Clearing the Backlog, Part 20 – It's Grand Tournament time!

One of my staple hobby events, and usually the event that kicks off my hobbying for the year is the Middle Earth Grand Tournament at Warhammer World. Two days of games, the Green Dragon pub quiz and of course free access to the exhibition, where you can see all of the models and the glorious displays the GW team have made to show them all off.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the event last year, and my hobby motivation did suffer as a result. This time, however, it was the opposite – my hobby mojo kicked in full force (and also partly motivated I would say by the distinct lack of hobbying I did last year).

My armies were fairly simple – an idea had been in my head for some time, and I decided to run with it for the GT. Now, I could have just gone through my collection and worked out exactly what I needed to build the armies, but that would have been too easy. Instead, my silly brain decided the best thing to do would be to create both armies completely from scratch!

The theme I decided on was the fall of Minas Ithil, so it would be the armies of Minas Morgul (basically a nod to the fate of the city), and Minas Tirith. However, I couldn't use any named heroes as that wouldn’t have fitted the theme. Fortunately, the new Armies of Lord of the Rings had an army list I could use – the Realms of Men, a list that allows you to field Kings of Men alongside warriors from Gondor, Rohan, Dale and Numenor. 

The basic core of my armies came from the Mordor and Minas Tirith Battlehosts. The Minas Tirith force contains 6 knights, 24 warriors, Gandalf the White and Pippin – I set these last two aside for a future project. Mordor contains the Witch King, 24 Mordor Orcs and 6 warg riders – again, I set the wargs aside, but I haven’t decided what to do with them just yet – they may well join the army in the future. 

With the core of the armies established, I set about adding to my forces. I needed a King of Men to lead my defenders of Minas Ithil, and I wanted him mounted to lead my knights. As GW doesn’t (currently) make a mounted version, I set about converting one. I started with the captain from the Minas Tirith Commanders set, cutting him in half at the waist – I then did the same with a spare Knight I had lying around, before swapping out the head with one from the Knights of Dol Amroth kit. I then added a lance and a shield, and my new Castellan of the city was done!

The rest of my army was pretty simple – I added the banner and hornblower from the Commanders set, and then added a few more knights, including one with a banner. I then added two captains, and my good army was ready for painting! 

For Mordor, I wanted the Witch King to be accompanied by some fellow wraiths, so I added two on horseback, before adding another dozen orcs, a drummer, banner and finally added some spectres – these are very useful in a Minas Morgul army. Minas Ithil was ready to fall!

When painting the army, I used a fairly simple scheme for my Warriors of Minas Tirith – I started with a black basecoat, before spraying them with Leadbelcher, washing them with Nuln Oil, and then drybrushing the armour with Ironbreaker, and then edge highlighting with Stormhost Silver. I did the same for the weapons, but used Iron Hands Steel, which was slightly brighter, so that they'd stand out from the armour. For the cloth, I used Corvus Black, which has a slightly bluish hue, highlighting it with Dark Reaper and then Thunderhawk Blue. I then picked out the brown details, using dark brown as a base, and then alternating between a lighter brown for the weapons such as the bows and spears, but a more orangey-brown for the belts and straps. The end result was a great looking force, that painted up in a fairly short space of time.

The Knights, King and Commanders were all painted in the same way as the Warriors, with just a little bit more attention to ensure they stood out from the regular rank and file troops. For the horse, I stuck to a limited palette of blacks, greys and browns – looking at the films, you don't actually see many white horses. I then mounted my entire army on custom bases to represent the walls and streets of the city – the white bases really help the models stand out.

Orcs are a little trickier to paint in the sense that they have no uniform theme – painting them was mostly a case of applying various basecoats, washes and highlights, mixing up the colours so that no two orc sculpts look the same. It's surprising how different models can look just by painting the cloth and skin different colours. As with my good force, I spent some extra time on the banner and drummer to make them stand out a bit more.

For the Ringwraiths, I wanted to try something different, as I usually paint them using dark greys, working up to a light grey. Instead, I decided to use a cool blue tone, and actually ended up painting the robes in the same way I'd painted the cloth on my Warriors of Minas Tirith. Last up were my spectres – I painted these in the same way I had my existing elves and Numenoreans, before applying a green glaze over the whole model to give them an ethereal look – the end result turned out great!

Last but not least was the display board – I'd managed to find some 3D wall and gatehouse files, which Dewi from Guardians of Wiltshire kindly printed for me – always useful to have a friend with a 3D printer!. I then bought two Gondor Mansion kits, and experimented with how the kit can be put together – these kits really are a masterpiece of design, allowing you to create all sorts of different architectural designs – I settled on a large, square shaped design for the main building, and then used leftover pieces to create an L-shaped design to accompany it. Throughout the build process however, I saved various floor and archway pieces, allowing me to create the bridge that leads into the city – my plan was to have my orcs charging across it, flooding into the city. I added some foam parapets for the bridge, before incorporating it into the board.

As to the overall layout, I built up the landform with foam, before gluing down lots of bark pieces, and covering them and the area in front of the walls with modelling compound, which I then covered with a layer of scenics. Behind the walls, I used a textured roller in order to create a paved street pattern – this did cause some issues, as there were some areas where the roller left little to no impression – these however were fortunately covered up by additional details I added later. The main issue I had was trying to create the water effect for the river – I used textured sheeting to try and create the rippling water effect, but unfortunately in several areas the glue either dried opaque or, weirdly, didn’t dry at all. Ultimately however, I was very please with the overall look and feel of the board, and seeing it covered with all the models looked great – the Castellan leading his knights in a desperate charge to repel the invaders, whilst the Warriors try to defend the walls from the attacking orcs.

As for the event itself, the armies didn’t perform that well – I managed a single win with Minas Morgul, whilst the Realms of Men sadly lost all three games. Whilst my tactics were fairly solid, most of the time the luck was more with my opponents – a common trend was them getting the clutch 6 they needed to win fights. However, despite the results, all six games across the weekend were a huge amount of fun, and were all played in really good spirits!

So, to the model count for the year – having painted both my armies, plus an extra couple of orcs who got painted at the same time, my painting court for the year already stands at a whopping 84 models! I am super pleased with this progress, given I'd painted less models than that by September of last year – I'm really motivated to get through my other hobby projects for the year, but exactly what those are will have to wait for another time…

Aragorn, You Need More Men (Backlog Clearing: Jan-Feb ‘25)

Hey all, we begin another year of SBG, in a new edition! While we wait for the much desired 'Armies of Middle Earth' and Legacy PDF, I'm not too concerned, as I have plenty to get on with for my painting.

I expect this year to take a bit of a hit for my painting numbers. Firstly, we shall be moving house in the next few months (at last!), and also my partner has got herself a place on an intensive course that'll mean I need to pick up the slack at home to help her out. This is obviously fine and worthwhile, but just some things to consider so that I set myself reasonable goals for the year.

Beginning this year on 316 models in the paint pile, and bearing in mind the limitations that I shall have, I'm going to set myself the target of painting 90 models and getting my painting queue down to less than 240 models (as I will almost certainly...probably already have bought new models for the pile).

So with that target in mind, my first two months of 2025:

Jan

I decided to start the year with an easy model, something heroic that would hold my attention. So it made sense to kick off with Aragorn, who I had received from Mr CJ, a good while ago. I had long admired the Weathertop Aragorn in his nice action pose.

I found that his naturally dark tones played nicely into my painting style, as I tend to avoid bright and vivid colours, unless the model cries out for them.

My next project was a community donation that I took last year, promising to paint up for our local league...and then promptly forgot until a few days before our opener. 

Luckily, this was just a matter of drybrushing up layers of stone, using the Osgiliath recipe James and I used at last years Seven Stones. For the statue itself, I started with Warplock Bronze covered with Leadbelcher. I then glazed it with Gulliman blue (to help with the bronzed look) and washed it twice with Agrax Earthshade to darken the tone right down again. In my opinion, I nailed the shade.

With that sorted,  I was able to start topping up an existing army, for an event in April, where I shall be taking Defenders of Edoras. So I decided to start off with Helm's sons, first up being Haleth. I decided to make a few changes to his colour scheme from the films, not out of any dislike for the appearance, but to make him match my existing Helm better. My Helm's most prominent feature is the green enamelled armour (pictured below), so I opted to use that for Haleth also. 

I also changed the leather colour of his horse and went for a shade that I felt suited the colours better.

This then led onto Hama, I did originally intend to paint in the film's design. But as I began, it seemed to make sense to keep the green theme as a Royal family theme. So I changed his armour to match Haleth and Helm.

Feb

I began February with a quik repair job, replacing a broken Rider's sword with one of Eomer's spares from his sprue.

Next, I did the 6 Riders of Rohan that had been sat awaiting their moment in the Battle of the Pelennor box from 2018, finally seeing their time!

I thought that I would include a side by side of two Riders here. On the left, a newly painted one, and on the right, one that I painted back in 2013. I thought this would be a nice comparison of improvement over the years.

Finally for February, I cracked open the first of my new plastic warriors, getting the first 6 Warriors of Rohan painted. They are absolutely gorgeous models while still looking similar enough to the old ones to not ruin it for old fans.

And that was me done for the beginning of the year. Next up for me will be the other 6 Warriors of Rohan  (the last 12 of the set will be used for Lord Thorne's naughty boy brigade). I'll also get a handful of models done for Seven Stones, where James and I have come up with a completely original theme.

Clearing the Backlog, Part 19 – Well, I'm back.

First and foremost, I need to apologise for barely posting any blogs last year. To cut a long story short, I found myself struggling to find time to write a blog, take photos for it, and then actually post it – as the year went on, I ended up losing my motivation for posting. Fortunately, after a respite, I'm back and will hopefully be posting a bit more regularly this year [and I really hope that's not famous last words!].

My hobbying in general suffered from a lack of motivation last year. I believe I can put this down to missing the Middle Earth Grand Tournament – this event is normally the motivation to kick-start my hobbying for the year, and without it, my productivity did suffer as a result. 

Not to say that I was completely unproductive across the year – Sam and I put a tremendous effort into our Seven Stones project for 2024, focusing on the Kin-Strife. Our army was almost entirely converted, and we had the sacking of Osgiliath display board to boot – our efforts resulted in us taking home the coveted Best Army Palantir! It honestly still hasn’t quite sunk in that we won it, almost a year later!

With our Seven Stones done, I turned my attention to my second major project of the year – a Khandish army. Khand was an army I'd wanted to collect for some time, but as it would consist entirely of metal models, I decided to keep it small, roughly 500 points worth. I started with a Khandish King in Chariot, added another four chariots, and then filled out the rest with a warband of horsemen, led by a Chieftain. Paired with a small contingent of Easterling cavalry I already had painted, my plan was to take them to the Warhammer World Teams event in September. 

Fortunately, when it comes to painting them, Khand has a fairly limited colour palette, consisting of dark greys, reds and a cream spot colour on the sashes. After a few months work, my army was ready for the tabletop. It went to Teams, where despite only winning one game with it, I had a lot of fun using them, and to cap it off, we went home with another unexpected prize in the form of the Most Sporting Opponent Trophy! 

Sadly, my Khand are unlikely to be making a future appearance at Warhammer World, as the entire range became "legacy" profiles in the new edition of MESBG, which are sadly banned from GW events. However, I'm still really pleased with my efforts on them, and they will always have a place in my Middle Earth collection. And who knows, they may one day see the tabletop again – I've already converted a second Chieftain to lead my horsemen into battle!

Following Teams, this is where my motivation really took a nosedive. I was painting very sporadically, meandering from project to project with no real aim. I did however manage to find time on a Battle Streams night to paint up Arwen and add her to my Rivendell Army, plus a box of Morgul Knights and the original Glorfindel got some love. I also spent a lot of time assembling my Bretonnians for a planned Old World army, so there are plenty of future projects in the pipeline.

Painting aside, I did make a conscious decision to try and clear some old projects out of the backlog – I promptly raided my project boxes, pulled out everything I still had unpainted from my Moria collection, which consisted of around 30-odd goblins, a couple of captains, a shaman, and the biggest model of the lot, the Balrog. 

The Balrog has been in my backlog for a long time, so I decided it was time to finally finish it. It can be a daunting model to paint at first, due to its size and the tricky nature of painting the flames on its back. I painted mine by using contrast paints, starting with red, working up through orange and eventually to yellow on the tips of the flames, adding a white drybrush in between each layer, so that the contrast would stand out more. I then carefully picked out all the black areas, before going over them with drybrushes of very dark greys, before using a very light khaki drybrush for the horns and wings – Durin's Bane was ready for the tabletop!

As to the goblins, they were pretty straightforward to paint – I used a simple scheme, basecoating the metals, leather and the cloth, before applying a brown wash and then applying highlights. Rinse and repeat that 30 times, and my Moria army was finished!

Well, nearly finished. There was one last model in my backlog that would mean my Moria collection was complete – a Cave Drake. This model was very easy to paint – I basecoated the scales and skin, washed them with Agrax, and then drybrushed lighter colours until I was finally using a pale khaki for a final highlight. I then picked out the eyes, teeth and spines, and he was done. As the nest that comes with the Cave Drake can be used as a marker in games, making it fearless within 3" of it [or rather, it did in the previous edition – at the time of writing, we're still waiting for its new profile in the Armies of Middle Earth book], I incorporated it into the base, using a wooden ring, building up around it with cork, and then going over the base with modelling compound. I painted it to match the rest of my Moria army, and it was done!

So, with those models done, my total number of models painted for the year came to… 135 models! Whilst this is considerably lower than the last two years (having painted 250 models in 2022 and 200 in 2023), I still consider it good progress – I've cleared over 100 models out of my backlog, two of them being large monsters, and finished off three army projects over the course of the year. Plus, this year, I am happy to say I am once again going to the Middle Earth Grand Tournament, and have already started painting my armies! This and the new edition of MESBG have got me super motivated to crack on with hobbying in 2025 – I look forward to sharing my journey with you!