A surge of metal mined from Moria

At last, the flush of WW2 projects off the painting table cleared in my mind's eye a slot for the LOTR HoTT project. specifically those Metal Morian Goblins. These are the boys (or things) who will stand by the Great Goblin and Goblin Shaman, so they deserved to be of a slightly better class, or should that simply read weight? ;)

Specifically the Goblin King of Moria (Note : Please excuse the glare in the photo's caused by the evil-smelling torches in the Goblin tunnels, and yes the basing is far from complete, but the plan is to do that all in one go at the end)  

The Evil Goblin Shaman of Moria:

The dead-eye Archers too are of a quality above the normal (plastic) "hoardlings".

A plastic 7Hd (incidentally I originally was planning to base them 5Hd but thought they looked too much of a "skirmish formation", rather than the swarming mass of writhing goblin arms, legs and bodies I remembered from the epic Fellowship of the Ring scenes - my painting arm complaints but artistic director is happy akin to Peter Jackson) :

Hoards of things (with two more bases still needed for the Moria OoB):

Next stop, back to the plastic to flesh out another two more Hoards (7Hd) of the above, (that's fifteen figures in all, two times seven plus one, as one of the above bases is a figure short) before I can move onto that Cave Troll which has been hiding in a box for simply years now :)

The HoTT GW LOTR "War of the Ring" Campaign project seems a long, long way off at the moment.

:(

Painting Tray Update

Back into the swing of things and the PBI of all (Western) nations are marching across the table:

For those of keen eye they will see:

• The first sprue of (16) Valiant US GI Infantry standing proudly center stage (on their passing out parade as it were) : Final verdict, yes big even next to metals, but I like them, and I don't think even infantry need to be (or should be) in hand to hand combat on the wargames table.
  
• Sitting on the first row of paint pots behind them is a Grey/Dark Green mass of German Revell Panzer Grenadiers in their early undercoating stage, it will be very interesting to see how these pan out with teh Vallejo paints
  
• Behind the Germans on top of some taller paint pots, ahead of the Germans in the painting process, my third batch (Cross Fire platoon) of late-war Platoon 20 British Infantry mid way through their painting. I am approaching the project target here (a Cross Fire infantry company), in fact I may need to order some "bits and bobs" from East Riding Miniatures to finish it off in a tidy (same manufacturer) fashion.
  
• Alas the minions of Moria are still stuck in a painting stasis behind them, but I am warming to their glare and feel the LOTR itch approaching
  
• Likewise no additional progress to report on the Hetzer, but a Normandy 1944 scenario versus the Brits beckons
  
• Similarly the Hurricane and Boulton Paul Defiant remain grounded due to bad flying conditions and very much the wrong early war period for my current burst of painting activity.

In summary some nice progress made/making :)

Painting Tray Update

Behold (at last) the behemoth King Tigers have rolled away to strike terror into the hearts and minds of the Western or Eastern Allies alike. Or alternatively presenting a plum target of opportunity for a young Jabbo fighter-pilot (Mustang or Sturmovik) to make his name. In convoy below (a faked wargame moment):

Or deployed, ready to dominate a wargames table near you ;)

Meanwhile a further batch of German heavy armour presents its profile under the painting lights. These pair of Tigers (1/72 Hasagawa and 1/76 Fujimi [early version]) pose a slight problem for me as I will have to move away from the three tone camouflage scheme I was enjoying. Something either Dark Yellow with Green or Brown irregular lines to break up the profile. The 1943 summer look as it were.Currently they sit in the Oiled and Metallic stage ready to take their camouflage markings on:

Meanwhile up in the skies the Airfix Battle of Britain single engined fighter project continues in a stop start fashion. The Hawker Hurricane MkI stands in its shade colours as:

While the Boulton Paul Defiant (viewed broadside) is shown here. It packed a surprise rear-punch to a Hurricane profile (seen from behind), but once bitten twice shy in combat as a 12 o'clock attack was its undoing.

Last but not least a second metal Goblin, The Great Goblin King himself gets painted and the Moria Goblins HoTT Army project takes an oh so small step forward:

In the background I have almost uncontrollable urge to paint 20mm WWII plastic infantry in large industrial batches, after all in the northern hemisphere the nights are beginning to draw in.

:)

Hunting Pack of "Big German Kats"

And so I come to the final bit of painting ...

After the stripes comes a quick attack of spots, lots of yellow in the dark brown and dark green areas, then (a few) green in the base  yellow area and (again just a few) brown in the base yellow area too. This certainly breaks up the defined regions very well. Nice! The finished 1/76 Fujimi KonigTiger (with supporting band of LOTR Moria goblins in the background[eh?]) is shown below:

This means I now have a hunting pack of Big German Kats (yes "K" for Kongtiger).

This would be a company strength formation for Command Decision or Battlefront (or even Spearhead) and realistically I need no more for any feasibly historical wargame. True, I still have a model of the Porsche turret version (found in combat to be a weakness as it trapped rather than deflected some incoming enemy shots), but I file that under the category of variety not necessity. To mix in with the Henschel variants and Tigers in early D-Day+ Normandy 1944 battles for instance.

These boys are good for late 1944 in the Ardennes/Rhine and late for the 1944 and 1945 eastern front battles. However, if truth be told, the unit is great to model and look at, but a rarity on the battlefield and askew to the typical historical Order of Battle I prefer.

Metal problem in Moria solved

Gotcha Mr Metal Goblin!


Stop Press: Factory batch process abandoned on the Metal Goblins. Each figure is now treated as an individual in a 'holistic' arty manner before going onto the next one, sounds almost like therapy to me. I probably needed a well earned break from painting endless batches of GW "Camo Green" and GW "Bolt Gun Metal" body parts anyway.

The individual process is far slower but with only ten metals to paint some form of forward progress can be maintained, one down, nine to go!

:)

Troublemakers: The Goblins of Moria

Now the painting tray stands almost empty, quite forlorn .
Gone are the tanks and aircraft.


What is left is the evil Goblin hoard that has all but broken my will to paint them, but that is what Goblins are good at, being evil and sneaky.

The background to this madness:
It all started when I joined in a HOTT (Hoards Of The Things) Campaign down at my local wargames club. Despite my not having a 15mm army I became an Orc Chieftain (of Bogland) through a generous donation/loan by the campaign referee. The game was a blast (and is still ongoing) so I came away enthused and charged to do some HOTT fantasy figures of my own. The trouble was that I had a stack of unpainted 20mm LOTR (Lord of the Rings) figures from GW (Games Workshop) and couldn't really justify in my own mind doubling up with an equivalent army of smaller 15mm goblins! Rather than base the LOTR figures individually I would HOTT them in stands, a perfect solution, or was it?

The planned HOTT Moria Goblin Army:

9 x 7Hd (Hoard) = 9 AP
1 x 3Wb (Warband General) = 2 AP
1 x 3Wb (Warband) = 2 AP
1 x Shaman (Cleric) = 3 AP
2 x Troll (Behemoth) = 8 AP

Total 24 AP (Army Points)

Variations:
1 x 4Bw (Shooters) = 2 AP
1 x Balrog (God) = 4 AP
2 x Warg Riders (Riders) = 4 AP (2 AP each)
1 x Gollum (Sneaker/Lurker) = 3 AP or 1 AP

It all started well, I batched my "plastics" up in groups of tens and started off in factory production mode. It became an organised ritual part of the day and the figures stacked up nicely. I even decided to upgrade my hoard numbers from five on a base to seven as I was using the 25mm basing sizes. Five on a base looked like a skirmish formation rather than a seething, dangerous hoard. So far so good and I raced through forty eight plastics in about three to four weeks. Here are the "good" plastic Moria Goblins [Work In Progress = basing + 15 plastics to paint for my Army List]

:)


Then I hit the GW metals and promptly got "metal fatigue". The "bad" Moria Goblins [Work In Progress = highlighting and basing]

:(


They just broke my rhythm and concentration, instead of a set of familiar poses they were all oddly unique. I fought the urge to open up my last packet of plastics as I deemed that would be a severe loss of face in front of the metal Goblins. I stood at an impasse.

By way of distraction I started to tidy up, or not in the case of the Jaguarundi and the late war German stuff took my eye. I started searching on the Internet for an appropriate painting scheme, I fell into some blogs and thought I fancy a go at that. So its time to be "up and at those Goblins" (any inspirational comments appreciated) , watch this space ;)

Note: On the upside, after reading a friends recent post on their wargame blog: http://thewargameshed.blogspot.com/2009/08/jws-reunion.html, l liked what I saw on the creative use of a chessboard for Balin's Tomb. Hence I shall leave a good dozen of the plastics individually based after all for those inevitable AD&D adventure nights with old friends from school.

:)