Snow of the North Downs - n00b attempt

Over the weekend I had my first snow basing experience, and it was both easier and more difficult that I expected.

I had expected that it would be easy to mess the whole thing up, and that if I got the process slightly wrong the bases would look like a mess. It was, as it happened, not too much of a disaster, and I have very passable bases out of a first-time use of snow flock.

However, it could look a lot better up close, and getting the 'right look' will be difficult to attain given that there are many different ways to use this stuff.

After glueing the slate and icicles to the bases, I glued the modeling sand and painted that black with grey highlights.

When dry, I painted white the areas I was to apply the snow. This was following the Winter War painting guide, and I think is a good step, as it makes the snow stand out.

Next I mixed the snow flock with PVA glue. I am unsure of the exact ratio, I just kept playing with it until it was at a consistency where I thought it would not run, and would be opaque when dry.

Applying it to the base was the hardest part, as the mixture was difficult to manipulate.

Once it was dry, the effect was of a hard, frozen snow. However, I could see that I did not fully cover the white paint from earlier, and so rather than mix up a new batch I painted a thin, watered-down layer of PVA over all the snow bits and sprinkled some snow flock onto it. It looks bit more powdery, but overall I am quire happy with room for improvement.

Empire Army Update

In addition to my Angmar army, I have also been refurbishing my Nuln Army - rebasing, repainting, rethinking. I was fond of my old concept of an Expeditionary Force led by a With Hunter - especially because of the campaign a friend and I played which forged their backstory. But the Warhammer Forge and the new Empire Army book releases have opened up a some exciting possibilities for a Nuln themed army that represents the well-developed backstory of the region.

The biggest issue I had with my existing force was to do with the painting. Not only has my basic skill level developed since I started collecting Empire in 2009, I am also no longer rushing to tournament deadlines like I was back then. I look back on my hastily slap-dashed state troops and feel very little sense of achievement. The overall aesthetic is very dark, which I wanted at the time, but I have since been convinced that they need more contrast to really capture the eye.

The first step was to change the bases to a resin-moulded urban design. In this I was greatly inspired by Dave Taylor's Armies on Parade entry. The light flagstones really add an element of contrast to an army whose uniforms are predominantly black. The old mud-with-grass basing scheme tended to lose definition of the models when viewed from afar (see my old miniature gallery on this blog). New foundation paints from GW have also meant my reds, whites and yellows stand out a lot more.

Painting motivation has been a huge issue for the last six months, though partly because of time restraints. We recently started an escalation league using the old Warband Rules, and this has helped greatly. The five of us participating have really got back into the swing of it. I will post more on this at a later date but you can check out our league website using the link at the top of this blog.

My 200 point warband consists of;

5 x Knights Griffon led by Preceptor
5 x Nuln State Halberdiers
5 x Nuln State Handgunners

The colour scheme for the Knights has been taken from the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire as well as the recent GW paint job on the studio Demigryphs.

I will post more pictures when complete, but here is a recent WIP picture;

Angmar Army Update

On the Painting Table

In an earlier post I wrote about delving back into GW's Lord of the Ring range, and on fielding on the dread host of Angmar. Since then I have been off to a decent start with this army, finishing Sambrog, the Wight Lord of Othrongroth and his sinister posse of Spectres from the fall of Fornost. I also finished the Witch King of Angmar Himself, and it was the first time I had attempted a big monster like the Fell Beast.

The Witch-King of Angmar

The Wight-Lord of Othrongroth and the Spectres of Fornost - bases are WIP

Recommended Warhammer Community Projects

It is always a pleasure to come across fantastic little (or not-so-little) projects from enthusiastic hobbyists. To someone who really enjoys the hobby these discoveries are like a breath of fresh air amidst the ever-present cloying smog of internet-hate and negativity, and I find they invigourate aspects of my own hobby. There must be a truism in there somewhere about passion sparking passion. Below are my pick of some quality Warhammer community projects that are well worth a look.


Warhammer Armies Project


Mathias Eliasson's Warhammer Armies Project is a testament not only to the diverse potential of the Warhammer World, but to the commitment and patience of someone who loves his hobby.

In the spirit of the White Dwarf rules expansions and 'back-of-the-book' army lists which have sadly vanished from the GW army books of late, Mathias has been churning out 8th Edition-appropriate alternative army lists for almost any thematic army list variation out there (such as Halfling armies, Kislev armies, Cult of Ulric, Dogs of War) and even several that have never been released by GW (Fimir, Cathay, Nippon).

Angmar Rising - Getting Back into LotR

Well, it has indeed been a very long time since my last post. And it has not been from lack of activity, I can tell you. An increasingly busy life has meant a focus on other things, and I believe my updates will still be infrequent going forward. But I would like to keep posting up anything particularly interesting that I happen to be doing in the hobby.

For starters, here is my completed Realm of Battle table.