Finecast Review: Gûlavhar, The Terror of Arnor

I dropped by an old friend’s place a couple of weeks ago to demo one of my favourite games, Infinity, for him. Of course, he was immediately interested and is doing what he can to sell one of his Warhammer 40k armies and pick up some Infinity figures. Don’t worry, he still has a couple of other armies so he hasn’t dropped Games Workshop or anything. After seeing the paint job on my Sgt Duroc, he took a blister out and handed it to me to see what I could do with it. Inside the unopened package was a Finecast model of one of the larger monstrous creature Games Workshop had designed for their Lord of the Rings line, specifically Gûlavhar, The Terror of Arnor.

To Repaint or Not to Repaint...

There will always be a debate among hard core Star Wars and Star Trek fans as to which property is better, while the rest of us simply enjoy the differences. Until a particular ‘fan’ tried to impose his own preference on me, I hadn’t really thought of one as better than the other. Of course, at the time there were only the Original Series episodes of Star Trek and the Original Motion Picture, while Star Wars had its first two movies and the made for TV Christmas Special. Clearly at that juncture Star Trek was the king of TV while Star Wars was superior at the box office. Since then, the addition of new series, movies, cartoons, video games, and extended fiction has only muddied the water. This debate has seeped into the gaming community for years as well, especially in video and role playing games.

(This logo was unceremoniously ripped off of http://hmonghot.com/LU1ZSHQ2czh0bTQz)

From Russia With Love

First pics of the Kazaks for my Ariadna army.

Right now they can only be used for the generic faction but in about a year or so we should be able to field our very own Kazak faction.

The Russians Are Coming!

It’s amazing how things can pile up on you. You get partway done one project and two or three more find their way onto the queue. Sometimes it’s a favor for a friend, sometimes its financially motivated, and sometime you just have a creative idea that won’t leave you alone.

Right now I’m working on painting my Ariadna army. Honestly, this project is overdue. I’ve had some of these figures for months now and other things, like painting up new Karakuri models for the tournament last June, or a friendly painting commission for four alien ‘Hungries’, have gotten in the way. While Duroc is all done but the base, and all but the details are done on my Dozer, Zouave, and the Traktor Muls, there are still a number of models that are just beyond the bare metal stage and that could really use my attention.

"Game Over, Man!" Part II

 All done but the varnish.....

So, part of me is a little scared that these new models will be "game over" for me. I haven't actually had the pleasure of facing D-Man's Morat army yet. I'm a little scared I'm contributing to my own demise by painting these figures up for him.

But hey, at least I won't be killed by a mass of unpainted primer.  Read on for more pics and my paint list...

"Game Over, Man!"

I've been watching a lot of Kris Belleau's tutorials both on his on YouTube channel and on the MiniWargaming site. Because he ofter uses Warhammer 40K models to show the various techniques, I got wondering if there was much difference between those models and what I'd been painting. When I mentioned maybe painting some Tyranids for someone locally, my former partner-in-pod casting, D-Man, handed me his newest Combined Army models and suggested color schemes.

Here's a teaser of what I did with them and a hint regarding the title of this post:

Crushing Defeat part II

So, if you haven't read part I of my crushing defeat at the hands of the Heroes' Beacon regulars, you might want to jump over here first.

I thought I'd start out by sharing the army list I used for my first two games. It's a decent JSA team, but there are some definite holes that could be filled.