Warriors of Minas Tirith - Further Progress-

Now they've had their hair and faces basecoated. Next up is a black ink wash.

Warriors of Minas Tirith WIP.

Progress on these is slower than expected - mainly because the steel parts take quite some time to paint.

They've been drybrushed with Valljo Shadow Grey, and the steel has been given a base coaat of VOC Chainmail.

I have half the day off tomorrow, so I hope to get some work done...

Mint and Licorice/Anise Aquavit/Schnapps

I am composing a 'bitter' aquavit using mint and licorice root/anise.

The golden liquid to the right is a sample of the mint extract (which tastes fantastic in itself).

Below is the licorice/anise extract filtering (and it tastes even better in itself than the mint).

I am going to mix some of the licorice/anise into the mint, and then maybe add some brown sugar, if the sweetness of the licorice/anise is not enough.

I expect to have a finished product worthy for a king's breakfast table!

I have another large jar of mint extracting in the basement, which is going to become a mint sweet liqueur. More about that on a later occation!

Beer for the Beer God!

The almost local supermarket had a sale on: Specialty beers/ales. Had to try some!

It's Gettng Hotter...

Well, almost.

My Asgaard 2 firewood stove was hauled up into the attic Saturday afternoon, with my daughters in control of the hoisting block, while I steered the load up the ladder.

It is going to be connected to the chimney asap

A Small Conversion Project.

My recent bulk purchase of LotR minis left me with these:

You can't tell from the pic, but the plastic bag contains a metal Cave Troll which is missing its hammerhead.

Now, I already have one Moria plastic Cave troll with a hammer painted - and I have the extra hand with the trident/spear left over from that one, so I'll remove the hand with the hammer,, replace it with the trident one, and use th plastic hammer head for the metal model.

Neat, huh?

I'll need a couple of extra trolls to bolster a Moria Goblin army that I have most of the models for painted, and almost ready to go (some of them need a bit of tidying up, especially on the bases). As @Duregar is readying a Dwarf army, it's only fitting that I field an army of the squatting critters for it to take on!

All Quiet on the Mordor Front!

Yes, indeed - I'm making very slow progress at the moment.

Last weekend I purchased 2 firewood stoves - one for Argonor's Attic, and one for our living room, as the old one has been overdue for replacement since before we moved here...

One of the stoves I had to pick up Monday afternoon, as the store salespeople couldn't locate it at the warehouse.

Tuesday, we went to the opening sale of a new builders' market/DIY store in the neighbouring town of Ringe, to get a trailerload of very cheap wooden briquettes for the strove(s).

Wednesday is horse riding day for my daughters, and I was driving them as usual.

Thursday: Managed to get the rest of the Minas Tirith warriors, plus 2 standard bearers primed - and thus ready for some paint, AND sorting a large number of  2nd hand LotR minis, before having to go to work from 15:00 to 22:30.

Tomorrow, I'll be off at 13:00, so, hopefully, I'll be able to start painting the black-clad Defenders of the West.

Saturday I'm planning to try getting a stove moved up into the garage attic, and Sunday I'll have to pick up a large bunch of firewood I can get very cheaply.

With a little luck, I'll have the unit of Minas Tirith warriors done by the end of the weekend, leaving me time to attend to a unit of Fiefdom Warriors, made from some alreafdy painted Warriors of Númenor I got as part of the large lot of LotR minis I recently purchased 2nd hand, that need some paintwork to look nice.

I've decided to NOT count the 2nd hand minis in my status; I already own a shedload of LotR minis, that have been sitting idle in large cardboard boxes, and the recent purchase is going to kick-off the process of geting some of those painted as well. Besides that, some of the minis are painted, and I can't decide which ones I shall use as is, and which ones need some work.

All in all, I expect a lot of those to get ready for the table quite fast - for my standards - and I really don't want to demoralize myself by totally wrecking my score (for those interested, I think I've got somewhere in the vicinity of 700 minis, counting a Mûmak, and several Trolls).