Middle Earth Gaming - Part 2 - The Dead of Dunharrow

 A small allied contingent this time, comprising of one original box of metal miniatures plus a sprue of the new plastic's and I have to say the new plastic minis are just as good if not better. I just plan on adding a banner bearer at some point and this allied force will be complete:

The King of the Dead:

The old metal minis:

The newer plastics:

The whole force:

Happily working my way through more Middle Earth stuff at the moment, some more good guys next though sadly not in the movies.

Middle Earth Gaming - Part 1 - Gondor

Well my trip to the coast and the compulsory visit to the local gaming shop has started an entirely new project, mainly due to my sons enthusiasm, and I'm guessing that from the the title of this post you know where this is going!

This isn't my first dabble at wargaming in Middle Earth, having picked up most of GW's original 1986 range back in the day, and more recently (well in the last 10 years or so at least) I picked up some of the Middle Earth magazines that came with various miniatures(and promptly sold them). 

Middle Earth is something I've always had an interest in having cut my gaming teeth on ICE's MERP,  and Tolkien being my introduction to fantasy but my hatred of painting 28mm stuff has always held me back.

Despite that I convinced myself that both the Minas Tirith troops and the Orcs should be easy enough to paint being basically armour and drab colours respectively, and that; with a few characters and monsters would be enough for me and my son to have a casual game.

Six weeks later and I have just finished gluing, undercoating, painting, basing 130 minis, and I still have 40-50 to do!!! My mate then offered me his nicely painted Isengard army plus a bunch of other minis for a great price, so I've gone from owning 3 Middle Earth minis(the last of my 1986 range) to about 250 in just a few weeks! Anyway enough of my rambles besides I'm only trying to justify the expenditure, on to the first batch of minis that I've taken pics of:

The rank & file:

Some Generic Command:

And some named Heroes(the Gandalf wasn't painted by  me, being one of the minis I acquired):

And the whole "army":

That's the lot for Gondor, though I would like to add a small amount of cavalry at some point and maybe a handful of rangers of Ithilien, but it will do for now.

More Middle Earth in the next few posts as I am currently racing through these, and want to cut the unpainted pile down before it gets too much and outs me off!

 

Man O War (Part 4)- Scenery

Whilst the card islands and terrain features that come with the box are good enough, I couldn't resist making some 3D terrain. Figuring Brigade Models small scale scenery stuff should fit size-wise I placed a small order for some buildings, castle parts, towers etc to tart up my planned islands, and these are the results:

First up a few sea stacks made from wine corks, and one of which has a few towers attached to make it more interesting and fantasy and an ancient lighthouse that I reckon looks fantasy enough:

Next a selection of small islands, featuring temples, and fortifications:

The  larger Islands(although one is meant to be a headland rather than an island):

A sunken temple(inspired by playing too much Assassins Creed: Odyssey) made from odds n ends from the bits box:

a couple of dangerous rocky areas:

Finally a wreck marker and debris counter:

And that should be more than enough to add some variety to the blue sheet I currently use as a sea-scape, though when I an next be bothered I might have a go at some of the chaos themed terrain!

A week at the seaside coming up and as their is a FLGS there I may come back with a totally new project or more likely just a restock of paints/brushes.