Frodo's Quest: Another Ranger of Ithilien, Rebased and Touched Up

As mentioned, I have been doing some work on this here Ranger, too.

He has been given almost the exact same treatment as his colleague from yeaterday, and now he is ready for the table once more.

Tomorrow is December, and I shall turn my attention to some Winter/Christmas-themed stuff for the next couple of weeks, at least.

Frodo's Quest: Ranger of Ithilien, Rebased and Touched Up

I painted this guy quite a few years ago, and he had suffered some battle damage and also needed a new base.

I did some paint repairs, mainly on the cloak and leather doublet, repainted the bracers and his skin, and also gave him his first set of eyes, ever.

I think he will now do for the table.

As previously mentioned, I have dug out all my Ranger minis, and I am prepping some of them 'on the side' as I want to get more ready for some gaming, also Warlords of Erehwon for which I need at least five (which I actually already have, including the two old Ithilien Rangers and Aragorn).

I have his standing and nearly identical twin on the pain(t) station right now, for the same treatment - if everything goes to plan, I shall have him finished by tomorrow evening.

Frodo's Quest: Mines of Moria Merry

My weekend was crazy, so the final brush stokes on this stout fellow had to be postponed until today.

I still do not dare try painting the eyes on these tiny faces, but I may go back and do them at a later point, when I feel more confident.

Nevertheless, I now have all four Fellowship Hobbits painted up, two from the Fellowship of the Ring set, and two from the Mines of Moria set (and I shall, of course, do both versions of the entire Fellowship in due time, but for now I have to focus on the minis needed for the first installment of Frodo's Quest).

As mentioned earlier, these minis are REALLY tiny, and I find it hard to paint their faces (and it shows in the not-so-accented facial features). Maybe I shall try redoing the faces some day, but for now they will have to do as is.

I am not quite sure about Merry's hair; I think it turned out a bit too orange, but it was the closest I could get to the colour shown on the Fellowship box (which is not quite the 'live' colour from the movies, either, though).

The waistcoat buttons also are a bit different than I think they should be; I used a painted mini as reference, and it had silver buttons, whereas the movie stills show cloth-covered buttons the same colour as the waistcoat itself. So, I dotted in the pale yellow (Warzone Vega Sand) I used for the waistcoat before covering it with Iyanden Yellow, leaving the Chainmail edges visible.

There will be no family portrait this time, not until I have to put painted models in the storage box, as it is stoved away in a larger crate at the moment (I need to keep the storage boxes from spreading all over the ground floor of our home).

I am quite pleased with his cloak and jacket - the trousers are not quite as dark when seen with the naked eye, but I have a little trouble getting the light settings of my camera just right (which is also why the pics are a tiny bit blurred; I have to turn up the Gamma output in GIMP to keep the photos from having too bright unnatural colours).

I am happy to report that I have found all my Middle-Earth Ranger figures (bar one Ranger of Ithillien from the set with Faramir and the Hobbits), including the Grey Company and the Guardians of the Shire, so that is one task to check off!

Frodo's Quest: Aragorn and Pippin Bases Altered

 I lightened up the Moria-themed bases of these two protagonists a bit, I think they look a bit better now.

Frodo's Quest: The Silent Watch, Dúnadan #2

Finished another one of these, Soon, I shall have to get started on another mounted Nazgûl (Black Rider), and some Smials, and then I can stage the first game of Frodo's Quest. I expect to run it as a co-op game between a mate and myself (one controlling Frodo, the other Sam), and doing it as a beer-and-pretzel game 😉

And, of course, the mandatory group shot.

Frodo's Quest: The Silent Watch, Dúnadan #1

The fist scenario of my 'Frodo's Quest' campaign will feature at least two members of the Silent Watch, and I have finally gotten the first one painted and ready for action!

Largely painted with Citadel Contrast Paints (not the weapons, the skin, and the base), it has not been very time consuming. I had to touch some of the 'highlights' up with corresponding 'normal' paints, but all in all I am very happy with the result.

I deliberately avoided making him 'too Ranger of the North' so that I can use him in Ithilien, too; multi-purpose is still very much part of my gaming philosophy (technically, the design is mostly Rangers of Ithilien, but even GW have been calling them 'Rangers of Middle-Earth for quite some years).

I may go back and decorate the quiver at some point, but for now, the plain Space Wolves Grey will have to do.

I expect to have his companion ready tomorrow, and then I shall have to turn my attention to a Black Rider and some Smials!

Frodo's Quest: Mines of Moria Pippin

Another one of those diminutive plastic minis; I had to take a lot of breaks from painting this (working on other bits and bobs), as it was really putting a straikn onm my ageing eyes.

I did not take a pic of him with Aragorn, as I want to redo the ranger's base, first, there'll propably be a group shot when I finish Merry (somewhen next week, he is just as fiddly as this one).

Frodo's Quest: Some Moria Scenery

These are the plastic columns from the Mines of Moria boxed set, finally painted up and ready to provide some cover from Goblin arrows.

Frodo's Quest: Mines of Moria - Aragorn

This mini gave me several headaches because of its tininess, but I think I have got it down, now.

I wanted an almost black coat, like it is in the movie, and I think I almost got it right. All in all this version of Aragorn is much more muted than the painted examples shown on boxes and in rulebooks by GW's painter, but I like that look, and it fits with the way I have painted other LotR minis.

I think the dark grey basecoat on the base is a bit too dark, I shall have to try a slightly lighter shade on the next MoM character I do (which will be Merry or Pippin, just primed them both today).

Oathmark: 2500pts, Isengard vs Human-Elves Alliance

Wednesday I played yet another game of Oathmark, this time Emil commanded an alliance of my Gondor, Rohan, and High Elf forces against the same Isengard army that I used against Ulolkish's Dwarves.

This time I decided to try a refused right flank, and a sweeping left flank attack with some Wargs and Warg Riders through the woods at the far end of the table,

The first turn was mostly 'Forward unto Battle', except for my Shaman, who failed his Activation Roll on three dice...

Turn 2 both armies advanced, and my Shamanmade his signature move and laid out a Smoke screen to prevent the High Elf Archers (blue unit facing my right) doing their thing.

In Turn 3 I moved a bit further forward than first intended in the center to get the units there protected by the hill (my Shaman had failed his activation, and thus had not been able to conjure up more Smoke).

Turn 4 saw the first real fighting.

The Rohan Swordsmen burst through the Smoke and into the Dunlendings and breaking them.

Which resulted in my Shaman suddenly finding himself in something of a predicament.

But my Orcs moved forward and thus offered some protection.

The Elf Linebreakers smashed into the Uruk-Hai Pikemen, and did not fare well.

The battlefield at the end of Turn 4. The sunlight falling in through one of the roof windows was quite annoying at this point.

We did not play through Turn 5, - when the Elven Bowmen marched past the smoke, they were attacked by the Wargs and Disordered - and soon after they were Broken by Orcish arrows, which made my opponent toss in the towel.

AT this point we had been at it for about 4 hours (interrupted by me picking up Anna from school), and Emil clearly found this amount of time too much for a game.

As I have stated in an earlier post, one of my concerns regarding Oathmark is the pace of the game, especially because of the somewhat clunky combat rules, and both of my two latest games have, indeed, lingered on (well, the last one would have, had not Emil given up) beyond a reasonable  time span.

My only fast game was the 2000 points played against Kevin, and that one contained  far less units. I think a 'Mass Battle Game' as Oathmark is proclaimed to be should be able to handle at least a score of units aside without lasting more than an evening, and I cannot see that happening with this game.

I still have to play more games and get better acquainted with the rules (although I had to look up a rule only once or twice during this game) before I decide whether to keep Oathmark as a 'go to' game, go back to tweaking God of Battles, or maybe even do a mash-up of GoB and Oathmark, as suggested by Ulolkish.