Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game - Additions to my collection

So, some last-minute arrivals to add to the collection for Middle-Earth SBG.  Added to the rule-books that I have.  I now have the "War in Rohan" book that just came out.  Model wise, my Dead of Dunharrow army got some additions with the "King of the Dead & Heralds", as well as "The Three Hunters" box sets.  Looking forward to building and painting all of these, as well as getting them on the table-top for some gameplay.

War In Rohan
Inside this book there is a ton of information:

– The History of Rohan.
– 24 narrative play Scenarios.
– The War in Rohan Campaign.
– Sieges: Brand-new rules for fighting sieges.
– Armies: Rohan, Lothlórien, Fangorn, Isengard, and Dunland
      - Includes new profiles for a range of Heroes.
– Legendary Legions: Nine stand-alone army lists.
– And a cool Miniatures showcase.

King of the Dead & Heralds
This box set contains the following:

– The King of the Dead - This is an awesome model, great sculpt.
– 2 Heralds - Both of which have a banner and greats sculpts as well.

This will be a great addition to my The Dead of Dunharrow army.  All three of these models can lead their own warbands, and I look forward to seeing how I can use them in my army lists.

The Three Hunters
During the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the three hunters arrived at the Docks of Harlond when things seemed darkest for the White City, leading the Army of the Dead – and with them came victory for the Men of the West.

This plastic kit contains the following:

– Aragorn
– Legolas
– and Gimli

I love all three of these sculpts, and feel they are the best of the three models made for these characters.  They will make a great edition for the themed army I want to make for Dead of Dunharrow (Army of the Dead).


So pumped to have all this added to my collection.  I'll do separate posts in the future when I build and paint them, and will do breakdowns for each.

Until next time........

AdeptiCon 2020 - Looking forward to the fun

So, this year will be my official first time going to AdeptiCon.  I was all set up to go last year, tickets were purchased, all events paid for (3 of them), it was going to be a blast.  Then Life happened.

Anyway, let us hope this year is better.  Once again, tickets and events are bought and paid for, even pre-ordered a 2020 T-Shirt this year. the main game I will be playing this year will be Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game.  I'm signed up for a team tournament with my friend Dragi, I am also going to be playing in the Middle-earth Grand Tournament (Saturday Day 1, and if all goes good that day, then Sunday Day 2).

Here are the events and the descriptions:

I am looking forward to both.  I was hoping that my friend Dragi was going to be playing the Grand Tournament with me, but he will be doing a 40K team tournament both Saturday and Sunday, so maybe next year 😌.

I have a lot of things to do before AdeptiCon, and a lot of models to finish building and painting.  For the Middle-Earth Team Tournament, Dragi will be bringing his Minas Tirath and I will be bringing Rohan, a new Army for me for Middle-Earth.  I look forward to this event the most.  For the Grand Tournament, I will be playing my Moria//Angmar army, led by no other than Balrog himself.  It should be a blast.

Besides building and painting all the models, another huge challenge I will have is to build not one but two army display boards.  One for the Team Tourny and one for the Grand Tournament.

Wish me luck, lol.  I'm going to need it.

I'll be posting more on my progress towards AdeptiCon soon......

Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game - Battle of Pelennor Fields Box Set

Wanting to get more into this game, I decided instead of just buying the main rule book, I would just go ahead and buy the "Battle of Pelennor Fields".  This is such a great value for the amount of money you have to spend.

Another good bonus about this box set is that my son has always expressed an interest in playing a full Mordor army, and what comes in this box will give him a great start toward that.    Also, almost all my models are on the Evil side of the armies with Moria and Angmar, so I wanted to start a few armies on the Good side of the game.  This single starter box will give me a start to two armies of the good, Rohan of course and The Dead of Dunharrow.

 

There is a lot of plastic in this box set.  So looking forward to building it all and getting it painted up and on the tabletop for gaming.  I know I still have a lot of unpainted models for Moria and Angmar, but hey, who doesn't, lol.  But that is the plight of all gamers I know, and probably will not change anytime in the near future, lol 😛.

Below is a list of all the contents that came in the box (such a great bargain):

• Main Contents
• The complete, 208-page hardback Middle-Earth SBG Rules Manual.
• A 16-page Scenarios and Profiles Booklet.
• 12 Six-Sided Dice (6 Green and 6 Red).
• Rohan Range Ruler and Mordor Range Ruler.
• Forces of Good
• Theoden, King of Rohan (On Foot and Mounted Versions)
• 12 Riders of Rohan
• 12 Warriors of Rohan
• 20 Warriors of the Dead
• Forces of Evil
• The Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast
• I wish they would have given an on-foot version as well, little disappointed on this one, but still a nice model.
• 36 Morannon Orcs
• 1 Mordor Troll

I forgot to take a picture of everything together, so I snagged/borrowed the one off the GW website, you can click on this link (Battle of Pelennor Fields Box Set) to go see the official site for this box set.

I'll make posts of these as I get painted and compete.

Catch you next time.

Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game - Wild Wargs

After getting the Cave Troll completed, you can check out that post here, I decided I needed to get something a little faster into my army, as far as movement speed, etc.  After some thinking, I decided to go with a unit of Wild Wargs, and eventually the Wild Warg Chieftain to lead them.  These guys will not only bring speed but open up other avenues by having the ability to out-flank and get around the table much faster then my standard Goblins could.

Here is their description from the Games Workshop page, you can see then on their site here.

Ferocious wolf-like creatures that have found mutual cause with the vassals of the Dark Lord, Wargs are comparable in size to a horse and many times more dangerous than an ordinary wolf. Swift, agile and deadly, Wargs hunt in packs, usually led by a powerful Warg Chieftain. When the minions of the Dark Lord go to war, they often seek the assistance of such Warg packs, whose natural ferocity and speed makes them valuable additions to an army or warband.

Here is the Wild Wargs Stats:

I really enjoyed assembling them, and I feel they came together rather quickly and look better then I anticipated.  I did have to try to fill in some gaps, as you can see from the images below after assembly, there were some noticeable gaps, around the head area and near the rear and tail.  I do not have any green stuff and tried my best to hide the gaps, but not as well as I liked.

I really enjoyed painting these six Wargs, and trying not to have each one look identical to the next, I varied the paint scheme to several of them.  Two I base coated White and the other four I base coated Black, and I used several different shades of brown to help change the look of each one.

After painting, you can still see some of the gaps around the neck area, but other than that I feel they came out pretty good.  As a beginner painter/modeler, I feel that my abilities are slowly getting better.

These Wargs should be a blast when I get them on the table, and into the battle.  I look forward to seeing how well they do in the near future.

Until next time...

Hobby Tools - Purchase and Review for Head Magnifier Glasses with LED lights

LED Illuminated Headband Magnifier Visor

So, since my eyes have been steadily getting worse over the past couple of years, it has been affecting my Hobby, especially my painting.

I tried some stand-alone magnifying lenses that sit on stands, and those seem to work okay, but they were limited as the stands were smaller, and it was limited on where I could use them.

So I researched online and came across this wearable Magnifier Visor, and I thought it was the perfect fit.  I purchased it from Amazon, and here is the link if you want to check them out yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/Magnifier-Charging-Handsfree-Magnifying-Headband/dp/B07Q6WQ81W?ref_=ast_bbp_dp

Here are the stats about the Magnifier:

• USB Charging Magnifying Glasses: If you are still complaining that your existing head magnifier glasses are too heavy. Upgraded Magnifier, using electric board to store electricity instead of traditional battery storage. More light and comfortable trial experience.
• Lasting & Efficient Working Hours: Comes with convenient USB charging interface, no need to replace the battery and can be charged directly, just fill it up in an hour! One hour of charging time provides up to 8 hours of working time for rechargeable batteries.
• 5 Interchangeable Lenses: Multi choices of lenses(1.0X/1.5X/2.0X/2.5X/3.5X) to meet your different requirements. Best handsfree magnifying glasses for close work such as sewing, needlework, knitting, cross-stitch, embroidery, etc. 5 High clarity optical acrylic lenses packed in a box for easy carry and storage.
• More Comfortable to Wear: Ergonomic frame design and the bracket feet can be removed and changed to an elastic band. The nose bridge holder can be adjusted according to your needs. Efficient rechargeable batteries and soft rubber-coated nose pads can greatly reduce the load on the bridge of the nose.
• Adjustable LED Glass Lamp: Lighted magnifying glasses for reading, seeing your workpieces or text magnified up to 350% original size with high clarity. 100% quality GUARANTEE means you can free replace the new one or 100% money back.

I love the fact that you can easily interchange between the different lenses without much hassle, and I also love the fact that it's rechargeable, and I don't have to keep buying batteries like I had to with my other magnifiers on stands.

Another fact that I love about these, is the fact about being hands-free.  I am able to use them and leave them on, and when I have to look at other stuff, I can easily see over the lenses and don't have to keep taking them off and on.

I highly recommend these, as they have given me the ability to get back into painting.

Me wearing and enjoying my new Magnifier Glasses.

Until next time, keep on Hobbying.

DIY Terrain Build - Tutor Farm House

As a change of pace from building and painting miniatures for all my games, I decided it was time to get some terrain made again.

It's been a long time since I built some terrain, and it was really fun to sit down and just build something from scratch with no plans.

I have hills, rivers, fences, etc. for my table, but I do not have any buildings that I could use for games such as Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, Warhammer 40K, or even for Bolt Action.  Since lately, I have been in the mood to paint my Middle-Earth models, I decided to start off creating a building for that style of game.

So for my first building, I decided to create a little Tutor Farm House.  Below are the images for the steps I took, I did not take a lot of photos of every step but caught the major ones, lol.  :)

Materials All laid out ready to start work, and yes I'm messy.

Walls cut out, glued up and roof added on.  Used cardboard from

a small box for the roof and I backed each wall with a piece of

cardboard the same size as the dollar tree foam board is pretty

flimsy when you peel the paper off.

I cut out individual small bricks for the foundation, and

created a door with a brick frame.

Foundation complete, and ready to start adding the wood

exterior and then the roof.

Wood accents around the building are complete, and now to

start the roof.  I cut our individual shingles for the roof using

the cardboard from a cereal box.

The roof is now complete and I really like how the wood accents

turned out.  I cut out each wood plank from the foam, and

peeled the backing off one side of the foam, and used a sharp

object to create the wood grain.

Here is another look at the completed building, this time from

the backside of the building.

The next steps are to get this all painted up. I still have not decided if I want to put it on a base or not, with flocking, etc.  I really like ho this turned out, and I feel not too bad for my first attempt at a building like this.  One thing I know I did a little wrong, is the door is a little bit too big for this house and will make that correction on the next one.

Until next time, happy gaming!!!!!

Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game - Cave Troll

Continuing on with painting my Moria army, so pumped about getting these guys complete so I can get them on the tabletop.  I know that I have a lot of Goblins to paint, but I wanted to have something else to add to the completed list.  So I broke out my Cave Troll and decided it was time to get him looking good to the tabletop.

Here is a little scence from the movie showing what this guy can do.  If I were rolling the dice, he may have done better in this scene and taken out a few of the fellowship, and not his own guys, lol.


When I get the starter set soon, I will have a second troll to add to my army, but for now, I just want to get this one done and ready to play with,

He was really fun to paint, and he came out a little darker than I anticipated, but in the end, he looks really good and should look amazing on the tabletop.

Here are a couple pictures of him finished.  I did not do his base yet, as I plan on waiting until I get the entire army done before basing, that way I can get them all the same.  Plus, I have not truly decided on how I want to do the bases for this army yet.  If you have any suggestions, please comment below.

He looks better in person, as I still suck at taking pictures.

Here is his profile from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book:

Hope you enjoyed this little look into the painting of my Moria army for the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game.  Until next time, may your dice always roll good, unless you are playing me (just kidding) :).

Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game - I got Balrog, unboxing and overview

This is one of my most favorite games to play, and sadly, I don't get to play it that much.  But last month was my Birthday, and one of my presents was this awesome model from Games Workshop for the Moddle-Earth Strategy Battle Game.

Description from their site:

The Balrog is a mighty creature of great age and power. Awoken by eager Dwarven miners, the Balrog brought destruction to their kingdoms, overwhelming Durin and his doughty warriors in a series of terrible battles. Of all the evil powers in the world, the Balrog is amongst the most terrible and as one of the largest models we sell, is the perfect centre piece for an evil army. 

This box set contains one multipart plastic Balrog and includes options for a flaming sword or whip. Model supplied with a 60mm scenic base.

Here are a couple pictures of the box that the model game in:

 

And here is what the model looks like on the sprues.  I forgot to take pictures of the sprues before I dove in and built the model (sigh - was too excited I guess, lol), so these images are from the Games Workshop page for purchasing the model (Here is the link):

 So, here is what it looks like after I built it:

 My lighting still sucks for taking pictures, hopefully, one day I will be able to buy or build a lightbox for taking better pictures.

Here is a picture of his stats in the game:

He costs 350 Points to add to your army.

I am so looking forward to painting this model.  I know one place for sure it will see tabletop action and that is at Adepticon next year.

Until next time.

BMG - The Penguin: Crimelord BatBox - Loose Lips and Penguin Thug 1 Painted

Finally got some painting done this evening.  I have been having a lot of trouble getting into the mood to get some painting done.  But after talking to my friend Dragi about upcoming events, inspiration hit me, and before I knew it, I had two of the Penguins Crew painted and done.  These were pretty fun to paint, and I'm now in the mood to complete the rest of them as well.  I will try to get 2 more done over the next day or so.


The models that I painted up was Ricky LeBlanc (Loose Lips) and Shane (Penguin Thug 1).  Not wanting to be like every other painted Penguin squad, I decided to go a little different route on the colors then what they did for the BatBox on the Knights website.

Ricky LeBlanc (Loose Lips)

So first up was Ricky LeBlanc (Loose Lips).  I tried a different technique on painting the blue jeans, basing the model black, I then dry brushed a couple layers of different blues to get the desired effect.  Overall I think it came out okay.

Shane (Penguin Thug 1)

Next up was Shane (Penguin Thug 1), I feel that I got the jeans a little better on this model and love how the jacket came out.  Overall I was quite pleased with how this model came out, a little darker then I expected, but still happy none-the-less.

Until next time.....

Star Wars Legion - Getting Back Into the Game and Getting Some Painting Done

Well over a year ago, March 22, 2018, to be exact.  I purchased the Star Ware Legion Core Set and a few expansions on the release day.  I built the AT-ST, one squad of Storm Troopers and Darth Vader himself.  I included a picture that I took, which is the same image I used on the original post back in March of last year.

After that, I played a few Demo games at Games U in Gilbert, AZ a few times, then the game got placed on the shelf.

After GenCon of this year (2019), which I was unable to go due to financial and health reasons.  I was watching some live streams and started to get pumped about this game again., I spent some time today going over all the new releases for this game and just kept getting more excited.  So I decided to dust off the game and get my ass together to start painting up what I have.

So besides the core set, I also purchased at that time, as stated above the Imperial AT-ST Unit Expansion, as well as one of the Rebel T-47 Airspeeder Unit Expansions.

Below is what comes in the Star Wars Legon Core Set (as I am feeling lazy and don't want to type all this out freehand, I cut and pasted this from the Fantasy Flight Website and you can see that page by clicking this LINK).

• 33 highly detailed miniatures and eight barricades draw you into the Star Wars universe.
• Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader each pose with lightsabers drawn, ready to duel each other or anyone unlucky enough to cross their path. These miniatures are found exclusively in the Core Set.
• Two squads of Rebel Troopers (each with seven unique miniatures) stand ready to fight for freedom on any battlefield. Five are armed with A-280 blaster rifles, while two heavy weapons specialists carry a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon and an MPL-57 modified to fire ion torpedoes.
• A bipedal AT-RT miniature lends extra firepower to the Rebellion with three options for customization, allowing you to equip your AT-RT with a rotary blaster, a laser cannon, or a flamethrower. This version of the AT-RT is found exclusively in the Core Set.
• Two squads of Stormtroopers (each with seven unique miniatures) are ready to crush the Rebellion wherever it rises. Five are armed with their trademark E-11 blaster rifles, while two heavy weapons specialists carry a DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle or an HH-12 rocket launcher.
• One squad of two 74-Z Speeder Bike miniatures invites your Imperial Scout Troopers to zip across the battlefield at lightning speeds. The squad leader miniature (pivoting in his seat to fire behind him with his blaster pistol) is found exclusively in the Core Set.

So I have a project to do over the next month or so.  I am also working on my Farmers Guild Ball Team, as well as my Batman Miniatures Game Penguin Squad.  Oy Joy to me, but I am actually looking forward to the challenge.

So to get things kicked off, I started tonight off with painting up Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from the Core Set.  You can actually only get these two models if you buy the core set, so keep that in mind.  They have now come out with two new expansions for both of these characters and they are currently as of this post on Pre-Order (Darth Vader Operative Expansion and Luke Skywalker Operative Expansion).  Darth Vader has a different pose, and Luke Skywalker is depicted as he appeared in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.  I plan on grabbing both of these as it expands your options on the tabletop.

Until next time, may the force be with you......  :)