Review of the year

As is traditional I thought I would do a quick review of the year.

I set the blog up in roughly July when I decided to work through the Lord of The Rings journey books. Since then I have managed to paint a fairly large amount of miniatures but I have also managed to buy quite a few as well. I have sold off a lot of stalled and half finished projects though to the hobby has been pretty much cost neutral and the overall lead pile has not grown too much. Looking at my painting log list I have finished a couple of hundred figures over the last 6 months.

One thing that did happen is that I got a bit side tracked and painted a load of stuff that’s not needed for the journey books or that does not pop up until later scenarios. This was partly a conscious decision as I wanted to get a decently sized army painted up so I could use it for pickup games. I went for Gondor as I had figures for most of the options in the army list and they will be used in the Return of the King scenarios.

I have played a decent amount of games with my boys and I have also introduced a new person to the hobby and I have had several games with him as well. One thing I need to do this year is get out and play some more games. I have Orc ward games, two games clubs and a couple of games workshops close to me so I need to get some games arranged.

So then aims for the next year are –

1. Focus on getting the figures and terrain needed for the three journey books (there are a few models I need to get hold of still)
2. Get more games played and maybe go to one of the GBHL tournaments
3. Stay pretty much cost neutral by continuing to sell off stuff I no longer use

Arwen and Frodo

Another figure done for the journey books. Not a bad model this one but I think Arwens face is a bit on the dodgy side. Not sure what happened with the Arwen sculpts during this timeframe as the foot Arwen is a terrible model and would be high up on a list of the worst models in the range. On the other hand the newer sculpt of Arwen is a beautiful model and one of my favorites of the range. I have the newer sculpt in the paint queue and I am looking forward to getting that one painted up.

The scenario in the journey book has the option of using Glorfindel to replay what happens in the book rather than the film so I will have to get him on the painting table soon.

I have also been converting a few bits to try and fill some gaps in the ranges now that some models are no longer available. The first batch of these are my Corsair alabasters. These were made using the plastic corsair models with crossbow arms from the Perry miniatures European mercenary box set. I have done a total of eight of these along with a converted Bosun/captain to lead them. I will get updated pictures of these guys up once I have them painted but that might be a while away.

 

Corsair alabaster conversions

Having been inspired by the new film I have also been working through some of the Hobbit bits I have. I have finished 10 Mirkwood rangers and Bard. The Master of laketown and an eagle are on the painting table at the moment. I really need to get on and get some more photos done.

Priming Miniatures

Priming your miniatures seems to be a question that pops up on a regular basis on various forums so I thought I would put up a quick post on how I prime my figures.

I now do all my priming with Vallejo surface primer.

Vallejo surface primer

I used to use various spray primers but I now brush prime everything. This way I can be assured of getting a good even coverage over all the miniature making sure no detail is obscured and that awkward to reach areas are primed which can often be missed with a spray primer. Spay primers are smelly, messy and you can’t prime reliably when it’s too humid or too cold (normally to cold in the UK). With the brush on primer I can prime my figures indoors and in any weather so I can get them done anytime. It also works out loads cheaper. I bought the Vallejo primers for £9.99 from Boyes and for that you get 200ml. It’s also widely available at various model shops and online stores. I have lost track of the amount of miniatures I have primed and I still have three quarters of the bottle to go.

The next question is what colour to prime. The Vallejo primers are available in a few different colours but I only ever use black and white primers. Having said that I prime 99% of my figures black and only prime a figure in white if it’s going to predominantly white or very light coloured. The only figure I have recently primed white is Gandalf the white. I also sometimes prime horses white if they are going to end up white or light gray. I find that a black undercoat suites the generally muted colours of the Lord Of The Rings range very well.

The method is very straight forward and there is not much to say on it to be honest. I would recommend not using your best brushes for this and although it’s tempting don’t use something too big, something along the lines of a number 2 brush is ideal. I am currently using a past its best army painter regiment brush.  As with all painting give the bottle a good shake, make sure you don’t overload your brush and give the model a nice even coverage of the primer.

Army of the dead

I recently finished of the last half of the army of the dead figures along with the king of the dead. I went for the bog standard green movie look and it was dead easy to do (see what I did there). A white undercoat followed by codex grey over the whole figure. I then picked out some of the details like beards, armour etc and did a heavy dry brush of a relevant colour on these bits e.g. a brown for the beards. I then gave them a wash with green ink and following that a light white dry brush. I now have 24 of these guys with the king to lead them. Unfortunately for points matches there are no army of the dead captains and with the maximum warband size being 12 this means that if I wanted to field more than 12 of them they would be lead by a Dol Amroth captain or similar. Maybe I can come up with a suitable conversion for one. I have a couple of the metal warriors of the dead figures I picked up in a trade so I might be able to do something with them as the base.

Gollum

This little guy was painted about 9 years ago. I went for a sickly look using the old dheneb stone foundation paint highlighted up. I think it’s nice little sculpt and it captures the film Gollum really well. I enjoyed painting him and think he came out fairly well.

I recently picked up a different Gollum sculpt with him clambering over some rocks. I still have half a pot of dheneb stone left so I am going to go for a similar pint job. It will be interesting to see how my painting has changed (if at all) over the years. I suspect the standard will be similar but I will probably finish him much quicker.

Gondor roll call

Thought I would do a couple of pictures of all the painted Gondor forces I have as I have been working on this army recently and it’s my most complete. I still have a fair few things to complete and there are a couple of bits I don’t have that I would ultimately like to add.

So far I have the following painted

• 8 x guards of the fountain court
• 6 x citadel guard with spear
• 12 x archers
• 8 x spears
• 7 x swords
• 6 x knights
• Foot and mounted banner bearer
• 14 x rangers
• Faramir in armour, foot and mounted and as a ranger
• Boromir armoured on foot
• Damrod
• Cirion
• Mandril
• Denathor
• Pippin in gondor armour

Still to come

I have the following miniatures some of which are currently work in progress

• A bolt thrower
• A trebuchette
• 12 x osgilith veterans conversions
• 12 x rangers
• 8 x sword and shield guys
• Mounted boromir
• Knight of the tree (converted)
• Aragorn as king foot and mounted

And I would like to add

• 6 x citadel guard archers
• 6 x metal knights which I would like to convert to citadel guard
• Beregond
• Boromir whith the banner
• Another banner on foot

Mumak

Not doing great with the blog updates but I have been painting away steadily.  I have decided to try and focus on getting a couple of armies finished off and I have chosen Harad and Gondor. This should give me a couple of fully painted armies to play against each other and would mean that I could possibly look at attending one of the GBHL tournaments next year. The Gondor Army is furthest along and is almost totally finished. There are a couple of bits I would like to add for it which I don’t have but they are not essentials so I will keep an eye out for hem at a decent price.

So onto the Mumak. My wife bought me this for our first (or maybe second) wedding  anniversary. We have now been married 12 years so I thought it was about time I got it finished. When I came to build it the tail was missing so I had to sculpt a new one with green stuff. I also added some tusk weapons and rigging, hopefully the extra effort was worth it. It took some time to paint due to the size of the beast and the fact that I painted it on and off over a few weeks.

 

Quite a few of the scenarios in the source and journey books call for two of these beasts but I think it will be a while before I do another. Hopefully not another 10 or more years though.

Work in Progress and Denethor

Next up is my Denethor model. As with most of the figures based on the films I think the likeness to the actor is very good. He is used in one of the last Journey book scenarios and will be good fun to use in point matches with his Broken Mind special rule.

 

Painted Denethor

I thought I would also put up a couple of work in progress pictures. The first is of the figures that are in various stages of assembly, conversion or priming the secondis of the figures that are waiting on being based.

Rangers

I have been a bit crap at updating the blog but it’s mainly because I was not happy with the pictures I was taking. I have mucked around with some more lights and the camera settings and I think I am finally getting somewhere so I have had a bit of a photo session today. Hopefully I can now get a few more updates on here. I still need to work on the lighting a bit but I am getting there. First up are 9 plastic rangers. These are going to be used as Dunedain in the initial journey book scenarios and will then double up as Gondor rangers for the later games. I have just ordered 3 Dunedain from GW as well so they will jump up the paint queue when they arrive.

On the rangers front I have another 15 of the plastic figures and four metal Faramirs rangers to complete. Some of the plastics are going to get a bit of conversion work done, mainly adding spears. I also have Faramir, Damrod and Mandril to complete. My painting have been jumping around a bit because I have been trying to get a couple of armies painted up for standard points games. I am concentrating on Gondor and Mordor at the moment and I have made some decent progress. All these will be used for the later scenarios as well.

Progress

I have made a decent amount of progress and I now have most of what I need for the first journey book painted up. I am still looking for 4 barrow weights and then I have everything I need for this book.

I still have the following to paint for this journey book

Goldberry

2 mounted wraiths

1 foot wraith

The balrog

6 wild wargs

The Warg chief

1 goblin captain

Some wood elves

The barrow weights when I source them

I have made a start on some of the scenery I did not already have in my collection as well. The thing that is going to take a fair amount of time to build is Weathertop and that’s needed fairly early on in the book.

I have also decided to try and reduce my backlog a bit by painting up some of the figures that are quick to finish. I will need them at some point so it’s good to see a good chunk of progress getting made. Currently on the painting table I have all the Goblins from the Hobbit Goblin town set which are finished baring a few details and basing. Next I plan to rattle off some Gondor troops, then the rest of the wargs and after that who knows, maybe some orcs.

I also have a load of finished bits that I need to base up as well as some conversions and priming to do of more recently acquired figures. I am planning on having a big photo session as some point so I can post up pictures on here.