The ruins of Only War

 

  A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I'm working on a some terrain and that a good buddy sent me a set to work on.  I promised that I would blog about it, but I got smacked in the face by real life and I had to put it on pause for way too long.  I've finally started working on it and this is both to show it off and my work-in-progress.  

  Only War terrain is specifically designed for 40k, but it isn't rife with the skulls that decorate the grimdark setting, meaning that the ruins can be system-agnostic.  This matters if you happen to play other mini wargames but still want to fight through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world.  If you are a 40k player, this terrain is perfect for the newest scenario packs (Pariah Nexus, I think) as well as meeting the cover standards for the tournaments.  For the more casual player, these are awesomely-detailed ruins that can really create that setting that drives a narrative.  

  After washing and priming the buildings, I decided to take some pictures to show off the detail.  Now these are definitely 'printed' and you can see some the 'ribbing' if you look up close.  But the detail is crisp and the printed aspects are almost impossible to see.  My favorite aspect of these is the non-symmetrical aspect of everything.  The bricks of the buildings are not just a grid patter, the decorations aren't just 'mirrored' from one side of the ruin to the other, and there is 'volume' to it all.  Unlike the GW buildings- these aren't super-thin and actually represent how thick brick walls would be.  These are very well-designed!

  At this point, I had to decide how I wanted to paint these ruins.  Everyone does the trusty gray (including myself , especially in that last post about Cityfight terrain), and these buildings were certainly modeled on the old GW Cityfight terrain already, so the choice is normally obvious.  But I wanted to be different.  I figured to paint these buildings in a sandstone color- something that could still be gray but have a different enough tone to even stand out from the concrete grounds they stand on.  So I busted out the airbrush, knowing that I need more practice and planning on it here.  So far, I've simply based the buildings with the Coffee color (11344) from Anita's All-Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint.  My next steps are to concoct a wash using Crayola powder (and probably around 60 years aold by now) and some kind of flow agent to weather the walls and then to start the tedious process of brush-basecoating the details.  I must admit that these are far less work than the GW versions...

  I will return with even more progress pictures.  I'm still painting Lord of the Rings minis and have to build some terrain for that as well, so this project will have to marinate for a bit.  But I'll be back with it sooner than you think!  Be sure to check out Only War terrain- I haven't even finished it yet and I'm loving it!  It might even be a fun project for you too.  

As always- Happy Hobbying and check out Only War!!!

Getting ready to hunt

   Everyone who's into fantasy still knows of and likely adores the Lord of the Rings movies.  Peter Jackson's trilogy is so good that we seek out the longer versions of the move to waste half-a-day per to fall into.  And from that came many great things for us nerds, not least of which is the Lord of the Rings game for GW (yes, my bar-code is showing again).  

  I constantly rant and rave about the unsung greatness of this game, especially when played in tandem with the story itself.  Years ago, GW's Lord of the Rings SBG was based wholly on the movies.  Eventually, the blue-book expansions came out and focused on the Ringbearer's quest and made the scenarios to follow the books more closely.  These scenarios reflect the best part of the game.

  My DnD group is on hiatus right now for the holidays, but my buddies within are still willing to gather and nerd-out with me.  Since we're not playing DnD and I don't want to destroy their enthusiasm by dumping a wargame and overloading them, and they like the Lord of the Rings...  One of my buddies has all the extended edition movies and we have comfortable seating to sit back for hours.  Oh, and I have the LotR SBG for the scenarios that we're watching!  Well, I think that makes this decision easy.  

  It turns out that I no longer have the ready resources of my old gunship and now have to rely on my personal collection.  That personal collection has some holes (such as no Moria army or Balrog because I'm so used to have one, fully painted, in the figure case right there!) or unfinished models.  That means I have to do some work.  As I poured over the collection and thought about the movies we were watching, I tried to find the most exciting scenarios that showed off the Fellowship the best.  I chose Amon Hen.

from Zorpazorp, of course!

  I have all the Uruk-hai Scouts built and painted (it was my very first force in 2001), including Lurtz.  I obviously had the Fellowship fully painted (for probably the 30th time as I had run 5 shops and we put out at least one new 're-imagining' of that movie's hero group every time), but I don't have a couple of things.  I need a ruined stone throne (the famous Chair of Seeing or something like that) for Frodo to hide in, and I need a boat.  Amon Hen is exciting because it's very scenic (it is the woods and next to a river with an ancient ruins- beautiful!) and the ambush is actually difficult (it did result in the death of Boromir, after all).  Which reminds me- now I need to paint up dying Boromir too!

Ah, metal miniatures, how I miss thee!

  Of course, the Ambush at Amon Hen breaks the Fellowship, seeing Merry and Pippin kidnapped, Frodo and Sam slipping away, and Boromir falling.  Oh, and Lurtz (from the movies) being killed.  That left Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli with the choice of folling the Ringbearer or trying to save the troublesome hobbits from Saruman's legion.  They chose to "Hunt some orcs!"  Some of my favorite LotR models were for that scenario and that provides a great bridge between the first and second movies.  Naturally, that means I have to paint the three hunters, and Ugluk (the Uruk that slew the Orc that tried to eat the hobbit).  Painting's back on the menu, boys!

Basecoat done, now to decide on technique...

  Right now, I have a few projects to complete pretty quickly.  In one week, I will have the terrain, miniatures, and scenarios ready for my buddies, and the ability to show off this underrated game.  I will definitely post more to show off the finished models and terrain and even share the results of the scenarios and if it would have changed the story at all.  Let me know if you've ever tried the SBG from GW and what you thought!  

  As always, happy hobbying!