Raising the Shire

 Tooks Are on the Move

Paladin leads the Tooks as they sally forth

Work continues on painting up more hobbits for the next part of the Shire campaign.

Rob 

Heroes & Villains of the Shire

 Ready for Battle

Prep continues for the next battle 'The Ruffians Arrive'  with both sides using Influence points to bolster their forces with some extra heroes. With Pete finished, I have enough ruffians done and attention turns to the hobbits. 

Pip & Farmer Maggot scout the area. 

Bill's Henchmen

Pip will have to do a bit of double duty as I don't have many hobbits minis at the moment. 

Rob

Time for an Upgrade

 Playing With New Stuff

I recently bought a light box studio (from Green Stuff World - during the sale) to see if I could improve the pictures usually I take of my minis. Now, these are still taken with a trusty iPhone 11. I have had a bit of play with the settings and overall I am pleased with the results.  

The only real issue, that it is quite large and I haven't quite got enough space to leave it setup when not in use. 

Work continues on preparation on the Scouring of Shire campaign, with some 'new' hobbits. Just looked them up and the moulds are now twenty years old!

Friday is beer night and something I got given over Christmas. 

Rob 

ME-34 Hobbits of the Shire

The Other Other Ringbearer

With Sam Gamgee done, this completes the Oldhammer Lord of the Rings Shire Hobbits set. A very nice companion to Frodo. And as a set they sit very well together. 

“If I take one more step, it will be the furthest away from home I’ve ever been.”

“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

Sam obviously likes to be prepared and carries a big stick!

Next up the Fighting Uruk-Hai. 

Rob

10 Minute Paint Job

 Tell Sam Shelob is About

Had a few spare minutes at lunch and managed to paint him in about 10 minutes. A nice little mini.

Rob 

Bilbo Wanders Off

I am Calling this One Done

As mentioned before it was a real struggle to get Bilbo finished which is why he has been sitting on the paint table for so long. The first three miniatures from the set practically leapt of the paint table finished to a standard I was quite happy with.  Anyway this just leaves Sam to complete the 80s ME-34 Hobbits from the Shire set.

Meanwhile at the Local Museum

The local museum in Chichester has a Tolkien exhibition on at the moment and I finally managed to pop in and take a look. The theme of the exhibition was really centred on how Tolkien's works have been portrayed over the years. I have tried to pull out a few items that stood out as new to me as much of the stuff I had seen before in various forms.

First off a few nice replica props

Proving that even Leonard Nimoy must have done a few drugs in the 60s - The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. 

Some classic Grenadier halflings.

A few action figures for the cartoon 'The Lord of the Rings'. 

Of course it makes me want to get the Fellowship figures out and try and get them out of Moria again. 

An actual first edition of the Hobbit

Rob

The Journey Ends

 Young Bilbo Finished

I didn't like the lighting on the finished figure.
So, I used this in-progress picture instead.

Painting the young Bilbo figure has completed the company of Thorin Oakenshield. And it has taken nearly 20 months (See original post  The Company of Thorin Oakenshield). Much longer than I originally it would take. 

My painting experience from completing the Company of Thorin Oakenshield  neatly sums up my feelings towards the Hobbit movies. Which are very mixed! I have found both the movies and painting the figures  to be extremely frustrating and very joy able in equal measure. 

Leaving aside the merits (or otherwise) of the movies, painting these figures has a trying experience. And while it has pushed my painting skills. I haven't always been satisfied by the final results. Mainly because they seem to have very shallow or limited detail. Which means my usual techniques of washes, drybrushing and highlighting just didn't work. So, I had to work much harder to get an acceptable level of detail. 

Me: Before I started painting

Young & Old Bilbo

In comparison, painting the old (metal) Bilbo was a very enjoyable experience compared to painting the new plastic Bilbo. 

Me: When they arrived

Gandalf: Would like to paint the Company of Thorin Oakenshield again?

Me: Good Morning

Rob 

Getting on With Painting

On the Paint Bench

Managed to finish a few of the items on my paint bench over the last couple of nights during the week. 

Hold Fast Young Peregrin

Latest of the C20 trolls to get a face lift and first of the Oldhammer hobbits to be completed. 

Love his collection of dead heads

Trying out Wood Colour schemes

Starting to think about paint my wood elves but wanted to try out some colour schemes.  The wood elf was painted ages ago, so is a bit brighter than revenant I just finished. I still haven't settled on a skin tone for the elves. It also has got a few revenants painted up. 

Trying Green Stuff's colour shift Paint. 

Bought some of Green Stuff's colour shift paint (Borealis Green), in my excitement I painted it on the first model that came to hand, and it looked rubbish. I then read the instructions and realised that you have to paint it over a black undercoat. Then it looked quite good. But you have to apply very thin coats and so might work better with an airbrush. 

The Brothers Not So Grim 

Finished off Bombur (and his beard), only three dwarves left to paint.

Rob 

The Sackville-Baggins

The Umbrella Is Mightier Than the Sword

Ordered these couple of resin figures off Etsy, as I thought they would make suitable stand ins for the Sackville-Baggins. This allows me to get on with the next couple of scenarios in the Scouring of the Shire campaign. They are very nicely detailed (and priced), but I can't help feeling they are just a bit too small.  

The hobbits fending off a couple of Ruffians

Lotho & Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

Strange Lights in the Sky

I recently found this little green LED whilst working in the garage. And thought this would give an interesting light effect. I am quite pleased with the result. With the position of the light making quite a difference. 

Up lighted

Down lighted

Overall, I think the down lighted version looks better as the contrast is less severe. 

I do remember having a blue and red version of this LED light, but of course I can't find them at the moment!

Rob

It was a Dark & Stormy Night

Ruffians on the Run 

The scenario takes place on a dark and stormy night, as a band of ruffians attempt to sneak through Farmer maggot's farm. But they hadn't reckoned with farmer Maggot's faithful hounds finding them. 

Mr Pumpkin the Scarecrow

This scenario features in both versions of the Scouring of the Shire source book with only a few minor adjustments. In the new version there is an extra ruffian (taking the total to six) and now three of them have bows. However, they now have to get four figures off the board instead of three from the original scenario. So, I don't think it has got much easier for the ruffians.   I don't have the new army book, so had to use the stats in the original version not that I expect they have changed much. 

One of the biggest challenges from this sourcebook is that all of the games are very small, this one only has ten models in total. Therefore, a little bit of luck can change the game quite dramatically (as was the case in this game) but if the scenario is well balanced then this should work out (most of the time). Something which I think was a problem in the first edition of the sourcebook and which I will come back too as I play more scenarios. 

If I can manage to get organised, then I will try and run through the scenarios in something like the right order and actually use the campaign rules in the 2nd edition. 

Farmer Maggot with Fang, Grip & Wolf

Villains of the piece led by Old Will. 

Battle Summary 

The ruffians decided to split into two groups and skirt round each size. Luck was on their side, and they managed to get halfway across the board before one group were spotted by a lone hound. The closest three ruffians decided to take their chance and charged the hound, one ruffian losing his nerve before he could reach the hound. The other two got a nasty surprise and the hound bit back, but none were wounded (and this set the pattern for the rest of the game, as the good side didn't cause any wounds for the entire game). 

Dirty sneaks. 

The other group saw this as their chance and raced for the table edge down the middle. Two archers stayed back (very noble for ruffians! or perhaps they were hoping the hounds wouldn't notice them) trying to draw the hounds away from the fleeing mob gathering in the centre.  Farmer maggot was roused (at the first attempt) at this key point but ended up on the wrong side of the fence. Ironically arriving later may have helped the good side, as they had to guess where the ruffians would head towards whilst they were still quite far from the table edge. And so, he was too far over to one side. Maggot did score one hit but failed to wound later in the game. 

Ruffians on the run. 

From this point onwards it was a race to the edge as the ruffians were generally luckier with priority, crossing obstacles or in single combats. And so, one by one all three hounds were lost, and all the ruffians escaped. It seems quite a one-sided tally for the battle but for a couple of turns it could have gone either way if the hobbit or the hounds had managed to score a wound...

Anyway, a fun start and in the campaign, the ruffians gain an additional three models in the battle of the Bywater scenario. 

Rob