LOTR Moria Goblins

A few more Lord of the Rings figures today, this time a sprue of moria goblins, which I got a pile of a long time ago, and these are the first ones I've actually got around to painting.

One question I had with these was how to base them, I nearly decided to base them all rocky and cave-like, but in the end all the models they are going to fight have grassy bases so these do too.

I've given in and ordered the Hobbit - escape from goblin town, and am actually really quite excited about it, expect to see lots more from middle earth in the near future.

White Dwarf 396 & Wargames Illustrated 302

This months white dwarf is of course focused on the new Hobbit releases, but thankfully they seemed to have learnt a bit and it doesn't overly dominate the magazine.  Again the first 50 or so pages are taken up with the new releases, I know it's important to showcase the new stuff but I'd really like to see the page count on this section come down.  This months battle report is Hobbit related and not a bad read, jeremy, jervis and john blanche all return, but I didn't find any of them that inspiring this month.  On the other hand parade ground (40K flyers), kit bash and the army of the month (an ogre army) were definatly inspiring.  Other than that 'the rivals' returns and the 'this month in' sections at the back were quite interesting.  A reasonable issuse overall.

As the picture above shows this months issuse also came with a very large double sided poster which is basically a giant advert for 40K, with just the standard minis we've all seem before layed out all together.  Very boring I'm afraid and mine went straight in the bin.

A couple of quick thoughts on the new Hobbit line whilst we're here, the models look great, I like pretty much all of them.  Also it's something I've wanted ever since I got into wargaming and first read the Hobbit (around the same time actually), and now they're finally here I'm very impressed, what I'm not impressed with is some of the prices.  The main boxed set looks to be OK (just), but some of the others are insanely priced (e.g. 3 plastic trolls for £50).  It's a shame I'd love an excuse to buy it all, but at these prices I can only see me getting the main boxed set, and possibly, maybe stretch to some of the plastic orcs in the future.  Also although it was predictable I'm very glad they kept it in the same game as the LOTR figures, I'm getting sucked back into middle-earth already.

The theme of this months wargames illustrated is the french and indian wars of the 18th century.  It's not a period I collect, but is one I'd like to do at some point in the future.  Theme articles were an overview, both of the history and the forces, a battle report and a look at how to make period terrain.  Flames of war is quiet this month with the only real article being about the US nationals, which features an awful lot of very nicely painted models.  Savage wars of peace returns with a look at our heroes followers and the first anglo-afghan war, I'm really enjoying this series and hope it keeps going for quite some time.  There is more 19th century action  with looks at the satsuma rebellion in Japan and the US army for the american-mexico war.  The other article of interest was an interview with Bryan Ansell, who of course has been involved with Games Workshop, Wargames Foundry and others for many years.  A good issuse all round. 

More LOTR, Theoden, Gamling & Bilbo Baggins

I enjoyed painted Balin so much the other day I've had another rumage through my mountain of unpainted figs and have dug out a few more, this time three heroes for the forces of good.  For a quick one afternoon paint these guys have come out remarkably well and I admit that I'm rather pleased with them.

On another (but related) note the first pictures of the new Hobbit range have appeared today, and they're looking rather spiffy.  I know it's going to be very hard for me too resist getting the main boxed set at least, but the final decision will be made at the weekend when the prices are annouced.

Angels of Death & Balin

It's been a horrible rainy day in Bedfordshire today which meant I couldn't get out and do what I was meant to be doing, on the plus side it's been a constructive day on the painting side as a consequence.

First off we have these 'Angels of Death' which will count as Vanguard veterans for my space marine army.  They are of course basically blood angel sanguinary guard, but In a different paint scheme.  I've been promising myself a unit of these ever since they came out, really fantastic models, especially the death masks, but all of it to be honest.  A real design triumph in my book and I'm not going to let something as silly as them being the wrong chapter of marines stop me adding them to my army.

Secondly we have this Balin model for Lord of the Rings.  I've been rereading the Hobbit over the last few days and it gave me the hankering to paint a few lord of the rings figs again.  I had a rumage around and came up with the Balin figure, which is appropriate as of course he appears more in the Hobbit anyway.  I'm really looking forward to the new movie now and hope GW come up with a good value boxed game for me too buy.

40K Alpha Legion Chaos Cultists

It's been a slow month, but here is my latest finished squad, the second bunch of cultists from the dark vengeance set.  Lovely models, and very useful gamewise.  The Hellbrute and chaos lord are now underway and will hopefully appearing soon.

My alpha legion army had its first outing last week as well, they took some imperial guard allies and gave my opponents chaos space marines quite a trounching, although the star of the game was the allied leman russ due to my opponents inability to spread out his troops!

Spartan Games 40mm Cyclops

I've finally painted something not for my alpha legion army!  Today we have this cyclops from Spartan Games which I got very cheap in the Wayland Games halloween sale.  He's actually in 40mm scale not the 28mm that the rest of my ancient greek stuff is in, but I've bought him like that on purpose as I always imagined the cyclops to be substantially bigger than a normal man.  Anyway it's a nice model which I'm pleased with overall, not to sure of the goat hooves instead of human feet though.

 

And finally here's a comparison shot a 28mm foundry Odyesseus.

 

 

White Dwarf 395 & Wargames Illustrated 301

A week late but here we go and after the excitement of last months new styles and giant isssues this month was never going to come off great in comparison, still it's not all bad......

White Dwarf comes with two inserts this month, this first is a gift guide and went straight in the bin, the second however is more useful and is a small booklet with the rules for the new warriors of chaos units.  I'm a big fan of WD introducing new units and having them as seperate booklets is great too as I can just slip it into the army book and not worry about carrying the WD about as well.

The main mag is a bit smaller than last month at 136 pages, the first 50 or so of which is the new realeases section! Just a tad excessive and disapointing.  The format is the same as last month and there are no suprise articles, jervis johnson, jeremy vetcock and john blanche all return, there are some nice gamers models in the form of an empire army and some 40K conversions and of course a battle report showing off the new chaos models.  The good 'this month in' section returns at the back of the mag.  Overall it's all ok, but feels a bit 'light' still and unimaginative and I really think the new releases section needs cutting down.

Talking of new releases I do like the new plastic chaos models and hope to get some of the hellstriders in the not to distant future.  Can't say I feel the same about the new finecast scyla anfingrimm, to me he just looks too much like a skylander!

This months theme isn't much of one really, it's the battle of the bulge for flames of war and there are two articles, one scenario / battle report and one on making appropriate terrain.  Not particulary inspring stuff to me I'm afraid, but there's some good stuff elsewhere in the mag.  The standout article for me is 'savage wars of peace - part 1' the start of a series about adding some victorian stereotype heroes and antiheroes to colonial wargames and developing them, some real potential here.  Another article which will be useful to many is an army list for the Byzantine faction in Saga (a game I'm managing to resist playing for now) with the battle board for them printed on the back of the magazine.  Other articles that I liked included one on some fantastic dioramas of the peninsular war and a look at a battle between the incas and the spainish, which was a bit of a different era to get a look in.  Overall a perfectly good if not spectacular issuse.