Clearing the Backlog, Part 26 – The Backlog Goes Ever On and On…

Welcome to my first blog post for 2026, where I take a look back at all the hobbying I got up to over the last year. And a very productive year it was!

January to March – The Road to the GT

Having been able to attend [and managing to get a ticket, which  in itself is not an easy task!] the GT this year after missing out in 2024, I started the year by diving into a pile of Minas Tirith and orcs for my two armies – Realms of Men and Minas Morgul. 

I've painted up a lot of Warriors of Minas Tirith in my time, having collected armies themed around Pelennor Fields, Osgiliath, The Battle of Fornost and now Minas Ithil. Each time, I try to paint them slightly differently, and in this case it was using different silvers for the highlights on the armour, and blue-greys for the cloth. Combined with the scenic bases, they came out really well. I added my converted King of Men, plus his group of knights, and my army was ready to defend the cities of Gondor!

As to the orcs, I've painted no shortage of these either. The challenge with these is to try and make each model look unique, whilst trying to unify the force together – in this case, that was done by the scenic bases. Painting the Ringwraiths was quite fun too, again trying to use different colours to highlight the black robes rather than just dark greys. The spectres were fun to paint too – a nice change from the multitude of orcs. Eventually, my evil army was ready!

So, with the armies done, I built my display board, and I was ready for the GT. Whilst results didn’t go my way, it was the usual excellent weekend of fun games and admiring all the hobbying that people had done. More importantly, by the end of March, I was up to 84 models painted for the year!

April to May – Seven Stones and Scenery

With the GT out of the way, I could turn my attention to my favourite event of the year, Seven Stones! Whilst Sam and I were not expecting to retain our crown from 2024, we felt we had a fun theme of the various Traitors of Middle Earth, which we decided to tie into the popular BBC show. 

We had an eclectic mix of heroes and warriors – my force had The King of the Dead, The Master of Laketown, Alfrid, Gollum, Freca, Lord Thorne and two Rohirrim Traitors. All of them were quite fun painting projects, and having seen them perform on the tabletop, some of them [but I won’t say who] may well make their way into future armies…

As usual, I was making the display board for our army, and if we were doing the Traitors, we had to include the Round Table. This posed a few challenges – I'm not used to working with wood rather than plastic! However, we were really pleased with how it came out, and we did walk away with a Best Army nomination, something we try to aim for each year. Last but not least was another Traitors icon we couldn’t leave out – Claudia!

In between painting my Seven Stones models, I assembled and painted a collection of scenery for the club – this little project was a great demonstration of the versatility of the Ruins kit, and they all painted up pretty quickly – I took the pieces to Seven Stones, and they looked great on the tabletop!

So, with two events out of the way, plus a couple of EAHC events, I was up to 100 models painted for the year!

June to August – Build, Build, Build!

Painting took a step back over the summer, as I decided to do some hobby admin to try and condense the huge [no, that isn't an exaggeration…] pile of boxes I was starting to accumulate. 

So, I grabbed the clippers, hobby knife and glue, and built a huge pile of Warriors of Rohan, Riders of Rohan, Dunlendings, Crebain, several Rohan and Dunland heroes, and of course, the Snow Troll. At the end of it all, I had assembled over 120 models, and a pile of boxes had become one big box of models ready for painting!

[Hmm, I wonder what my hobby project for 2026 might be?]

August to October – Look to the East…

Now that I was back painting, I turned to an army that has been in my backlog for a while, and one that I was determined to make my army project for 2025 – my Easterlings!

My army contains the Dragon Emperor, a warband of Black Dragons, Rutabi, a warband of Easterling Warriors, Brorgir, a Dragon Knight, and a small group of Dragon Cult Acolytes – a considerable number of models, plus the Dragon Emperor is a hobby project all on his own!

I wanted to try a new painting technique for this army, using sepia washes over silver to create the gold armour. I painted up a test model on the Battle Streams in Middle Earth Easterling episode [how fortunate!], and was really pleased with the overall look – I now had the scheme for the army!

With one model done, I applied the scheme to the rest of the army. The only models whose armour were painted in the "usual" way were the Dragon Emperor's palanquin bearer dismounts, so that I could tell them apart from the rest of the army. 

Painting with washes takes considerably longer than the traditional way of painting models, because you spend longer waiting for the wash to dry, limiting how much hobbying you can do in a session. Timings aside, I really liked the final result, and the Easterlings are quickly becoming one of my favourite armies. 

The characters were painted using the same scheme, and they also came out looking great. Painting and assembling the Dragon Emperor was a lengthy process, but he's such a standout model on the tabletop that it was absolutely worth it. My last additions to the army were the newly released War Drakes – the Dragon Legion was ready to march to war!

October to November – The Road to Throne of Skulls

So, as the year draws to a close, we come to one of the best events on the calendar – Throne of Skulls! 

I've covered Throne of Skulls quite extensively in previous posts, so I won’t go into tonnes of detail here. Having decided to turn my Realms of Men army into Atop the Walls for the event, I spent October painting up some Citadel Guard to reinforce the army, plus two trebuchets to add some extra firepower, including a converted one to help tell the two apart

As to the heroes for the army, I added pretty much every named hero in the army list – Gandalf the White, Pippin, Hurin, Irolas and Beregond. All of these were very enjoyable models to paint, both blending in with the warriors, but having enough details to stand out [Gandalf of course stands out more than the others]

With the army done, I spent November getting the Walls of Minas Tirith display board ready for the event – whilst I didn’t get a Favourite Army nomination, I got a lot of compliments from both my opponents and other people at the event, plus two Favourite Opponent votes and three Favourite Army votes – something I was very pleased with!

December – Let's have some fun!

Post Throne of Skulls, hobbying becomes much less stressful – no event deadlines to worry about, I can just paint whatever I want! After all my Easterlings, plus my reinforcements for Throne of Skulls, I was sitting on 178 models painted for the year – only another 22 models, and I'd hit 200. 

So, what to paint? A quick rummage through the backlog, I came across two boxes of Easterling Kataphracts, along with the mounted commanders set, and a banner bearer on foot - perfect reinforcements for my Dragon Legion! I also found a metal kataphract I'd bought off eBay a few months ago, so I took the cloak that comes in the kataphracts kit, and converted the model into a captain. The old metal horses have extra barding, so that and the cloak helped it stand out perfectly from the rest of the models.

The models were painted in the exact same way as the rest of the army – sepia washes over silver for the armour, then reds for the cloth. I stuck to dark colours for the horses to help the gold armour and red cloth stand out a bit more - some leisurely post-christmas painting sessions later, and my cavalry cohort was done!.

There was also one last model I managed to paint in 2025, which was on the Festive episode of Battle Streams in Middle Earth. I’d painted Tom Bombadil on a previous stream, but discovered a spare one lurking in the depths of a box of discarded miniatures. In keeping with the theme of the stream, I painted him up festive style, using reds for his hat and coat, and white for his beard - and with a Hey-ho-ho-ho Merry (Christmas)-dol, Festive Bombadil was finished!

So, to the final count - over the course of 2025, I managed to paint… 195 models! Whilst I was slightly disappointed not to break the 200 barrier, I still had a lot of fun working on my various projects, and I managed to finish three different armies across the year [technically four, if you include Atop the Walls]. 

As to 2026, I already have my tickets for the Grand Tournament in March, plus a ticket for the much-anticipated 7th City GP in February! As to army projects, there are a few in the pipeline - stay tuned to see what they might be!

Aragorn, You Need More Men (Backlog Clearing Dec 2025)

Hey all

The biggest update since my last paintblog was that the house move finally happened in mid December! And finally, I was able to crack out my hobby stuff again!

This obviously didn’t give me much time to work with before the year ended, especially with Christmas round the corner. But I managed to get a small handful of things achieved.

The first project I did in our new home, was started as the BSIME Christmas stream was on, and what is more Christmassy than a Central European demon, who punishes naughty children? I, of course, refer to Krampus. Or in this case, his Middle Earth doppelgänger, the Snow Troll, along with Shank and Wrot. Getting them built up alongside Bolg for later.

I cracked on with the orcs first, as I’m a little rusty on my painting. I had an issue, in that I couldn’t find any of my greens after the move. So had to improvise for the skin, mixing Incubi Darkness with Steel Legion Drab, giving a mint green colour. I then washed this with Athonian Camoshade to give it a nice green hue. I didn’t do anything particularly fancy for the metal or leather, just my usual approach. 

For the troll, I took a similar approach to Gandalf the White, much earlier in the year, colouring parts of him with Steel Legion Drab, various greys etc and would build up the colours with increasingly pale off-whites. 

Once I had fully painted him, I then took the plunge, mixing Administratium Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh to make a pale off-white, then drybrushing the entire model. This risked ruining the entire thing if I went too heavy so I took my time with it. But eventually got a nice frosted look all over. Finally, I finished by colouring his eyes with Khorne Red, a small highlight of Mephiston Red and then dotting his pupil in.

I had finished that small project just after Christmas and didn’t have long left before the New Year. When I started the last hero for the year, Bolg. He’s been a personal favourite to use for years, so I had been itching to do him since seeing the new models for him. I hadn't glued his mounted model onto his warg for the sake of not worrying about remembering a warg for him being dismounted. The first part that I painted was his warg with a variety of shades of brown, making it darker at thicker fur and warmer in the thinner patches.

I did a few colour mixes to sort him out, including Corvus Black and Leadbelcher for his armour, highlighted in plain Leadbelcher, Mournfang Brown and Rakarth Flesh for his face loin cloth, yeah it’s faces, I always forget that, and Baneblade Brown and Administratium Grey for his skin.

In the end, I had to allow myself New Year’s Day to finish his mounted half, so I gave myself the break as I had lost a lot of time in the year. But I was really happy with his look!

And that was what I managed in those two weeks. It may not be much but it’s the start of a new base for my hobby. And also just looking back at these before i post this, I do feel really proud of how good that I feel that they are for me.

End of year round up

So to summarise the year’s painting, I had a long hiatus between May and September, when I couldn’t do any hobby, due to the expected move. And, even when I did get back in in September, it was only a small handful of projects. I got a fair bit done in preparation for Throne of Skulls, but not a lot. Obviously, Hobby Bingo wasn't such a priority in this time and so a lot that I intended, didn't happen. But next year I'll get back on the horse.

Because of this, I didn’t get anywhere near matching previous years totals (typically 100-200 models) and only got 51 done (2546pts worth). But I’m not going to beat myself up over this, as it was just bad luck. I had intended to get my grey pile down from its starting point in Jan of 316, to 250 or less. But instead, it is now at 293 (with Xmas models yet to be added). 

In my gaming, I’d had a bit of an off year, winning about 1/3 of my games. And my best event result was breaking even, but that’s not too important, more just an interesting thing to track. The unique hero that I’d slain the most was Legolas (4).

It appears that I hadn’t set a target last year so I shall do so now, I’m going to try to get my paint pile down below 240 by New Year 2027. I’ve chosen a good and evil army to do as big projects with a few dozen models each; Numenor and Lurtz’s Scouts. I’m thinking I’ll crack on with the latter first as a potential evil army for the GT (if I can get a ticket).

For now, onto 2026!

Sam’s Top Ten ‘What the Hell just happened?’ Moments 2025

 Hey all

This is one blog that I always look forward to doing each year, where I write out the biggest WTF moments from my games of the year.

Bear in mind that these are ranked, not necessarily on odds alone, but sometimes also by drama and hilarity.

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

Number 10

Good- Practice Game (Jim (Sept)

In Stake a Claim, I had a rough start as Jim got to the objectives quickly and got a headstart on fortification points. 

Later on, as the game was coming to an end, Jim is one away from quartering himself and ending on a win. The last goblin of the turn, is fighting two Hearthguard and a Vault Warden team. That goblin wins his fight and receives an utter bollocking from Jim for his selfishness!

The next turn, I now have enough objectives to overtake on fortification points. Until the Watcher yanks two dwarves off an objective in the shoot phase, making it uncontested and levelling the score again. 

Then that same goblin from earlier is killed and receives an utter bollocking from Jim, again, for making his objective uncontested for me and ending the game as my victory!

Bad- One Book to Rule Them All (Kepa (June))

Time is coming to an end for the round, and I desperately need to break Kepa to have a chance. He is also in a tight spot, and is forced to charge Grima at Prince Haleth. Through the entire combat phase, I am one away from breaking him and just cannot get a kill. Time is called during the combat phase, and as we get to the final combat it’s almost guaranteed…except then Grima overcomes the Prince, leaving me gobsmacked, but mercifully doesn’t also wound him to rub it in.

Number 9

Good- Seven Stones (Larry and Sam (May)

Our opening game of Seven Stones, we manage to get Grima to run up the tower in the centre with the table's Palantir at it's top, and use our other 'Traitors' to protect the door.

Sam or Larry then makes the joking suggestion that they would 'allow' us to throw the Palantir at them if we wanted.

So we obviously did, Grima hurled it out the window (at Strength 10!) and crushed the skull of a Hillman against Saruman beneath!

Grima was, unfortunately, then unable to get out the tower, as the Hillmen held the door closed and the archers used him as a moving target in his little room. Until they eventually got him.

Bad- Throne of Skulls (Ossie (Nov))

We’re playing Sites of Power (a night battle) and my catapult has been firing blindly throughout, simply missing. Not an issue, as my orcs are fighting well and draining Thorin’s Company’s resources quickly!

Finally, I roll the 6! The rock sails through the air magnificently…before I'm watching it slowly veer off course…and land on Bombur, who uses a fate. When it kills five of my orcs…exposing Gothmog, much to his surprise, to four or five angry dwarves.

This causes an absolute avalanche in momentum change, as my solid line is shattered, heroes are left exposed and Gwaihir is freed to cause carnage. Quickly, this snowballs into an absolute wipeout for me.

Number 8

Good- Practice Game (Jason (Jan))

Jason is winning and needs to kill one more guy to end the game. He has three corsairs surrounding a Grim Hammer with +1 to wound for Backstabbers. He rolls his six dice, needing a single 5+, and gets a four high. In the next turn, I’m able to swing the game into a draw.

Bad- One Book to Rule Them All (Kepa (June))

Same battle as the Grima entry earlier. I got Prince Haleth and a couple of riders charging a lone Uruk for a Heroic Combat, using Haleth’s last might. This would allow me to slingshot the three into the main fight and shatter a flank to give me control, hopefully giving me a big advantage later. 

I win the fight and roll my twelve strikes to wound…but get a four high…the Uruk lies confused in the mud.

Number 7

Good- EAHC Halloween Event (Darren (Oct))

In this event, there is a lot of wacky wargear options opened up to the army leaders. So my Thorin is mounted on a goat, and Bolg against him in Contest of Champions is on a chariot...

I lose the move off and the chariot slams into Thorin, but I am pleasantly surprised when the goat isn't wounded! 

Less pleasantly surprised, when Thorin is wounded twice...

They both call Heroic Strikes, both go up to F9, and Thorin wins the roll off with Orcrist. None of the blows go past the chariot. I mutter 'Well if I can kill the chariot, I'll let all that go...' Thorin rolls 6, 6, 5 to wound, so spends a might and shatters the thing!

Bad- Side by Side with a…Friend..? (Fergus (Sept))

My Fellowship is against Fergus’ Harad army with a Mumak. In the opening turn, I rush onto a bridge, to give me some cover from the enemy archers, and keep safe from a trampling.

Gandalf puts up a Blinding Light and I feel pretty safe. Until the Harad upon the Mumak fire their five shots at Legolas. They get four hits and then score four wounds on him! He is left on two might, one wound and no fate immediately!

Number 6

Good- Practice Game (Ryan (Jan))

Wanting to get a few kills and maybe take the out of my heroes, Ryan calls a Heroic Combat with Aldrac against my two dwarves. He then spends a might to win the fight and another to kill. He charges Young Balin afterwards, but I succeed with my own Heroic Combat, and Young Dwalin and a dwarf trap Aldrac.

In the combat, Aldrac has F7 due to charging, so when I roll my six dice and get a four at best, my head falls into my hands…until Ryan rolls a two high, and has spent too much might to save it! Aldrac is cut to pieces.

Bad- One Book to Rule Them All (Richard (June))

My Army of Edoras is just settling into the thick of battle against the hardy Battle of Five Armies list. In the fray, Beorn picks up a Rohirrim and hurls him at the King, which was to be expected.

Less expected was Helm taking a wound from the fall from his horse, not the impact, failing all three fate on ones and then being slain by two dwarves the next turn! Setting me up for a swift defeat!

Number 5

Good- One Book to Rule Them All (James (June))

Helm Hammerhand has pushed too deep and slain the Gondorian cavalry. But now Earnur has him on the ropes with no might, two wounds and no fate, while riding at him with lance lowered. He also has the assistance of two elves and a banner in range.

In desperation, I pull out the stops. Frealaf and Hera both call Heroic Combats. Frealaf succeeds and takes the spear support off from against Hera, as he can't directly help Helm, but can make Hera's odds better. She then succeeds her own combat and charges the banner and Earnur. 

Not only does she then win that fight, but she also slays the banner and dismounts the King, who takes a wound from the fall!

Bad- Ride to War (Josh (Dec))

The final game of the day, against Riders of Eomer with my Barad-Dur list. Sauron has had a good day, helping me secure a win and almost doing it again in the second game. 

In this game, the backswing came in hard. And over five turns of combat, he never rolled above a four, as his orcs were destroyed in two turns. We carried on as we had plenty of time left, to see if Josh could kill Sauron. Eventually he did, but Sauron had only survived that long due to the Ring.

Number 4

Good- EAHC Not GT (Tom (March))

I have The Three Trolls, drawn against Fangorn. I feel like I’m against it, fighting tougher beasts, with larger numbers.

However, in the opening turn, the trolls put on a performance. Tom first faces Beechbone and wins to score three wounds against him! Bert then defeats Birchseed and his Oak ent, scoring two wounds on the weaker one, finishing it off the following turn! And finally, the leaders face off, with Bill winning and doing his 'Mince 'em fine' rule on Treebeard. I rolled a six to Treebeard’s one, causing four wounds on the lead ent!

I ended up losing the game anyway, but what a start that had been!

Bad- City of Kings (Alex (April))

Alex has brought an army of Troll Brutes led by Bolg. I figure that my best chance is to get a couple of early kills and snowball the damage quickly.

To achieve this, I got Princes Haleth, Hama and five warriors to surround one and call a Heroic Combat with the former’s last might. Alex rolled his dice and got a five high. So I rolled my twelve dice and banner reroll, only getting a four…

Those trolls then absolutely annihilated me with a tsunami of trampling.

Number 3

Good- The Clouds Burst (Jimmy (Nov))

Zagdush finally has a chance to show his quality...

Against Thranduil's Halls, he first rushes the frontline, and Heroic Combats through it to kill the spears behind too. The following turn he rushes and slays a wounded Legolas. Before being attacked by the elven King himself, who he holds back for several turns. 

Until the troll also breaks through and holds Thranduil still to allow Zagdush to also kill him! Zagdush had personally ended the Royal line of Mirkwood!

Bad- The Clouds Burst (Ed (Nov))

Playing Treasure Hoard, my Gothmog’s Army vs Return of the King. It’s late game and I’m going for broke. Goroth is holding two treasures and attacks Legolas with three Morannon Orcs, one of which also has a treasure.

Both use their final might to call Heroic Strikes, both getting to F7. Legolas rolls a five high. So I roll, expecting a swift victory and end to the elf…but get a four…Legolas slays the treasure bearer and snatches it! The game ends there due to time and causes me to lose 10-9!

Number 2

Good- Side by Side with a…Friend (Phil (Sept))

The Fellowship has taken a right kicking from the Legions of Mordor. Legolas and Gandalf stand alone in a ruin on an objective surrounded by orcs and Easterlings. 

As the game nears its end, Phil's Ringwraith on Fellbeast swoops down onto the central objective (Divide and Conquer). Legolas is in combat with Amdur and draws his bow, firing three times at the leading Wraith. One hits Amdur and wounds, the other two hit the Wraith. One of them wounds, and goes through both fate to slay him and score me leader VPs!

Phil, as one of hte loudest anti-elf voices in our local community, was not pleased.  😂

Bad- Reinforcements in the South East (Kepa (Sept))

Playing Escort the Wounded, I have decided to ignore two of Kepa’s objectives and focus down just one, while getting all three of mine past, as well as killing his leader, and breaking him.

This started well, as I got one past and the other two were making good progress, getting in behind him. Just as Durin and his guard were ready to break them out, and maximise my VPs, I couldn’t win a priority for the life of me. The Uruks won all five of the last priorities, and the move offs. 

To add salt into the wound, a captain and a berserker both trapped Durin and one shotted him after some insane dice rolls to really hit it home!

Number 1

Good- Throne of Skulls (Liam (Dec))

It’s the last turn of the game in Convergence, I have only one of the four objectives, but it’s in the middle. Liam has one within my reach and the other on the edge of the centre. 

I get a Heroic Move and Amdur charges the Rivendell knight holding the closer one. He calls a Heroic Combat with his last might in one last desperate hope, as I eyeball the distance, and he seems close enough. 

Amdur quickly cuts the elf down, snatching the heirloom, and I measure the distance. He’s a little under the six inches and charges into the next! Bringing his blade down and slaying the second knight to claim a second heirloom that he could only do as he was a hero!

It was in the final combats of the game, and had swung the VPs by twelve accumulatively, to win it for me! A truly great Throne of Skulls moment, where a big 'Hail Mary' comes off!

Bad- War of the Rohirrim (James (Jan))

It’s the local league opener and I’m against my often suffering doubles partner, James. 

It’s Hold Ground, and my Gundabad orcs have done well. We have killed Faramir, Madril and all the rangers/Minas Tirith warriors off. I have my Catapult troll and leading Captain in the centre with a group of orcs. Now, having already rolled a few times to continue the game, we just wait to win…

After the fifth turn of rolling to end the game, and still continuing…my numbers have thinned out. My lead Captain has done a runner and taken a few orcs…

After the seventh, the Catapult troll has also run…Frodo and Sam, who have sat off to one side behind a pillar to avoid the catapult projectiles, now emerge and start shuffling towards the objective.

After nine turns, I have a lone Gundabad spearman left in the middle. And the hobbits are closing in!!!

In turn ten of rolling, I have to charge the hobbits to try pushing them off the centre. They naturally win, but have the good grace not to table me, as the game finally ends! Now that they’re in range…

My 15-3 victory was turned into a 16-6 defeat! 

Hope you all enjoyed these and cheered for my good fortune or laughed at my terrible luck! I’ll begin the next list in the new year!