Category Archives: Battle of Five Armies

BoFA Elven Cavalry, now on sale

Posted on 2010/07/27 | Comments Off on BoFA Elven Cavalry, now on sale

click on the image to be taken to the auction

The BoFA elven cavalry are now listed for sale over at eBay.  You can view the listing here.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Games Workshop, Middle-earth, Warmaster

Battle of Five Armies, elven cavalry

Posted on 2010/07/22 | Comments Off on Battle of Five Armies, elven cavalry

Blister box of GW's elven cavarly for the BoFA game system

Games Workshop upset a lot of people when they pulled the expansion packs of metal models from their Battle of Five Armies range.  Here we are, five years out from their initial release, and in various corners of the net one can still read expressions of discontent about this decision.  Among the metal models are Smaug, a giant, dwarven crossbowmen, spiders of Mirkwood, bats, trolls, and the ever evasive elven cavalry.

Yesterday, during my nostalgia tour of game stores in the SF Bay Area, I was shocked to discover on a rack a mint copy of the elven cavalry.  On the off chance there are still people looking for these models, I’ve decided to make them available on eBay beginning sometime early next week.  All proceeds from the sale will go towards a humble venture into the miniatures industry, but I’ll save that tale for another day.

(My apologies for the poor photo and image quality.  I’m currently traveling as part of an international move back to the United States, and don’t have my regular camera with me.)

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Middle-earth, Warmaster

Some Projects, early WIPs

Posted on 2010/05/09 | 2 comments

I’ll post updates for these projects once they’re closer to completion.

10mm inn (fantasy)

10mm inn with textured faces and future windows

Parts for railroad tracks for my armored Soviet train and optional terrain piece for Blitzkrieg Commander (1/72 WWII)

Future hedge pieces for the modular terrain I'm building for Blitzkrieg Commander games

My solution for modular terrain basing, medium density fiberboard

2 Comments

Posted in 1/72 WWII, 10mm fantasy, 10mm historical, Battle of Five Armies, Blitzkrieg Commander, Middle-earth

Recent Order, an experiment

Posted on 2009/10/24 | Comments Off on Recent Order, an experiment
Bjorti TrollsBane (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Bjorti TrollsBane (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Hostrom HammerSmite (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Hostrom HammerSmite (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Crowbiter (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Crowbiter (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Goblin Berserkers (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Goblin Berserkers (sculpted by Tre Manor)

Viking Husecarls (Kallistra)

Viking Husecarls (Kallistra)

50mm castle wall section (Kallistra)

50mm castle wall section (Kallistra)

Mongol light cavalry (Kallistra)

Mongol light cavalry (Kallistra)

Mongol heavy cavalry with lance and bow (Magister Militum)

Mongol heavy cavalry with lance and bow (Magister Militum)

Ashigaru on foot with spear (Magister Militum)

Ashigaru on foot with spear (Magister Militum)

Greater orc warrior with armour (Magister Militum)

Greater orc warrior with armour (Magister Militum)

I recently placed orders with three separate companies, Kallistra, Magister Militum, and Red Box Games.

Rather than order direct, I decided to buy the RBG stuff from Full Metal Planet, one of the two online vendors for miniatures-related product in Japan (the other is Malefic, another great store).  There aren’t many game stores in Japan, so this is the closest I can come to supporting an LGS.  I’ll post pictures against the grid when they arrive, for those of you who are curious.

This is my first time ordering from Kallistra and Magister Militum.  I’ve been interested in some of their products for several years, but have never made the commitment to buy anything, because the pictures don’t tell me enough about what to expect.  Size is the main issue here, but also detail, casting quality, and customer service.

I ordered this seemingly random selection of models (see photos above) because I’m still looking for good proxy models to flesh out my ever growing 10mm Middle-earth project.  I don’t really need anymore orcs, as Copplestone Castings has provided me with ideal models for the race, but I’m always looking for ways to add further character to what I have.  I’m also looking for models to use as Dunlendings, Variags of Khand, Wainriders, and Easterlings, thus the Vikings, Mongols and ashigaru, the latter of which will require some modifications with putty. Questions remain, however, about how these will work with the standards of my project, largely set by Copplestone, Eureka, and GW 10mm metal models.  When they arrive I’ll put them against the wall and take a load of comparison pictures to share here.  We’ll all know soon enough.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm historical, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Copplestone Castings, Kallistra, Magister Militum, Red Box Games, terrain

Specialist Games, Rumors

Posted on 2009/10/16 | Comments Off on Specialist Games, Rumors
Games Workshop's Battle of Five Armies, a personal favorite

Games Workshop's Battle of Five Armies, a personal favorite

I really hope the rumors floating around in various forums (see here, here, and here) about the future and fate of the Specialist Games division are not true.  Time will tell, and soon if word on the street is correct.

I’m thinking seriously about picking up another copy of BoFA.

Moose

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 28-32mm fantasy, 28mm SciFi, 6mm scifi, Battle of Five Armies, Games Workshop

Wyrd Molemen: Do You See What I See?

Posted on 2009/10/05 | 3 comments
Molemen models available from Wyrd Miniatures

Molemen models available from Wyrd Miniatures

Wyrd has been around as a miniatures company and forum host for enthusiasts since 2005, but they’ve come to the fore in the last few months with the release of their highly anticipated and popular rules set, Malifaux.  Leading up to and following the GenCon premier of the game, Wyrd started cranking out starter sets, blister packs, accessories, and loads of new characters.

I’ve bought into the game.  I picked up a Witch Hunters crew, Mortimer (gravedigger), Nicodem (undertaker), the Malifaux core rulebook, a burgundy fate deck, and the coloring book.  I would have purchased more, but due to the timing of my order (right after GenCon) they were out of many things that I wanted.  Fortunately, between then and now they’ve refilled their stock, and I have a full cart again.

While keeping myself up to date on information about new releases from Wyrd, I recently came across this picture of the molemen.  Another fine release from Wyrd, yes; but my initial reaction had me thinking of possibilities for these models that have nothing to do with the Malifaux universe.

What I see here are potential proxies for cave trolls for 10mm Middle-earth.  The hands are way too large, however; they will need to be amputated and new ones sculpted in their place.  But that’s a minor issue considering these are the closest matches to Weta’s interpretation of cave trolls at this size that I’ve ever seen.  (I know about the plastic pieces for Risk and WotR, but dismissed them for being too large or lacking the kind if detail I require.)  The models will also need chains and a weapon or two, and I’ll have to shorten the teeth with a Dremel, but that’s also easy to do.  I’ve got some in my cart, and hope to have them in hand soon.  I’ll be sure to post pictures when I do.

I hope that helps.  And please add a comment if you feel inspired to do the same or have an idea of your own for 10mm cave trolls.

NOTE: Images featured in this post are Copyright © 2005-2009 Wyrd Miniatures LLC.

3 Comments

Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, 28-32mm fantasy, Battle of Five Armies, Middle-earth, Wyrd

Beyond Smaug: Fielding the Other Dragons for 10mm Middle-earth

Posted on 2009/09/12 | Comments Off on Beyond Smaug: Fielding the Other Dragons for 10mm Middle-earth

If you’re like me, Games Workshop’s Great Battles in Middle-earth: The Battle of Five Armies box set (slight price increase as of late) and its supporting release of metal blisters were just the beginning of your foray into the 10mm Middle-earth hobby.  You’ve probably perused the plethora of catalogs of 10mm miniatures available on the Web dozens of times in search of models to use for the armies, monsters, beasts, characters, siege works and even architecture that were never a part of GW’s release plans for the system or have since gone out of production (i.e., Smaug, trolls, elven cavalry, spiders of Mirkwood, dwarf archers, bat swarms, and the storm giant).  Not surprisingly, one of the more popular searches is for dragons.

According to The Encyclopedia of Arda, there are two primary divisions and two subdivisions of the dragon race: fire-drakes (urulóki), cold-drakes, flightless fire-drakes (urulóki, fire-drakes of the north), and long-worms.  In the works of Tolkien, all of these types of dragon appear at least once as named characters: Glaurung the Golden (flightless fire-drake, urulokë), Ancalagon the Black (fire-drake, urulokë), Scatha the Worm (cold-drake or long-worm), and Smaug the Golden (fire-drake, urulokë).  As the names suggest, the colors of dragon include, but are probably not limited to, gold, black, and red-gold (Smaug).

There’s a vast array of models from various manufacturers from which to choose proxies for named or generic Middle-earth dragons.  Reaper, for example, has a number of great dragons that would potentially work for 10mm gaming.  Some of my favorites include Shadow Dragon, Dragon of Fire, Silver Dragon, Narthalyssk, Guardian Dragon, Wy’zern, Young Fire Dragon, and Young Ice Dragon.  But if you like the look of GW’s metal Smaug model for BoFA, then it’s probably a good idea to keep aesthetic consistency in mind when looking for more dragon models.  In my opinion, the range of dragons with the closest match to the BoFA Smaug is Dark Swords’ Dennis Mize Dragons from their Visions in Fantasy line.

The Dark Sword dragons match the GW Smaug in terms of both size and aesthetics.  Lithesome, perhaps, is the best adjective to describe the lot.  There is enough variety among the DS dragons to choose proxies for all of the Middle-earth dragon types.  Personally, I think either of the chromatics would work great for Ancalagon and Glaurung (although this would require some minor modeling with Green Stuff, since you wouldn’t need the wings for the latter); and for Scatha, either the green or blue dragon, because they are the longest of the bunch.

NOTE: Painted samples of Dark Sword’s dragons featured in this post are Copyright © Dark Sword Miniatures

REFERENCES:
“Dragons,” Encyclopedia of Arda.
“Dragon (Middle-earth),” Wikipedia.
Asylum Online Store, Reaper.
“Dennis Mize Dragons and Beasties,” Visions in Fantasy, Dark Sword.
Specialist Games, Games Workshop.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Dark Sword, Games Workshop, Middle-earth

Eureka 10mm Fantasy, Second Release, Size Comparisons

Posted on 2009/09/04 | Comments Off on Eureka 10mm Fantasy, Second Release, Size Comparisons

I’m pretty excited about the new Eureka 10mm fantasy releases.  For me, the most anticipated models from this release were the wood trolls, because I’ve scoured the universe looking for good miniatures to represent ents for 10mm Middle-earth.  I’m aware of nearly every alternative available on the market, but none of them were able to deliver the level of detail and aesthetic composition I was after.  Now the wait is finally over, and I’m more than satisfied with what Eureka has delivered.

That being said, I would have liked at least one or two more unique wood troll sculpts, as two is not enough for anyone planning to field more than four of these.  Fortunately, I think I’ve come up with a remedy for this minor problem: Reaper’s saproling models from their WarLord range.  They fit perfectly, in terms of size and structure, with the Eureka wood trolls, and will lend a sense of variety to my ent army, which will number around twelve models total.  I also see some potential for customization here, taking bits and parts from the Eureka and Reaper models to make custom heroes à la Treebeard.

I plan to mount the saprolings and wood trolls on 40mm round bases to match my Balrog.

Eureka’s new anvil dwarves were a welcome surprise.  Eureka sent me a free sample of one of their chaos dwarves when I first ordered a bunch of war elephants, and they were a nice match with the GW BoFA plastic and metal dwarves.  I only ordered one pack of the anvil dwarves, because I wanted to check them out before making a larger investment.  I’m definitely ordering at least three more packs.  These are fantastic models.  The anvil on the shields will have to go, but that’s a minor problem.

The packs of anvil dwarves include three unique sculpts.

The new warspite elves are a huge improvement over the elf archers and warriors (wood elves) from Eureka’s first release.  The wood elves were true 10mm (to the top of the head), but too small to work with any other ranges beyond the plastic GW BoFA stands.  The new warspite elves are a tad smaller than Copplestone 10mm, which, while not necessarily the industry standard, are the yardstick by which I measure all other potential models at this size.

Packs of the warspite elves include two different sculpts, spears-up and spears-down.

I only bought one pack of warspite elves, but will get at least three more.  I intend to paint them up like first-age elves: blues, grays, greens, and gold.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Copplestone Castings, Eureka, Reaper

New Eureka 10mm Fantasy

Posted on 2009/08/15 | 6 comments
Painted samples from the latest editions to Eurekas line of 10mm fantasy models

Painted samples from the latest editions to Eureka's line of 10mm fantasy models

Eureka recently announced the addition of several new models to their popular line of 10mm fantasy miniatures.

As with the earlier releases in this range, the figures are for the most part sold in multi-figure / multi-variant packs in keeping with the gaming philosophy of large units and epic sized armies that is so popular with gamers who collect this scale. They are designed to be compatible with many of the other manufacturers’ 10mm fantasy ranges that are currently available.

New to the range are wood trolls (ents), woolly rhinos, anvil dwarves, high elf reavers, warspite elves, elves on stags, elves on (giant) falcons, woodland creatures (wood elf heroes), and chaos dwarves with blunderbusses.  This is exciting news for Warmaster fans who have always wanted to paint and field an army of quality miniatures for the wood elf and chaos dwarves factions.  The rhinos may have potential for anyone hoping to assemble a custom ogre army like my friend DaveC.  I’ve been looking forward to this release since first learning about it from the author of Boromir and Kermit’s Hobby Page blog over a year ago.  I can finally add to my 10mm Middle-earth project decent ent models and unique rank-and-file metal dwarves and elves to complement the plastic strips that came with the BoFA box set.  Needless to say, I’ve already placed an order.

For more information, see the official news release, pictures of inked models from the whole range, and more painted samples on the Eureka Web site.  (For those of you wishing to place an order in the United States, be sure to check out the Eureka USA Web site.)  And be sure to click on the “Eureka” category of this blog to see images of some models from the first release.

6 Comments

Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Eureka

10mm Orcs, Half-Orcs, and Goblins

Posted on 2009/02/05 | Comments Off on 10mm Orcs, Half-Orcs, and Goblins


Note the size difference between GW’s own plastic and metal goblins for BoFA: huge.  The GW metal goblins, like their dwarves and elves, are a perfect fit match with Copplestone’s complete range of 10mm metals, Old Glory Persians (that’s all I have from them to make a comparison), and Eureka’s halflings.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Copplestone Castings, Games Workshop

Swordmasters of Hoeth

Posted on 2009/02/03 | 3 comments

under-the-mountain-3-february-2009-2048

This is probably the rarest model for GW’s Warmaster system, High Elf Swordmasters of Hoeth.  They are almost impossible to find these days.  I lucked out a year or so ago when I won these in an eBay auction.  That was the first time I ever saw the Swordmasters listed there, and I haven’t seen them since.  Those of you with a soft spot for Warmaster High Elves are probably going to hate hearing this, but I plan to take a Dremel to them sometime soon.  I’m going to reshape their swords a tad, and shave down their helmets to make stands of Galadrihm.  I have some High Elf archers that will get the same treatment.  Hopefully I don’t make a complete mess of things.

Click on the photo for a much larger image.

3 Comments

Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Games Workshop, Warmaster

BoFA Dwarves, plastic and metal

Posted on 2009/02/03 | Comments Off on BoFA Dwarves, plastic and metal

If there’s an “odd man out” in this sequence of photos, it’s Eureka’s elf archer.  The GW BoFA plastics come in a distant second since, like all BoFA plastics, they are smaller than their metal counterparts; but the difference really is negligible.  The Eureka halflings, metal GW BoFA dwarves, and Copplestone men are perfect matches in terms of racial height and proportions.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Copplestone Castings, Eureka, Games Workshop

Copplestone vs. BoFA Cavalry

Posted on 2009/02/03 | 1 comment

under-the-mountain-3-february-2009-20221

Here we have a strip of GW’s metal elf cavalry for BoFA next to one of Mark Copplestone’s Horse Tribe cavalry models.  That’s a pretty perfect match.

Why in the hell GW discontinued the metal BoFA models is a complete mystery to me.  These elf cavalry models are highly sought after now.  They’re nearly impossible to find, though, and you can expect to pay a pretty penny if you come across some.

Click on the photo for a much larger image.

1 Comment

Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Copplestone Castings, Games Workshop

More Eureka

Posted on 2009/01/27 | Comments Off on More Eureka

Here are three more photos highlighting the size differences between Eureka, Copplestone, and plastic GW BoFA 10mm models.  Again, I think the Eureka elves, while comparable in size with the GW BoFA plastics, are too small in relation with the hobbits from the same range; the halflings look dwarf-size next to the elves.  That being said, they look perfect next to the 10mm models from Copplestone Castings.  Of course, all of this is purely relative, especially at this scale.

Click on the pictures for larger images.

***********

Up next, Persians from Old Glory.

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Posted in 10mm fantasy, 10mm Middle-earth, Battle of Five Armies, Copplestone Castings, Eureka, Games Workshop