Isengard Finished

Well,

It has been a few days since the last post, been busy working on two new tables for Gathering in the Desert. You may remember the an older post that showed the basic construction of the new boards.

Well as of today one board is just about ready to go, here is a overall shot of the board. This board was inspired by a board that one of the local guys did up in Colorado. I had a chance to play on it and it was a blast, so I molded it after that one.

I did two towers or scaffolding's but i wanted one to extend out into one of the pits. It is a separate piece and gives more playability to the board.

Besides the pits and the scaffolding's I also did a few pieces to block line of sight. So there is a few lumber piles, a Loose dirt pile, as well as a pile of boulders. I am also finishing up three rock piles to throw onto the board.



Here is a shot to show you just how much the lumber piles block line of sight. This is a standard two handed orc hiding behind the lumber pile.

Also with the pits there is a inner ledge that models can stand on to get more cover, here you see a two handed orc standing on the lower edge. An just an FYI, one of the pits has a ledge big enough for at least a 40mm base, so that means mounted models will fit.

The only thing missing are the smoke plumes that DrunkenSamurai built, so those will add to the line of sight blockage. So there you go, a new board for Gathering in the Desert 2011...

TK

Small is Big This year

So,

It's about the ninth of January now and I have been thinking about what 2011 will hold for me in the new year for gaming. Well after some thought I think I may have narrowed down what I will be working on. As some may know, I am still searching for regular work, so finances are tight and there is no room for any expenses on the gaming front.

So with that I have decided that this year will be the Year of the Skirmish game. You see my interest in gaming has always been in skirmishing style games (Necromunda, Mordheim, LotR SBG, LotOW, LotHS). The nice thing about skirmish games is that you do not need a ton of figures to play and I happen to have more than enough figures for this sort of gaming.

So here are the games I am thinking about focusing on this year.

Lord of the Rings SBG
Well this one is a no brainer, with Gathering in the Desert just around the corner, the next month will be focused on finishing up terrain and models. I have decided that I will be giving away an 600 point Easterling army to on of my friends son. He has taken an interest in gaming and he played in the practice LotR event and had a great time. So that means that I need to finish up painting the army, it is currently around 500 points and I have about 500 more points to paint up.

Legends of the Old West
As with DrunkenSamurai, I played a few games of LotOW at a friends house. It was a good time and really made me miss this game. So I think it is about time to bust out all the Old West terrain I have sitting in the closet and get to making a proper town. Also DrunkenSamurai has peeked my interest with the idea of doing the Wild Bunch idea based on the movie. So I think I will be joining DrunkenSamurai on this venture.

Warhammer 40Kmunda
Well, I have had this idea floating around my head for awhile now about playing smaller games of 40K. Last year I found a few guys doing ]I[munda stuff on the web and DrunkenSamurai and I found it very interesting. Well this year I would like to get back to playing smaller games of 40K and blending it with the Necromunda campaign stuff. I am talking about doing Kill teams, Kill Zone and 40K in 40 minutes (or Combat Patrol) stuff with 40K. Another friend is trying to talk me into running a 40K Combat/Kill Mission tourney and this may happen with a select set of people. I also started acquiring 40K Orks and would love to try out some old Gorka Morka stuff for this game.

Legends of the High Seas
Well, I have not had much interest in my own game of late, but after seeing the trailer to the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the pirate spark is back in me. Also with me working on my Wicked Wench ship model I see myself getting back into my own game. I think I will invite a few select folks over for a Campaign day at the end of February, so stay tuned for more on that.

Gothic Horror/ Pulp
For awhile now I have had an interest in doing something with the Horror/Pulp setting. I have even started collecting up stuff for a Pulp game in the desert with mummies. I hopefully will get something to the table this year. The owner of my local game store is also interested in this and has purchased a bunch of terrain that I may be painting up for him, this will feed the Pulp idea further, so we shall see. I also have another friend that purchased some stuff for Chaos in Carpathia and that may hit the table as well.

Other Gaming
I will also keep working on my 28mm WWII stuff as well as my Flames of War project and I am sure other games will creep in from time to time.

So there you go, Small is Big this year, it will be interesting to see how the year pans out so stay tuned...

TK

Rocks and Passageways

Okay,

To go along with the Osgiliath revamp I did a few rock piles for the table at GitD. Nothing special just a few rocks on some bases painted to match the rest of the terrain. So here are a few shots of them.









Here is a group shots of the piles, each piece is about 4" to 6" long and they will provide line of sight blockers for the table.


Also to go along with the Osgiliath table I decided to build a quick fountain for the the center of the table. It is made out of PVC plastic sheeting, 4 3/4" wood blocks and 5 statues from the GW kit. I also used Liqutex to add texture to the fountain. The inside of the fountain has a simple cobblestone sheeting and I poured some Gloss varnish into the fountain (it is still wet in the pictures).





Also for a couple of friends across the pound I have a few shots from some old passageway boards for the old GW Warhammer Quest game. First up is a picture of the original stairway tile that came with the game.


Here is the replacement tile that I made out of cork and matte board. The cork is great to work with since it has a natural rock look and it is easy to add cracks to it.


Here is another Objective room tile (the Tomb room).


And here is my replacement, once again it is cork and matte board. The coffin is made out of foam core and matte board. I was going to add a dead knight to the top but never got around to it.


Here is another shot with two sections together. Warhammer Quest is a great game and I only bust it out when either my son is home (he grew up watching us play until he learned how) or when my brother visits.

So there you go...

TK

Osgiliath Revamped

So,

The New Year and the first post for 2011 and it is a terrain post. As loyal readers are aware, I run Gathering in the Desert, a Lord of the Rings Independent Grand Tournament. We are going on our 4th year and in a manner to bring some awesome terrain to the event I started to revamp some of the terrain. The past two years Tom O supplied the terrain for the Osgiliath table which was greeted with some interesting comments (From we love it to I hate that table!). Tom is looking at selling off his terrain so it was up to me to re-do the table.

Well I started with 8 of the Osgiliath terrain kits from Gamesworkshop. here are a few of the completed terrain pieces for the table.












DrunkenSamurai is working on at least two other sections for this table, so the table looks a little bare in the below picture.

I also have a fountain and a few rubble piles to finish up but all in all the table looks good. Now I just have to finish a few other tables before GitD 2011. So stay tuned...

TK