GROND, HAMMER OF THE UNDERWORLD

 The 1984 Minas Tirith project has been bubbling along, but I stalled as I started to paint 60 orcs.... wondering just how I was going to do them. I'm following in the footsteps of Joe Dever, who unfortunately painted his orcs various shades of green, and I really don't like green orcs. Also I was waiting for the Hinchliffe orc moulds to be ready as I thought I might use them rather than Ral Partha figures.

Another factor was the original article shows an amazing model of Grond, the huge battering ram used by the army of Mordor to smash the gates of Minas Tirith... 

Was I going to try and reproduce this model? 20 years ago I'd had a go at replicating it in 15mm

I didn't think that nowadays I had the time or patience to attempt it on a larger scale. The original model didn't seem to be in Joe's collection that was being sold off although I did manage to pick up the beast train that drew it.

So I decided to try and contact Joe's son, Ben. Without much hope admittedly. Happily I managed to make contact with him immediately, and in the course of an email conversation, I asked " do you happen to know what happened to that great big battering ram your Dad made?" He replied "yes, it's in a cupboard in my house.... Would you like it?"!

Needless to say I bit his hand off , and after a 265 mile round trip, I'm now the dazed and very proud owner of this piece of Warhammer history.

Considering this model is probably nearly 40 years old, it's in remarkably good condition. Only a little bit of creasing on the roof tiles and some of the arrow fletchings have come off, which I'll have a go at replacing. 

The wolf head looks slightly fox like, and I have heard tell that it started life as a walking stick handle.

As well as this stunning model, Ben kindly gave me a splendid wizards tower, which needs a bit of repair work, and then produced a box of his dad's figures and asked me to take any I wanted! I'll be showcasing these in a future post.

I'd just like to thank Ben again for generously handing over this model which must have been kicking around his life since he was born and taking time out of his busy schedule to meet up with a slightly fanatical admirer if his father's games and models.

Thanks also to Geoff and Solly Solomon-Sims of Oakbound Studios for company and navigating on the quest to get Grond.

WHAT'S AFOOT?

 Sorry about the hiatus in posts.... So much going on at the moment. Youngest lad starting secondary school, purchase and testing of a campervan, my other hobby of metal detecting kicking in because it's harvest time, and sundry other excuses. Here follow some hasty shots of what's going on in Broadsword Towers.

First off, I have taken delivery of 10kg of preliminary Hinchliffe fantasy castings courtesy of Oakbound Studios... thanks Geoff, that must have taken some time to spin. I now need to check through them to make sure the moulds are behaving.

I've also started painting one of each Hinchliffe Fantasy figure for display and advertising purposes. I'm doing my best and trying to create a mid 80s Oldhammer look. Probably a bit darker than I'd do them for my own collection.

 Over the past few weeks I've also been trying to get some terrain finished for my Robin of Sherwood figures. Something I've been meaning to do for ages. I bought some excellent trees from The Last Valley, and managed to get a grubby early mediaeval village finished. I'll do a proper set up shot soon, but just to prove I've done it...

As a palette cleanser, I also cracked open the Toyhammer box, and prepared some baddies for painting. Here they are underway.... I so enjoy block painting over a white undercoat.

There is more Toyhammer goodness coming in the form of a lovely Wooden castle my Dad made back in the early 60s. Just right for these fellows to attack.

Next post will hopefully be very soon.

THE HORROR OF LEAD ROT

 I've complained about the dreaded rot before, but when the rot sets in on Joe Dever originals, it's a declaration of war.

 Some time ago I bought a nice unit of Ral Partha tree shepherds from Joe's estate and they were showing the odd sign of rot when they arrived. All ten figures were affected, some worse than others. I suspect that these and possibly the rest of the collection have been languishing in a n airtight and possibly wooden container which will have been a major contributing factor to the problem.

You can make out the rot in the armpit and on the beard. Interestingly all figures were exhibiting signs in the same areas.

I carved out the worst of the affected metal and then applied an alchemical mixture of mineral oil and white turpentine. This was then sealed in with a coat of black enamel.

You can see how much crumbling lead I removed from the armpit of this unfortunate ent.

The picture above shows the patients after surgery, and awaiting cosmetic reconstruction with green stuff.

 

Here are the tree shepherds ( centre left) in happier times defending their woodland. Probably about 1981.

Hopefully this will at least slow the process of disintegration down. Happily I've got another 10 ents that are so far unaffected and awaiting the paintbrush.

T

A TOUCHING COMMENT

 I've been busy painting up a medieval village for my Robin of Sherwood project, which is still unfinished but the heat has made the attic a no go area until about 10pm when it cools down enough to be bearable.

I've also been in recent correspondence with Ben Dever, Joe's son about his Dad's figures and I linked him to this blog. He made the following comment which really made my day

" Love the blog! Dad would be extremely happy to see the figures put to good use!"

Thanks Ben.

THE WOODS IN THE WOODS

 Yesterday was the first The Woods in the Woods event held in beautiful Gloucestershire woodland and organised by The Woods creators Geoff and Sol. I took a few pictures, which don't do the event credit at all, but hopefully capture something of the ambience. Cheery gamers, great terrain in an atmospheric setting.

Our hosts Sol and Geoff on the left.

Three stunning tables to play across, and a very welcome fire as it was surprisingly cool for midsummer.

I could only stay part of the day unfortunately, but enough to get a couple of games in against Harry, playing a school of Bucca ( fishmen) against my Leprechauns. I'm hopeless with rules, so in true Leprechaun style I persuaded Harry to show me how to win at his own expense. Geoff was busy between all tables helping with rules queries. Hopefully by next year, I'll have the rules off pat, and give Harry the chance to win.

To add to the Froudian atmosphere, a cheeky Stinkhorn fungus was spotted lurking just outside the glade. 

A fine example of

Phallus impudicus.

Happy Solstice.

I

THE RIDERS OF ROHAN

Away from grime and back to shine with my favourite race from The Lord of the Rings, the Riders of 

Rohan.

Although I have reservations about the Peter Jackson films, the Riders were spot on I thought and I have a supply of the GW figures to do in the future. 

For this project however I had to keep to figures available in 1984. The recommended Essex figure is out of production, and I had 20 or so Heritage Riders already ( based loosely on the Bakshi cartoon film). To these I added a pile of Hinchliffe Goths and Sarmatians, added a few Milliput plumes and some green stuff shields I press moulded off a Heritage figure.

I was a bit worried about painting so many horses, but as it turned out they were quite fun to do at the end of the day when I couldn't concentrate on detail. 

I haven't decided which figure to use as Eomer yet, so this Heritage one will stand in for the moment . Theoden is also a Heritage figure and I'm not sure if I like it much. The gold barding is based on the Bakshi cartoon film but for some reason the designer gave the figure an axe instead of his trusty sword Herugrim. I painted Theoden's shield gold, as somewhere in LOTR it states his shield shines like the sun.

( very cleverly designed Herugrim from the film based on a Late Roman spatha for the older king. Eomer and Eowyn's swords were much more Saxon looking ).

Eowyn and Merry are hidden in the ranks and as Eowyn is one of the few people who can kill the Witch King it would seem silly to single her out with a different mounted model. On foot however I had to use this classic Ral Partha Shield Maiden, who armour proclaims her sex in true old school style. I did paint her obviously bare legs as trousers however. Merry is a lovely Ral Partha halfling... some of the best ever made.

Sorry about the appalling photo! I'm very aware of the limitations of my photography, all done with a wonky phone. I really do find it hard to find the time to set up the lovely diorama shots I see on other blogs, so apologies!

I'm now looking at a block of 60 orcs and some Uruk-Hai......

TEST FIGURE - SIR CORINEUS

 I managed to bang out a test figure in a Grubdark style... I am finding I can only paint an hour at a time before my eyes start to ache.

He was great fun to paint as I had no  aim or expectations. He is clearly heavily influenced by GARDENS OF HECATE  , a blog I very much admire. It's Grimdark but without being completely gross.

The shield heraldry is based in the Arms of Totnes, where Brutus and his companions allegedly landed in Albion.