The Curse of Bogland - III

Arrgh. Three times in a row fate has conspired against me. I missed yet another HoTT gaming night at my (quite far to travel to get to but very satisfying when I do) wargaming club.

:(

I be cursed ...

At this rate my evil, war-mongering are turning into agrarian poets with pointy ears and long hair. The Orc-Boss of Bogland is not a happy boss. I have one last chance before the year is out to get back into the action.

A surge of metal mined from Moria

At last, the flush of WW2 projects off the painting table cleared in my mind's eye a slot for the LOTR HoTT project. specifically those Metal Morian Goblins. These are the boys (or things) who will stand by the Great Goblin and Goblin Shaman, so they deserved to be of a slightly better class, or should that simply read weight? ;)

Specifically the Goblin King of Moria (Note : Please excuse the glare in the photo's caused by the evil-smelling torches in the Goblin tunnels, and yes the basing is far from complete, but the plan is to do that all in one go at the end)  

The Evil Goblin Shaman of Moria:

The dead-eye Archers too are of a quality above the normal (plastic) "hoardlings".

A plastic 7Hd (incidentally I originally was planning to base them 5Hd but thought they looked too much of a "skirmish formation", rather than the swarming mass of writhing goblin arms, legs and bodies I remembered from the epic Fellowship of the Ring scenes - my painting arm complaints but artistic director is happy akin to Peter Jackson) :

Hoards of things (with two more bases still needed for the Moria OoB):

Next stop, back to the plastic to flesh out another two more Hoards (7Hd) of the above, (that's fifteen figures in all, two times seven plus one, as one of the above bases is a figure short) before I can move onto that Cave Troll which has been hiding in a box for simply years now :)

The HoTT GW LOTR "War of the Ring" Campaign project seems a long, long way off at the moment.

:(

Note to self: Painting and basing Revell German Panzer Grenadiers

Preliminary Steps:

• Wash plastic figures in hot soapy (detergent based) water to remove any water repellent grease/residue left over from the plastic injection process, dry on towel. 
  
• Need to cut back bits of "spoiler flash" with a very sharp craft knife, the Revell kit is good/excellent but it does suffer from fine flash lines that are best removed or will simply bug you at a later stage (you have been warned)
• These are plastics so required the PVA treatment, I watered it down but it may pay to be braver and have a thick mixture. Cover the whole figure, it pays to have a clean washed figure to avoid PVA grouping and not giving a complete coverage
• PVA is left to dry. As it dries it shrinks and gives the plastics added rigidity.
  
• Undercoating with a solid black sealer (Games Workshop Chaos Black), although I await my first Xmas trip to Halfords (ubiquitous UK car/autostore shop) for some tough car [cheaper] undercoater!
  

Shade Painting Scheme

• Undercoat of Tamiya Dark Green XF-61
• Vallejo: German Field Gray - (102) 70830 over Uniform Area
• Black (Games Worshop Chaos Black) Straps and Boots 
• Vallejo: German Pale Camo Brown (144) 70825 Bags and Sacks and Waterbottles
• Anita's Acrylics Metallic Black for Weapons
• Anita's Acrylics Bark Brown for Flesh areas (this has replaced my GW Dark Flesh)
  
• Games Workshop Scorched Brown for Gun Stocks 
  
• Tamiya Dark Green XF-61 undercoat left for shade of Helmet and Gas Mask Container
  

Base Painting Scheme

• 50:50 Mix of Vallejo: German Field Gray (102) 70830 and Vallejo: Green Gray (101) ??886 for Uniform Areas
• Boots and Straps GW Chaos Black and GW Codex Gray dark gray mix
• Bags, sacks and things German Pale Camo Brown (144) 70825 now mixed with Vallejo: German Camo Biege (103) 70821
  
• Shiny metallic bits GW Bolt Gun (I try to keep it to a minimum, but the brush can slip) 
• Mix of GW Tanned Flesh and Vallejo: (18) 70955 for the flesh parts

Highlight Painting Scheme

• Vallejo: Green Grey Green Gray (101) ??886 for Uniform Highlights
• Touch of GW Codex Greu for variation on blackish things
  
• GW Bestial Brown for Gun Stocks highlight
• Flesh highlight of Vallejo: (18) 70955
• Bags, sacks and things highlight Vallejo: German Camo Biege (103) 70821 (Note: I should really go back and put a distinctive dark line on the water-bottle or perhaps do it a different colour) 
  
• Helmet and Gas Mask Container highlight of Tamiya Dark Green XF-61 and Tamiya Yellow XF-3
• Final fine black line touch up to add back in any strapping details that have been inadvertently lost 
  

Fine Details (omitted at present)

• As I have the Flames of War German painting book I have teh potential to attempt rank insignia and other crazy things, as yet beyond my initial ambition. I may revisit this at a later date.
  

Varnishing the Finished Figure

• I should do this but currently don't because I may come back and do some crazy insignia
• Debating in my own mind whether it should be a one matt step or a two step (gloss then matt) process, I obviously need to try both and compare the results
  

Basing

• Cheap PVA (kids art stuff) and sand mixture (literally the local beach and DIY mortar stuff)
  
• Two stabs at it, first time leaves ridges round base of figure, second time to balance it up
  
• Daub on cheap watery acrylic brown (leave to dry overnight)
  
• Cheap watery black (leave to dry overnight)
  
• Brown wet-brushed on leaving plenty of black gaps
  
• Lightened Brown wet/dry brushed over the top
  
• Highlight Cream dry brushed on sparingly
  
• A third to a quarter of the base covered with watered down PVA then dunked in a scenic flock container
  
• Static Grass if the base is big enough, two or three slightly watered down PVA globs followed by a dunking

Bogland Terrain and Army Composition

Just to flesh out a few details from my HoTT campaign world

The INSIDERS GUIDE TO BOGLAND: 

• No road infrastructure as it encourages humans
• No woods, they "would" (ahem) encourage elves
  
• Flies, lots of flies, everywhere, nice juicy flies
  
• Rough ground everywhere to trip things up like silly men in plate armour
  
• No rivers as such but plenty of pools of stagnant water for things to "lurk" about if you get my meaning
  
• Hills yeah, nasty little steep hills, horses could break their ankles on those
• Pits of snakes and things, and lots of biting beetles
• Lots of Orcs, nasty evil ones
  

Prime time real-estate really, yet for so,e reason in its entire recorded history no neighbouring country has yet successfully invaded it, or for that matter expressed a wish to, bar the DREGS who got lost and couldn't find it!

Trolls, you got to love them and fear then, even if they are on your side! These are of the more modern Games Workshop ilk of 28mm offerings.

The Bogland Orc Army:

• 1 x Warband (General)
• 1 x Warband
  
• 8 x 5Hd
  
• 1 x Troll (Behemoth)
• 2 x Beasts
• 2 x Riders
  

Technically not based as a true hoard, but it gives you a feel of what you expect to see. Again, old, old AD&D figures finding a second lease of life (although based incorrectly). My HoTT army painting is slowly taking form in GW LOTR figures. For the campaign I am borrowing some 15mm orcs.

Bogland Army Battle Honours:

• Victorious slaughter against the unwashed DREG's in the Battle for Smale (now called Lesser Bogland)
• A completely routed contingent in the Battle of Dwarf Rock (but we don't talk about that much and it's the last time we try and help a rival Orc clan kill dwarves in armour with pointy things)
  

Mottoes and Sayings: 

• Never wash or fight fair
• Make sure that elf is really dead
• If it's good enough for a rat or flies to eat, it's good meat
• Why? The Boss said so

German Supports and Officers

Two nice bits from the Revell Panzer Grenadier box is their representation of the MG teams. Six two man teams per box, three static and three moving in nice animated poses:

The officers give good variety, particularly the observation "V" binoculars which is a classic for a higher command base, one per pack, but with three other officer types make a very useful four in the pack (one shown below, you can spot the other two in the First German Platoon).

The only omission for a complete OoB is the lack of a mortar unit, which I will make up from a metal manufacturer (SHQ and I think Drew's Militia in my case). As I mentioned earlier painting the plastic figures has a very different feel to the metals, namely the flatter feel to the detailing and less voluminous feel to the figure. The Revell boys show off their stuff below:

I think we are about ready to cook (as in all the figures are ready for it) with that first Cross Fire Normandy scenario I was mentioning (when I get to play it is another matter).

Armistice: at 11:00 am on the 11/11/1918 the guns fell silent

Lest we forget the sacrifices of previous generations

Photo from: www.freephoto.com

First Revell German Infantry Platoon

Moving into a defensive position for my Normandy 1944 game is the first platoon from the German Revell plastic miniatures box. These are the very same Panzer Grenadiers from an earlier post. Below is the Cross Fire OoB for a Platoon.

They were a painted with a mix of Vallejo, Anita's Acrylics and Games Workshop left overs, a product range I am running down and moving away from. From the many different painting guides and resources I finally managed to arrive at a scheme that I thought worked and persisted with it through the figures for the platoon for a consistent look. I found painting plastics more subtle than painting metals, we'll have to see how it pans out for the rest of the company. I do seem to have a lot of plastic Germans lined up.

A slightly better picture, with the macro (close focus) enabled this time  :)

The plan now is to expand this platoon up to a Cross Fire company sized OoB, with the eyes on the prise of a long, long term goal of a battalion in 2010. However with even just this one platoon painted I have enough for that Normandy 1944 scenario I a framing in my mind.

Inspiration for these Revell Germans comes from another blog the Miniature Zone