Happy Halloween!!!!!

Well,



First off Happy Halloween, I hope everyone stays safe tonight while they go out & trick or treat. I will be over at a friends house grilling up about 100 hot dogs for all the folks in their neighborhood. Our friends have been doing this for a few years now, but tonight their two sons are playing in a football game and they would have had to stop the tradition, so a few of us volunteered to do this for them, so tonight I will be grillin!



Tomorrow though I will be battling for supremacy in our first "Gathering in the Desert" primer event. Now some of you may known that I was planning on taking the Dwarfs to war. But after about 5 games now with the list I had not pulled out even a minor win. The best I have done with them was a draw against Mikes Urk-Hai, and the only reason it was a tie was due to running out of time. I am pretty sure that Mike would have beat me in that scenario.



So I decided to change up my list and try something new. Now this new list has a total of 27 models in it for 346 points and I have never played it before, so this will make it very interesting. here is a teaser of where the army hails from:

I know this is a cheesy hint, but for some of you Uber Lord of the Rings fans you may know where this is, but I will post up pictures after the event as well as how well the army did.

Lastly, after painting up 3 LotR armies this year (Mikes Urk-Hai, My Easterlings & Dwarfs) as well as a huge Russian army in 28mm for Tom, I am looking for something else to do. I still have a few painting projects left for other people (Toms LotR Orcs & BFG, Mikes Arnica buildings) but I am looking for something different. Enter the Tomb Kings! About a year ago I bought a huge Tomb King Army (About 4000 to 5000 points) from Tom O, he got it off E-bay for only $230.00, and that's what I paid for it from him. Well I had hoped this year to be able to participate in a local challenge that we dubbed "A Tale of a Few Gamers", but I flaked out.

Well after looking for something to do and with talking with my buddy Rob, I decided to bust out the Tomb Kings to give them a try. So I will start assembling 1000 points this Sunday, so wish me luck and I will post a few pictures along the way...

TK

So whats next???

I guess I am asking that myself, so I thought I would do a small update on what I have coming up.

Well for LotR, besides doing some trade painting for a buddy (Yes Tom that's you!) I will be painting up some orcs for him, about 60 or 70 or so, nothing to large! Also have more dwarfs to paint up as well as a few odds & ends. Terrain wise for LotR, I will be building a few more rock mounds that I have built in the past for our upcoming GT in Feb 09. I also have decided to try my hand at building the Throne from Amon Hen found in the first LotR Journey book, but will be doing it out of plastic. I will also be finishing up my Fangorn/Mirkwood project as well.

On the Legends of the High Seas front, I will be adding pirates to my already huge collection of figures. I will be running a multi-player game at Adepticon 2009 on Friday & Saturday night which will allow 10 players each night to take control of a Crew and look for lost treasure on a cursed island. This means I need to make sure I have 100 painted pirates for the game as well as some of the "Exotic" encounters that players may run across, so I will have to paint up a few of these things as well. Luckily one of the guys in Chicago will be helping out with the terrain, so that's covered, he also volunteered to supply me with a few of his Pirates as well. Depending on how far I get I may take him up on that!

So there you go, that's what I will be up to in the next few months, I will be posting here as I get things done. Also I will be giving you a report on how well the dwarfs did while at the Nov 1st event.

Oh one last thing, I usually don't post anything up very political on this site, but I really need to encourage folks to vote in November. I will not go into who I think you should vote for, that's up to you to decide, but please please please get out there and vote! All I will say is that I am afraid of the supposed "Change" some folks are touting as their campaign platform, their idea of change could change our Capitalist way of life into a socialist way of living, so get out there & vote! Okay political rant off.

TK

The Dwarfs are ready for War!

Well they are done! 31 models ready for the November 1st tourney here in Phoenix. As you can see I went for a compromise on the basing, I went with a dark brown with dead grass for the flock, I think they came out rather well.

Here is the Leader Gimli in a close up, I happen to have about 5 different Gimli models and this one I have been wanting to paint for some time.

Here are two more shots of the army.

I happen to still have a ton of dwarfs to paint so there will be a few more to come like Khazad Guard, Iron Warriors, Rangers, Dwarven Kings, the list goes on & on. Now I think I need to work on my Red Dragon entries or perhaps the Dark Lord himself.

TK

I'm ready for my Close Up Now!

Okay,

I got a comment on a local forum about the Liquitex Stucco that I use on my bases, so here you go...

Here is what it looks like when wet, I just spread it around the base not trying to keeping it level, the rougher the better.


Here is what it looks like when it dries, I use this stuff on everything, here I use it on one of the GW "Creepy" trees GW has out.

Here is another shot unpainted on Gimils base.

Here is the same base painted and flocked.

Here are few other shots...

TK

Okay 17 Days!!

Well its been 17 days and no updates, what gives? Well I could go on & on about being busy with real life stuff, but I will not bore you. but I have been painting and the dwarfs are just about done, so lets get to it!


The last time we saw the dwarfs they were primed black with a dry brush of an off white color. Now I go back in & paint the basic colors in, some call this block painting I call it paint by numbers, here is a shot of the archers after they were blocked in.




There is nothing fancy just straight colors painted on, what you can't see in the picture is the highlighting I did stands out a bit on the white spots as opposed to the black areas. I painted the whole force this way and basically did an assembly line sort of painting. Once I had them all base painted I moved onto the next section, dipping!


Now there are many online articles out there about the speed method of "Dipping" so I will not go into all that, but a quick explanation is that you are washing the figure or dipping the figure in a urethane stain to give you instant shading. Here is what I use:

Now Minwax Polyshades makes a variety of colors but what I found that works well is the Tudor Satin color which is a blackish color. You will also notice I use Mineral Spirits as well, this is for clean up as well as controlling how much "Dip" I put on a figure. You see I really don't dip the figure in (That's were the term comes from) I brush on the stain. I just slop it on with the brush & set aside. I do use the mineral spirits to take away any extra stain I don't want on the figure, like pooling of the stain in low spots. I just dip the brush into some mineral spirits and touch on the figure, pretty easy really. Now once the dipped figure has dried, I shoot it with Testors Dullcoate, the nice thing about dipping is that you get three things out of it, one is the instant shading, two is a hard protective coating & thirdly you get a shiny model. Hence the reason for the Dullcoate. Here is a shot of a figure blocked in (on the left) and a dipped figure after Dullcoate (on the right).

Here is another shot of the dipped Axeman after Dullcoate.

Now once all the figures were painted I needed to texture the base, I use Liquitex Ceramic Stucco and I put it on the base.

The nice thing is it dries white and gives you a nice ground effect. Now Liquitex does make other pastes and I have tried some of these but I always go back to the Ceramic Stucco. here is the whole 350 point force textured.Next up will be painting the base & flocking them, my biggest issue at this point is what color to use. I can go with a grey color simulating rock underground, or I can go with browns to represent being outdoors, I still have not decided yet, that will be in the next post.

Now also besides the Dwarfs, I painted up a few Giant Spiders, a couple of Bat Swarms and the Spider queen in the last few days, here they are.

Here is the GW LotR Spider Queen, you will notice that I converted the model by cutting the legs apart & bending them to look more realistic. The GW one shown below has its front & rear legs molded together, it really looks terrible and not vary lifelike, so all I did was cut them apart, I think it looks better now & as a side note, my wife will not pick up the model!




TK

What Happened????

So when we last saw the dwarfs, they were primed black & ready for painting, now they are all jacked up looking, so what gives?

No they are not messed up or a botched prime job, you see this was done on purpose. I will be dipping this army with MinWax Polyshade Tudor, which is what I dip everything with. But in my years of painting & dipping I have found that I can control how dark a figure will look if I dry brush an off white color before painting. This makes the base colors stand out more once you apply the dip.

So here is the color that I use, Delta Ceramcoat Sandstone, which is a off white sort of color. This will come as no surprise to most people that know me, because Delta Ceramcoat Mudstone & Sandstone are my favorite colors to use, almost like someone else's use of Americana Honey Brown...Rob!

So what I do is apply a liberal dry brush of this color all over the figure. Once again when I apply the base colors they will stand out more over the white as opposed to the black which will be more muted.

All of the figures have been dry brushed and are ready for the next step which is base color painting, or as my buddies like to say, painting by numbers. Should have another update ready Wednesday.

TK

Dwarfs & Red Dragon Painting Competion

Okay,


So now update on the dwarfs tonight, but last night I taught LotR to a friends son last night. Shelly's son Alec is in 8th grade and I have him in my bible study I teach, his mom Shelly helps teach a girls bible study with my wife on the same night.


So a few weeks ago Alec was over & wanted to know what we have for fun at our house, so I told him to look in my Game room. Well he was blown away with all the minis and was excited over the LotR armies (Easterlings & Orcs) painted up in the cabinet. So I told him I would teach him one night.


Well last night was the night, so I busted out 365 points Easterlings and I used my newly primed Dwarfs. We just did a meeting engagement and slugged it out. Alec caught on to the rules pretty quickly and I just pushed models around to let him see how the rules worked. After about an hour his mom & my wife came home and we needed to end the game. Alec had lost 5 Kataphracts and 6 Easterlings on foot, the Dwarfs only lost one Two Handed axeman.


This was not a real game, it was just something for him to learn the rules. Now Alec is wanting to play in the November 350 tourney as well as the Indie GT, so we will see. The cool thing was that his mom was very encouraging of him playing, and told him he would need to save his money for the models. So that's it for the dwarfs, tomorrow (Saturday) I plan to throw some paint on them, so I should have some update tomorrow night or Sunday.


So anyway, Besides the Indie GT, we will be doing a painting competition for the players as well as anyone that wants to enter a model, here is the particulars:


Red Dragon 2009 Competitor’s Guidelines

This year’s Red Dragon painting competition will take place at “Gathering in the Desert 2009″ Phoenix, AZ. In all cases, the judges will be looking for well painted and well presented models. In addition, we will look at how well the model or models fit in with the published concept of The Lord of the Rings background. That isn’t to say that we won’t reward innovation and creativity, but this must be demonstrated within the spirit of Middle-earth.

All entries/miniatures must be at least 80% Games Workshop models from The Lord of the Rings product line. This means that the base model must be Games Workshop and you are allowed to do some conversions.


You can only enter once in each category.

Category 1 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS SINGLE MINIATURE (25mm)This is open to any single miniature from The Lord of The Rings range of models. All models must be presented on their standard 25mm gaming base.

Category 2 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS LARGE MINIATURE (40mm or larger)This is open to any single miniature from The Lord of The Rings range of models. All models must be presented on their standard 40mm or larger gaming base.


Category 3 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS BATTLE SCENE (Diorama)This is open to any single/multiple miniatures from The Lord of The Rings range of models. All models must be presented on a diorama base.


Judges Decisions In all cases the judges’ decisions are final. They reserve the right to move models into a different category if it is entered inappropriately, or to disqualify a model if they feel it breaches the rules of the competition. We will not enter into any discussion about the judges’ decisions.


Conversions that start with a base 80% Games Workshop The Lord of The Rings range are acceptable. Overall, the judges will be looking for well-painted models that adhere to the imagery and ethos of the worlds represented in Middle-earth.


All entries must be personally handed in by their creator and registered at “Gathering in the Desert” on the first day. We will not accept any entries on behalf of competitors who are not in attendance at the event. All entries must be collected that evening by the entrant in person. All models should be the work of a single hobbyist. All work on models entered into the Red Dragon including but not limited to painting, modeling, converting, after-market sculpting, and basing must be performed entirely by the entrant. Neither models obtained from someone else in any state of completion nor collaborative efforts may be entered. Anyone found violating this rule will be immediately disqualified and forbidden from entering future Red Dragon painting competitions.


All competitors will be fully responsible for the transport of their own entries to and from the competition, and for storing their own transport and packing materials on the day. Please don’t ask us to look after carrying cases and giant cardboard boxes.
Once entries are booked in we will, of course, undertake to look after them as carefully as we can. However, we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage to individual entries. Models are entered into the competition at the competitor’s own risk. Entry to any of the competitions gives Adeptus Arizona the right to photograph and publish the details of models entered as we see fit.


Finally, remember the point of the competition is to showcase the efforts of our hobbyists and to have some fun. You may not agree with the final outcome, but please bear in mind that the judges’ decisions are final and absolute. We will not enter into any correspondence regarding them.

So I have decided to enter three models in the Red Dragon competition. So here are the ideas I have:
Category 1 - I plan to enter my Gandalf model that I have painted up from last year, he was never really finished, so it would take a little more time to have him good to go.



Category 2 - So I have two models I am trying to decide which to enter, the first is Gandalf mounted on a Horse.
The other is the limited edition Gandalf in a cart from the first movie, I picked this up at Gamesday, so now I need to decide which model to use.
Category 3 is a Battle scene, I happen to have the Wizards Duel set & this pitches Gandalf against Saruman. I think this would be a cool battle scene and I have an idea to display these guys but will not go into it here so not to trump my hand, all I will say is it will involve lights!

So there you go, Friday nights update...
TK

Day One

Okay,

Three posts in one day, What the heck! Well I feel inspired to do some blogging! Okay so here is a group shot of the 350 points assembled and ready to go.

Here are the 10 Dwarfs with Sheild & hand weapons.

Here are 10 Dwarf Bowmen.

Here are the 10 Dwarfs with Two Handed Weapons.

Here is their Fearless Leader, Gimli.

To keep the Dwarven force from moving around while they travel, I used Litkos Peel & stick pre cut 25mm magnets. You get 100 for about $11.00, which is alot cheaper than Gailforce 9 25mm bases, I highly recommend these for anyone using 25mm rounds.

So after getting the dwarves assembled and magnetized, they headed out to the garage to be primed black using Rust Oleums Painters Touch Flat Black. It goes on smooth & dries quickly and can be purchased from Ace Hardware or Home Depot. Its about $5.99 a can which is alot cheaper than some of the other Game companies primers.

Also I have been busy working on some GW trees for my Fangorn/Mirkwood table I am building for the Indie GT in Febuary. Here is one completed tree.

Also this past weekend I painted up 4 Artizan & 1 Pulp Minature British 8th army figures for a Pulp test game using the Legends of the Old West/High Seas rules. The game played very well and we will be exploring using these rules.

I also finished up one building from Crescent Root http://crescent-root.com/ . I have 6 of these buildings and I purchased them all unpainted, here is what they look like when they are done.

The last picture is of my secruity system(called Gabby) for my minis, its the latest thing and is pretty easy to install. When I took this picture, we had a good thunderstorm around the house & Gabby decided she needed to be up high where she felt safe.

So there you go, a lot or the first day, the next day I will get to do anything will be on Friday, might be getting in a game with a friend to see how the force does.

TK

What army to bring???

Wow, first off two post in one day, what the heck is that all about!

Well I decided to write & note my progress on my 350 LotR army that I will be taking to the November 1st primer tournament at Talons. So I currently have two armies painted and ready to go. Mordor Orcs as well as 500 points of Easterlings. I have played these to armies pretty much for the last two years & I wanted to do something else. I own a Moria Goblin army, a large uruk - hai army, a large Rohon army, a Gondor Army, a Dwarf Army as well as High Elves and a few other things but they are all not painted. So I need to decide what I really wanted to do, also knowing that I need to do a good army of some sort.

So after thinking about it, I have decided to do a Dwarf army for this event. Why did I choose Dwarfs? Well it goes back about 20+ years ago when I fell in love with the old Marauder Dwarfs (which GW bought if I remember correctly). I had walked into a local store in CA and was looking at doing a Dwarf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, well the store owner talked me out of it saying it would cost a fortune to build a dwarf army, and that I should play Battletech or something. So the dwarfs got left behind for some Mechs.

Flash forward about 10 years ago and I was playing Warhammer Fantasy battle and had 4 armies (Empire, Undead, High Elves, Orc & Goblins) most all painted, but there was still no dwarfs. I toyed with building the stunties, but never pulled the trigger on them.

Flash forward again and I started playing LotR which I started collecting armies for starting with Orcs. Well I finally decided to start building a dwarf army and after painting in trade with Mike, I acquired a good amount of Dwarfs.

So that brings us up to the present, and I decided that I need to do a dwarf army. The sad thing is I think there are about 2 other Dwarf armies being worked on now, so mine will not be original, but that's why I noted everything above.

So what will the army look like, well I went out a few months ago to another Forum group I frequent (Adeptus Windy City http://adeptuswindycity.com/forums/index.php) and asked for folks to build me a 350 point list, here is what I got:

List 1
Gimli
Dwarf bow x10
Dwarf 2h x10
Dwarf Shield x10
Models 31
Might 3 Bows 10 (volley baby at 350)

List 2
1 Dwarf Captain with shield & throwing axes
10 Dwarf Rangers with two handed axes
11 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
10 Dwarf Rangers with dwarf longbow
Points = 350
Might = 2
Models = 32
Notes: Ten 3+ to hit, range 24" archers Eleven 3+ to hit throwing weapons and one 4+ to hit throwing weapon.

List 3
Dwarf captain - shield
Dwarf bow x10
Dwarf shield x13
Khazad guard x7 Models 31
Might 2
Bows 10 D7+ 21 S4 8.

List 4
Dwarf captain - shield (or throwing axe whathaveyou).
Ranger - bow x10
Ranger - 2h x5
Ranger - throwing axe x15
Might 2
Models 31 Bows 10 Thrown 15(16)

List 5
1 Dwarf Captain with shield
15 Dwarf Warriors with shield
10 Dwarven Iron Guard
Models = 26

So after looking at the lists I needed to decided what I had in my model collection. I can do list 1, 3 & 5 with no problem, but I would need to go out & buy another box of dwarf rangers to do the list 2 & 4. Now I will be doing a Erbor list which is the dwarfs from the Lonely Mountain from the Hobbit. So in my mind I would probably use list 1, 3 or 5. So after thinking about it I choose list 1, with Gimli in it. Why? Well I really like the Gimli model that I have (which is the one with his cloak blowing in the wind). And I could see Gimli taking charge of a few valiant dwarfs to fight the forces of evil and the model looks cool!

So tonight I will assemble the force and get them all ready to go for their destiny with the paint table. I plan on updating my progress as I go with a follow up report from the November 1st event.

TK

Something New (For a change!)

Okay,

I thought I would be better with updates, but it seems that life goes by so fast. Well regardless I have decided that I will update this site more often, but we will see.

So as some folks know, I love the Lord of the Rings Strategy battle game by Games workshop. Besides myself, we are starting to grow the LotR community here in Phoenix and this past July we hosted the 1st ever Independent Grand Tournament which was a huge hit. So Dean (the other guy who helped organize the event) & I are planning on this being a annual event, so here is the info on the next one:

“Gathering in the Desert 2009″ A LotR Indy GT
The forces of good and evil are gathering in the desert once more, and you have been called to serve and fight. Will you answer the call? Come fight for the forces of good or the forces of evil in the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix AZ for the second annual The Lord of the Rings Independent Grand Tournament February 21st & 22nd 2009. Enjoy 5 exciting games over 2 days testing your strengths against some of the best players in the country.

To keep your sustenance up during the event the organizers will be catering lunch on both days. Also all entrants that pre register for the event will receive a commemorative Tee shirt designed specifically for this annual event.

New for 2009 will be the “Red Dragon” painting competition, with the following categories: Single Miniature (25mm base), Large Miniature (40mm or larger base) and Battle Scene (diorama) as well as a terrain building competition. You do not need to be playing in the GT to enter the “Red Dragons”, everyone is welcome.

So if your are strong enough to brave the elements, a skillful tactician and have a heart for competition, than you will not want to miss the second annual “Gathering in the Desert” an Independent Grand Tournament for The Lord of the Rings in Phoenix Arizona.

Date: February 21st & 22nd 2009
Location: TBD
Phone number: TBD
Fee: $40.00 (pre registration includes free t-shirt)
Number of Entrants:40
Games: 5 Games / 2 Days
Points: 600

So anyways, to get ready for this event Dean is hosting a small primer event at Talons Games on November 1st, here is the info for this event:

LotR 350PT Tournament @ Talon’s Hideout 11/1/2008
Lord of the Rings 350 Point Tournament
Date: Saturday November 1st, 2008
Location: Talons’s Hideout
Start Time: 10:00 AM (11:00 AM first game)
Points: 350
Number of Rounds: 3 (90 minutes each)
Painted Armies: Unpainted armies will be allowed but will score a zero in the Appearance scoring.
Number of Spots Available: 20+
Tables: 4X4
Registration Opens: 7/11/2008 (dean at adeptusarizona dot com)
Entry Fee: $10 (includes pizza and prizes)

Scoring: A maximum of 45 points for Battle, 20 points for Appearance, and 24 points for Sportsmanship will be awarded. Battle is determined using 15pts Major Victory, 13pts Minor Victory, 10pts Draw, 7pts Minor Loss, 5pts Major Loss. Appearance uses a modified version of the GT paint system, and Sportsmanship is a 8 question checklist provided each game that details the preparation and enjoyment that each player brings to the table.

WYSIWG. NO PROXYING OF MODELS.
Talon’s Hideout1916 W. Baseline Rd.Suite 1Mesa, AZ 85202480-246-9423

So once again, so what you say. Well for me this gives me a chance to play an actual game. Being a event organizer means I only get to play if there is an odd number of players. So I will actually be battling it out during this event. So now I need to decide what army to use, hmm the decisions, more later...

TK

Hammer & Anvil

Well Friday Rob & Jerry came over for some WW2 action, we are using Robs Rules Hammer & Anvil. Here are a ew shots from the game.

TK