Monday, 2 February 2026

Terrain is everything - Middle Earth Osgiliath Ruins - Tower

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I know it's been a while but I've actually been #PaintingWarhammer on some MESBG terrain I was lucky enough to get for Christmas. These were all 3D printed sets on Amazon that my wife and my mate Pete got for me. Alternatively you can pick them up at www.qp3dwargames.co.uk The tall tower got it's dome blessed with Verdigris 🗽and is almost complete.


This ruin is a little further behind.


I wanted to put some 'soil' on the walkway, there'll be some grass on there too.


 It might not make a lot of sense but it will help it match up with the MESBG boards at Otty's when they're complete.


Particularly when the top piece is used separately.


This corner ruin is a bit further on.


The B&Q Ottawa emulsion paint is working really well for the drybrush, even if my brybrushing is really rough - it's good enough.


The viaduct is behind. This is in part du to the added basing material on top. All the additional sand glued on, then painted brown and highlighted. 


The corner tower ruin also was textured up.


The top piece was highlighted. I suspect I'll use this separately too. 


It seems unnecessary as a vertical extension. Whereas it would be more useful as additional low-level terrain. 


The brown is bold, but I didn't want anymore grey adding to the terrain.


Not to mention that most of Otty's exposed dirt in a tan colour and this would help me blend it in.


Around this time of year I talk about my post-Christmas malaise. Usually, I suggest the feeling is different to the previous year, which is either true or me trying to convince myself it's not. Regardless I have found very little motivation to go out to the shed to paint. I'm tired so much, the weather is awful and I just don't want to. Then I feel guilty these aren't done as they could have so easily been finished by now. It's a tough one and it's made the blog pretty quiet for January. But I am not going to beat myself up about it. They'll be done eventually, patience and understanding for 2026!

Thursday, 22 January 2026

Battle record - Middle Earth Goblin Town Vs Uruk Berserkers #MESBG - 22/01/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been playing MESBG again in preparation for going to Warhammer World! 


I got my Goblin Town boys, while Otty had rounded up his Uruk Berserkers. 


Even the Orcs and Troll have been converted/painted to look like their bigger brothers.


We were set up on Otty's LEGO Helm's Deep board. It was the Assassin mission. So I chose Gollum as my assassin, with only and Uruk Captain as the target.


My first dice roll was a 6 to begin deployment. I wasn't even that cautious with it. I didn't win priority, but Otty gave it to me.


And turn 1, once again my dice were on fire! 🎲🔥 I managed to kill 6 Berserkers in the first turn, only losing 2 Goblins in return.


And that had a massive impact on the remainder of the game. Gollum put the ring on and went hunting the Captain, over the other side of the rough ground. But he has Mountain Dweller, so ignores difficult terrain.


However, the Goblin King got to him first, literally standing on the invisible ring bearer to get to him.


Otty came back strong to kill a lot of Goblins, but he was running out of  Uruks and Might points. We called it here


Again, my dice rolling was the talk of the night. Closely followed by Otty now unsure his low-model count would prove costly at the tournament. Decisions still to be made.


Meanwhile, Otty and Ben had set up the Adeptus Titanicus board for our next game in a week or two.


His Aeldari force looks amazing on his snow baord.


Even my red buildings look cool.


Just because they're red doesn;t mean they won't work on a white board.


I mean he's heavily outgunned in this cinematic set up.


We'll have create a fair list when we get to play.



Wednesday, 21 January 2026

Terrain is everything - Middle Earth Osgiliath Ruins from QP3D Wargames

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on some MESBG terrain I was lucky enough to get for Christmas. These were all 3D printed sets on Amazon that my wife and my mate Pete got for me. Alternatively you can pick them up at www.qp3dwargames.co.uk I started with prime with of yellow primer, filler to help cover some of the FDM printer lines. I should have read the supplied instructions that recommends 2 to 3 coats of this. But I didn't. That said, for FDM, the lines aren't that bad at all and one coat managed this.


I then sprayed it with a cheap grey primer and then a zenithal white to get the pale grey/white Osgiliath colour I was hoping for. I even added some splatter spray effect, to give the impression of  mottled stone. Two further coats of spray helped with the lines even more, but if we were up to 5 coats with 3 filler/primer who knows how smooth they'd look.


Each piece was then washed with a grey/dark tone mix. Here the top building has already had a Stonewall Grey drybrush. Here I realised I'd need to mix a similar colour from cheap grey and white craft acrylics, as I'd use all my Stonewall otherwise. I was a little disheartened that a fair bit of my spray pattern and zenithal highlights were erased by the wash and subsequent highlights.


With my Stonewall mix I drybrushed the entire tower. Then used my Miniature Paints Cream to highlight to top. Realised the same issue about using up my good paint and actually switched to a B&Q emulsion tester pot of Ottawa paint. It's an off-white and was great,


I then added some AP Green Tone wash to create mildew stains on the stone, with some Basilicanum Grey Contrast paint added to make some variety in the colouring.


The rest of the tower was still to be done.


Here I added Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust [similar to Typhus Corrosion]. Its a fine texture paint, which did an amazing job of smoothing out the FDM Lines - the entire model would look great in this after a prime. It would give it that fine texture on the stonework too.


Naturally I want to paint the dome as Blessed Verdigris🗽but that brown does look awesome as a dull bronze, challenging my usual proclivities. We'll have to see what comes next.

Sunday, 18 January 2026

Battle record - Star Wars Legion - 18/01/26

Afternoon and once again we're back at Otty's shed playing Star Wars Legion, Wookies and Clones V's Droids. Thursday night's session had been postponed until Sunday due to work commitments. I didn't take too many pictures of the board but once again my dice were on fire! 🎲🔥


So much so it was pretty much the talking point for the night. When you're rolling is so good folk want to stop playing at 9:20pm it's not ideal. But it's not like I can help it. Or, that Liam also had some pretty good rolling.


His red defence dice were keeping a lot of his B2 Droids. I might manage 6 hits, but he rarely lost more than one of them in a turn. 


So, despite finally getting to grips with the game we're going to take a break. We've got a refresher game of MESBG next week, so I can remember how to play my Goblin Town for the Midweek MESBG in early February.


Then I have a week off, but the next time we'll all play together it should be a big game of Adeptus Titanicus. Finally getting to use the Warlords and maybe Otty will have his Eldar on the board?

Thursday, 8 January 2026

Battle record - Star Wars Legion - 08/01/26

Afternoon and we're back at Otty's shed playing Star Wars Legion, Wookies and Clones V's Droids. As is the case with battle records my recollection is sketchy, but one thing was unforgettable - my dice were on fire! 🎲🔥


In lots of our games the topic of complaint is usually OP units, rules or the system itself. But this time it was just how often I was rolling good results on white dice [notoriously the hardest dice to roll well on].


It was not just the shooting, which is a D8, but the saving throws on D6s. There was a lot of shade being thrown at my success.


We're still finding a lot of issues with the rules and how they're written. I think there have been some FAQ's to help explain some of them, but much like 40k's shifting ruleset this is quite frustrating.


That's why I think the dice rolling appeals to me so much, regardless of the rules built around them it's what lands face-up that counts.


Not to mention the snacks and the great company. I mean the first part of the evening was Ben and Otty finishing off a previous game before we set up this one. I didn't mind as the shed is full of amazing figures.


Even just staring into the cabinets with the background noise of an Empire striking back, is balm to a hobby soul.


Unfortunately the paramedics among us are on night shifts next week, so Thursday is out. Maybe we'll get a postponed Sunday session.


Until then "game on!"