"One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor."

"It's Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs."

This 28mm scale "white metal figure" of Sterling The Wandering Knight is produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range as an adventurer "for use with The Caverns of The Frog King Adventure Module." Sculpted by Steve Saleh, I have painted him as Boromir, the eldest son of Denethor II, so as to be able to field him as a 'Lord Of The Toons' Hero (Single Model Unit) for “Dragon Rampant” by "Osprey Games".

Originally primed with two layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, the older brother of Faramir was treated to two coats of Ironbreaker before being drenched in Nuln Oil and dry-brushed using (more) Ironbreaker. I then 'cleaned up' his shield with some additional "Abaddon Black" and treated his sword hilt and helmet to a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.

The Thing and Black Panther make short work of an alien warrior and some stalkers

The High Warden of the White Tower had his face initially 'picked out' with some "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, and was subsequently washed with "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade before receiving some "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone highlights. Finally, his belt was given a lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter", whilst his feathered plume was pigmented "Vallejo" White and later splashed with Pale Grey.

I'm hoping to attend the LVL Up Gaming Store in Bournemouth at least once a month this year, and took advantage of my most recent visit to trial some quickly thought homemade rules for H.R. Giger's aliens. Initially I had panned for the slavering extra-terrestrials to face off against an increasing number of "Marvel Comics" most famous superheroes, but rather embarrassingly forgot to bring the Avengers statistics with me.

The Human Torch lights up the alien menace with a series of fireballs

As a result, we had to settle for a series of smaller-sized skirmish games across an industrial furnace complex which arguably far better suited the super-powered long range abilities of the Fantastic Four (and Black Panther) than it did the somewhat faster, but vulnerable at a distance Xenomorphs. Fortunately, such disadvantages didn't stop some 'stand out' moments occurring within our games, such as The Thing charging straight into the nearest alien warrior and relying solely upon his thick brick hide to protect him from the creature's acid blood, or the Black Panther dispatching a gaggle of nightmarish stalkers only to then later succumb to his close combat injuries.

Perhaps the evening's biggest star though was Johnny Storm, whose 'untouchable' flight ability definitely helped Mister Fantastic's super-group keep the aliens at bay whenever they seemed likely to break through the line of heroes through sheer weight of numbers. Able to fly almost within touching distance of the Xenomorphs, the Human Torch repeatedly whittled down the fast-approaching warrior drones with a hail of fire-balls, and certainly gave me food-for-thought as to how I could better balance flying units within my homemade rule-set "M.I.S.S."...