Clearing the Backlog, Part 21 – Seven Stars and Seven Stones… and one Round Table!

One thing I've not really talked about much on this blog post is scenery. Mostly because it's something I very rarely paint, or at least, it is in terms of my own collection. I don’t collect much scenery, simply because it takes up a lot more space than models do. However, recently I've been on something of a scenery kick for the East Anglia Hobbit Community.

This scenery project consisted of four sets of Gondor Ruins we'd managed to pick up for a decent price, so I took on the task of putting together a table's worth of terrain for the club. 

For two of the Ruins, I assembled them according to the instructions that come with the kit, allowing me to create four different style ruin pieces. One thing that really impressed me when putting the kits together was how well the kit utilised each part from the sprue – there was almost nothing left over in terms of spare parts. 

For the other two sets, I decided to abandon the instructions and do some freestyling. One thing I was sure I wanted was a tower-style ruin, so I built up the structure, incorporating more damaged pieces as I went higher – I was really pleased with how it looked, and fortunately I had enough pieces left over in the set to make a smaller ruin, built just out of a dozen leftover parts – another plus on how good these kits are.

For the last set, again I freestyled the builds, taking care to make sure I wasn't using too many pieces on one ruin, leaving me short on the other. By the end of the building, I had eight completely unique-looking ruins. Now, onto the painting!

For these ruins, I wanted them to look different from the Osgiliath scenery I'd painted previously, so I themed the colour scheme around the ruined north kingdom of Arnor. I started by spraying them with Zandri Dust spray, before applying a zenithal spray of Wraithbone. I then washed the ruins with thinned-down Sepia wash, before applying a drybrush of Palid Wych Flesh. I then picked out the woodwork with a dark brown Contrast paint, before applying a light drybrush of a khaki colour to make it look old. 

Lastly, the ruins needed basing. I mounted them on some plasticard sheets, cutting them to size and sanding the edges so they were smooth – I found the foamboard bases on the Osgiliath pieces were warping slightly, so I was hoping the plasticard would be a bit more rigid. I then glued sand to the base, painted it brown, drybrushed it with khaki and added static grass – the ruins of Arnor were complete!

Of course, I wasn't just painting ruins – May was fast approaching, and May means one thing – Seven Stones! Sam and I were under a bit of pressure this year, having won the event the previous year. We decided to go with a much less labour intensive project this year (no converting an entire army for us), and decided to theme the army around the BBC show The Traitors (well worth a watch if you haven’t already!). 

We decided our army would be comprised of the various people in Middle Earth who have committed deeds of treachery and betrayal – my half of the army consisted of the following models: Lord Thorne of the Wold, Freca, Lord of the Westmarch, The Master of Laketown, Alfrid the Counsellor, Gollum and The King of the Dead. We also had a few spare points leftover, so I added two Rohirrim Traitors to act as Thorne's bodyguards. 

I started with The King of the Dead, because I'd wanted to try painting him as he appears in the film. I painted the model as normal, and then covered it with several glazes of green, giving him his ghostly appearance – I was very satisfied with the end result, something I'm looking to now apply to the plastic version of the model!

Next up was Gollum, one of the easier models to paint – I'd painted him a number of times before, so I used the same colour schemes I had previously – a couple of evening's painting later, and Gollum was ready!

With two models down, I turned to Alfrid and the Master – both have similar schemes, such as the fur on their clothes, boots etc. Alfrid was painted using a fairly dark palette, although I messed up by painting his fur an off-white when it's black in the films. However, having seen the finished model, I think it still works. The Master was fun as he wasn't a model I'd ever planned on painting, but it was a lot of fun using some rich colours to try and highlight his wealthy status. It helps that they painted up fairly quickly too!

Next, I moved onto the Rohan contingent, starting with Thorne and the Traitors. Thorne I painted up as per the official colour scheme, apart from his cloak – I removed the cowl and painted it green to match the green cloaks the Traitors wear on the TV show. I also used the official colour scheme for the Traitors, but used some older Rohirrim models rather than the newer poses – however, the colour scheme worked just as well on them. 

Last but not least was Freca – again, I stuck to the GW colour scheme – he was a bit fiddly because of the intricate details such as the gold trim on his armour and straps on his boots, but he was still a really nice model to paint – the Forgeworld characters really are great sculpts. 

Last but not least, the Traitors needed a Round Table to have their "friendly" debates – the main structure was a diorama base if found on eBay – I then added the wall panels using MDF archways I found on Etsy – these were considerably larger than first expected, so I trimmed them down to size before gluing them together. The flooring was made using an air-drying clay that I then ran a texture roller over to create a floorboard look. I then painted the floor in the same way I'd painted the bases, applying a dark brown Contrast paint and then drybrushing it with Steel Legion Drab. The walls also got covered in the same Contrast paint, and were drybrushed with a reddish brown. I then hot-glued some led lighting to the top panel of the display, and the Round Table was ready!

Last but not least, you really can't do the Traitors without having Claudia Winkleman there. This model was designed using Hero Forge's custom model designer programme. It was a lot of fun trying various poses and styles, and we of course had to add a Palantir for extra themeyness. I then painted Claudia to go on the board, making sure she had her famous fringe and fingerless gloves – it's always the little details that matter!

With that, our army was ready for battle! We also had some custom dice, and our special "Palantir of Misfortune", designed to give our enemies an edge over us in the games (after all, Traitors very rarely have a positive impact), and the opportunity to give away frog-themed chocolate treats, something we've always done at Seven Stones. Sadly, we lost all six games and finished plum last – who knew that an army of betrayers, backstabbers and oath-breakers wouldn't work well together?

So, to progress – thanks to these models, I've now passed the 100 models painted mark for this year. Pretty good progress, although after some intensive painting in January, February and early March, it was nice to take things a bit more sedately through April and May! Looking forwards, I have a couple of projects I'm hoping to finish before the end of the year – stay tuned to see what those might be!

Clearing the Backlog, Part 20 – It's Grand Tournament time!

One of my staple hobby events, and usually the event that kicks off my hobbying for the year is the Middle Earth Grand Tournament at Warhammer World. Two days of games, the Green Dragon pub quiz and of course free access to the exhibition, where you can see all of the models and the glorious displays the GW team have made to show them all off.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the event last year, and my hobby motivation did suffer as a result. This time, however, it was the opposite – my hobby mojo kicked in full force (and also partly motivated I would say by the distinct lack of hobbying I did last year).

My armies were fairly simple – an idea had been in my head for some time, and I decided to run with it for the GT. Now, I could have just gone through my collection and worked out exactly what I needed to build the armies, but that would have been too easy. Instead, my silly brain decided the best thing to do would be to create both armies completely from scratch!

The theme I decided on was the fall of Minas Ithil, so it would be the armies of Minas Morgul (basically a nod to the fate of the city), and Minas Tirith. However, I couldn't use any named heroes as that wouldn’t have fitted the theme. Fortunately, the new Armies of Lord of the Rings had an army list I could use – the Realms of Men, a list that allows you to field Kings of Men alongside warriors from Gondor, Rohan, Dale and Numenor. 

The basic core of my armies came from the Mordor and Minas Tirith Battlehosts. The Minas Tirith force contains 6 knights, 24 warriors, Gandalf the White and Pippin – I set these last two aside for a future project. Mordor contains the Witch King, 24 Mordor Orcs and 6 warg riders – again, I set the wargs aside, but I haven’t decided what to do with them just yet – they may well join the army in the future. 

With the core of the armies established, I set about adding to my forces. I needed a King of Men to lead my defenders of Minas Ithil, and I wanted him mounted to lead my knights. As GW doesn’t (currently) make a mounted version, I set about converting one. I started with the captain from the Minas Tirith Commanders set, cutting him in half at the waist – I then did the same with a spare Knight I had lying around, before swapping out the head with one from the Knights of Dol Amroth kit. I then added a lance and a shield, and my new Castellan of the city was done!

The rest of my army was pretty simple – I added the banner and hornblower from the Commanders set, and then added a few more knights, including one with a banner. I then added two captains, and my good army was ready for painting! 

For Mordor, I wanted the Witch King to be accompanied by some fellow wraiths, so I added two on horseback, before adding another dozen orcs, a drummer, banner and finally added some spectres – these are very useful in a Minas Morgul army. Minas Ithil was ready to fall!

When painting the army, I used a fairly simple scheme for my Warriors of Minas Tirith – I started with a black basecoat, before spraying them with Leadbelcher, washing them with Nuln Oil, and then drybrushing the armour with Ironbreaker, and then edge highlighting with Stormhost Silver. I did the same for the weapons, but used Iron Hands Steel, which was slightly brighter, so that they'd stand out from the armour. For the cloth, I used Corvus Black, which has a slightly bluish hue, highlighting it with Dark Reaper and then Thunderhawk Blue. I then picked out the brown details, using dark brown as a base, and then alternating between a lighter brown for the weapons such as the bows and spears, but a more orangey-brown for the belts and straps. The end result was a great looking force, that painted up in a fairly short space of time.

The Knights, King and Commanders were all painted in the same way as the Warriors, with just a little bit more attention to ensure they stood out from the regular rank and file troops. For the horse, I stuck to a limited palette of blacks, greys and browns – looking at the films, you don't actually see many white horses. I then mounted my entire army on custom bases to represent the walls and streets of the city – the white bases really help the models stand out.

Orcs are a little trickier to paint in the sense that they have no uniform theme – painting them was mostly a case of applying various basecoats, washes and highlights, mixing up the colours so that no two orc sculpts look the same. It's surprising how different models can look just by painting the cloth and skin different colours. As with my good force, I spent some extra time on the banner and drummer to make them stand out a bit more.

For the Ringwraiths, I wanted to try something different, as I usually paint them using dark greys, working up to a light grey. Instead, I decided to use a cool blue tone, and actually ended up painting the robes in the same way I'd painted the cloth on my Warriors of Minas Tirith. Last up were my spectres – I painted these in the same way I had my existing elves and Numenoreans, before applying a green glaze over the whole model to give them an ethereal look – the end result turned out great!

Last but not least was the display board – I'd managed to find some 3D wall and gatehouse files, which Dewi from Guardians of Wiltshire kindly printed for me – always useful to have a friend with a 3D printer!. I then bought two Gondor Mansion kits, and experimented with how the kit can be put together – these kits really are a masterpiece of design, allowing you to create all sorts of different architectural designs – I settled on a large, square shaped design for the main building, and then used leftover pieces to create an L-shaped design to accompany it. Throughout the build process however, I saved various floor and archway pieces, allowing me to create the bridge that leads into the city – my plan was to have my orcs charging across it, flooding into the city. I added some foam parapets for the bridge, before incorporating it into the board.

As to the overall layout, I built up the landform with foam, before gluing down lots of bark pieces, and covering them and the area in front of the walls with modelling compound, which I then covered with a layer of scenics. Behind the walls, I used a textured roller in order to create a paved street pattern – this did cause some issues, as there were some areas where the roller left little to no impression – these however were fortunately covered up by additional details I added later. The main issue I had was trying to create the water effect for the river – I used textured sheeting to try and create the rippling water effect, but unfortunately in several areas the glue either dried opaque or, weirdly, didn’t dry at all. Ultimately however, I was very please with the overall look and feel of the board, and seeing it covered with all the models looked great – the Castellan leading his knights in a desperate charge to repel the invaders, whilst the Warriors try to defend the walls from the attacking orcs.

As for the event itself, the armies didn’t perform that well – I managed a single win with Minas Morgul, whilst the Realms of Men sadly lost all three games. Whilst my tactics were fairly solid, most of the time the luck was more with my opponents – a common trend was them getting the clutch 6 they needed to win fights. However, despite the results, all six games across the weekend were a huge amount of fun, and were all played in really good spirits!

So, to the model count for the year – having painted both my armies, plus an extra couple of orcs who got painted at the same time, my painting court for the year already stands at a whopping 84 models! I am super pleased with this progress, given I'd painted less models than that by September of last year – I'm really motivated to get through my other hobby projects for the year, but exactly what those are will have to wait for another time…