500 points.

Admittedly, pretty much half those points come from Saruman and the Captain, and it’s a somewhat one-dimensional force which lacks cavalry, missile fire or a notable monster or fighter. However, it’s still a very playable force.

There have been a few new additions in the last week, including nine Uruk-Hai with swords and shields which lend a bit of defensive backbone to my lines and give the squishier pikemen something to hide behind.

Also joining the host are three Berserkers, which have the potential to use those massive swords to hack chunks out of the opponent’s line. I have found out that they work best when paired with regular Uruk-Hai to get the most out of their berserker blades.

I’m still toying with adding some white hands to the Beserkers, but I need to work up the courage to do that.

Now being the intelligent, astute readers I know you to be, I’m sure you’ll have noticed the Outpost banner that’s popped up on the website version of this page.

This is because I’ve entered into an affiliate scheme with them, and yes, in the spirit of full disclosure, there is something in it for me.

However, I’m not a complete sell out,  Outpost are one of my local stores, and I’m very comfortable promoting them as a happy customer. In fact, their very competitive pricing policy dovetails neatly with the Cheaphammer ideology.

On that topic, if my army building has somehow inspired you to raise your own horde of Uruk-Hai, you could save yourself a lot of scrubbing second hand miniatures,  just go straight to Outpost and still feel like you’ve got yourself a bargain. The box of 24 plastic miniatures will get you pretty much everything for £20 except Saruman and the Berserkers (if you’re willing to convert banners and captains).

If you follow the link below, it will take you straight there...

https://www.the-outpost.co.uk/product/lord-of-the-rings-uruk-hai-warriors/aff/37/

Zomtober: Six of the Nine

It’s that time of year again when I and several other inhabitants of the blogosphere partake in a bit of zombie themed painting and collective motivation to shift stuff out out of our painting queues.

So here’s my first offering for Zomtober:

What do you mean they’re not zombies?

Let me refer to Aragorn, son of Arathorn, a.k.a. Strider, King Elessar the Elfstone of The reunited kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor - who, I think we can agree, knows more about this than either of us - “They are neither living nor dead.”

Do you know what that means? They’re undead. What else is undead? Zombies! Exactly!

Okay, they’re not ‘exactly’ zombies, but they’re in the same ballpark, and frankly, I’m in the middle of a Lord of the Rings fixation at the moment, so it’s as zombie-like as you’re going to get from me this week.

They’ll do. Especially when you consider some of the crap I’ve tried to explain as zombie related over the past few years - Anna and Elsa from Frozen, I’m looking at you...

I’ve had these six Nazgûl for a long time. They were amongst the first Lord of the Rings miniatures I bought, and when I sold off most of my collection, they got drafted into my WFB Vampire Counts army as wraiths (or ‘Banshee delivery system’).

In more recent times they’ve taken the field as a remarkably bent unit in Kings of War, where their resistance to damage and ability to hop over units and charge their rear in the same turn (with the aid of a spell) felt a little cheaty...I still did it though!

Therefore, they are the LotR miniatures that have seen most action for me and as such had become a bit chipped and needed a repaint (and a rebase).

Fortunately, Nazgûl are probably the easiest models in the world to paint, and so the process took me no time at all.

The only one of them that needed any extra detail was the Witch King of Angmar (as he appears on Weathertop). However, this was only a bit of gold on his sword and Morgul Blade to pick him out.

This does technically mean that in addition to my Fellowship of the Ring, Rohan and Isengard armies, I’ve now started a fourth force. In fact it could technically be three more forces as the Nazgûl appear in this form in the Mordor, Barad-Dur and Angmar armies.

I think I might have an illness.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that I have two of the same sculpt of Ringwraiths. I don’t know why.

If I get to use all of them together, I will need a way of distinguishing them as they will have separate profiles that need tracking. I’m going to see if I can find an armoured hand holding a knife to replace the left hand of one of them.

I also want to track down another three to complete the set, as it were. I’d also like to get mounted versions and a couple of Fell Beasts in time so I have options.

So that’s my Zomtober entry for this month. If you’d like to take part here are...

The Rules

The Zomtober rules are simple.

To take part you just need to paint or finish painting one Zombie or Survivor (or more!) each week, in any scale you like, posting it to your blog by that week's Sunday (we use Sunday's as the end of each Zomtober week). These can be minis you started and abandoned, or a brand new project - that is up to you!

What that means posting one or more newly painted/finally finished Zombie or Survivor minis each week on or before the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of October 2018.

To sign up, head over to this post - https://eclecticgentlemantabletopgamer.blogspot.com/2018/10/zomtober-2018-zomtober-viii.html?m=1 - and post in the comments section.

More Lord of the Rings and proper zombie stuff to come...

The White Hand

This post is a bit of a bits box special, as both miniatures required a good rummage amongst the detritus of my hobby to get to where they are.

However, both were worth it as Saruman and the banner bearer will add a bit of much needed backbone to my fledgling, and somewhat one dimensional, force.

Saruman is one of the few modes that didn’t get sold along with the rest of my collection. One reason or this is that there was a painted Saruman already done, the other reason also explains why he doesn’t look quite like other versions of the model.

For some reason, in my youthful wisdom, I had chopped off the head of his staff, along with his left hand (holding the Palantir of Orthanc) and painted him blue.

No, I don’t know why either.

Therefore, he required a dip in the Dettol, a new staff head adding (it’s actually the flight of a Bretonnian arrow) and a new left hand (again taken from the everlasting Skeleton Warriors plastics). As I had no spare orb holding hand, I needed a reason why he was holding his arm out so rigidly. The crow from the Renedra gravestones set prompted me to remember the Crebain from Dunland that Saruman uses to spy on the Fellowship. Not only would this seem appropriate for the position of his arm, but also the spying capability of the Crebain could be construed as replicating the effects of the Palantir in game.

Result.

Painting Saruman was ridiculously easy. I’ve done his hair darker than it probably should be , but I wanted greater construct against the white of his robes. A ever, the photos have highlighted an issue, this time one of his eyes extends into the eyelid, so I’ll it that at some point, but otherwise I’m happy with the results.

The banner bearer is another of the broken pikemen,to which I’ve added a Skeleton Warriors lance and a plastic banner I picked up from somewhere. The construction makes the model a touch top heavy, so I’ve had to take steps to weight the base a bit, hence the rocks.

I had another go at painting the hand and I’m really happy with this one. If I’m honest, it’s probably a touch small, but I’m not going to change it when I’ve got the actual image to look like what it’s meant to be.

Overall, I'm happy with him, but it remains to be seen whether the model over balancing will change this situation at all.

So, my forces grow apace. Things should slow down a touch for Lord of the Rings as I’ve finished everything I was working on and so I’ve just undercoated some more Uruk-Hai and Rohirrim. Also, as it’s no longer September, that means Zomtober is upon us, and I shall have to shamble back to my Walking Dead Models for at least some of the month.