My impression didn’t improve as I tried to assemble the beast. The parts fit together quite poorly and required a lot of greenstuff to get the fit right and conceal the joints. Now this is typical of older metal kits and was a process that was required very regularly. However, with the new manufacturing and sculpting techniques used by many manufactures, its something that we see very rarely these days.

With the beast assembled and undercoated it was onto painting. I was dreading this, to be honest, and I thought that this miniature would bring down the over all look of the team.

The miniature was painted in the same colours as the rest of the team and has turned out way better than I expected. I’d prefer the miniature to be a bit bigger to better represent a Snow Troll, but, other than that its turned out great. Just goes to show that some of the older miniatures can still hold their own, given a decent paint job, against the newer sculpts.

With the recent Blood Bowl team I completed for the raffle prize, I made sure I had sufficient time to take a decent completed team pic.

I am very happy with the end result. I will be using a slightly modified version of this scheme with my own Norse Blood Bowl team, the Chuck Norses.

In the past I’ve painted some nice looking miniatures, but they haven’t really looked like fantasy football players. More like standard fantasy miniatures that just happen to be playing football. Once I came to this realisation, I had a quick look on the internet for American Football teams. Since Blood Bowl is loosely based on this game I thought it a logical place to start. I noticed that the team’s uniforms were completely made up from the team colours. Looking at the miniatures I normally paint, it was immediately apparent that I use a lot of neutral colours with a smattering of the team colours. To make my miniatures look they were part of a sporting team I needed to change this approach.

Another thing I noticed was how bright all the team colours were. My painting style has been described as “realistic” in my choice and application of colours. Having spent many, many years painting model aircraft the realism I was trying to achieve there has flowed over into my miniature painting. I figure another way to make my team appear more “sporty” is too use brighter team colours. Keeping the colours for the remainder of the miniature painted in my usual style, should emphasise the sporting element…I hope.

Instead of repainting the miniatures I had already started, considering how far through painting this current team I was, I adopted a more median approach. I changed the blue to a brighter blue and added this same blue to the shoulder pads. I didn’t have time to change all the metal areas to another colour, so they stayed as is.

I am happy with the end result and the miniatures definitely look more like a sports team than fantasy miniatures. This project has been eye opening for me, in that it’s refreshing to have the way you do certain things challenged once in a while. In future I will definitely be keeping the end result in mind whilst painting, rather than just relying on standard ways of painting.

After reading the character fluff and stories I was drawn to the Scared Holy Empire of Abel purely for the minitures in that faction. The Empire of Abel has a lot of “tank” style characters, which makes them a lot harder to take down, thanks to their high armour value. When I first started my force consisted mostly of these miniatures. A few games in and I soon realised that I need more support style and cheaper pointed characters hence the inclusion of Daniella and Erica.

As more and more miniatures have been released, by collection has grown (despite my best efforts to finish what I already had) as I am a sucker for nicely sculped miniature.

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Because the miniatures used in the game are named characters, I’ve tried to give each miniature some individuality whilst maintaining a coherrent looking force. To do this I have painted each miniature unsing a purple, white and gold paint scheme. These colours have been painted in different amounts in different areas to ensure that the miniatures don’t look like they are wearing a uniform. With the same style of bases used on each miniature, the force looks nice and coherrent whilst the characters don’t look to samey.

My favourite of all the races in Middle Earth is the men of Rohan. I was also very impressed with the miniature range that Games Workshop produced. After dabbling with goblins during “The Fellowship of the Ring” , I finally settled down with my favourites the Men of Rohan when “The Two Towers” was released. I continued to play these guys for many ages until my opponents started to dwindle as interest in the game system disappeared. When Games Workshop gave the system a much needed re-boot I pulled my figures out again.

The first thing I noticed was that my painting style had developed over the years into a much different animal. I wasn’t about to take a step backwards to my old style just so I add in some new figures, so I took the plunge and stripped the lot and started again. Keeping in mind my self imposed “only play with painted miniatures” rule, I need to get some miniatures painted and quickly. Therefore I adopted what many people call “table top” standard for my miniatures. The good thing about painting all your figures to this standard first is that not only do you have a completely painted force in next to no time, it’s also really easy to go back and add some more highlights, etc to increase the overall standard.

With Games Workshops Foundation and Wash ranges getting your miniatures to “table top” standard has never been easier! I started out drybrushing Chainmail over all the armour areas. This was then followed by a Black wash. Once dry I went and painted the remaining areas of the miniature. Dark Flesh for the leather armour, Scorched Brown for the belts and straps, Tallarn Flesh for the skin areas and Orkhide shade for the Royal Guard cloaks. Once complete, I then gave the miniature a wash with Devlan Mud. From here I added a few highlights to the faces, did the bases and was done.

These miniatures certainly aren’t to my usual standard, but, on the table top from normal viewing distance its very hard to tell. Considering these seven miniatures were completed in about an hour, I am more than happy with the result.

An ancient evil stirs in the black lands of Mordor, and the people of Middle-earth speak of a terrible doom approaching from the east. The Dark Lord Sauron is gathering his forces, and should he acquire the power he seeks, he will cast the world into eternal shadow. The only hope lies in a heroic few who must work together to stem the tide of evil…

Lord of the Rings LCG

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative card game that puts 1-2 players (or up to four with two Core Sets!) in control of the most powerful characters and artifacts of Middle-earth. Players will select heroes, gather allies, acquire artifacts, and coordinate their efforts to face Middle-earth’s most dangerous fiends. By cooperating to overcome the obstacles drawn from the encounter deck, you will complete the quest before you and claim victory!
The Core Set includes 226 cards that can be used to assemble a wide variety of decks right out of the box. Included are three perilous quests that, along with countless combinations of settings and enemies, offer near-limitless replayability.

A sample of a players setup

Additionally, players can build a party from a set of 12 hero cards, and focus their decks on any combination of four distinct spheres of influence: Leadership, Lore, Spirit, and Tactics. Each sphere offer unique benefits to the party, so choose wisely! A hero’s sphere dictates the types of cards that hero brings to a player’s disposal:
- The sphere of Leadership emphasizes the charismatic and inspirational influence of a hero, and that hero’s potential to lead, inspire, and command both allies and other heroes alike.
- The sphere of Lore emphasizes the potential of a hero’s mind. Intellect, wisdom, experience, and specialized knowledge are all under the domain of this sphere.
- The sphere of Spirit emphasizes the strength of a hero’s will. Determination, courage, loyalty, and heart are all aspects of this sphere, which also reaches into the more supernatural aspects of Middle-earth.
- The sphere of Tactics emphasizes a hero’s martial prowess, particularly as it relates to combat and to overcoming other tactical challenges that might confront the party during a quest.

Monthly 60-card expansion packs called Adventure Packs will introduce new quests, heroes, allies, attachments, events, and encounters, allowing players to fully customize their game and continue their fight against the Dark Lord! Check out the range of Lord of the Rings LCG products at WarPuppy.

Having spent time with the precision required of the High Elves, it was nice to be able to mess it up with the Nurgle. To get a suitably messy / diseased look I used a lot of overbrushing and washes. The Beastmen above where basecoated with Calthan Brown before applying a heavy overbrush of Camo Green. I then painted a lighter overbrush of Rotting Flesh before a heavy wash of Ogryn Flesh. Once dry I used thinned down highlight of Rotting Flesh. To tie the Purple and Orange in with the rotting greens I added Rotting Flesh to the purple and orange for the highlights.

For the Chaos Warriors in the team I’ve gone for a cleaner paint style to represent the fact that they are the “choosen” of Grandfather Nurgle. I painted the armour in my usual fashion but added a watered down Green Wash over the top to make the armour more Nurgle looking. The skin on the Chaos warrior was painted in the same style as the Beastmen to tie the team together.

For the Rotter I started with a Khemri Brown basecoat before using overbrushing Fortress Grey and Rotting Flesh. A heavy was of Ogryn Flesh was applied before a final highlight of thinned down Rotting Flesh. The Orange and Purple were painted the same way, using Rotting Flesh mixed in to create the highlights.

The thing I love most about painting “evil” miniatures is that the quick methods often provide the best effects. It also means that you can see the results of your work that much quicker due to the speed that these techniques offer.

Whilst these Old Skool miniatures provide a certain degree of nostalgia, I find the sculpts to be a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. These two test models that I have painted are great and certainly hold their own with today’s miniatures, but, the catcher….shudder. The legs are just way too long and the body way too short. Despite the problems with sculpt quality I really do love painting these older models. They have a certain charm about them and a surprising degree of detail.

To get a really bright finish to these miniatures I used a white undercoat. This is one of the few times I’ve used a white undercoat whilst painting, and boy, does it show up the areas you’ve missed! I especially hate when you see a tiny spot of white undercoat in a deep recess when you’ve just about finished painting the miniature. Very frustrating, but well worth the effort.

My mate that I painted these for was really drawn to the Werewolf Team Manager in a suit. This miniature will be used as score marker in his games.

By maintaining the same basing and colour scheme this is an awesome way to expand your Blood Bowl team collection with very little effort.