Wednesday, 28 September 2016

Gundabad Orc Characters

Just over a week ago I received my Hobbit Orc characters back from Mally's Minature Painting (http://mallysminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/), these were all done to a table top standard except for the custom Azog (converted by Shadow and Flame http://www.shadowandflame.co.uk/) who was given the full works.
I did spend a little time working on some of these myself just to push them a little further (nothing major just a bit of layering on the metal work, flesh and Dwarf skin leather, adding eyes to the Wargs and some of the characters etc) as well as painting and flocking the bases (I always ask for the bases to be unpainted so I can match them up to my collection).
Again I couldn't have been happier with the work Mally puts into his painting and I find that fortunately his painting style fits well with my own so all the miniatures sit well together on the table top.

Azog and his underlings 

Azog on his White Warg 

Bolg on his stretch Warg (not sure what they were thinking when they sculpted this one) 

Yazneg on Warg (one of my favourite sculpts) 

Fimbul on Warg

Azog 

 Bolg

The true Bolg (and probably my favourite sculpt from the Hobbit Orc range) 

Yazneg

Fimbul 

Narzug

Azog as seen in The Battle of Five Armies 

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

Deadzone Marauders

Just a quick update on my Deadzone Marauders which have all been built now.


This is a combination of miniatures from the first Deadzone Kickstarter along with a character from the second.  There were quite a few duplicates overall but luckily I had picked up the conversion set from the first KS (the metal parts you can see) so it was easy to add some variety to them but I also took out my trusty saw and knife and converted a few other miniatures in there, namely one of the captains; the Marauders dual wielding rifles; and the identical goblin snipers.  It was one of the snipers that received the most work as I wasn't overly taken by the comedic 'run away' pose they were in so one received a bit of a blow dry to put him into a ducking for cover pose while the other was chopped up and put into a running into position pose.
These are now ready to send off to the painter and I'm after something similar to the early WWII German uniform for them along with a dark flesh colour for their skin (like the Uruk-hai from LOTR) which I'm hoping will give them the look of a crack military unit.

Next up on the blog will be the Orc characters from the Hobbit which I've just had returned from the painter, just wait to you see Azog!

Phil

Monday, 19 September 2016

Fallen Dwarves vs Orcs - Dragon Rampant

On Friday evening I had the pleasure of having another game of Dragon Rampant, testing out my recently finished Fallen Dwarves against some filthy Orcs.  It was my opponents first game yet everything flowed smoothly, to keep it simple we stuck to the first scenario and left quests out for now.  I won this time round though I have a feeling the Orcs will be out for blood next time (!) at which point we may add in a quest or two before upping the points from 24 to 32 or 36 and probably playing on a 6x4.

Here are some highlights but apologies for the quality of the images, they were taken on my phone and as it was evening the lighting wasn't great.



 The battle lines are drawn

The Orcs prepare to attack the Dwarf line 

The Dwarves brace themselves in defence 

The armies march forth 

 The Trolls charge towards the Drakon Guard with reckless abandon

The Dwaves have some time to prepare and form a shield wall deflecting most of the damage and returning some in kind

 Having driven the Trolls off after several combats the Drakon Guard are put upon by crazed Orcs
and with no time to ready themselves are quickly decimated.  However they gave as good as they got and soon the Orc ramble had soon limped away themselves after suffering a severe beating

Meanwhile the Fallen Dwarf Lord Khahzim was showing everyone how it should be done, assisting in the destruction of the crazed Orcs and then taking on the Orc General in a glorious battle

Having seen off the Orc General (though getting quite bloodied in the process) it was time to focus on the last remaining Orcs, the Warg Riders.  They had been steadfast in the face of dwindling numbers and the loss of their General however faced with a fresh group of Dwarves ready for action they took the only sensible option and fled

Monday, 15 August 2016

Deadzone - Marauders

Just a quick update on what I'm up to at the moment, the Marauders from the Deadzone Kickstarters (first and second).


All the  bits laid out ready for cleaning

With the revamped rules out now, and playing wonderfully, I thought it was time to get some more factions game ready.  I'll be building these then sending them off for painting before moving on to my next project,

What I have built so far

Sunday, 31 July 2016

Fallen Dwarves and Gundabad Orcs

I've finally finished my Fallen Dwarves having ben delayed by a backdrop falling on a set of miniatures and breaking all the spears, however one quick purchase and some great help from Anvil Industries and everything was set right.  I cannot express enough how lovely these miniatures are to work on, from the sculpts themselves by Miniatures of The North to the casting from Anvil Industries .  So here are the photos included updated shots of my first batch of miniatures:










And here's any army shot and my first attempt at a video so it's basic but does the job:


While I had the camera out I also took some photos of my Orc army which was painted by Mally's Miniature Painting (check out his blog here http://mallysminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/, though this army was painted to tabletop standard he can really paint and is due to paint the characters up for this army soon):






Again here's a quick video to give you the army shot:


Next up I'll be putting together the Marauder Faction for Deadzone (which will be making their way to Mally for painting) and then I'm not sure what I'll work on next though I still have some Enforcer to paint for Deadzone which I built just before/during the house move.

Unitl next time

Phil

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

Updated Lord Of The Rings army lists for KOW v2

Just a quick update with the latest version of the LOTR army lists for use with KOW 2.0
This is mainly just some formatting corrections and the addition of new units for the Fallen Dwarves with new miniatures becoming available now/soon.

Please go to this post for the latest version: https://cruciumgiger.blogspot.com/2018/07/lord-of-rings-army-lists-for-kings-of.html

As usual if you've tried these out let me know what you think.

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Fallen Dwarves WIP

Just a quick one today to show some WIP shots of the Fallen Dwarves.  Progress has been slow on these thanks to the fine weather (which enabled some tidying up being done on the new back garden as well as enjoying a couple of BBQ's with friends and family) but some progress has been made none the less.




These are just a couple of shots taken on my phone so excuse the quality but as you see I've nearly got them fully assembled and hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have the basing done too, I had hoped to have them undercoated however it doesn't look like the weather is going to be agreeable for that.
Just a couple of words of the miniatures themselves, yet again Anvil have produced some very clean miniatures with lovely crisp details with minimal cleanup required.  The only slight issue (and it is slight) is that some of the two handed weapons are bent, probably about 4 out of all these but I haven't been able to straighten them with the old hot water trick however we're not talking finecast levels of bent here so I don't see it as an issue.

The next time you'll see these they should have some paint on them, probably the first unit/s done and the some time later a full army shot.  I still need to take some photos of the Gundabad Orc army so I'll try to get that done at the weekend as well.

Phil