LPL 7, Round 2 is on!

Round 2 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 1 round entry, "For the Riddermark"  Which unfortunately lost by a 2 to1 margin but to an excellent entry by one of my favorite painters on the LAF user: Blackwolf  My follow up entry, "It's got two heads! (old lead) features some more old school grenadier stuff I have had around basically since I was a kid, I've been trying to get thru those old gold boxes for nostalgia purposes over the last few years but the going is slow, this weeks photo is up against some pretty nice 40K Eldar., not seeing the usual anti-GW sentiment on forum rearing its head yet as I currently down about dozen votes, so go check them out and see what you like better, honestly I had a tough time getting a good picture on this one. With Adepticon out of the way, I can crack down the next couple months and see if knock out some real winners here, we'll see, even with small pool and some huge names absent this year, my first two draws have been tough!

Speaking of Adepticon, had a great weekend, played 8 great games, saw all kinds of awesome work, snagged a pair of best appearance awards, along with the usual great swag....I'll get on a full write up with pic during the week.

LPL7 Round 1 commences!

I awoke this morning to find my round 1 entry "For the Riddermark"  up against one of my favorite painters on the whole LAF, user "Blackwolf". whose stunning realistic tones against soft lighting are always pleasure. Please go check it out and you can see a preview of Rohan army for Adepticon this year. Now that this has begun I'll post some different shots of the whole set up on Wednesday.

With only 30 contestants this year there are whole of big guns absent from this years LPL, while I'll certainly miss the eye candy, it bodes well for my own performance, unless I continue to draw the top painters every week., not sure how I feel about that...

Do yourself a favor go check out all the entries and vote!

Scratch Build "The Eye" complete!

 Well complete as it going to get anyway. Here its is crewed with Aragorn and some Army of the Dead for my "Aragorn at Pelennor" list for the Thursday nights Adepticon event "The March to Mount Doom" which is a 500 point Single Elimination Tourney. This is the Army and the Boat is the display. I have a small sign that goes in front, that is yet to be made.

 
 I had alot of fun with this scratch build and I've some other ideas stewing around, not sure whats next this is my second totally completed ship after "The Griffon", I also have an Old Glory Brig that only needs a couple days work to be complete as well.

Painting was a pretty straight forward affair, in the future paint the masts before stitching the sails on would have saved me some time. The water stained patina on the bow ram and shields and the other weathering effects took the longest.

 As far as Adepticon goes..all my models are done..Painting all those cavalry models took me forever. .I still have my team display to paint/flock and a couple plaques/ signs for the Army lists.to make..nothing I cant get done this weekend.

I used a bunch of my Rohan Team Army for the LPL7 which starts this weekend, in conjunction with the rules I wont post my Rohan shots until probably Wednesday, the day before I head over to Adepticon. but you can get the preview over at the LAF this on Sunday. I'm not going to have much time for coverage this year..I am playing in three Lord of the Rings events, my only free time to socialize is Friday night, (so if you know me look me up then) Saturday I have split right after the event for ill timed but mandatory engagement with the wife..I may break my own rules and show up on Sunday to bum around. 

Lead Painters Leagues - Season 7

Lead Painters League- Season 7 commences shortly over at the Lead Adventure Forum. The LAF ,is for me, personally where the best of the miniature hobby is taking place. Multi-genre, scratch builds, old school miniatures galore, tons of terrain and best of all always lots of great ideas. Very little brand ID pigeon holeing across the board. the Lead Painters League or "LPL" now hits season 7, I only got the gumption to stick my toe in the water last year for the first time, and was pretty happy with the way I made out.

Its a tight 10 week schedule, where you have to submit new entries on the weekly basis, and you submit your first "3" entries when you enter. Prepping for Adepticon events has got me well on my way for my initial entries, but after that I'll be scrambling to stay of ahead of entry dates by a good margin so I am not trying to cram it in that week. A big part of the contest is not just your painted miniatures, but how they are presented. So, yes while it is a painting contest it is open to a public vote so your presentation certainly sways peoples opinions. My best stuff last year that won by wide margins won by either by clear painting caliber or was pushed it though because my entire scene presented itself as a mini-vignette and got the point across better.

That is the route I am going to try to go as much as possible this year as much as can, as a result I am really trying to plan out all my entries in advance, so while yeah I'll probably do three Lord of the Rings entries...(only due the Adepticon overlap) I am going to try to push the envelope dig into the lead pile for the other 7 rounds. My lead pile is pretty huge and its keep growing, So I will certainly try to embrace some of the new games I am interested it, and old stuff I've never got around to painting.  This contest is a great motivation and my fellow compatriots are, nothing but inspiring, looking forward all the cool stuff we are going to see this year. Things get rolling Saturday April 13th, so stay tuned, I'll be updating my weekly entries as they win or lose each week, my only goal is have fun and try to do at least as well as last year. The two big theme rounds are Historical Civil War and Science Fiction this year, and yeah "Rex Eleven" is making a big return round 10.

Scratch Build- "The Eye"

 Just showing off my first ever total scratch build. Other than a few decorative plastic and hirst bits..this is all Pink foam, cereal box, balsa, dowels, bamboo skewers, plastic card, leather stitching and wood glue.

 I call her "The Eye" a Corsair scout ship from the 50 or so ships set out from Umbar to ambush the City of Minas Tirith during the battle of Pelennor Fields in "The Return of the King". Aragorn, and his companions captured this fleet with help of the Dead of Dunharrow and help turn the tied of Battle.

 The ship is my display board for my Thursday night Lord of the Rings events, "March to Mount Doom" which is a single elimination 500 point tournament with a 15 model cap...My army features
Aragorn, (Heir of Isildur profile), The King of the Dead and 12 Men of Dunharrow. I have no idea how its going to perform. The Army of Dead was always a poorly performing force for its cost, I dont think much has changed under the new "Hobbit" Rules.

 The ship was fun to build. I originally had a different plan that didnt feature the full ship just a portion of one side as back drop. however after looking at couple of scratch builds online and watching the scenes from the film, I was inspired at like 2am last sunday morning.  I drew a hasty sketch that night, and in the morning when the wife and kids coincidentally were going to a baby shower, I was free to go to town.  by the time "the Walking Dead" came on Sunday evening she was done minus the back sail which I finished Monday night.

 I approached this just like I would make a plastic or resin model other that I had to design all the parts.. drew all the parts out by hand, per sketch- built my Pink Foam form then resized my parts drawn of the actual material used. and cut out with an xacto or my mini scroll saw. The trickest part was the bow ram...I made about 3 of them before I got it just right...

This is a scout ship meant for boarding I designed it as such.. Bow Ram, Shields, Boarding Spikes, etc, swallow hull, no lower deck...I got some really cool Mithril Corsairs that are going populate her., after Aragorn gets done with her. Other than looking cool on my wall post tournament....I could throw some deck guns on the her and use her in Legend of the High Seas play too..whatever..a third finished ship for my growing Navy, I'll paint her in the coming weeks.

Time and Materials- around 12 hours, costs in materials is under 20.00 USD

Dynamic Duo!

Forget Batman and Robin, these guys are the original dynamic duo after Holmes and Watson!

 Some quick pics of how my team army for the Lord of the Rings team championships at this years Adepticon is shaping up my partner Chris and I are recreating The Warg Attack scenario from "The Two Towers"  My Rohan list features these two as the 2 man wrecking crew..having faced them both before running my Orcs..I know what pain the but they are, with the new Cav rules..The Rohirim got alot better..looking forward to what they can do on the table.

 I had stunning moment of inspiration late Friday night that had me working till the wee hours of the morning this past weekend. I've changed my display Idea for my "March to Mount Doom Army"
and came with great ideal for the display..its awaiting paint..but I should be able to show the whole army off this weekend.

 I've been working on "turning up the heat" if you will on my color palette for this Army, I have long history of using muted cold earth tones at my painting core. My armies tend to come out somewhat dark in person, and I am thankful for the appreciation they get, I know they are easy to walk right by if you dont stop to look . They definitely don't scream " Hey over here, look at me!!" which ends up
at lot times being a cheap sell in the painting competition and tournaments. Warhammer players know what I am talking about.

 Anyway my Rohan is going to pop alot more than some of my past work..not in over the top way I still keep a very tight pallet, I've just gone a little hotter on the colors. (these pics are  little washed out)

More soon , 43 days till Adepticon, I am on schedule having about a dozen models still to do this month leaving the first 2 and half weeks of April to tie up loose ends and get a display together.

Merchant House

 On a more positive note, I love the resin buildings from Tabletop World  A couple guys in Croatia with a passion for awesome miniature scenery in that Bavarian  old world style that's become a common sight in the genre. I don't own any of their building's, while not completely prohibitively expensive, the building in question runs $105 dollars shipped. Things like this are a slippery slope and this one of those things where you buy one, you will surely be buying more so before I got on that roller coaster I signed off on limiting myself to using them as my muse if you will. This merchant house below was my Inspiration for my merchant house pictured here.

 If you reading this your familiar with my Hirst Arts pieces and I have a good amount invest in molds
So outside of pennies in plaster and $20 for a new pack of plastic card for the roof (I used about half)  this piece cost practically nothing but my time and things  already had. 

 This is three section building with totally playable first and second level. the top level comes off and sits flat and the roof comes off..so if want use sans bottom structure as a forest cottage on another table it totally works. As is, Ist now the biggest structure in my little "town" which is made of old Armorcast building, CNC minature kits, GW kits and my own Hirst Arts stuff. This building is actually bigger than my "Inn". I plan building a new Inn, a huge Inn which is going sit on top of the Already constructed Tavern Board as its base...the buildings base is 16 X 18 so its a monster that will take very long time to construct..The upper section of this building uses 1/8 inch MDF and cereal box fitted with pieces from the Hirst Arts "wooden plank" mold. so this was an exercise in miniature carpentry as much as anything. experimenting with buildings like this tells me how long the huge Inn will take and how I want to design it.

 I've planned on doing another half dozen buildings and full castle wall with gate house and turreted buttresses (under slow construction) The town currently fills up a 4X4 table with a 1/4 of it being docks with rooms for two ships. 

 Not quite complete the building has fully constructed interior and with the new "Inn series" of interior pieces from Hirst Arts..will furnish it nicely...I'll show off the inside when its done but that won't be for awhile yet, I've got Adepticon coming up most of this was built in the Christmas - New years window at the beginning of the year..I just finished it up during breaks drying periods while working on my Rohan team army.

While certainly not as beautiful as its inspiration it will do quite nicely and fits my town well....I've got the Castle Walls and more Dungeon pieces under construction...all this stuff has been WIP going on 4 years now..so  dont expect it will ever be "Done" it just keeps growing.  right now its all on a 4X4 and 4X8 table put together, I dont think a pair of 4 X8's is out of the question when its all said and done.   Anyway. That's my Merchant House inspired by Tabletop world.   Built with Hirst Arts Molds 42,70,71,75, 701, 220.  1/8 inch MDF, Cereal Box Cardboard, Plastic card and some knitting plastic sheeting used for the windows..materials cost (other than molds) around $20...time, start to finish around 20 hours.