So while I'm getting the hang of this whole blogg thing. I figured I'd talk a bit about what I've been working on before starting at Uni.
I have always been quite the geeky nerd: I love Science Fiction and Fantasy in all it's mediums, including model building/painting and table top wargaming.
Since I wrecked my leg and had to leave the Royal Navy, the Games Workshop hobby world has become a huge part of my life; it's kept me sane, kept me active, helped me to form and maintain a social life and in a round about way put me on a completely new career path.
I have always been quite the geeky nerd: I love Science Fiction and Fantasy in all it's mediums, including model building/painting and table top wargaming.
Since I wrecked my leg and had to leave the Royal Navy, the Games Workshop hobby world has become a huge part of my life; it's kept me sane, kept me active, helped me to form and maintain a social life and in a round about way put me on a completely new career path.
Last year I couldn't come up with any suitable ideas to participate in the new Armies on Parade competition, but just after Christmas I was really starting to get back into Lord of The Rings and loving the new Easterling models, and then it hit me: do an oriental themed display board for your quickly growing Easterling army.
And thus was born my Armies on Parade project for 2012, the biggest hobby project I've ever undertaken, it took nearly 9 months of research, design, material selection, building and painting... I was still putting the finishing touches on the models a week before the regional 'Parade Day'!!
But in the end it was worth it: I WON!! and thus I was able to go on and take my display to Gamesday 2012 at the NEC in Birmingham, the biggest hobby fair in the world!!
Granted I came nowhere near to winning on the big day, out of the 250 odd competitiors there were some truly amazing pieces of model art, but according to other competitiors my board and the two on either side of mine received some very positive reviews and with the Hobbit film premiering at the end of the year it's very possibly that photos of my LoTR themed board will be showing up in White Dwarf and websites.
I do not have plans to start another AoP project for next year, I'll have to concentrate on my Uni work and because of this Games Workshop has to revert back to being just a hobby. But this experience has encouraged me to consider painting something up for next year's Golden Demon painting competition the ultimate model painting competition...
What follows is my project plan for this years competition entry.
ARMIES ON PARADE 2012
Armies on Parade is your chance to
plan, collect, model and paint an amazing new army, display it on a two foot by
two foot board and show it off in all its glory in your local Games Workshop
Hobby Centre.
Every store winner will then go on
to proudly represent their community at Games Day, where all the winning boards
from across the country will be on display and the ultimate Armies on Parade
champion will be chosen. (From Games Workshop Website)
Parade
Day: 8th September
Games Day Final: 23rd September
Games Day Final: 23rd September
Project Title: The
Corruption of Khamûl
Gaming System: The Lord of the Rings -
Strategy Battle Game
Army: Easterlings
Easterlings
are amongst the most fanatical followers of the Dark Lord Sauron and the best
equipped of all the warriors at his command. Unlike the rabble of Orcs that
spew forth from the Black Gate, the armies of the East are well-trained and
disciplined warriors that will fight fiercely for Sauron, who they view as a
vengeful deity. As children they are schooled in the art of war, and their
womenfolk fight alongside the men as equals - in Rhûn all are prepared to fight
for the Dark Lord. Trained to fight in deadly phalanxes, their spears form a
hedge of sharpened blades that is virtually impenetrable - only a foolish
general would send his warriors to take on a block of Easterlings head on.
Display Concept:
The
Easterlings greatly resemble Samurai in both in appearance and background. The
idea of this project was to expand on this resemblance, to display an
Easterling army in an oriental themed setting:
-The Ringwraith Khamûl, a once great and powerful Shogun now corrupted by the Ring given to him by Sauron, sits astride his winged Fell Beast (a mutated Japanese Dragon) observing his troops as they train and drill in the courtyard of the inner keep of his palace.
-The Ringwraith Khamûl, a once great and powerful Shogun now corrupted by the Ring given to him by Sauron, sits astride his winged Fell Beast (a mutated Japanese Dragon) observing his troops as they train and drill in the courtyard of the inner keep of his palace.
-An
allied Khandish King (similar to Mongolian warlords) arrives through the gate
in his chariot, escorted by Easterling Kataphrakt knights.
-Archers
practice their aim on straw dummies.
-Swordsmen
train against Amdûr, Lord of Blades and a Dragon Knight.
-A
War Priest tends to a shrine under a twisted Sakura tree.
-Spearmen
and Archers guard the wall/moat and the walkway of the palace tower.
INSPIRATION
AND RESEARCH
BOOKS
·
The Lord of the Rings: The Fallen Realms
·
The Lord of the Rings: A Shadow in the
East
·
The Cambridge Illustrated History of
China - Patricia Buckley Ebrey & Liu Kwang-Ching
·
A World History of Architecture - Michael
W Fazio; Lawrence Wodehouse; Marian Moffett
·
The Complete Handbook of Architecture:
From the First Civilizations to the Present Day - Patrick Nuttgens; Richard
Weston
·
Japanese Art and Design -The Toshiba
Gallery; Joe Earle; Victoria and Albert Museum; Ian Thomas
·
Masterpieces of Chinese art - Rhonda
& Jeffrey Cooper
·
The Samurai Sourcebook – Stephen
Turnbull
·
Samurai Warfare – Stephen Turnbull
·
Osprey - Elite 023 - The Samurai –
Anthony J Bryant & Angus McBride
·
Osprey - New Vanguard 043 - Siege
Weapons of the Far East (1) AD612-1300 – Stephen Turnbull & Wayne Reynolds
·
Osprey - New Vanguard 044 - Siege
Weapons of the Far East (2) AD960-1644 – Stephen Turnbull & Wayne Reynolds
·
Osprey - Elite 082 - Samurai Heraldry –
Stephen Turnbull & Angus McBride
·
Osprey - Fortress 034 - Japanese
Fortified Temples and Monasteries AD 710-1062 – Stephen Turnbull & Peter
Dennis
·
Osprey - Fortress 005 - Japanese Castles
1540-1640 - Stephen Turnbull & Peter
Dennis
INTERNET
FILMS
·
Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
·
Lord of the Rings – The Return of the
King
·
Sucker Punch
·
13 Assassins
·
Curse of the Golden Flower
·
Memoirs of a Geisha
·
Red Cliff
·
Spirited Away
·
The Mummy – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
·
Mulan
·
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
·
Hero
·
The Last Samurai
·
Shogun Assassin
·
Samurai X – Trust and Betrayal
·
The Seven Samurai
·
Zatoichi (2003)
·
Zatoichi – The Last
·
Millennium Actress
·
Kung Fu Panda
·
Kung Fu Panda 2
·
House of the Flying Daggers
