Orc's Drift - The Grand Finale

[Thantsants]

Cheers all!

Yeah, I am a bit weary of squinting down a brush at little lead men and its been nice painting something a little bigger - a river in fact. Its coming along nicely and may even be done by the end of the weekend...

The placcy elves did come out better than I thought they might - like I said not the most inspiring minis to paint - reread the old white dwarf with Mike Mcvey's Wood Elf army in and took his advice on alternating the colours on their clothing to lend a bit more visual interest to the unit as a whole.

Thanks Deafnala!  - the chap with the large plume is the Brommedir mini - I'm pretty sure he was made specially for Orc's Drift but I may be wrong - there is certainly evidence of crosspollination between the Orc's Drift scenario minis and other citadel ranges.  

http://www.solegends.com/citscenarios/orcdrift2-03.htm

I was wondering where you'd got to Phreedh! Congrats on your paternity leave - make sure you make good use of it - got a lot of this project done in mine... as well as helping out with rugrats!  
Its certainly a tempting offer - the wife enjoyed a birthday trip to Gothenberg a few years back but I'm not sure I could swing this one...
  
... unless she doesn't ask too many questions about why I have three suitcases packed for a weekend...  

On a completely different note - I struck wargaming gold of a different kind tonight when I noticed three large boxes the mother-in-law had left behind after picking her cat up. Turns out a friend of hers she was visiting was getting rid of his son's old Warhammer stuff and she nabbed the lot for me as an early birthday pressie!

Highlights (which I'll be keeping my gruby mits well and truly on! ) are the Man 'O War game - all the cards, templates, etc but no little plastic ships (another costly collection for me I'm sure!), 20 skeletong cavalry and 30 warriros from the old Citadel Skeleton army, a Dark Elf blood bowl team and ogre star player, a ton of D&D books, which should make good reading, two new plastic soldiers of the Empire regiments, plastic Bretonnian archers and grail knights and a couple of marauder dwarf Ironbreakers and slayers! Oh and tons of WD mags - newer ones but worth a flick through for the shiny shiny pictures!

You may be able to guess how I've spent my evening thus far...  


There may be a few things going in to my trade pile but I'll be sure to post it up in the bazar when I've properly sorted through everything.  

[Mason]

What an inspiring thread!

Loads of great old-school stuff.

Nostalgic and VERY well presented.

Thanks for all the effort, this is most impressive!

[thebinmann]

Thanks Deafnala!  - the chap with the large plume is the Brommedir mini - I'm pretty sure he was made specially for Orc's Drift but I may be wrong - there is certainly evidence of crosspollination between the Orc's Drift scenario minis and other citadel ranges. 

http://www.solegends.com/citscenarios/orcdrift2-03.htm

Yeah he is OD born, but made an cameo in the WFRP book too! (same name)

[Thantsants]

Thanks Mason - glad you're enjoying it!

Oh yeah that rings a bell now - thanks Binman!

A quick update - got the river finished that will featuring in several of the scenarios as - the river Canis!

Nice set of rubber river sections from Magnetic Displays -  although I may have overegged the amout of talus and other stuff as all that pva keeps distorting the rubber as it dries and doesn't let the piece sit totally flat on the table. Bit of bending here and there seems to have done the trick in flattening them out mostly...

River comprises of 2 curved and 2 straight sections

a bridge -





and a ford

[thebinmann]

very nice

[Thantsants]

Some more terrain - getting there folks! 

Amera hills - large and small glued together and a small one on the left -



Also finished off making up the 11 woodland scenics realsitic trees I started ages ago, as well as making up a load more of those little underbrush bases that you can see dotted round the pics.

New wall sections made from Hirst Arts fieldstone blocks - bought a 1kg bag for a couple of quid on ebay a long time ago and knew they'd come in handy for something!



Also finally got round to painting up the two carts and draught animals - another ebay purchase - not sure of the manufacturers?



They should come in handy for Ferndale Snart should he wish to evacuate his patients from Orc's Drift!



You should be able to spot the mealie bag defenses (Zulu stuff from Redoubt Miniatures) I've painted up, along with the brilliant barricades (front right) set from Ainsty.

Just a few things left to do -

I've made a start on a few test pieces - crit much appreciated! 

Log pallisade section for the Kachas Pass garrison - inspired by Silent Invaders amazing F and IW log fort!
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=16100.90





Bit boring but included for completeness' sake! 

Fencing -



and some drainage ditches -



not sure about these - I think the bank is too small but not sure whether it'll look odd if it was much higher? Also the sections have to be rather wide to allow a 25mm base in... 

Pretty pleased with this one though!



The mountain tarn - just needs water!

Afraid I chickened out of using the EZ meltable water effect on such a large area so I'm now waiting for the bottle of Woodland Scenics realistic water to turn up so I can finish this piece off.



Got these and a hedge to make and finish off - not too much longer now... 

[Pil]

Fabulous stuff Thantsants! I haven't replied in this thread for ages but I saw your progress on Frothers. Still, it's nice to read more of the back story, great work! The scenery pieces look very nice as well. As for the water, isn't Woodland Scenics Realistic Water an acrylic compound that shrinks heavily? I believe Malebolgia had some bad experiences with it but I personally don't have any experience with water effects of any kind so I don't really know what's best.

[DeafNala]

VERY NICE additions! They actually are inspiring; I checked them out a few hours ago & had the need to go off to work on some more Spooky Woods pieces. WELL DONE!

[Prof.Witchheimer]

So lovely scenes!

[Thantsants]

Thanks all!

Must say Prof - Witchtown is looking mighty fine also - not sure I'm ready for the big smoke yet so I'll stick to the more rural side of things! 

Glad to hear I've been of use Deafnala!

Chees Pil - thanks for the heads up - I had heard some people had had problems with realistic water -Might have to check out Maleboglia's experiences....

Mind you I either put up with some shrinkage or attempt to apply molten plastic EZ water in one smooth pour across the whole piece! 

[Thantsants]

Hello again one and all - long time no see!

Its been a while thanks to things being a bit manic at work and a lack of free weekends over the past two  months but I'm back in the saddle again...

This didn't help either...





I was expecting a bit of shrinkage but nothing like the cracked ice effect I've ended up with! Any suggestions for rescuing this without stripping all the Realistic Water effect out - along with the painted gravel and sand... 

Anyway - good news everyone - I have a date set to play the whole Bloodbath scenario. All being well I should get all 4 scenarios played over the weekend of the 2nd December, with reports posted once I've got them photographed properly and typed up.

Also finished all the terrain needed for the Kachas Pass scenario - the border fort manned by Erdolas Thringal and his Wood Elves from Fendal Forest. I pinched the idea for the log stockade and gate from Silent Invader so all credit and thanks to him! 

Just a few pics to whet your appetites!

Fangor Gripe, the Vile Rune Chieftain, looks on as his tribe attrack the Wood Elf fort.







Close-up on the gate



Erdolas rallies his defenders!





The Wood Elves'  Half-Orc prisoner, Silas Meel, escapes his cell...



Can the Elves hold out...

[DeafNala]

WELCOME BACK! I was starting to go into SkullDred withdrawal...not a pretty sight.
The battle scenes look TERRIFIC; you have a real flair for capturing the exciting moments of each conflict. GREAT STUFF!

I had a similar cracking effect on the "water" level of our table. I wound up doing several thin coats of dark then medium blue paint followed up by brushing on layers of polyurethane gloss varnish. First I concentrated on filling the low portions of the cracks to approximately the same level (but not quite) as the high chunks. Then a couple more coats to smooth things over. The result was actually very pleasing, but now I have to go into the sequence of error explanation whenever asked how I did that.

You can get an idea what it looks like here:
http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx269/DeafNala/40k/Forum%20Photos/Forum%20Photos/?action=view&current=IMG_2593.jpg

[thebinmann]

Amazing, again

Can you just remind me what paper you printed your buildings on

Great stuff!

[VoodooInk]

Glad to see you're back! I was honestly getting a little worried about you.

As far as the water effects go, I think you may have just layered it on a little too thin initially. You should be able to build it up with no problem. Check out this tutorial:
http://hetairoiwargames.blogspot.com/search/label/Tutorial

[Thantsants]

Thanks all - glad to be back!

Binman - its just printed on regular white card - not particularly thick stuff either.

Thanks for the suggestions on the lake - that is a nice effect Deafnala but I was hoping for that crisp clear mountain lake look.

Nice tutorial Voodoo - that stuff looks great. The product I used was the woodland scenics pourable realistic water - might try another layer like you say though and see what happens - can't get any worse!

Apologies by the way mate - not had much headspace recently to look into your excellent OP4s game. Got as far as reading the rules and digging my old epic Space Marine stuff out...