Irongrave Knight

I haven't posted for a while, and that's because I haven't painted anything for a while. I've been busy with summer. But here's my latest off the worktable: another 28mm Reaper Bones figure.
They call this dude Norgol, but he just doesn't look like a Norgol to me. So he'll just be an Irongrave Knight, for now.
He didn't take long to paint up; most of him is his armor, a  monotonous dull metallic black. And I did not highlight extensively, because I wanted to give him a dark, brooding look. So mostly shadows on this guy, no bright colors or highlights.

Mason Thornwarden 28mm

Here's my latest 28mm Reaper figure: Mason Thornwarden. Or, for those of you who have read the trashy young adult series Ranger's Apprentice, Halt.
He was really easy to paint; there was virtually no detailing, just a bunch of highlighting and shading on the different materials of his clothing. But despite the lack of detail, I think he's a pretty cool looking figure.

An Orc and a Dwarf

I have finally taken the plunge - the descent into madness. I have crossed the threshold from wargaming into Wargaming: I have painted my first 28mm fantasy figures.
They are the Orc Berserker and Dain Deepaxe from the Reaper Bones line, which I chose mainly because of their cheapness (the average figure on Reaper Mini is about $3, as compared to maybe $10 or more for a small Scibor or GW figure) and their appearance: though plastic, they still have that slightly whimsical trashy-fantasy air about them. And there's plenty of variety, too: everything from dwarves to orcs to elves to ogres to rogues to demons to dragons to werewolves. So you got choices.

Anyway, I'm really happy with them, and would recommend Bones figures to anyone who, like me, is new to 28mm gaming (that's pretty much the purpose of the Bones line - they're for newbs) or for anyone looking for a line of cheap minis that can fill up a wargaming table fast.
Reaper claims that you can paint Bones minis straight out of the box - meaning no washing, primer, or anything - but just to be on the safe side I treated these figures normally and washed them in soapy water and primed them. Also, both figures came with slight deformities - the orc had a bent sword and the dwarf was leaning forward on his base. If you find your Bones minis bent, fear not: there is a simple solution. Boil them.
Bring water to a boil and throw your figure in (I turned the water down to a simmer first, but I don't think you have to) or hold it in with tweezers for about 1 minute, then remove the figure and immediately bend it into the correct position. Then put the mini in some icewater for one or two minutes, and boom. Your crippled figure has miraculously been made whole. (For more details on preparing Bones minis, see this page on the Reaper site).
On to the painting. I did a lot of research on painting 28mm figures, because, of course, you use different painting techniques for larger figures. There are a bunch of different techniques, and after experimenting with a few on these two figures, I think I have my preferred method. Actually, this method consists of several different techniques, used on different parts of the figure. Here's a rough tutorial.

Start with chain mail, if there is any. This is because you're going to drybrush it, and drybrushing is clumsy and can get paint on unwanted areas, so that's why you start with it. Paint the chain mail black and then drybrush in silver or another metallic color. Easy.
Now move onto the skin. On skin, as on certain other areas, I use the three-tone method as described in my earlier post on painting crusaders. You'll use three shades of each color: a shade (or shadow) color, a base color, and a highlight color. Paint the skin in the shade color first; for my dwarf I used a tan/flesh combo, and for my orc I used a dark olive green. Then paint everything but the crevices and recesses in the base color, and finish with a highlight color on just the areas exposed to the most light. This will create a nice smooth blending transition between light and dark, as long as the discrepancy between your three colors is not too great. You will use this three-tone method on all skin, leather, cloth, and certain other items. (A quick tip: do the eyes (if you want to do them at all) after the shade color and before the base color, so if you screw up you can fix it with the base color.)
For my orc's abdominal armor plates I used the NMM (Non-Metallic Metal) method, then cheated by drybrushing in a metallic paint. The NMM method consists of the normal three-tone technique, but sometimes slightly modified to use more colors. For instance, for bright silver metal, you'll use black folloewd by dark grey followed by light gray followed by really light gray followed by white. But for my orc's armor, since it's supposed to be tarnished and rough, I just used black, dark gray, and light gray, followed by a drybrush of metallic gray to give it a more weathered appearance.
The orc's sword was done using a similar method; I gave it a base coat of black, then drybrushed it in dark gray and finallly drybrushed it in metallic silver.
Washes and filters are also very useful, and I used them quite extensively. (BTW, a wash is very diluted paint that brings out shadows; a filter is less diluted paint that is meant to change the overall color of the surface area). You have to kind of use your discretion for these; for instance, for the orc's leather arm thingies I applied a filter of dark brown over the base coat, then highlighted in light brown. One note: for my washes and filters I use Liquitex Matte varnish/thinner as a thinner instead of water; water washes leave dirty-looking rings in the wrong places and doesn't cover as well. My Liquitex works much better, covering evenly and smoothly.
As for basing, I used a 30mm base for the dwarf and a 40mm base for the orc.
So all this might sound time consuming and tedious, but it's actually quicker then you might think. Each of these figures only took me only about two painting sessions.

DBA Fantasy Army Lists

I've been trying to piece together some adequate army lists for some fantasy DBA armies for my wargame. As I have mentioned in different posts, the two best sites that I have found for fantasy DBA army lists are as follows:
Tolkein in DBA 2.0 by David Kuijt. This page contains 5 bad guy army lists and 6 good guy army lists, and:
DBM/DBA Middle-Earth Army Lists By Luke Ueda-Sarson. This page contains 18 total army lists.

These are both very good, well-researched and well thought out pages, but they are not 100% complete. They both only contain many army lists for a broad subject, such as Mordor or Isengard. As both of these armies consisted of dozens of subtypes, such a sweeping army list must necessarily contain only small amounts of a wide range of element types. I would prefer army lists that were more specific. For instance, David Kuijt's armies only contain two or three elements of warg riders, but warg riders were a separate army in their own right, such as the hunter orcs from the Hobbit movies that pursue Bilbo and the dwarves across Middle Earth. Warg riders are pretty cool, and it seems a shame to buy a whole box of them only to use a few figures.
So, to bridge this unfortunate gap in DBA fantasy army lists, I have decided to create my own army lists. Some of these army lists are based on the official historical army lists found in the DBA 2.2 rulebook, others come from my imagination.
Feel free to use these separate from or in addition to David Kuijt's and Luke Ueda-Sarson's helpful army lists, or make your own.
NOTE: if you intend to use these army lists for BBDBA, all orc armies are considered allies except Isengard and Mordor, which are enemies. If you are using these army lists for general fantasy gaming, not LotR in particular, they are all allies.

BAD GUY ARMY LISTS:
Warg-Orcs:

This army list encompasses all warg-riders as seen in the LotR or Hobbit movies and books, or for general fantasy. Examples include hunter orcs and the specialized warg riders in Saruman's army.
The following army list is taken from the III/44 Tribal Mongolians  of the DBA 2.2 rulebook. Both the cavalry and Light Horse elements consist of orcs mounted on wargs. Warg elements are treated the same as Light Horse, with the following exception taken from David Kuijt's page:
"Warg-mounted Orcs - wargs were large, fierce, intelligent and vicious wolves; they often served as mounts for goblins in addition to fighting for themselves. In DBA 2.0 Wargs are best represented as Light Horse, with one additional rule. In DBA 2.0 in the terrain section it says "Dunes and Oasis are bad going except to camels"; to reflect the special abilities of Wargs and Warg-mounted Orcs, use the additional terrain rule that:

Woods and Marsh are bad going except to Wargs

Warg rider cavalry are impetuous. Like Knights or Warband, they follow up one base depth after enemy that retreat, withdraw, or are destroyed. In the army lists below "2Wa" is the abbreviation for Wargs or Warg-riding orcs or goblins."
Note: for the terrain, enemies, allies, and aggression rating, you can use either the "Misty Mountain Goblins" army list on David Kuijt's page or the "Goblins" army list from Luke Ueda-Sarson's page.
Army list:
1x3Cv(Gen), 1x3Cv or 2Wa, 10x2Wa

Skirmish Orcs:
 These were the lightly-armed, smaller orcs depicted in Middle-Earth. Examples include Moria orcs and other Misty Mountain orcs, and the goblins of Goblintown.
The following army list is entirely a product of my own brain. I have chosen to make many of the elements axilia units because the following definition, from the DBA 2.2 rulebook, seems to fit skirmish orcs well:
"AUXILIA, representing foot able to fight hand-to-hand but emphasising agility and flexibility rather than coheision... These were used to chase off or support psiloi, to take or hold difficult terrain, as a link between heavier foot and mounted troops, occasionally as a mobile reserve, and often as the main troop type of mountain peoples."
I allowed a lot of choice of element types to represent the diversity of a marauding orc band.
Army List:
1x4Ax(Gen), 4x4Ax, 2x4Wb, 2x2Ps, 3x4Ax or 4Wb or 2Ps or 3Bw

Organized Orc Army:

This army list is intended for armies such as Isengard's non-Uruk-Hai battalions, Mordor, and Gundabad. They contain many different weapon types and there are a lot of choices to be made. The 2LH(Gen) element is intended to represent the orcish officers, mounted on wargs, that strode up and down before the ranks of their men... er, orcs... before battle. As the number of figures on a base has no effect on game play, feel free to put only one mounted officer on this general element.The Elephant element is meant as a troll element. Artillery should be a ballista, trebuchet, or catapult. You can use human heads as ammunition, if you want.
Army list:
1x4Bd or 2LH(Gen), 4x4Bd or 3/4Sp, 2x3/4Ax, 1x4Bd or 4Bw or 4Sp, 1xArt or El or 2LH

Pike Half-Orcs:

This army list represents the formations of heavily armored Uruk-Hair pikeman that assaulted Helm's Deep. Both Kuijt's page and Ueda-Sarson's page contain an Orthanc or Isengard army (the army of Saruman, mostly made up of Uruk-Hai) but neither of the army lists accurately represents the overwhelming formations of heavily armored pikemen.
The army list is ridiculously simple, but represents the Uruk-Hai army pretty well. After all, they were just a bunch of pikemen with their commander, Lurtz, standing above them with a sword. Thus, one blade element and 11 pike elements.
Army list:
1x3/4Bd(Gen), 11x4Pk

GOOD GUY ARMY LISTS:
The good guy army lists are better covered by the two pages mentioned; you have a lot of choices. However, if even these are not enough for you, look in the DBA 2.2 rulebook and use a historical army. After all, its fantasy. Who says Greek hoplites can't fight wargs, or that Braveheart-era Scots can't do battle with undead warriors?

Rangers:

I have only one army list for the good guys. While this may seem very disproportionate - after all, I made 4 orc armies - good guy armies are better covered by existing army lists. The only gap that I could see was for an Ithilien ranger type army - an army of elite scouts and skirmishers, armed mostly with bows and swords.
This is a pretty boss army, so I created an army list for it:
Army list:
1x4Bw or 3Bd(Gen), 3x3Bd, 8x4Bw 

Second Dwarvish Blade Element

So here's my second element of Dwarvish blade.

I'm not a big fan of the dwarf drummer. A dwarvish drummer is a good idea, provides a littler variety in the somewhat monotonous ranks of sword and ax-toting dwarf warriors, this drummer just looks a little buffoonish. It looks like he's flagellating his head with a turkey leg.

First Element of Dwarf DBA Army

So, as I mentioned in another post, I am making not one but two DBA wargames. The first is for regular ancient armies (my first two will be II/11 Gallic army and II/49 Marian Roman army) and the second will be created using the helpful army lists provided by David Kuijt, on his page Tolkein in DBA 2.0. As the title implies, this was created specifically for the Lord of the Rings franchise gaming, but can easily be converted to general fantasy, which is what I'm doing. These army lists are handy in a few ways: they provide a vastly less expensive alternative to Games Workshop's beautiful but pricey LotR and Hobbit wargames; they use the same rules as regular DBA, and thus those familiar with DBA may begin playing immediately without learning new rules; and all the armies required can be purchased relatively cheaply in 1/72 scale from manufacturers Caesar and Orion.
Of course, there already is a fantasy version of DBA out there, called HoTT, or Hordes of The Things. However, there are two drawbacks about HoTT, for me, at least: you have to buy a whole other rulebook, which at the time of writing can only be purchased from Amazon.co.uk; and it uses too much magic for my taste. I am of the same mind as David Kuijt when he says: "I use DBA instead of its fantasy variant, HOTT, because I prefer the element types of DBA and a more Tolkeinesque environment where magic is rare, subtle, and not a form of artillery." Of course, if you do like a little more magic in your fantasy, you can always modify the standard DBA rules slightly to allow room for magic, but the War of the Ring army lists are a great place to start. 
Thus I embark on an epic new quest: fantasy gaming - not to be confused with LotR gaming. While the difference may be marginal between my version of fantasy and LotR, I chose to go the general fantasy route because it gives more freedom as to the types of armies you can create. For instance, Caesar is coming out with some new fantasy sets that include Lizard-Men and Rat-Men, which are not found in LotR. As has been noted on my "Fantasy Wargame Shopping List" post, there are quite a few nice fantasy sets in 1/72 scale to choose from, and all can be used with Kuijt's fantasy DBA army lists. You have a choice from elves, dwarves, various human armies, goblins, orcs, wargs, and more.
Anyway, finally cutting to the chase: my first element of Dwarvish blade. The figures are from the Light Alliance Dwarves Set #1.

The runes on the flag were taken from Tolkein's dwarvish rune alphabet, found in the appendix of the Return of the King. Yes, I am a Tolkein nerd.

My Hobbylinc Order Arrives

I placed a relatively large order to Hobbbylinc.com for a bunch of new miniatures for my various wargames that are in some form or other of progress. For my first DBA army, Italeri Gauls.

For a fantasy DBA wargame that I am going  to work on simultaneously (yes, this is in all probability more than I can chew) - Orion Light Alliance Dwarves Set #1.

For my ongoing World War III wargame, Caesar Modern British Army.

Unfortunately, the set does not come with many figures to begin with, and three of them are the relatively useless jumping-over-the-wall pose, in the center.

Most of the figures were gray, but some came in a light brown color.

This guy is completely baffling. He is not one of the poses listed on PSR, and looks like a mistake of some kind. His left arm is a rounded stump, and I have no idea what he's holding in the other one. In another modern set I got from Caesar, the Modern US Elite Force, one of the figures was a Navy SEAL from the Modern Special Forces Worldwide set. It seems to be a Caesar trademark to insert a random figure into each box! In the case of the Navy SEAL, he was a nice addition, but this guy is 100% useless. He doesn't even look like a casualty, otherwise I would use him as a wounded soldier. 

And lastly, Imex Confederate Infantry. These guys are for an American Civil War diorama that I have been commissioned to make for a middle school classroom. All expenses paid. The diorama is going to be for the battle of Hazel Grove. I'll post on the details of this project as soon as I can. 

So, if anyone is keeping track, I am juggling no less than four projects: an ancient DBA wargame, a fantasy DBA wargame, a World War III wargame, and a Civil War diorama. Chances are, knowing myself as I do, I will end up immersing myself in another project of some sort before I complete any of the current ones. Oh, well. I don't have a deadline of any kind, so I'll just keep plugging away.

Fantasy Wargame Shopping Checklist

I've been contemplating starting a fantasy wargame for some time now. It's just one of those ideas that stews on the back burner until either it starts burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan or you finally remember it and do something with it. There are a lot of really cool 1/72 fantasy figures out there, and they're a heck of a lot cheaper than models from an official wargame, such as Warhammer. It would be really cool to get a few armies, paint them up, and let them do battle with swords and sorcery.
So here's my Fantasy Wargame Shopping Checklist. It contains all the available (relatively) cheap 1/72 fantasy armies out there, as well as some historical armies that I think would work with the fantasy theme. Of course, these latter are chosen purely based on my opinion, and you can get whatever historical armies you think will go well with your fantasy world. Or, for the even more imaginative, you can customize your armies even further - for instance, headswapping Greek helmets onto your elves. Sounds cool to me. Use your imagination. It is, after all, fantasy. No rules.
Anyway, this is just a list of all the available fantasy armies, compiled here for your convenience. For anyone looking to create a fantasy world/wargame, pick and choose to your heart's content.
Also, provided here is a link to Plastic Soldier Review's review of the Caesar line of fantasy products. Normally PSR only reviews historical sets, so this is special.  PSR Caesar Fantasy Review.
BTW, the Light and Dark Alliance sets are manufactured by Orion.

Good armies (fantasy):
Light Alliance Elves Set #1 (40 figures) - 72004
Light Alliance Dwarves Set #1 (44 figures) - 72007
Light Alliance Dwarves Set #2 (44 figures) - 72008
Caesar Fantasy Heroic Adventurers (15+ random figures) - 104
Caesar Fantasy Dwarves(35) - 101
Caesar Fantasy Elves (37) - 102

Good armies (historical):Zvezda Vikings (41 figures) - 8046
Caesar Philistine Warriors (42 figures) - 46
Caesar Celt Warriors (36 figures - 64
Caesar European Foot Soldiers and Archers (34 figures) - 88
Caesar Dismounted Crusaders (34 figures) -86
HaT El Cid Spanish Infantry (96 figures) - 8176

Evil armies (fantasy):
Caesar Orc Warriors (35 figures) - 106
Caesar Goblin Warriors (35 figures) - 105
Dark Alliance Orcs Set #1 (45 figures) - 72001
Dark Alliance Orcs Set #1 (50 figures) - 72002
Dark Alliance Orcs Set #3 (40 figures) - 72003
Dark Alliance Light Warg Orcs (12 mounted figures) - 72009
Dark Alliance Heavy Warg Orcs (12 mounted figures) - 72010
Dark Alliance Light Warriors of the Dead (40 figures) - 72011
Dark Alliance Heavy Warriors of the Dead (40 figures) - 72012
Dark Alliance Light Warriors of the Dead Cavalry (10 mounted, 2 foot figures) - 72013
Dark Alliance Heavy Warriors of the Dead Cavalry (10 mounted, 2 foot figures) - 72014
Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set #1 Pikemen (32 figures) - 72015
Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set #2 Infantry (44 figures) - 72016
Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set #3 (40 figures) - 72017
Dark Alliance Warg Half-Orcs (12 mounted figuers) - 72018
Dark Alliance Wargs (30 unmounted wargs) - 72019

Evil armies (historical):
Zvezda War Elephants III-I BC (2 elephants and 7 figures) - 8011
Zvezda Scythian Cavalry (18  mounted figures) - 8069
Zvezda Persian Infantry (42 figures) - 8006