Like Cats and Dogs...

Couldn't resist making a few shots of this: Our dog, Molly, and one of our 3 remaining big kittens, Thor, having a cosy time in the kitchen last night.

...and Rohan Will Answer!

The mustering at Dunharrow is almost complete.

I need to finish yet another two Rohirrim that sit partly covered in paint on my pain(t) station, then I can turn my attention to the Lords of Minas Tirith.

Nothing further to report right now.

Assembling the Levy!

Another Rohan Warrior done, this time quick-shaded.

I need to do 3 more of these, then I can start painting the two characters I need for the army. Ilúvatar willing, I'll be able to finish the rank-and-file during the weekend.

This method lends itself well to painting the LotR minis, as they should have that gritty, naturalistic look, but I still do prefer layering, given the necessary time.

For getting some bulk on the table, though, it can't be beaten for speed!

God of Battles for Horisont VI: Second Fiefdom Warrior Unit!

Not the best photo, ever, but the camera battery is almost empty, and I did not have time to play around with the settings.

Second Fiefdom Warrior unit - and the fourth all in all - is now completed to a stage that makes it useable!

One more unit to do (I have to paint 4 minis to complete it), and then I have to paint Denethor and Boromir.

I hope to finish quick-shading the four Rohirrim next weekend, then paint the 2 characters during next week, leaving me time for playtesting the scenario, and finishing various bits and bobs for the presentation.

Some Bases Done...

I  finished repainting the bases on these 5. They were bought prepainted as part of a big lot from a fellow LAF'er, and they do OK blending in with my other stuff, so I don't want to redo them completely.

More Rohan WIP

These two are all but ready for a Devlan Mud wash - I'm going to shade the one with the painted spearshaft, first, because I need to test how dark the brown is going to be.

The Mustering Continues...

Another Rohan Warrior done (or almost; I realized while taking the pics, that I forgot to pant the rear side of the shield - will be mended later this evening!).

I imagine this guy as an elderly noble, not wanting to wear mail into battle because of the discomfort, and maybe suffering from an old injury that keeps him out of the saddle.

For now, he'll just fill the role as another Fiefdom Warrior in my God of Battles Gondor army...

Nothing Finished, But...

...I have prepped and primed 3 more (the black one was done several years ago, but suffered from my butterfly syndrome).

At least the 3 white ones will be quick-shaded, which means I'll block in fairly bright colours, then wash them with Devlan Mud.

I'm only resorting to this method because otherwise I think I'll be hard pressed to get the army ready for testing our scenario for Horisont VI.

They are all the same sculpt, yes. It's the spearman pose with the least moldlines, and also the least thin parts that may break at any inconvenient moment.

I'll paint 2 with green shields, and 2 with brown, and I'll strive to get some variation through other colours, too.

The Girls have been Busy!

My daughters are making preparations for next friday, too:

The make-up has been tried on, too; here's Draculea:

Two Down...

...seven more to go!

Finished painting another Rohir for the second Fiefdom Warrior unit .

I went a bit unorthodox on this one, giving him a red tunic - all part of my training for painting Dark Age warriors.

Further down the page, I have added some more pics of the last one painted.

As promised, a few more shots of the guy from Thursday:

Wet Moss! :o(

When tidying up the attic for our upcoming Halloween party, I noticed that my reindeer moss has caught moisture - and if I don't react, it will probably rot!

So I'm trying to dry it on newspapers on the window sills in the study (the only place it can be reasonably safe from cat paws).

I need it ready for Horisont VI in four weeks, so I'm glad I had to stove the gaming stuff away now, otherwise I might not have noticed the moisture!

I think I should get me some more of that stuff - with a current potential of 5 gaming tables running at the same time, my stock may fall short.

Well, leason learned: Always stove away scenery in airtight containers when not in use!

Argonor's Attic Transformed...

...into a banquet hall for next Friday, and the Halloween Party we are throwing for out kids and their school classmates.

The stuff on the desk in the middle, and the chairs, are going to be moved downstairs to the garage, where I'll set up a couple of tables for those parents who wish to be present.

The row of tables will serve two purposes: The outer ones will be used for the Monster Buffet  (each participant has to bring a dish for the buffet), and the middle one will be set/decorated as the Count's Table with candelabra, spooky glasses, cobwebs/spiders, etc.

Of course, the whole room will be decorated with various ghoulish stuff, and I'll hang two mirror balls  from the beams, and place a music system with some coloured spots that flash to the rhytm of the music on the bar, from which the kids kan buy cheap sodas.

I'll be sporting my Dementor suit, which I tested at the Odense Harry Potter Festival a week ago.

I'll document the various stages of preparations, and of course, also the party itself!

Applaude Yourselves!

Congratulations!

You have made October the second most viewed month ever of this collection of insane ramblings!

Pat yourselves on the back!

Thanks for viewing, and please stay tuned for the next update!

Rohan/Fiefdom Warrior for my GoB Project

I finished painting and basing this guy today. He is one of 3 warriors that I have to paint to bring up to strength the next last unit I am preparing for Horisont VI.

I am playing around with the colours a bit, as preparation for painting some Dark Age Vikings and Saxons somewhen. But first, I have to finish some LotR armies for both God of Battles, and SAGA.

No breakdown of the colours, as I'm a bit busy at the moment - should someone want to know, just ask!

The Big Box from player1 at powerfist.dk - Part 1

I mentioned the big box brought by the mailman - here's some of the content (those outside their new home were part of the lot, too):

5 models from the Dwarven part of this latest purchase are not shown; 1 plastic Ranger had a broken axe, 1 Khazad Guard ditto, and 2 Khazad Guards and a metal Warrior Character(?) had broken and missing axes. Not bad for a second hand lot!

One of the axeless Khazad Guards is going to be converted to a standard bearer, and I think I can muster about 4 units for GoB from the painted models (the Rangers need bases done).

Maybe I can construct both a Dwarven and a Moria Goblin 24 pts quick-play armies, and bring an extra table for Horisont...

2014-08-24 Pike & Shot and Zombies Test Game

The table layout

Somehow I completely forgot to post this - perhaps because I was busy preparing for Attic Attack II...

Duregar and I played our first game of  Pike & Shot and Zombies; Duregar controlled the survivors, and I took control of the shamblers.

We didn't roll up the survivors equipment, just went with approximately what the minis were carrying.

We used a stripped down events cards deck.

I used a home-made movement template for randomized zombie movement instead of the ingerent rule of moving the zombies according to where the movement-die lands. No dice rolled across my tables, please!

The scenario was as follows:

A sage once living in a village is rumoured to have gathered information on the undead - it is said that he wrote down this forbidden knowledge in a gigantic tome that was placed in his tomb with him after his demise.

The elders of the town presently harbouring the adventurers are very keen to get hold of the 'Book of the Dead', as they think it holds the key to ward off the threat of the walkers for good.

The party advanced across the bridge into 'biter-country',
following a path leading towards the ruined  village.

Some of the shamblers moved about in an erratic fashion,
and our heroes thought themselves safe for now.

The walking dead did notseem to have any clue

Suddenly, a surge of undead appeared from a small wood.

The elf opened up with a deafening salvo from
some piece of hand artillery he had brought to the party...

...and suddenly the area was crawling with shamblers.

The dwarf addressed the new situation in a rather agressively fashion

Which heralded general havoc.

One of the survivors decided to wander off
to shut down a spawning point with some undead still around...

...which was, so to speak, a bad idea

At this point we decided to call it a day.

This game suffered from only one player controlling the survivors. It would surely be more fun to have several players conrolling one survivor - or small group of survivors - each, and giving each player his own agenda/objectives to pursue.

PSZ has a lot of RPG-ish features, and when exploited to full extent, I think it will make an excellent beer-and-pretzel game that a group can enjoy for an infinite amount of time, given the right Game Master/Umpire to keep things moving and offer interesting scenarios.

Competitive play? No thanks, but benevolent mockery among players who know each other well should make for some interesting and fun sessions.

I think the zombies can be controlled by the 'AI', if you set up some conditions for the way you move them. Then 2 players may be enough for a spunky game, but I would prefer 3+ survivor players.

New Rose Bed for the Wife!

I did not quite make it for our wedding anniversary (last Thursday), so I had to take the family our for dinner, although I did manage to remove quite a bit of turf (then used for building one side of the kids' lair at the creek in the back garden).

Lots of rain, made it difficult to work in the garden, but today, finally, we got most of the roses moved to the new bed in front of the tiled terrace.

The terrace seems to have been laid out in stages - each with a different type of tile - and at some point I'll probably remove most of it and re-do it with a single type.

For now, I'll settle for the new rose bed.

The roses shown in the pics are all from the north-east corner of the front garden, and I have to clear a spot there for an apple tree of a kind that was thought extinct here in Denmark, but had survived in the hedge of farm near Egebjerg belonging to my wife's relatives.

Twigs from the old tree have now been grafted onto new trunks, and my wife's father's uncle's widow, residing on the farm, now have 2 young trees, of which we have been offered one - and with my interest in history, how could I refuse?

The apple is called a Berliner Sheep's Snout Apple (because of the oblong shape), and it has next to no core, meaning that almost the entire fruit is edible.

As you can see in th epictures, the lawn is in dire need of a mowing, but I have to get that corner ready for the apple tree, which means that I have to chop down 3 bushes (and remove their roots), and as we would like to get the tree planted before the frost, this task has to be prioritized.

Working in the garden also meant that I did not get anything painted today, but I've realized that I played a game of Pike and Shot and Zombies that I didn't blog, so expect an AAR tomorrow!

The marking of the WIP rose bed - note the home-grown tufts!

In the meantime, you'll have to settle for a couple more pics of the WIP rose bed.

I removed the turf to mark the edge of the bed, so I could piut aside the rods and string I used for making a straight cut.

My wife, who has been wishing for a dedicated rose bed ever since we moved here, secured the newly moved roses with some chicken wire, mainlh to prevent out nice, but rather stupid, dog, Molly, from running through (and digging up) the bed.

Next up is getting the garden corner ready, which means me once again acting up a chainsaw-wielding loonie, much to the dismay of our neighbours - but you can't please everyone, and family comes first!

One last picture shows how the new bed is going to connect to a small existing one - and one of our 3 remaining big kittens scouting the changed environments (its brother found a new home at a farmstead in the Alps of South Funen (aka Svanninge Bakker, near Faaborg), and we now have only one left to give away, as my daughters are keeping one each.


It's getting late, and I've missed 2 episodes of Doctor Who (12th Doctor) over the last couple of weeks, that I have to catch online. so I'll wrap this up with a promise of more gaming related news tomorrow (the postman also delivered a package while I was at work, and the contents should prove worth a line or two).