Little Tiny Rampant

[steve_pickstock]

So you all know I can’t resist a new shiny. This one began, I suppose, with the Warlord Games Epic English Civil War Figures, see the thread here (viewtopic.php?f=79&t=26330)

Then the guys at Wargames Atlantic came up with their Samurai. The scenery that I started for the ECW stuff worked for them as well, and I was contemplating how to tie everything together, aiming at a system I can use here at home and as well as at the club.

Then the Orcs showed up.

WA’s set is excellent; effectively you get an army for Dragon Rampant in one box for about £30. And they have more stuff in the pipeline – Elves, Dwarves and Undead for Fantasy and a pair of 100 Years War sets – English and French which look quite exciting too (they’ll also function for fantasy armies).
So when I found the EVA foam mats the other week, the whole small scale army/set plan came together.

Next is scenery. I’m firmly of the opinion that a good table layout needs appropriate scenery.

The Orcs that I’m doing are going to be Lord of the Rings orcs, not the Games Workshop ‘greenskins’, which brings us to Amon Hen – the Seat of Seeing (again).

I did this a few years ago, learning to use polystyrene foam, in 1/72. This is my version, not a copy from the Peter Jackson films.

This picture is from when I used it in a battle with my Alliance and Linear A Amazons.

So I went and had a look on the internet and found these by a chap called Rengald on Thingiverse (I think), he’s quite prolific and what is best is that they’re free!

He based his designs on the 1st film – Fellowship, and they were just what I was looking for.

My friend printed a set for me, and they’re very nice. The detail is there and they’re well in scale for 10mm whether it’s for Warmaster, or WA new 10mm rules or Dragon Rampant.

The Seat of Seeing
The Base – there were areas where some of the polygons that make up the print show on the surface. To cover them, and a couple of other areas where detail of damage through weathering and wear and tear was a bit soft, I put some Vallejo acrylic filler onto the surface and dabbed it with a sponge to rough up the surface.

Top

The four tiny holes are for pins, I’ll glue the pieces together with superglue and then add some brass rod pins, for added security.
Together


Head

I had hoped to integrate this into the woodland bases I made, but it’s too big to fit, but there’s nothing to stop it being placed in amongst individual trees.

Small bits
The rest of the pieces, these will all be based and greened up.





Just trying out a couple of combinations of the pieces – I may ask my friend to print me some more and make up some more substantial ruins. (the players at out club love to hole up in buildings – no, I don’t know why, I prefer to have room to manoeuvre)



All the stuff related to this project – the orcs, any figures, scenery, the EVA foam mats - will be in this thread from now on.

[steve_pickstock]

I decided this week to walk away from the QL for a few days, and have a go at the ruins for a bit of a change.

The first thing I did was that I went in with Vallejo Acryllic Filler. I spread the filler on the surfaces and dabbed at it with a sponge to improve the surface texture. After that I applied AK mud effect to the mounting board bases.

I then undercoated the pieces in black using AK Playmarkers - https://ak-interactive.com/product-cate ... aymarkers/ - and then applied layers of their AK M004 Dirty White. Once that had dried I used an off-white craft paint all over the stone work, some areas were dry-brushed and some were stippled - the difference being that the craft paint covered better and was a marginally darker shade than the AK.

Over the craft paint I applied Warpaints Light Shade wash using a brush for deep recesses and a sponge to even the wash out over flat surfaces.

More - very light - dry-brushing using the craft paint, and then back to the AK Dirty White for stippling and high-lighting. I could have kept this going for days but decided to leave it there. I will go in and add some point washes - greens and dark browns in some areas but for now that was enough.

So this is the head with the base done, waiting to be greened up. I'm aiming for lots of leaf scatter around the base and on the crevices of the face.


I hadn't gotten to the 'mud' on this feature (or the next one), and to be honest I don't think I shall use it, instead it will be covered in clump foliage so that it 'peeks' out of the bushes.


This one will be very much the same - covered in foliage. The edges of the patches of grass mat - which will match the playing surface - look really raw at the moment but they'll be blended/covered/disguised with other types of ground cover.

Some of these features have small saplings modelled on them so they will also get foliage added.


I mentioned previously that the guys that I play with gravitate towards buildings when they play, so when I based the next set of features I decided to add a tiled or flag-stone floor. Each floor is roughly 40mm x 20mm (the size of a base for GW's Warmaster or Wargames Atlantic's Classic Fantasy Battle Rules, and how I intend to set up armies for 10mm Dragon Rampant), and it means that if there is one of these floors on the feature then it will provide shelter or cover for a unit.
No floor, no cover.

I may go in and do alternating black/brown and white tiles, like the red ones on another feature, it adds a bit of visual interest.




The red and white tiles was a late addition but I think it looks good and as above it adds visual interest.

The Seat of Seeing assembled - there is a bit of a miss-match between the two pieces and I'm debating filling the gaps, but I'm also inclined to leave it as is.


The winged things are still wrapped in masking taped because I'm doing that part of the feature in a darker grey; perhaps with some metallic highlights, I might even do them in bronze with some verdigris - any thoughts?

The Seat with a Dragon Hatchling by Reaper Miniatures (I think). Tolkien actually wrote a story called "The Dragon's visit".
Painted with paint markers and washes, I think it looks okay for 10mm.



Lastly a stand of the WA orcs illustrating the flagged floor feature.


Thanks for looking.

[Santi Pérez]

...Next is scenery. I’m firmly of the opinion that a good table layout needs appropriate scenery...

I completely agree with you, Steve. And your work in progress on those ruins will provide you with a fantastic setting for your games.

Santi.

[steve_pickstock]

Today's work, I'm not going to say very much, it's pretty self-explanatory. The green mix is a combination of rubber clump foliage. Warlord Games saw dust type flock, and chopped herbs applied over PVA glue.













Next up Woodland Scenics clump foliage.

[steve_pickstock]

As yesterday, not going to go into too much detail, it's nothing I haven't shown before, except in a smaller scale. I could call these done really, but I'm going to our local model shop tomorrow and I'll pick up some tufts to add to crevices, angles of walls and on top of broken masonry.













The Seat of Seeing - the blue masking tape is there because I'm starting to paint the 'thing' - no idea what it's called, Tolkien doesn't mention it, it's just an invention of Weta Workshop.



The first stages of the thing being painted, dark earth/ green mix, washed with black wash, then dry-brushed with a white/blue/green mix for verdigris before a dry-brush with gold. It look better in real life but I may add some more gold highlights.


Overall, I'm quite happy with them.

Thanks for looking in.

[Kekso]

My first thought was that it is chewed bubble gum and I was like
Then I looked longer and better

[Susofrick]

Like this a lot. Reminds me of the old Thomarillion range. The head reminds me of Tollund man.

[steve_pickstock]

Calling this lot (mostly done), these can be put away now, ready for when we actually play this. Of course there are still bits to do - edges to finish off, and there's a ragged edge of the paper grass mat I hadn't noticed before, but as I say, I think these are done.













Thank you for looking in, and your comments.

[MABO]

Very nice gaming pieces, full of details!

[steve_pickstock]

Moving on from the ruins, I started to get the army ready for action.

Yesterday I received a delivery from Northwind, some of Mark Copplestone's 10mm sculpts from his 'evil army' range. I also ordered some orc archers but the single figures seemed as good a place as any to start.


Dragon

Not a Copplestone figure, I'm pretty sure that this is a Reaper Miniatures Dragon Hatchling from their Bones range. Anyway he does good duty as a 10mm dragon. I've shown him before, and he was done with AK Interactive acrylic paint pens. Still have to finish the base.

Wizzard

Also not a Copplestone figure, this one was a 3D print from somewhere - Cults 3D, I think. He's riding a ball of smoke and conjuring flames in each hand, as you do.
Needs more definition to the hands and face, and the base doing.

Okay onto the Copplestone miniatures.

Saruman


Just a couple of coats of various whites to begin with, the face and hands will be better defined and more detail added to the figure - hair etc.

Nazgul


Now! It looks like there is a lot of exposed metal on this figure but there isn't - it's just the light.
'Painted with an AK acrylic paint pen - Rubber Black, I don't honestly think it needs a lot more doing to it.

All the bases need doing, but it's a good start.

Thanks for looking in.

[steve_pickstock]

If anyone is worried/bothered/annoyed by my use of the word 'wizzard' to represent a male magic-user, instead of the more common spelling with only one 'z' - don't be.
One of the first Disc World books by the late Sir Terry Pratchett concerns the adventures of a character called Rincewind, a very cut-price practitioner of the arts magical.
Rince is equipped with the obligatory robes and a pointy magic-user's hat, which proclaims his profession as 'wizzard' - which sums the character up perfectly.
Since then I prefer Rincewind's spelling.

[Peter]

Another wonderful project, Steve. Love those bases!

[steve_pickstock]

With most of the bases done I spent some time today touching up faces and shields. Sorry about the quality of the photos, I changed phones last week and I still haven't mastered the camera.

Battered markers. These show when a unit has run out of steam and needs to regroup, unfortunately this also makes them a prime target, until they can recover.


A unit of spearmen - heavy foot. The idea is that is this 10mm version of the game a base of 12 figures is worth 6 Strength points. Most Foot units in Dragon Rampant have 12 figures and 12 Strength points, so in this version with the game - I think - the increased numbers of figures adds to the visual impact and of course the 10mm figures are cheap enough to do this. (Plus the way they're arranged on the bases they can be used for other games such as War Master).


A unit of swordsmen (swordsorcs?) Heavy Foot or perhaps Belligerent Foot.


Heavy Missiles


The Red Dragon - Greater War Beast


"Sharkey" aka Sharku - the Old Man, aka Saruman.


A Mounted Nazgul, possibly even THE mounted Nazgul. Elite Rider Reduced Model Unit. Elite Riders are the top of the tree in DR so he'll be even better when he gets tooled up with all sorts of nasty stuff.


Warg Riders - Heavy Riders


And finally a group photo -

I could use this army as is but there are still a few tweaks I want to make to it, add a couple more units but I'm happy with what's done so far

Thanks for looking in.

[Ochoin]

It's coming along nicely.
Re; 'wizzard' I think JRR himself sanctioned non-standard spelling with his "dwarves".

donald

[steve_pickstock]

Tolkien and Pratchett - probably the most influential authors in my life, though I would add Robert E Howard in there too.

[steve_pickstock]

I have spent most of this week playing with ai image generators - trying to get ideas for bridges. But today I got my act together and made a couple of test pieces using the floor mats.

After a lot of thought I decided that the best idea was to layer them, as the double thickness sections would allow me to cut features like rivers into the playing surface (hence me looking at idea for bridges), and also they'd also be less liable to flex.

So I started by putting together two mats - one on top of each other, using double sided carpet tape. It's pretty instantaneous and apart from miles of backing paper littering the place, it works pretty well. I then applied a piece of model railway paper backed grass mat to the smooth, upper surface again using double sided tape. Apart from some minor wrinkles - which I can live with - that worked okay too.

The idea is that the grass mat will cover the majority of the surface and the rest will be made up of flock, my basing mix, sand and just general cover. That way all the stuff will blend at the edges hiding the joins and matching the figure and scenery bases.
I didn't want to cover the interlocking fingers (unless I can figure out some clever way of ensuring that the side pieces will match, but I will extend the mat out so it does cover some of the fingers.

I suspect some people will be wondering why I didn't paint the surface first, the reason in that painting after the mat goes down allows me to blend the edges of the mat better.

Speaking of the side pieces, because these are so darned fiddly, I glued some of those together, and marked out where a 40mm river would enter the board - basically in the middle of a side.

Close up of the cut for the river, it gives a 12mm high river bank, but that can be sanded lower in places.


After that there was nothing else I could do, except get some of the toys out.

Some of the Amon Hen pieces, Saruman, the Witch-King and some orcs.

Obviously the terrain pieces may need more work on the base edges, but over all they look okay. I'm planning on at least 9 of these playing tiles - plus 3 river tiles and some hill tiles, and with the woods that I've already done and the houses/ruins it looks like the scenery will work out well.

I also put of some of the Warlord Games Epic ECW pieces and started a refight of the Sealed Knot battle of Amon Hen. (It was a great week-end - what I can remember of it) The Royalists lost, but we always lose, so nothing new there.




Any ideas, comments gratefully received.

Thanks for looking in.

[Santi Pérez]

Fantastic Evil Army and fantastic scenery bases, Steve. Although I'm more into dioramas and vignettes than wargames, I think your idea of bases as puzzle pieces is very original.

Santi.

[steve_pickstock]

Fantastic Evil Army and fantastic scenery bases, Steve. Although I'm more into dioramas and vignettes than wargames, I think your idea of bases as puzzle pieces is very original.

Santi.

It's the way my mind works.

Most of my wargaming is done in places other than where I live, so it has to be transportable. It needs to be able to be broken down and put into a box once the evening is done. A wargaming space at home is a dream of mine but until then.

So the whole shebang needs to be a) portable, b) flexible - allowing multiple configurations and c) aesthetically pleasing, hence the reason I'm following this line of attack (to coin a phrase).

Let me also say I admire your work greatly.

[Ochoin]

I find the Epic scale very interesting. I'm not going down that trail but it certainly produces the look of massed ranks my 1/72 scale stuff doesn't. Ditto with Epic Punic War & Napoleonics.

One of my pals is starting to create a Napoleonic force and has decided to put more infantry figures on a base than I do. In game terms, the frontage will be the same - so no problems there. And they will look more 'elbow to elbow' that was the reality of Napoleonic formations. So quite accurate.

I am not going to add the 100s of figures & the re-basing needed to emulate him and the difference in our unit sizes (he'll have 24 figures per battalion to my 16) is something we'll live with.

donald

[Santi Pérez]

...Let me also say I admire your work greatly.

Thanks so much, Steve.

Santi.