Fell Beast Complete!

Well with the hardest part over, there was only probably two hours of work left to finish painting the Fell Beast and here we go...

Firstly you can see I've traced the veins on the wings in Regal Blue. I've also done some brown on the reins, bleached bone on the claws and metal on the metal bits. 

I was pretty worried about the brightness of the blue veins, but I had two things going for me... 1) the lighting in the photo makes it super bright... 2) I was about to wash them in black!

Here you can see the metal on the head and sword a bit better, I've also washed the claws with sepia.

And now the wings are washed more. I traced the veins in black wash, then added another heavy layer of wash around the struts (or whatever they are called). Also washed the metal layers and highlighted the edges.

From above you can see the effect (washed out by my lamp, but imagine it darker and less glary!)

Here it is near my ceiling light. Still a little shiny due to light proximity, but I think the colours are more "natural" to what it actually looks like here.

And here we are, some glue, some holding, some blu-tac and some time later...

And a closer view, sorry about the glare from that lamp, I'll take it over to my brother's house sometime and get a shot with his better lighting on the proper board...

Another angle...

And closer up, from this direction, the glare isn't on the head so much so you can see it a bit better.

And from the top...

And closer...

 Here's a lower angle...

Other side... I really like how dark it stays under the Nazgul's hooded cloak. 

And for perspective, here's a whole host of different minis...

I've spent so much time on the larger ones that the little ones really seem tiny now... almost... miniature!

So there you go, now I'm waiting on my foot Nazgul to be posted (Christmas/New Years not so quick for postage!)

A BIG thanks again to Oz Hammer (http://ozhammer.webs.com/) for providing the prize and here's hoping they think I've done it good justice in the paint job!

Now I've just got 35 Haradrim to paint!

And now that I've seen The Hobbit (and LOVED it) I'm sure I'll get suckered in to buying some of those new dwarves... or maybe eagles... or the wargs... droooooool!

Fell Beast First Wash

Sorry for the dismal pictures. We just don't have great lighting. My desk lamp is great for being able to see what I'm doing, but washes out the photos something shocking!

I finished the highlighting with some bleached bone on the wings...

Here is the top view:

And another angle.

Oh, and the base has had a few more layers done...

This is after a single black wash...

I held it up near my ceiling light to try and get a more natural colour, though probably too close to the bulb really so it's not quite that bright and shiny for real.

Back to the desk lamp for the other angle...

I still want to do one more all over black wash. Then I'll do the veins on the wings and other details like the reins, sword, claws etc. After that another few targeted washes should finish it off!

Fell Beast Highlights

**Thanks for the poll answering, still plenty of time to add your votes.**

I spent some time doing some highlighting, nice and quick and messy stuff.

Here's some grey...

And the base...

Starting the lava process, as you know from previous projects it takes many layers to finally come out looking okay.

This is after three types of grey, Fortress Grey the final highlight. I decided that I didn't like it. Too much the same as my board. I had similar difficulty with the Mumak as you'll recall, but this doesn't even have a decent lot of colours like a howdah etc.

So now I've drybrushed some pale brownish colour on the bottom of it.

And a dark camo green on the scales.

I don't like how it looks at the moment, but the idea is that after the black washes go on it the colours will essentially disappear, but not quite be just the grey colours. A vague hint of green and a slightly lighter underbelly will hopefully remain, but still be really dark and black.

Anyway, that's where I'm up to so far!

Black Fell Beast

**Another annoying reminder to answer the poll question about photos. So far it looks like the majority click for bigger pics.**

Well, as I mentioned, nothing exciting, just some greenstuff and spray paint. I still can't seem to get seams covered properly with greenstuff. I'm sure it's just a matter of doing something, I tried multiple layers of liquid greenstuff but I can still see where the seams are. Then again, maybe I'm just oversensitive or something.

In any case, I thought I'd put one of my eagles in for size comparisons. The eagle is more compact, the wings on the Fell Beast are really huge, very impressive!

This is roughly the pose I'll be going for, flying but head angled down towards the ground (where most of the victims will be!)

The wings sure do look huge from a top view!

I'll be doing a lava base under the Nazgul, so used a bit of greenstuff and sand to cover up the shield and weapons that were originally there.

Anyway, that's the sum of it so far. Not sure what the best way will be to get it balanced on the plastic thing. Haven't worked with anything like this before!

Really hesitant to paint it, not sure what I'm doing, but when am I ever hehe!?

Fell Beast

**Please click an answer on the poll on the right - I need to evaluate how I resize my images!**

As I mentioned in the previous post, I won a competition sponsored by Oz Hammer (http://ozhammer.webs.com/) and my prize was a Fell Beast!

I'll be using this guy to lead my Harad army (which I haven't started yet apart from a couple of guys and a Mumak) or my Angmar monster army or allied with my goblins or for my brother to mount the Betrayer on. So many practical uses!

So anyway, then we had our overseas trip etc. and I've only just got to putting it together now. I won't be doing any major conversions, but I couldn't resist a little reposing because I'm just compulsive that way.

I sort of wanted my Fell Beast to be looking like it was attacking things below it. So I used the long straight neck, but the angled head.

A bit of greenstuff fixed the join...

I also wanted the claws to be coming more forward, as though it is getting ready to attack something rather than just flying along.

I cut away the pegs they sit on and rotated them forward, then filled the gaps with greenstuff.

I chose the wraith that is looking to the same side as the Fell Beast head and assembled the rest of the kit...

And here's the other side. Today I'll try and get some time to liquid greenstuff the remaining gaps.

It's a really clever kit, the joins are nice, most of the seams are in places that get covered by other things. I really liked the different options to choose too. I'm a bit daunted by the painting, it's a big model! I think it'll be a bit of grey, some more grey then a black wash. I think I need to buy more wash =)

I was tempted to paint it with colours, but in the end I really like the general black, darkness of the wraiths. Given that my armies are usually quite colourful it might be nice to have just a blackness hovering overhead.

Probably shouldn't have written that, if I change my mind I'll feel like an idiot later =)

I am teh win!

I don't usually enter competitions because I'm not the greatest painter in the world. Last month, though, there were two competitions that I thought I'd have a go at. 

The competitions were over at The Last Alliance website.

The first was a converting competition, I entered my mounted Radagast and won!

http://www.thelastalliance.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5735

But that wasn't as exciting as the next one - I entered my Hasharin into another competition sponsered by Oz Hammer (http://ozhammer.webs.com/). These guys are fantastic for us "Down Southers" as they send miniatures from the UK to us, saving us a TON of money since GW gouges the heck out of prices in Australia. 

They sponsored a painting comp for people in Australia and New Zealand here: (http://www.thelastalliance.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5555)

Of course, the restricted entries meant I had a chance and won with the Hasharin!

They let me choose a prize that would suit my armies/what I wanted and I chose a Wraith on wings! So shortly thereafter the postman delivered me a Fell Beast kit!

I'll post updates in the next post as I've started putting it together now.

Aragorn

This year for our family Christmas we decided to eschew the commercialism to some degree. We've all got plenty of stuff already and are trying to be a little more conscious of the greater world. Of course, it's still important to celebrate from time to time! The kids will still get presents, but the adults are doing something a little different. We went with a Kris Kringle, but with rules. You can make something yourself or get something second hand/antique/pre-loved. There should also be reused or recycled and minimal packaging/wrapping.

We drew out of a hat and I got my sister-in-law. Fortunately for me she's a Lord of the Rings fan (of the movies in particular). Very subtly I found out that Aragorn is her favourite character. So I trolled eBay until I found a cheap used metal Aragorn and pounced!

Here is the result of my work...

The original was part painted, so I gave it a clean up and a re-spray.

Here he is unbased:

I tried to keep earthy type colours, the green isn't quite so vibrant under normal light. 

And based, I know, shock of all shocks it's not my underground style.

And the back...

So there you go, almost a pity to be giving it away =) I hope she likes it! More than that, I hope she at least recognises who it is!

Good Monsters vs Haradrim - Domination

Well, after smashing my way through numerous humans, my monsters were tasked with holding several key sites while being assaulted by more of the dark clad evil men. Five objectives to hold. I have six figures. This could be interesting!

We're playing with the recently made old rules, I guess we'll get The Hobbit rules when they're not stupidly expensive (or we'll just buy them from overseas or eBay).

Check the last report for the forces we used for this game, in summary my good monster army versus a triple hasharin haradrim force.

So, fortunately, although I have only a few figures, they are TOUGH. Just a recap for some of the questions I've had:

I know eagles don't get a charge bonus, we've never played them that way. They may only have two attacks, but they have extremely high defense, fight values and three wounds each! They can fly, which means it's easy to block Radagast from attack or to attack just a couple of humans after they have moved and they can evacuate pretty easily too! I don't list each and every battle result, so if the humans win, but fail to wound I often won't mention it. This may give the impression that the eagles are doing a lot better than they actually are! When they roll a 6, though (which is pretty likely on two dice, about 30%) they win due to their high fight scores even if they're surrounded by a bazillion guys. 

Radagast is very hard to attack because he doesn't need to have line of sight to his target in order to cast a spell due to his special ability (his scouting birds). I forgot this a few times (and you'll see him get wounded as a result!) Since you can't assault someone you can't see at the beginning of your turn he spends his time hiding from view and casting heal =) Since he's on stag-back he can also stay just out of charge range of foot soldiers if he wants to come out into the open.

My whole army has terror (after Radagast casts his opening spell) and I don't list all of the failed courage tests, so this also inflates my winning power as I'm rarely attacked by as many humans as you might think.

Any other queries, please feel free to ask!

Here's the initial board setup. It's pretty quick to deploy three warbands with only six models in total =)

We actually played this game a couple weeks ago, but I've been overseas, so I'm only writing it now, hopefully my written notes will be enough to bring it all back, but it's likely to be more pictures than words I'm afraid!

The two ents started off at a treasure chest objective, who knows how useful the gold and items will be to the war effort?

Radagast deployed behind cover and within easy spell range of the others. The three eagles deployed near some supply crates.

The Harad horde were well spread across the table, with the tomb, battle ruins and well covered. He had the numbers, but since the game doesn't end until one team is down to 25% of its initial numbers those numbers won't hold right to the end.

Turn 1 - Priority Good.

Sky-wolf swiftly soars to engage the Haradrim near the ruins, assaulting the blue Hasharin, but neither side can gain the upper hand.

Radagast casts terrifying aura on himself successfully so that my entire army causes terror =) The Betrayer casts black dart at Leaf-fall (Treebeard) who fails to resist it, fortunately no wound is taken!
Barukshathur (Gwaihir) and Leaf-fall both attack, but fail to wound.

Turn 2 - Priority Good.

Radagast repositions so that he's within easier healing range of his allies.

Barukshathur wings in and takes on two spearmen and a Watcher, he wins the combat and slays the Watcher. White-beak takes on two raiders and decapitates one with a slash of a talon. 

Leaf-fall takes on two raiders and pounds them both into the ground.

The Betrayer casts transfix on Shy-bark, who is mobbed by two Watchers and two Hasharin! He takes two wounds - sap gushing from numerous cuts and slashes!

Sky-wolf is beset upon by six spearmen and a Hasharin! Yikes, fortunately his swift flying helps him evade any serious damage. I completely underestimated the walking distance and courage taking abilities of this mob of guys! Can't believe I didn't take any wounds!

Turn 3 - Priority Good (again).

Sky-wolf, the headstrong, young, giant eagle, assaults the Haradrim again and AGAIN they are amazingly courageous. Up against six spearmen and a Hasharin this time he is victorious and a spearman is eviscerated. 

White-beak is trapped versus 2 watchers, a banner bearer and The Betrayer! I attacked the banner bearer but wasn't expecting to be so swarmed in return! The giant eagle loses the fight, but evades all the blows! Until The Betrayer works his evil ways and strikes again! This time the venomous blades bite deep and the eagle takes two wounds! 

Barukshathur takes on two raiders, buffets them back with mighty swings of his wings, but fails to wound either of the nimble horsemen.

Reeling from the previous assault, Shy-bark is healed by Radagast as he retreats back towards the objective. And the healing was just in time, a Watcher of Karna assaults the ent and wounds him! (This would have killed him except for the heal!)

Leaf-fall takes on a Hasharin and two Watchers of Karna to aid his willow friend. He uses a point of might to kill a Watcher (I rolled soooooo badly, a 1 a 2 and a 3!)

Turn 4 - Priority Evil.

The Betrayer, capitalising on the previous turn casts evil magic and summons a hideous black dart that strikes into the sky and brings down White-beak!

Sky-wolf, hearing the echo of his fellow eagle's death cry, lunges forward in a killing frenzy, slaying two spearmen in a rage.

Barukshathur, the leader of the eagles in this part of the world is so distraught by his companion's death that he barely fends off the attacks of a Watcher of Karna.

Shy-bark is hard fought, surrounded by enemies, but he has true friends! Radagast heals the mighty ent. 

Treebeard calls a heroic combat, slays a Watcher of Karna, then stomps back to his willowy friend and attacks a Hasharin! He slams into the dark assassin, who would be dead instantly from the mighty blows were it not for his nimble agility and luck. Two wounds, both saved with fate!

Freed up and healed, Shy-bark backhands the Watcher of Karna who faces him - SMACK - straight into the lava pool nearby! The screams are short-lived.

Turn 5 - Priority Good (tied on 1s!).

Sky-wolf is again assaulted by evil men, four spearmen and the blue Hasharin, who continues pressing the attack. Overcome with grief for his compatriot, the brave eagle cannot bear up under the blades of the evil assassin, who uses a point of might to strike home and cause two wounds!

Leaf-fall charges in to assault the Betrayer. He wins the combat, but cannot land a telling blow against the wraith (rolling a 1 and two 2s!)

Radagast races across the lava (making his jump roll) to stop his attackers from hemming him in and heals Shy-bark. The mighty willow grabs and stomps at the Hasharin, who barely dodges one massive blow only to be caught by another, leaving him reeling and tipping right on the edge of the lava! (All his fate is gone now!)

Exposed to the sneaky bowmen, however, Radagast may have saved the ent but incoming arrows fly around him. 6s fly on the dice! Radagast is wounded three times and only his luck saves him (thank goodness for fate!)

Barukshathur, sensing the tide turning against the good, lunges forth at two more foes, bringing down a pair of Watchers of Karna in fountains of blood from claw and beak. 

Turn 6 - Priority Evil.

Sky-wolf, brave but possibly foolhardy, is brought low by the blade of the blue Hasharin, who leaps up onto a pillar, then acrobatically flips onto the mighty eagle as it flies low. From there a double slash down into the mighty neck ends the life of the noble bird.

The willow healed, Radagast turns his attention to the nearby Hasharin and attempts to immobilise him, the evil man is not so weak willed and with some might and will he fends off the wizard's powers. Behind him a charging horseman and an archer attack Barukshathur, who cannot avoid the rushing horseman and takes a wound.

It turns out that Shy-bark does not need the assistance! Stomping and smashing forward he knocks a Watcher of Karna flying into the lava and squishes a Hasharin beneath his massive feet. He then lumbers around, mighty arm flinging outward to break the arm of the Hasharin behind him (who failed three fate rolls!)

Both Leaf-fall and the Betrayer call heroic moves, the ent wins the roll-off! The ent lunges forward at the black horseman, but the dark fates are with him and he escapes uninjured (rolled a 1, 1 and 4, fate saved the wound).

Turn 7 - Priority Good.

Barukshathur immediately lunges forward at the insolent humans that wounded him last turn and slays both of them!

Radagast heals the mighty eagle before riding back to the safer hilly region. Other horsemen try to charge him, but their horses are too scared to go up against the horns of the stag Radagast rides.

The Betrayer, hissing venomously, lunges at Leaf-fall, but his evil blade cannot penetrate the thick bark. 

Shy-bark faces off against the Hasharin, but neither can land a blow that causes any damage.

Turn 8 - Priority Good.

So excited by how close the game was I forgot to take photos! Radagast immobilised the Betrayer, who is then smashed by Leaf-fall. The Betrayer was down to his last will anyway! Barukshathur kills a raider, there is no damage done in a fight between Shy-bark and three archers plus a Hasharin. Meanwhile the humans are spreading out from the lower corner to solidify their numbers. Remember, the game is won by controlling the five points!

Turn 9 - Priority Good.

Leaf-fall takes out the last banner bearer near the central objective.

Radagast immobilises the Hasharin facing the willowy ent... 

...who easily smashes the evil assassin as well as kicking a human archer into the lava pit.

Barukshathur soars up and over to the tomb, taking out one of the men guarding it. The force is almost broken. If the game ended now the evil men would win!

So at the end of Turn 9 the Haradrim are broken, but still hold the majority of the objectives! The game ends when a side is reduced to 25% so it's anybody's game!

Turn 10 - Priority Good.

Leaf-fall takes out the remaining men at the well...

Radagast immobilises an archer, then charges into battle, stag horns lowered for the charge. He bowls over two men and tramples them under hoof and smacks them hard with his staff.

Shy-bark whacks another two men into the lava pit, which has a distinctly unpleasant burnt flesh smell emanating from it now.

Barukshathur takes out another defender of the tomb area.

It's turn 11 - Priority goes to the good side. Note - I won 9 of the 11 priority rolls. Those of you who play with magic users and smaller armies will know that this is incredibly rare and incredibly useful, but probably also particularly unfair.

With his handy line-of-sight rules, Radagast immobilises then charges the last horseman, stopping him from being able to contest a domination position. This was the last of his will and might, but worth it!

Barukshathur takes out the last remaining human near his objective.

And that was it! Game over!

Tallying up the victory points made the Good side a clear winner, but on closer inspection it was actually really close. If Radagast hadn't killed that last raider we would have been tied on domination victory points!

A run through the various locations at the end of the game:

Good side owns the treasure chest.

Good side holds the tomb.

Good side holds the well (that spearman was *just* out of contention range).

Evil holds the supply crates.

And evil holds the remnants of a previous battle cache.

So there you go, if Radagast hadn't killed that last raider and if that spearman had been slightly closer to the objective it would have gone a different way!

Great game, so many really close moments that could have tipped the balance. I very nearly lost the willow ent on numerous occasions, it was only through Radagast's heals and Leaf-fall's heroic combats that I kept him alive. Radagast was down to one wound, so if he had died or the willow had died it would have been a complete walkover victory for evil. I really love Radagast's line of sight rules, so very, very useful for both attack and defence!

Looking forward to the new rules when my good side monster army will become even MORE powerful. Of course, so will my trolls, so my evil side monster army will need another workout too =)

And stay tuned for my next project which I'll try and post about later today or maybe tomorrow.