LOTR Berserker hoard.

A few weeks back i managed to get my hands on a great deal off Trade me (New Zealand's version of e-bay). 15 of the old out of production metal Berserker miniatures for NZ$60.
Over the last week I've worked my way through them all and now have a finished sizable force of 31 Berserkers. 
Here’s a few step by step pictures i took along the way with a few basic notes about the colours i used.
After the obvious black undercoat Stage 1 started with a base coat of VP984 Flat brown for the skin.  For stage 2 Vp864 Natural Steel was used for all the areas of metal and VP983 Flat earth was used for all the leather areas.

Stage 3 was a coating of Black Ink over all the models. Stage 4 was a 50/50 mix of VP 984 Flat Brown and VP 982 Cavalry Brown for the skin.

Stage 5 was Highlighting the leather areas with VP983 Flat Earth. Stage 6 was a watery mix of VP 200 Brown Shade and VP 982 Cavalry Brown. This was run down the chest and back of each model. (representing the fresh blood the berserkers place in their helmets before placing them on their heads. – gross but a cool piece of fluff from the the Two Towers film.) Stage 7 was painting the bases with GW’s old Bestial Brown.

Stage 8 was a dry brush of VP876 Brown sand over the bases.  Stage 9 was random application of Green static grass.

Stage 10 was small clumps of GF9 Meadow Blend.  At this point i then Airbrushed on a good coating of flat varnish.  The very last step was using a thin coating of gloss varnish to go back over the blood areas to make them stand out.

All up about 8-10 hours work which for 15 28mm models isn’t bad going (especially since stages 3 onwards were all done yesterday!!)
Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and they should be awesome on the table .
Here's a final pic of all 31 of my berserkers together being lead by a Uruk Shaman.  (you may notice some of the skin looks different (these are the older models.) I think the slight variation in the skin tones makes them look better as a group overall.
Keen to know what you guys think of my efforts.

Weekend painting

This weekend for the first time in a long while the lads weren't available for gaming – Rob, Will and lee are off at a Air show which i could afford to go to this time.  So with it being a long weekend i decided id use the time for some hobby stuff and starting painting a couple more LOTR units that I've owned since they first come out but still never managed to get around to painting them. 
The plastic knights of Minis Tirith are excellent figures – just really nice cav models.


The clansmen of Lamedon are just really nice figures, a whole force of them would look great on the table!  


These are by far not my best paint jobs but just at the moment I'm enjoying just finishing miniatures that have been sitting in my draws unassembled and unpainted and getting them out on the table. hopefully in a few weeks time i can convince the lads to play a few games of LOTR with me.
Once again sorry about the crappy photos.  If you want to see better photos let me know and ill see what i can do.

Cheers till next time.

Mark

2014 New Years Resolutions.

I know I'm a little late with this but I've been pretty busy lately. Firstly 2013 in review…
2013 was a year of many ups and downs for me.
From a gaming and painting point of view i achieved quite a lot. I finished 2 full 800 point fog Armies, a 1750 point flames of war army and many other small side projects.
From a work perspective i had a massive upheaval by leaving a 20 year long career in the gaming industry and  starting a new career in insurance.  I have to say although i was sad to be out of the gaming industry i am much happier now.  I find myself looking forward to gaming and painting more now than i have in years.
From a health perspective i decided early last year that i would set myself a goal of getting back into shape before i hit 40.  well 8 months on and and 3 months before my 39th Birthday i can happily say I'm fitter and stronger than i have been in years. With 15 months to go I'm confident that i can reach my goal.
Now for 2014!!
Painting wise I've already started off well. I’ve been working on LOTR miniatures and have finished an Oliphant and a pile of Uruk hi berserkers, siege troops and scouts.
Exercise wise I'm not sure exactly what i want to achieve. just keep getting fitter and stronger i guess. i do need to add in more cardio work so i guess that will be where i start.
Anyways here’s a few pic’s of stuff I've done over the last 30 days.

Sorry about the crap photos. i need to set my camera up and take some decent shots of these but they give you an idea of what I've been working on (or at least what I've finished so far.)
On top of the painting i have also played some games. 3 games of Fog won 2 and lost one. A game of lord of the Rings which was a close run thing as well as a couple of games of Malifaux and Legends of the old west.
Hopefully i can update this Blog a bit more often now.
Cheers till next time – Mark

More Lord of the rings fun

This morning Rob came over and we played a game of Lord of the rings. Points wernt considered, we just set up a nice looking board and came up with two forces. Rob took control of my Isenguard force contining ome berserkers, some normal uruks and a couple of trolls with a uruk Shaman and a uruk Hero.

I used a small contingent of Rohan riders Lead by Eomer, another small contingent of ferlong the fat and some axeman and then my min force was Faramir with a Captain and a fair sized force of warriors.

In the end i managed to break the Isenguard force but only after Faramir fell to one of the trolls.

Here is some pics of some of the action:

No battle plan survives first contact

well my plan was good get something finished every day of the school holidays. seamed simple enough. Unfortunatly things havent worked out as i wanted them to so far. The girls decided that they wnted me to watch DVD's and play Lord of the rings with them. below is a few pics from one of our games. Uruk-Hai crushing their way over top of some poor men of Minis tirith desperatly trying to hold a bridge and old garrison tower. As you can probally tell from the photos it went badly for the Humans.