On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
I took a break from painting Warmachine after I did my War of the ring retrospective. I remembered I still had a fair bit to do to finish off battles of the third age.
First up, let me say that I think Battles of the Third Age is a truly mediocre expansion that doesn't do a lot for me.
Why you ask? Because I only use 10% of the expansion and the other 90% sits on a shelf being neglected. I tried the scenario games and I really don't enjoy them. Not gonna comment much more on them asides to say I would have preferred to have paid half price for the expansion and only got the stuff used in the core game.
That being said, the stuff you do get for the main game is all pretty cool. Siege engines, trebuchet, Dunlendings, Corsairs, Ents, the Witch King on a Wyvern, Galadriel and the goddam BALROG.
Its 5/10 as a full expansion, 9/10 if I could have just got the stuff for the main game.
Ok, I normally paint these models in a very short amount of time, but I spend a bit of effort on the Balrog. He's a suitable epic character to spend time on and painting red is easy and fun. This was a fair few stages of highlighting up from black to yellow as i really wanted to capture the "Fire and Shadow" look. I think he looks pretty cool and look forward to bringing him out next time we play. Something about a colossal fire breathing monster rampaging over the shire and eating hobbits fills me with glee.
Next up is Galadriel, the model the good guys get to balance out the Balrog. She doesn't leave lothlorien but can do an awful lot to help the free peoples with her magic, shes very good when you are focussed on getting the ring to Mordor. I painted her blue and white to make her nice a crisp, also gave her flowing blond hair. the pool in front has the eye of Sauron in it as well for a bonus.
Finally, the hunting Witch King on a Wyvern. This is a variant Witch King and you can only have one, this guy focusses in on the hunt for the one ring and makes getting that thing to Mordor a right pain. It doesn't show up too well in this pic but the Myvern is a deep scaly green colour, the beak was done in bone to give the model a nice contrast and make it more threatening. Just point the beak at the fellowship and your opponent will get the idea.
Ents are awesome. The last march of the Ents was my favourite scene in the books and the films. Something about angry trees smashing stuff up makes me smile. Simple paint jobs on these guys, deep brown and brown ink with a touch of green. Treebeard gets the special character base and a grey beard.
The new rules for Ents are far better than the abstractions in the core game. Still menacing and a real threat to Isengard. It's just more visceral when you actually place Ent markers on the board.
Next up, Siege engines. I had taken some photos of the Trebuchets as well but they seem to have gotten corrupted and .... well.... they are very simple models. Brown and tin/bronze are the main colour employed here. Very simple jobs, but anything more than this is a waste for a model that's essentially a giant blob.
I like Siege engines and Trebuchets as they add an extra dynamic to sieges, which are a major factor in this game.
The Dunlendings join the Isengard faction and are cheap fodder infantry. They seem quite useful but I'm still not 100% sure why I would take them over regular troops. Something I'm missing I guess. These guys suffer from bendy plastic syndrome and the pitchforks are all over the place.
To break up the tedium I did 3 different colour outfits and 4 different colour beards. No two Dunlendings have the same outfit and beard colours. Fiddling and annoying to paint.
Next up are the Corsair Ships joining the Harradrim and Easterlings faction (aka everyone bad asides from Sauron and Saruman). I've played a few games with the expansion and so far these guys haven't made a big impression. It's a pity as I like the Corsairs as a concept.
Very simple paint job, bone on the sale and some flesh ink in the recesses. The bases are the result of picking up a water effects bottle for half price at a "going out of business sale". I think its a nice effect and was pretty painless to do. Just get water effects from your local store (GW stocks some) pour on the base.... and leave to dry.
Finally I'll look at some custom work I did. My strider model has a chunk out of the back of his head, I also had some damaged components in my core game (The tokens to select which member of the fellowship dies) I sent of to FFG to ask for a new Strider, some new components and ..... and extra north elite.
I made a crown to cover the head hole and BAMM! Aragorn the King figure. I also took the north elite and sculpted a beard on to him and BAMM! Gandalf the white.
This will be so much better than the cruddy little tokens you get in game when these two upgrade.
Anyways, that's all for War of the Ring (And I mean all, i'm not painting up the rest of the models in 3rd age)
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
Well, I started off showing you the bad guys armies, so it makes logical sense for me to show you the good guys next..... well duh?
Anyway, 5 factions, and the fellowship make up the free peoples faction for War of the Ring. A curious thing about the game is how you don't have to play "by the book"
What I mean by this is that you don't have to start in Rohan by attacking with Isengard and then follow up with Mordor attacking Gondor. The key battles in War of the Ring can happen all over the board, and whil it is logical to go for Gondor with all of Saurons might. Sometimes its better to head north to smash the dwarfs, or sack Rivendell.
The different strategies that can work are what makes this game a great one for me. My fondest victory ever came when I by passed Gondor and Marched an Easterling army through Rohan and into the Shire.
So armies!
Lets start with the biggest and baddest faction of good guys, Gondor. The models are mediocre sculpts again and the spears suffer from being low quality soft plastic.... so they get a bit of the droopskis. I used the movies colour scheme as a base for these guys and really like the simple black/white/steel look.
Rohan was also based on the movies look and feel. I think these guys turned out alright. The infantry sculpts have better detail than Gondor and the colour palette was nice and simple. The blond beards help these guys stand out nicely on the table, as do the white horses on the shields.
Tra-la-la its the Elves.I tried making these guys stand out from the Rohan units despite both having a predominately green and white palette. The elven infantry sculpts are pretty awful and suffer from "the leans" as you can see from the soldier on the left. Still, I thought the white charger look for the commanders was a nice touch, makes them look all regal and stuff.
THE NORTH! You remember these guys from the films right? right? Well, you do see some of them in a pub in Bree getting murdered by nazgul.... and Strider is technically a ranger from the north. The North represents the other human nations asides from Gondor and Rohan. So that's the Beorlings, men of Arnor, Carrock, the Dale etc.
More droopskis here but I do like the infantry sculpts. Beardy men with bows does capture the essence of the north, as does rangers on horseback.
I do lament that the Dwarves are a comparatively minor race in the game. It's their location one half of the Dwarven forces are in the far left of the map where they can't really get stuck in very easily. They also have less troops and fewer recruiting cards. That being said the Dwarves near the lonely mountain in the east have saved the day for the free peoples numerous times when I have played.
As far as the models go, I love these guys. Very stocky and I really like the leaders and Elites.
Sorry, not the best photo. On to the fellowship! Legolas - Painted elven styles! Aragorn.... well the model is kinda meh, so I painted him up like a ranger. Boromir is a far nicer figure and I used the red palette inspired by the films.
Gandalf however is great. A nice cloak with some good detail, I actually bothered to highlight this guy and it shows!
I think Gimli is pretty cool, but would liked to have seen him standing on a rock like the Dwarf leadership. Merry and Pippin I painted using the Gondor and Rohan schemes.... they look quite good considering how tiny they are. Sam and Frodo look very cool and the gold trim helps you locate the fellowship easily on the table.
And for bonus points I got a limited edition Gollum figure thanks to a friend of mine. Doctor Doctorman, you know who you are.
Well that's almost it.... for now. I have battles of the third ages (even though its a terrible cost seeing I dont like the minigames). At some point I will finish off the bonus materials (Balrog! etc) from that box and post them up here.
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
War of the Ring is about as good as a board game gets. It's deep, asymmetric, plays differently nearly every time, does not have "one tactic to rule them all" and is dripping in theme.
I really cannot say enough positives about War of the Ring.
It's so awesome that Fantasy Flight games put out a hyper expensive limited edition painted version. For roughly A BILLION ZILLION dollars to buy new. Sad thing is, the paint jobs were quite garish and a bit poo in all honesty. Thankfully I had saved all that money by buying an unpainted set and painting it myself (until someone points out that 100 hours painting if I had paid myself $4 an hour I would have lost money)
*SIGH*
I PAINT BECAUSE I LIKE TO!
Ahem! Anyways. I painted my War of the Ring to a "Looks good on the table" standard. The models are pretty poor quality in all honesty. The plastic is soft and droopy and the detail is not so good. Not to mention the Nazgul who overbalance very easily. But a painted set looks 1000 times better than an unpainted set, it also makes it a lot easier to play as you can tell which guy is Rohan and which is Gondor.
Saurons units are the Nazgul for leaders (Only evil faction with leader units), Orcs for regular troops and Olog-Hai for Elite troops.
This is a pretty mediocre photo, but you can see i went for a dead flesh look for the Orcs and Nazgul and a very deep scaly green/black mix for the Olog Hai.
Isengard (That's the forces of Saruman) have Uruk-Hai for regular troops and Warg riders for elites.
The Uruk-Hai are the worst models in the game. Big silly mouths and a weird pose, its hard to make them look even passable. the Wargs on the other hand are great, a nice dynamic pose and some simple brown with brown ink on the Wargs and the look quite good.
I'm not gonna lie, the Haradrim are by far my favorite models in the game. The Infantry units are a nice simple sculpt with enough detail to work with and the Elephants (or Olliphants ain't it?) are a great unit on the table. Extremely characterful and decidedly chunky compared to everyone else in the game.
Finally, we come to the Character models for the bad guys team.
On the left we have Saruman the white wizard.... who i believe was the first model I white spray painted to undercoat in 10 years. I hate painting white, especially guys in white robes with white beards. I think he turned out ok, just enough grey to darken the shadows and give some definition.
The dude in the middle is the Witch King of Angmar and is a totally badass model by the games standards. I painting him, and the Mouth of Sauron (Phwoarr... dirty) in much the same style, dark, metallic, menacing.
I think the key to painting boardgames is to know the limits of the models. They tend to be far worse quality than your GW/PP wargaming models.... so don' paint them the same way. Just get them to a nice respectable level, dont spend hours on them.
Spray, base coat, ink, simple highlight, detail, base colour ring to show faction.... THAT'S IT
After that you have ever diminishing returns on your time.
I'll continue this series with part two, the good guys from the core game...... at some point I really should paint the expansion.
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
The Tomb of Ice is the last expansion with models for Descent (At least until Descent 2.... the REVENGE comes out)
Tomb did a good job of handing some power back to the players. After Altar and Well, the players were getting hammered by evil curses, tough missions, a good variety of beasts and treachery. In order to claw some of that back Tomb of Ice introduced feats for players, and they are a real help.
The Monsters are a real mixed bag, but the big problem is they just don't hit the table enough. We are playing a road to legend campaign, and these guys rarely see the light of day, which is a pity.
First up is the Shades. A simple paint job as they are all black ghostly things. A little dark gray dry brushing and they were mostly done. Probably the best monster in the expansion, they are fast, hard to hit and have piercing magical attacks. Shades are also a classic fantasy monster and a welcome addition to any army of the undead.
The lava beetles were fun to paint, I did a very quick colour highlight from dark red to yellow and it worked out all right. The faces were done with a leather base coat followed up with bleached bone.
In game, these guys are a bit annoying. So very very slow and blast is great on certain levels, but mostly they haven't been too effective.
The Medusas are pretty cool models and the first time I pulled one out and placed it on the board I got a solid "What the F is that" from my players.
Painting was real simple, base coat dark green, dark green ink, and then a light green drybrush.
The medusa stun in combat, and the master has quick shot. With a rage card you could conceivably stun the whole hero party with one model, I must try that.
On to the Wendigo. Honestly, i'm yet to use these guys in anger which is a bit of a waste as they are both amusing and scary at the same time. Scary if you contemplate them chewing on your legs, funny if you imagine them singing back up for a mo-town act.
Easiest paint job in the land. Spray white, use dark ink, then paint the mouth.Ok, the mouth was a little tricky.
Finally, the Ice Wyrm. It annoys me they haven't hit the table for one very good reason. THE STOMACH TILE! Yes, Fantasy flight games added in a separate location tile for people who get swallowed alive by these things.... how over the top is that? Anyways, this paint job probably looks a lot more complicated than it was. The blue and blue gray scales are just base coats of enchanted blue and space wolf gray washed with blue ink. Nothing more than that.
The moral of the story is this. You don't need to paint like a games workshop studio member to have models that look ok and are fun to play with. Just use the following steps
1.) Spray black 2.) Paint big areas with slightly watered down acrylic paint the colour you want them. 3.) Use an ink to fill in the shadows on the model. 4.) Use drybrushing to create some highlights.
These are very easy techniques and don't require you to be artistically gifted (Cause I am not... I can barely draw a stick figure). But I know how to cheat at painting.
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
First off, I must say that the Altar of Despair has some excellent new rules for the game. More treachery, crushing walls and Invulnerability potions are my favorites. but i'm here to talk about the monsters, and you get a good range here, far better than well of darkness.
Blood Apes
First up are the blood apes. I took a simple approach with theses guys, perhaps too simple as I think the red looks a bit mediocre. I'm also not a fan of the narrow oval bases.
In game these guys are devastating. Very tough for how many you can bring in with a spawn card and the leap ability can cause players massive headaches if they a not ready. They also hit very hard and are solid melee monsters. The masters are signified by having a darker and bigger red stripe on their backs.
Dark Priests!
Now we are cooking with gas (or unholy power). I can't help but do a Darth Sidious impression when I attack with these guys. Something about rolling all those power dice makes me want to scream "UNLIMITED POWER!"
A nice simple base coat and ink wash effect with these guys works wonders. red robes = Bad ass powers!
Deep Elves
Not dark elves.... nope. Deep elves... must be into transcendental meditation or something.
These guys rock and my players hate them. Something about the master having more piercing damage than any character has armour just makes them shudder.... that and you cant stand back and shoot them from range. A great unit for game supported griefing of players. Master is wearing a red robe of course.
Chaos Beasts
These guys are tough, and a little odd to use. Its a case of pick whatever dice you want to use at any given time.... although invariable this leads to using the green heavy damage dice.
The models are rather nasty to look at and I painted them in flesh tones. Flesh colour just adds to the "WHAT AM I LOOKING AT" factor. The master is designated by its little pink primary tentacles. Subtle, but you very rarely have more than one on the table.
Trolls
I love classic monsters, and trolls are a quintessential bad guy in dungeon crawlers. I'm slightly surprised they don't regenerate,which would have been nice. They do, however, hit as hard as anything in the game. I've had one kill a character even though he took an invulnerability potion (something like 17 damage on one roll.... obscene!)
Paint job was simple, these guys respond really well to inks and dry brushing. Master has a red hair do!
Right, only one more post to go for Descent and I'm done!
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
Well of darkness was a pretty cool expansion in a lot of ways. 6 pretty good heroes, treachery for the overlord, loads of new traps like rolling boulders and dart fields, and many little extras.
The only let down, compared to the other expansions was with the selection of new monsters. Kobolds, while amusing, aren't really very effective. The best they can do is act as a delaying tactic, but one heroes with breath or blast can clear them out very quickly.
The ferrox's are an effective creature, a good middle sized hard hitter. I suppose the issue with them is they don't have any real resonance. They don't invoke an classic feelings of D&D dungeon crawling, in the same way Ogres and Trolls do.
Finally, the best monster of the set, and one of my favorites in the whole game is the Golem. Hard as nails, and a classic dungeon monster, these things give players fits as the usual tactics don't work very well against them. They need to be taken down slowly, with lots of hard hits, but sniping them will rarely work as they are immune to pierce. they were also super fun to paint, undercoat, codex grey, black wash and then some detail work. All done in a very short amount of time.
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
Well, this is the last post in the Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition series.
It's been emotional...
The chinese troops colours as as follows
CT Scorpion green (national Colour) VJ Yellow green 881 (uniform jacket) VJ Khaki Grey 880 (uniform pants)
The fighter doesn't come with the game. I actually got two fighters from a guy in the US on the condition I paint and base one for his game. Fair trade I thought.
The last thing is the AA Guns, which I simply mounted on painted washers I got from the hardware store.
Probably the most straight forward conversion in the history of modeling that one.
So that's it. Next week I'll continue my look at painting Descent
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
I would have said America! F*** Yeah, but kids might be reading this!
The USA is the last nation to get profiled in this series, but they are probably the one that has the highest production values from me.
I had pretty much sorted the process by this point so the USA units have advantages that the earlier nations missed out on.
The Tanks have little flags on the turrets, the aircraft have actual transfers for logos on the wings, and the carriers not only have flags, they are numbered after actual US carriers that fought in the war.
I personally love how the US bombers turned out, such a simple paint job but it really gets across the Superfortress Scheme, which is incredibly iconic. I also like how it contrasts with the hellcat fighters.
Colours used
CT Knarloc Green (national Colour and ship sides) CT Chainmail (bombers) CT regal blue (flag and fighters) Ct blood red (flag) VJ Brown Violet 887 (tanks and helmets) VJ US Dark green 893 (us Infantry) VJ Flat eath 983 (ship decks)
Oh and for those who were wondering the carriers are Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown, Enterprise, Wasp and Hornet
This is not the last post in this series as I have to look at China and the other bits and pieces that made up my spangly Axis and Allies set.
I wonder how much a painted set of this would go for online?
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
Right, continuing our look at Axis and Allies anniversay edition we come to the Italians.
I may not be 100% right here, but I believe this was the first time the Italians were included as a separate playable faction in a global scale Axis and Allies game. Previously, the Italian forces were part of the Germans.
I went for a desert camo scheme, but one that looked different and distinct from the UK 8th army scheme. On the table they are very clearly different units than the British, so I consider that a success.
The colours used were
Ct Scorched Brown (National Colour, ship sides, decks and aircraft camo) VJ Desert yellow 977 (Aircraft and helmets) VJ Green Ochre 914 (Infantry uniform) VJ Iraqi sand 819 (Tanks)
Including Italy does change the game slightly.It allows the Axis to do two stage attacks against an Allied power, one force taking an area that the 2nd can run tanks through. But it also introduces the need for two tech tress. German heavy Bombers won't make Italian Bombers any better.
I really like how the Italian Air Force turned out, probably my favorite units in the whole box. Painting the insignia on the wings was also one of my first real attempts at freehand painting.
Next we will deal with the United States and its shiny shiny bombers!
On that blog I talk about gaming, modeling and painting. I am only reposting the board game specific stuff on here and nothing to do with Warhammer 40k or Warmachine. if you want to check out that stuff, just go to the blog.
RULE BRITANNIA
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES!...... and so forth
First of all, this faction is not Britain, its not the United Kingdom, its the entire British Empire and Commonwealth of nations.
I say this as a New Zealander, on behalf of all the nations around the world that fought under the banner of the British Empire. This is also why I played around with the skin tones on the British infantry pieces. I also picked the 8th army desert colours for the infantry and tanks. This was mainly to make the faction distinct on the board.
The British fleet flags are really easy to do. All you need is the wire and drill you use to base planes , some white paper and pva glue. Just cut out some paper, glue one side and bend it around the wire. Leave it to dry and then paint one side at a time. Once painted just drill a small hole in the ship and glue the flag in place with superglue.
Not the best pic of the RAF here, but I used the classic colours on the Spitfires and Lancaster's.
VJ Dark Sand 819 (National colour, ship sides and infantry uniform) VJ Iraqi sand 847 (tanks and helmets) VJ London grey 836 (tank camo) VJ Flat eath 983 (ship decks) Ct Scorched brown (aircraft) VJ german dark green (aircraft camo) CT regal blue (flag) Ct blood red (flag)
