Speed Painting Lord of the Rings Battle companies pt4

Following on from my earlier posts on Battle Companies I thought I would update you guys on what I have been up to with two more Battle Companies, as it turns out I picked two very good lists.

So to start with I painted a couple of plastic Dead of Dunharrow and I saw that they could get cavalry, so I thought I would convert a couple of guys for my army considering how good cavalry was.  

Otty kindly donated me some spare plastic horses and with a bit of green stuff I had my fighting force and some back up additional forces.  I was so looking forward to using them, but it turns out another friend of ours Scott wanted to play so I gave him these to start with its only a couple of figures and it only took a couple of days to convert and paint.

So far I'm three for zero so I really needed a force I needed to use urgently and as I had orcs on foot for my Warg riders and they are painted I thought about the forces of Angmar I just needed to add green washes and I would ultimately want some Barrow-Wights.  Time to convert some more figures. 

This one was easy but it is only an average conversion, I used an orc head to a Last Alliance Elf and added hair and painted a Númenor with sword and shield with a aging with a pin vice.
 

Once again I had made some conversions and speed painted two forces in a week.  I am loving this quick turn around of stuff.  But, it is not getting me through my pile of shame if I keep making more stuff to paint, luckily I'm not buying anything new I'm making do with what I have and hand-me-downs, for now anyway :)

Speed Painting Lord of the Rings Battle companies pt3

Following on from my earlier posts on Battle Companies I thought I would update you guys on what I have been up to with two more Battle Companies, well one and a half  I just painted a couple of characters for my Hunter Orc Army.

So for those of you in the know this is the basic model count when starting a battle company, which is what attracted me to this set of rules, it is a quick way to start playing games.  And me being me I had to go out and buy my favorite models to paint because 'why not'.  Firstly I had to buy Azog because he is cool and no you cannot have Azog in a battle company when starting out, but he makes for a cool General and I can use him when I use my full Azog's hunters list.  

Just like the previous post they have been speed painted using the GW Contrast paints and a quick dry brush, I cannot praise this technique enough if you want a table top standard army and fast, it is the best way especially if your batch painting, because the Contrast paints can take longer to dry.

It was also a nice change to use silver and gold paint, I have been using the NMM technique for so long I forgot how fast it is to paint armour lol :) 

So you have seen the evil side but for our mini tournament it was mentioned that we all needed a good side too.  I went with Rangers of the North for the low model count you only need 4, I also painted the dead warrior as a Ranger on the Wild Warg Chieftain character.   Now I'm going to revisit the reason for this army selection and say that there was only one reason for this selection, before buying and painting I did not know or look at the rules, because OMG they are so over powered.  We had 5 games and they won them all and so over powered I went out and bought more.

I even bought some characters on ebay for dirt cheap and because they where cheap I speed painted them so they fitted with the rest of the army.

After the 6th game it was apparent that no other battle company could come any where close to beating them and I was politely asked to shelve them - how rude... :)  But it was the right thing to do, where's the fun in trying to win an un-winable game.  

I've included a couple of gaming shots because low and behold the same thing happened to my Azogs hunters company, it turns out that having your whole battle company mounted is also too good and they where also shelved.....

Next time two more armies, this is starting to get a bit more expensive then I first thought but I am enjoying speed painting and the battle companies playing system is ace and a lot of fun, you don't mind loosing a game because it is not really a loss because everyone gains.  I'm having a blast and I love it. 

 

 

Time away for good behavior and Showcasing my friends yearly successes in 2022

Yes your right I have stepped away from Blogging for a while, but I have still been busy painting.  I have explored speed painting with interspersed bouts of technique improvements segments.  For a large part of my time away we have been gaming and playing Middle Earth and Battle companies.  Over the coming days I will be showcasing almost a years worth of work including an actual painting on a canvas. 

Today however I want to talk about what a great bunch and talented friends I have, which I have had the pleasure to grow up with since I was a teenager.

Chris Otterburn has spent a large part of his modelling time last year creating Middle Earth's Helms Deep from Lego, yep that's right Lego, to his children's dismay.  Otty also sent Zorpazorp a box of Middle Earth villages he kit bashed which was unboxed live on his channel, in my opinion that's cool.

Dave Western famed blogger from Confessions of a 40K Addict on the other hand has been very busy with his Tyranids showcasing on the Warhammer Community page "This Tyranid Army Looks So Good You’ll Want Them to Eat You" and gearing up for the new codex.  And speaking of new codex, even my son has been doing a bit of painting:-

I have been very lucky to have very good friends who are super talented, eager to improve, bounce ideas about and share knowledge and experience.  We all strive to be better creatives and enjoy our hobbies together.  It is my dream we will work collaboratively under our own company name and workshop and have blogs and Youtube channels, don't tell my wife but that's my retirement plan :)

I thought I would end with a few images of my mates taken over the past few months that literally made me laugh out loud. 

Lord of the Rings Battle companies pt1 and 2

A while back our gaming buddy Otty wanted to try Battle Companies and after many discussions on you only need a few figures and it wont take long to paint, I purchased some "Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs" thinking one day maybe in 15 years time I will get around to it.  Afterwards I started thinking how did that happen? I have so much stuff to paint why did I buy more? then it struck me "I had been Gríma worm tongued", bugger! 

To continue with the ethos of what to do in lockdown while disheartened with 40K, I started to put the figures together and create rocky bases, using up some white milliput  The arms are a little small then what I am normally used too, but they are a only 20mm, but  I really like the Wargs though.  So I thought I would look at getting another pack then I spotted this on ebay:-

11 Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs and 15 Wargs, GW sell the Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs for £25 for 6 and 6 Fell Wargs for £20 to buy new would almost cost me £110.  So you could appreciate this caught my interest.  Sometimes I love ebay but I do feel very sorry for the person who sold these because I bought them for a steal, only £30...... wow that was lucky.  Not only do I have a Battle company, but I have almost enough for a full army.   

My idea was to do a step by step guide to speed batch painting, I thought I had emailed all the images off my phone before I deleted them unfortunatley I was wrong so I lost all the images so here are the finished Wargs, bugger!

These are the original 6 with milliput bases, I added some shields before I started painting them

And this is the full army, and base coated, ink wash with Agrax Earthshade and finally a dry brush highlight.  Very quick and fairly effective on mass.... :)

What do you do during lock down - Blog and Paint baby

Well once again I have been away from my blogging responsibilities due to my lack of enthusiasm for 40K.  Do not despair I have been keeping myself busy with 5 different ways to play games with my friends and an excuse to paint figures. 

Here is a snap shot projects undertaken and posts to come over the next few weeks and months:-

Blackstone Fortress

Bloodbowl Vampire and Werewolf team

Lord of the Rings Battle companies

Adeptus Titanicus

SpaceHulk