Lead Painters Leagues - Season 7

Lead Painters League- Season 7 commences shortly over at the Lead Adventure Forum. The LAF ,is for me, personally where the best of the miniature hobby is taking place. Multi-genre, scratch builds, old school miniatures galore, tons of terrain and best of all always lots of great ideas. Very little brand ID pigeon holeing across the board. the Lead Painters League or "LPL" now hits season 7, I only got the gumption to stick my toe in the water last year for the first time, and was pretty happy with the way I made out.

Its a tight 10 week schedule, where you have to submit new entries on the weekly basis, and you submit your first "3" entries when you enter. Prepping for Adepticon events has got me well on my way for my initial entries, but after that I'll be scrambling to stay of ahead of entry dates by a good margin so I am not trying to cram it in that week. A big part of the contest is not just your painted miniatures, but how they are presented. So, yes while it is a painting contest it is open to a public vote so your presentation certainly sways peoples opinions. My best stuff last year that won by wide margins won by either by clear painting caliber or was pushed it though because my entire scene presented itself as a mini-vignette and got the point across better.

That is the route I am going to try to go as much as possible this year as much as can, as a result I am really trying to plan out all my entries in advance, so while yeah I'll probably do three Lord of the Rings entries...(only due the Adepticon overlap) I am going to try to push the envelope dig into the lead pile for the other 7 rounds. My lead pile is pretty huge and its keep growing, So I will certainly try to embrace some of the new games I am interested it, and old stuff I've never got around to painting.  This contest is a great motivation and my fellow compatriots are, nothing but inspiring, looking forward all the cool stuff we are going to see this year. Things get rolling Saturday April 13th, so stay tuned, I'll be updating my weekly entries as they win or lose each week, my only goal is have fun and try to do at least as well as last year. The two big theme rounds are Historical Civil War and Science Fiction this year, and yeah "Rex Eleven" is making a big return round 10.

Scratch Build- "The Eye"

 Just showing off my first ever total scratch build. Other than a few decorative plastic and hirst bits..this is all Pink foam, cereal box, balsa, dowels, bamboo skewers, plastic card, leather stitching and wood glue.

 I call her "The Eye" a Corsair scout ship from the 50 or so ships set out from Umbar to ambush the City of Minas Tirith during the battle of Pelennor Fields in "The Return of the King". Aragorn, and his companions captured this fleet with help of the Dead of Dunharrow and help turn the tied of Battle.

 The ship is my display board for my Thursday night Lord of the Rings events, "March to Mount Doom" which is a single elimination 500 point tournament with a 15 model cap...My army features
Aragorn, (Heir of Isildur profile), The King of the Dead and 12 Men of Dunharrow. I have no idea how its going to perform. The Army of Dead was always a poorly performing force for its cost, I dont think much has changed under the new "Hobbit" Rules.

 The ship was fun to build. I originally had a different plan that didnt feature the full ship just a portion of one side as back drop. however after looking at couple of scratch builds online and watching the scenes from the film, I was inspired at like 2am last sunday morning.  I drew a hasty sketch that night, and in the morning when the wife and kids coincidentally were going to a baby shower, I was free to go to town.  by the time "the Walking Dead" came on Sunday evening she was done minus the back sail which I finished Monday night.

 I approached this just like I would make a plastic or resin model other that I had to design all the parts.. drew all the parts out by hand, per sketch- built my Pink Foam form then resized my parts drawn of the actual material used. and cut out with an xacto or my mini scroll saw. The trickest part was the bow ram...I made about 3 of them before I got it just right...

This is a scout ship meant for boarding I designed it as such.. Bow Ram, Shields, Boarding Spikes, etc, swallow hull, no lower deck...I got some really cool Mithril Corsairs that are going populate her., after Aragorn gets done with her. Other than looking cool on my wall post tournament....I could throw some deck guns on the her and use her in Legend of the High Seas play too..whatever..a third finished ship for my growing Navy, I'll paint her in the coming weeks.

Time and Materials- around 12 hours, costs in materials is under 20.00 USD

Dynamic Duo!

Forget Batman and Robin, these guys are the original dynamic duo after Holmes and Watson!

 Some quick pics of how my team army for the Lord of the Rings team championships at this years Adepticon is shaping up my partner Chris and I are recreating The Warg Attack scenario from "The Two Towers"  My Rohan list features these two as the 2 man wrecking crew..having faced them both before running my Orcs..I know what pain the but they are, with the new Cav rules..The Rohirim got alot better..looking forward to what they can do on the table.

 I had stunning moment of inspiration late Friday night that had me working till the wee hours of the morning this past weekend. I've changed my display Idea for my "March to Mount Doom Army"
and came with great ideal for the display..its awaiting paint..but I should be able to show the whole army off this weekend.

 I've been working on "turning up the heat" if you will on my color palette for this Army, I have long history of using muted cold earth tones at my painting core. My armies tend to come out somewhat dark in person, and I am thankful for the appreciation they get, I know they are easy to walk right by if you dont stop to look . They definitely don't scream " Hey over here, look at me!!" which ends up
at lot times being a cheap sell in the painting competition and tournaments. Warhammer players know what I am talking about.

 Anyway my Rohan is going to pop alot more than some of my past work..not in over the top way I still keep a very tight pallet, I've just gone a little hotter on the colors. (these pics are  little washed out)

More soon , 43 days till Adepticon, I am on schedule having about a dozen models still to do this month leaving the first 2 and half weeks of April to tie up loose ends and get a display together.