Uruk Hai, the return! And more……..much much more

I got distracted again.

I want to expand the type of units I have available for my Orcs and Gobbos. I had no chariots and I thought I would give it a whirl in my chop shop! So here is my goblinoid wolf chariot.
I’m not totally convinced with the result. I think maybe the chap with the reigns is a bit much and perhaps the chariot is a bit small.
Would welcome anyone’s thoughts, maybe I just need to paint the bugger.

I got distracted again.

1. I want to expand the type of units I have available for my Orcs and Gobbos. I had no chariots and I thought I would give it a whirl in my chop shop! So here is my goblinoid wolf chariot.
   I’m not totally convinced with the result. I think maybe the chap with the reigns is a bit much and perhaps the chariot is a bit small.
   Would welcome anyone’s thoughts, maybe I just need to paint the bugger.

Finally got a game out of the uber project! 3000 pts per side, the forces of order are desperate to defend against a Goblinoid horde. The humans have been forced to enlist their ancestral dead to attempt to gain control of their God gate by getting a wizard to the DHD and dial up the gate and summon heavenly reinforcements before the Orcs destroy them or summon their own devilish forces via their witch! The Orcs have a Rainbow Hag to whom they must engage for one turn and make a sacrifice of one model in base to base contact to summon their own other worldly reinforcements at the crossroads. The road allows 1.5x normal movement and each side has their objective just off the road. Table edge was rolled for and we did secret deployment using a grid reference system which really added to the tension in this scenario.

only got half way through in one day so will have to return for the conclusion, but so far the humans are up against it having sacrificed their cavalry in a glorious(foolish?) charge up the hill to clear the woods of Goblin artillery!

Finally got a game out of the uber project! 3000 pts per side, the forces of order are desperate to defend against a Goblinoid horde. The humans have been forced to enlist their ancestral dead to attempt to gain control of their God gate by getting a wizard to the DHD and dial up the gate and summon heavenly reinforcements before the Orcs destroy them or summon their own devilish forces via their witch! The Orcs have a Rainbow Hag to whom they must engage for one turn and make a sacrifice of one model in base to base contact to summon their own other worldly reinforcements at the crossroads. The road allows 1.5x normal movement and each side has their objective just off the road. Table edge was rolled for and we did secret deployment using a grid reference system which really added to the tension in this scenario.

only got half way through in one day so will have to return for the conclusion, but so far the humans are up against it having sacrificed their cavalry in a glorious(foolish?) charge up the hill to clear the woods of Goblin artillery!

The children of the hydras teeth set is my favourite ever skeleton soldier set. It’s so lovely in detail and so flipping versatile!

My Uruks will eventually form the ally contingent to my core undead force, with the Sauron model as my lead necromancer! So I best do some skeletons hadn’t I!

90 skeletons for £40 says warlord! ‘SHUT UP and take my money you fool!’ Says I.

So I’ve now got 270 skeletons to make…..all with separate fecking feeet!!!!

I spent years (I call them the wasted years) cutting out the feet separately and sticking them on, one at a time, like a chump. But! If after 6 months and 100 skeletons in, you turn your sprue over and see the legs numbered to the feet. You can glue all the legs into their respective feet and cut the feet out after the legs are glued. Much quicker, I cry blood at the memory of this discovery.

How much variation can I get from this spruce though? Turns out, a ton. Here is my efforts with spear, sword and shield, Bow armed, Crossbows and pikes! I love pikes.

Oh, if you happen to have some Perry miniatures foot knights, WELL. They make beautiful crossbreed undead foot knights.

Fab!

Distracted again, I made the error of idly flicking through my old ‘lord of the rings strategy battle game’ magazines.( I’m missing no.90!!!! Where has it gone!?!)

Well, in these awesome hobby Tomes is beginner and intermediate scenery projects and guiding you right through all stages of hobby goodness. I’ve never come across better hobby resources, they are superb. I am completely hooked by the Moria campaign. I spent a day kicking around with polystyrene cutters and card templates. Then I chucked a load of sand at some battle boards and cut a ravine into two of them. The ravine doubles as normal battle boards as I kept the shapes interlocking for when I don’t want one. I hate doing things twice! All my miniatures and scenery double, treble or even quadruple up into game formats. I don’t want to paint or make things twice! I’m now mucking around with balsa wood and card detailing. Then painting.
One day, sometime, I might, just MIGHT, be able to stay on track to a target.

One day.

I think Uruks can fight in Moria? Why not!
It’s one of the places they could team up I’d say. Where did all that ore for the armour come from after all? I’ve got this concept of a religious cult of orcs who worship the balrog over Sauron as they where rival servants of morgoth, and so I will probably be making the lava pit temple to the balrog to make my Moria board an 9×4 play scape. I believe the Battle games in middle earth packs layed out something of the kind so I will be returning to them as source material.

This particular build taught me just how simple terrain building can be. This all took me 5 evenings off work so approx 10-12 hours total. The polystyrene is the finish. And I think it looks great, I weighted the standing pieces by shoving screws in the bottom to stop tipping over etc, and that was essential to have done for gameplay. Metal Lotr models that have been lovingly painted don’t tip over a 1 foot chasm well. ?.

The expanded polystyrene makes a brilliant pattern for stone walling. Many buildings and structures round my neck of the woods are flint stone and brick/stone block construction. The flint is the infill pieces and the stone blocks the tie in and support structure. So if this EPS was used as the main structure and some cerial packet squares glued over joins at the corners to simulate blocks. A crude dry brushing later would have a rapid flint wall construction.

The wooden components are super quick too. 2 evenings of the five had the wood structures made and painted. Balsa and super glue are awesome! So is Dulux colour chart paints. So flipping cheap and I can’t tell the difference between it and GW paints. It’s all acrylic. £15 of paint has me a tonne of black, bestial brown and fortress grey. I haven’t used half of it on this project.

Just means I’m going to have to make a bridge, river and balrogs lair. Oh, and some pontoon assault boat landing craft.

Why?

Cos the battle games mags have some that’s why!!

Originally, the movement trays were entirely card. I’ve moved on.

Now they are magnificent, just what I want from trays. Cheap, infinitely customisable, slim and sleek, works as part of my storage solutions and….did I mention?Cheap.

I use 1 or 2mm thick (1/32”- 1/16ish for those who measure correctly! Alas the UK is caving in like a flan in the cupboard on this point) high density card stock. It comes at the back of note pads or back of pizza packets. I also buy it at A4 size in packs of 40 from my children’s arts and crafts shop. Less than a fiver. That’s a lot of movement trays.

I then cut to the size of my regiment or company in question, plus 1 or 2mm overall in each direction to allow some slop. Slop is especially important for those miniatures from the same school of dance as Michael Jackson or the film cast of 300.

The next stage is using those coffee stirring sticks you find everywhere (or Tea bag paddles, as is their proper use). Found in Costas, supermarket cafes, petrol station’s and the corner of every builders merchants on the land!

The last place is where I get all mine, very useful to tell the management what you want them for. It will be the most amused the depot manager will be till he hears how Dave had to sneak out the lavatory window. We are English and for us there is always a way out of everything, and the bog window is the usual route.

The manager asked “Ow many d’ya need J? I said how many will you give me? He drop kicked a packet of a thousand over to me and said “it’s funny what can happen to stock ennit? Those got too damaged for us to use….”

Super glue them around the edge of the card, being careful to keep it flush to the bottoms of the tray. I use big industrial grade super glue, big bottles of the stuff for £4. It’s no different to the 5/10ml tubes you get in DIY places, It’s just 50 times bigger with a different label.

On some trays, usually the thin ranked missile troops, I leave a short edge with no stick. This allows me to put multiple trays together to form bigger or smaller lines of troops to suit my needs. Arrow boys on 10 man trays of 5 per rank with one short edge missing so I can make 20 or 30 man units in 2 thin ranks.