Clearing the Backlog, Part 27 – Hobby Goals

If there's one subject I don’t talk about much on this blog, it's setting myself hobby goals. Whilst this blog's overriding theme is clearing my backlog of models, that is more of a long-term goal – I've been writing this blog for the last four years, and whilst we've made good progress, there's still some ways to go in terms of actually reaching the end of the backlog [great in the sense of having motivation and content for future posts, less so in terms of not being surrounded by half-painted models…]

What I've not normally talked about is setting myself more short-term goals, as in setting myself targets for the year. I tend to meander from project to project, rather than planning out which armies I'm going to paint. Normally, my hobby drive can quite impulsive, inspired either by new releases, or ideas that flit in and out of my head.

Whilst such a drive is great for hobby motivation, it's less helpful in terms of managing my backlog – as ideas tend to come thick and fast, often I'll find myself halfway through a hobby project when suddenly another idea comes to the forefront of my mind, so I end up shelving the current project in favour of the new one – this then means the old project tends to sit gathering dust until I eventually come back to it, remembering in the process how fun the project was. 

Now, I know it's a bit daft to be talking about hobby goals for the year when we're already halfway through April, but the truth is I actually wrote most of this blog post back in January – due to real life getting in the way, this is the first opportunity I've had to actually publish it. Fortunately, most of the goals I set myself in January are still relevant.  

So, Goal 1 for this year [and hopefully something I'll stick to in the long-term as well] is to be a bit less impulsive when it comes to hobby purchases – often I'd go into a hobby shop for some supplies, and end up coming out with a box [and sometimes more than one box] of miniatures as well. Fortunately, it's usually just a single miniature I really want to paint, but as these gradually accumulate, you realise you've added a dozen more models to your backlog. 

So, Goal 2 is to finish painting these various models bought solely for the purposes of wanting to paint them. Again, this goal has more long-term than short-term ambitions, so I'll probably use them as means of either breaking up lengthy hobby projects, or painting them at the end of a project as a reward – hopefully knowing you have a "treat" miniature at the end of painting a horde of models is good motivation! At the same time, painting something different can often help with motivation as you actually enjoy painting the model, rather than finishing a model and then dreading painting the remaining models the same way over and over again.

Speaking of abandoned projects, there are a number of these in my backlog that I have been neglecting for some time, and not just for MESBG. I have a number of projects for Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar and The Old World currently sitting in the backlog, all in various stages of assembly / painting, and a part of me actually wants to get these projects to completion. I'm unlikely to be able to get through all of them in a single year [there just isn’t enough time!], so Goal 3 for the year is to try and get at least one of these backlog projects completed. However, because I want to keep this Backlog Blog series Middle Earth-themed, they won’t be shown here – I will however still count them towards my model count for the year (as that focuses on the backlog as a whole), but I'll very likely set up a separate blog series for these. 

Lastly, Goal 4 is a numbers challenge, partially inspired by last year's model count – I painted 195 models in 2025, and I was disappointed that I didn’t quite manage to hit the 200 mark – probably because I was only five models away. So, the challenge for 2026 is to try and paint 200 models this year. I like to think this is an achievable goal given that, apart from 2024 when my hobby motivation took something of a nosedive, I've managed to paint either over or around 200 models every year that I've been doing this blog. Some of the goals I've set myself will certainly help in this regard, given that some of the unfinished projects have a high model count – get through those, and I'm easily on my way to hitting my target. So, look forward to the last post of the year, where I'll be checking back in on whether or not I hit these goals!

So, hobby goals set, let's get to painting!

I started 2026 as I finished 2025 – painting Easterlings! I dug out the eight archers I had lying in the backlog, and painted these to go in my Host of the Dragon Emperor list. Easterling archers are probably some of the most underused models in the game, and a common complaint is that you only get four pikes in the boxed set, but eight archers – not very helpful when the key part of an Easterling army is the pike block. Complaints aside, the archers are still very nice models. I spent a few evenings working on them, painting them in the same way as the rest of the army, and they were done. I've really enjoyed this Easterling project – so much so that I've painted nearly 1,500 points worth over the last 6 months!

Next were a pair of models I didn’t quite get around to finishing in 2025 – two old metal Rangers of Gondor. I painted my current Osgiliath force years ago, but I've been having thoughts for some time about stripping and re-painting the army – these models were attempts at experimenting with different colour combinations – I painted one Ranger with a green cloak, and another with a brown one – always interesting to see how the same miniature looks in a different colour scheme. The Osgiliath repaint is a very low priority for now, but having some reference models for when I eventually get round to it will be very helpful. There are actually a couple of my armies that I think could benefit from being stripped down and repainted, but I think the sensible thing is to focus on at the moment is finishing some unpainted new armies, rather than repainting old ones. I based them with an Osgiliath-themed rubble scatter, but I'm not sure if this will become the main basing scheme for the army – I might be tempted to do something else when I eventually get round to repainting the army.

With the rangers done, I took a small break from painting Middle Earth miniatures, to try and work out exactly which one of my other backlog projects I wanted to finish. Not that I wasn't entirely focussed on Middle Earth – I've also been busy working on my armies and the display board for the Middle Earth Grand Tournament a Warhammer World, but more on that in a future blog.

My main Middle Earth project for this year is still the huge box of Rohan I put together last year, and in between my work on other projects, I chipped away at some of the Riders. I tried to do some variation on the colours, using different shades of green and browns for the cloaks and leathers, and using metal colours for their helmets, where I'd always used a dark brown previously – variation really helps models stand out, especially when you're only using a handful of poses in your army. I then based the models to match Erkenbrand, who I painted on foot last year, and my first few Riders of the Westfold were ready for the tabletop.

With the Riders done, I then turned my attention to the mounted version of Erkenbrand – this was painted in the exact same way as the foot version, from the green cloak to his distinctive red shield – a few hours work, and he was ready to lead the Riders into battle!

So, to progress – with everything I've painted so far this year from the different game systems, my painted model count currently stands at 49 models! I'm considering this really great progress, considering it's mid-April and I'm nearly a quarter of the way to my 200 model goal already – I just need to try and keep this pace up to hit my target!

Tournament Report- The Grand Tournament 2026 (28/29th March)

The Tournament 

The GT is a nice straightforward GvE tournament. Everyone brings two 700pt armies of Good and Evil, playing two games (one of each), rolling off on the odd numbered rounds.

My Armies

I took this as my chance to set a target for painting my Haradrim. And so I would get a load of them done to use alongside my Easterlings and my custom Hasharin from Seven Stones a couple of years back. So my Evil army would be Grand Army of the South, Suladan as a solid leader, Amdur as the disposible beatstick and Hasharin for a solid backup.

For my Good force, I wanted to minimise the packing and unpacking so wanted an all hero army. I took the heroes of Ravenhill to my first ever GT, 8yrs ago! And decided to do so again, even if it leaves me 50pts short, I felt that their bonuses may make up for it.

Good- Assault on Ravenhill

Thorin, King under the Mountain LEADER

Fili, Champion of Erebor

Kili, Champion of Erebor

Dwalin, Champion of Erebor

Legolas w/ Orcrist

Tauriel

Bilbo, Master Burglar

Numbers: 7

Evil- Grand Army of the South

Suladan w/ Armoured Horse

Harad warriors x9 w/ Bow

Harad warriors x9 w/ Spear

Amdur w/ Armoured Horse

Dragon Cult Acolyte x3

Easterling warrior x3 w/ Shield

Easterling warrior x9 w/ Pike/Shield

Hasharin

Harad Raiders x3 w/ Bow/War spear

Numbers: 39

Game 1- Stake A Claim (Vs. Andrew (Fangorn))

Opponent's Heroes: Treebeard, Birchseed, Beechbone, Merry and Pippin

Opponent's Troops: Ents

I lined up my with all the Harad in the centre and left, and the easterlings to the right. My intention, as always against a small force of monsters, was to get an early kill and try to ‘unzip’ the opponent from there.

I called a Heroic March with Suladan to try and get up the board quickly. But then reassessed as we got to my movement, and instead moved half, figuring that with so many bows and poison, I may get lucky and cause a wound or two. They all missed.

A couple of turns later, we engaged and I threw Suladan and the Hasharin into Birchseed. While Amdur charged Beechbone with some warriors.

Suladan’s Heroic Strike spectacularly failed, as he was picked up by the ankle and pummelled into his friends. Killing all but the Hasharin, himself included. Amdur, meanwhile, had a little more luck, beating Beechbone, but failing to cause any wounds.

 

Over the next few turns, Amdur came out on top each time, but kept failing to wound. Luckily, some warriors wounded one of the ents and put it down to its last one. But around this time, Amdur suffered a similar fate to Suladan.

I had been busy elsewhere, as the easterlings had advanced and taken the right objective. With three left to defend it. The others advanced on Andrew’s rear objective, where Pippin sat upon it. After several turns of approaching, they chased the Hobbit off of it, and eventually speared him as he attacked when an ent came to assist.

Merry had gone to my left objective, where I eventually sent a spare raider to try to lance the surviving hobbit. But as I got close, the single wound ent approached. It was at this time, however, that my archers, sat on my rear objective, fired a cheeky shot that slew the ent! It was short lived as a victory as Birchseed quickly stepped in instead. As the end of the game approached, another handful of my troops defeated a second ent!

By the end of the battle  I had 27 Fortification Points to Andrew’s 29. He had beaten me on that, slain my leader,  broken me, and held the most objectives at the end to win 12-0!

12-0 L

Game 2- Retrieval (Vs. Gabe (Army of Gundabad))

Opponent's Heroes: Bolg, Gundabad Captain and Troll Catapult

Opponent's Troops: Gundabad Trolls

With so few models on the table, this wasn’t going to be a long game, one way or the other. It turned out that Gabe was a fellow BSIME viewer  so it was cool to put a face to the name.

I began by calling a March with Thorin and hurrying up the centre towards where Gabe’s troops were standing to defend their objective. Tauriel took the catapult trolls rock to the skull but shrugged it off like a champ…with a fate.

Legolas fired his bow and managed to take a wound off the Captain at the back.

The second turn was similar but without the March, Tauriel took another rock to the head but this time it failed to wound.

Legolas fired again, hitting Bolg’s warg and killing it.

The following turn, we hit combat. Fili, Kili and Bilbo fought one troll, and Thorin, Dwalin and Legolas took the other. Fili and Kili, using a Heroic Strike, managed to beat the troll and caused three wounds between them upon it. Bilbo then stepped up and slew the beast with Sting!

Dwalin and Thorin then fought Bolg, as Legolas, Tauriel, Bilbo, Fili and Kili charged the second troll. I called a Heroic combat and once again, Bilbo landed the killing blow! Fili and Kili charged the Captain as the others rushed towards the Catapult troll. In the combats that followed; Thorin slew Bolg and Kili took down the Captain. 

In the final turn, Legolas, Tauriel and Bilbo charged the Catapult troll, with Leggy grabbing the objective as he did so. He used his last two might to cause two wounds with his bow, Tauriel then landed another two wounds and Bilbo managed to slay his third troll of the game!

I had slain his leader, broken him, claimed the objective and killed three heroes for a 14-0 win.

Game 3- To The Death (Vs. Dom (Defenders of Helm's Deep))

Opponent's Heroes: Theoden, Aragorn and Legolas

Opponent's Troops: Rohan Royal Guard, Rohan Warriors and Galadhrim Warriors

I deployed my easterlings to my left, the Harad spears to my right and the archers upon a raised platform to pepper the opponents. 

We both ran towards each other and I got the edge in shooting as I shot a couple of archers dead. Then also taking some fate off Legolas. Dom then returned the favour killing a handful of my archers. 

The lines met (just under a glued platform so I had to stand them on top for ease), and I threw my easterlings into the wall of elves and Rohirrim. My Harad went to engage the small unit off to my right, with help from the archers, who took out a couple of Rohirrim each turn. In the fighting, I lost a few easterlings but killed off some elves in return.

Amdur then saw an opportunity and charged into some Rohirrim up the far right flank with a raider. Dom reacted to this, by throwing Aragorn in alongside Theoden. The idea being that Aragorn could match the fight value and Herugrim from Theoden could give him the edge. 

In the fight phase, I lost a handful of Harad spears to the Rohirrim due to numbers, but the easterlings again managed to whittle down the elves for me. When it came to the big hero fight, we had both called Heroic Strike. Aragorn went up to 9, and Amdur to 10. Amdur then managed to win the fight and laid into Theoden. Managing to slay the King with his final strikes. In the following turn, Amdur charged Aragorn again. Legolas, I should say, had been shooting into combat to try and dismount Amdur, but would either miss or roll catastrophically to wound. 

Neither of us called a strike this time, and Amdur won the roll off, before landing many wounds upon the Heir of Isildur. Managing to bring him down too!

Now in a tough spot, through sheer bad luck, Dom threw Legolas into the fight with the Easterlings. My Harad spears collapsed under the weight of the Rohirrim, who then tried to hurry past and flank me, but a lone Harad managed to hold them at the chokepoint for a couple of turns, keeps my easterling rear safe. 

In those two turns, Legolas had lost both fights and ended up being speared by the glimmering horde. With all three heroes now slain, Amdur hitting the rear and my archers picking off loose targets, I had the upper hand as time was called. Suladan’s sole contribution to this battle, had been to hide at the back giving banner effect, VPs and not getting wounded. 

I had slain Theoden, broken the defenders, got them to 25%, killed three heroes and we each had a banner remaining, giving me a 14-1 win.

Game 4- Lead From The Front (Vs. Alun (Wolves Of Isengard))

Opponent's Heroes: Sharku, Orc Captains and Orc Shaman

Opponent's Troops: Warg Riders and Wild Wargs

This was one of the better matchup and scenario pairings that I could have hoped for. Having several strong heroes of decent tier to hold up to three objectives.

I deployed in front of a field, which had the central objective in a corner. The aim was to get inside the field and use it as a fortification to defend. 

The wargs got their pre priority move and rushed up a handful, who shot at me but failed to wound. In the move phase the other wargs all hurried up to push the line against me, and I pushed up towards the entrance to the field. 

In the shoot phase, the wargs managed to shoot Legolas and remove a wound, two fate, and a might from him. Legolas fired back, killing a rider. 

The turn after, I called a Heroic Move and hurried into the field. Thorin pinned the Captain in the corner, Fili and Kili charged a couple, Legolas charged one and Dwalin blockaded the gateway. 

Poor Bilbo, however, got left behind…how themeatic.

The field now became a kill zone, where I had Fili, Kili and Legolas killing any wargs that entered. Not wanting to get caught at time or the end of the game later, as they approached their break point, Tauriel pushed for the left objectives, launching herself with a Heroic Combat (in which she slew all three riders and the warg that passed courage). And landed beside the captain, who promptly shielded her away. The following turn, she faced the captain and two warg riders, got a four high and was ripped to pieces…plan A is out the window…

So the remaining heroes in the field (Bilbo had managed to hop through, using the Ring, killing a couple as he went) tried to hold a wall each and avoid being overrun. Legolas managed to narrowly dodge many bow shots and throwing spears, using his bow to avoid being outfought. Fili and Kili kept up a steady kill count on their two walls, Bilbo threw stones and stabbed the riders with Sting, and Thorin…well he got Orcrist from Legolas and then proceeded to bounce off the Captain for most of the game…when he did finally score a wound that went through fate, he rolled for the bane effect and did a single wound. He did eventually manage to slay the captain, before charging the Shaman over the same wall, and rolling triple 3 for his in the way rolls. Shaman got away unscathed.

Legolas eventually fell as a warg rider knocked him down and nommed him to death. Fili suffered a sudden similar fate. But luckily, Kili and Bilbo held firm, the latter ending the game on five(ish) kills. Dwalin, meanwhile, decided to one man army ‘Rambo’ it. He charged out the field as the game approached its end, called a Heroic Combat with his last might, slaying both the mount and rider. He then rushed the Captain, and didn’t manage to kill, but did steal the left objective!

As the game ended, I had claimed two objectives against lower tiered heroes, Sharku held the last, as he had stayed there, well away from any nasty elves or dwarves. I had broken the wolves and Thorin, as per the army bonus, is counted as a banner, so I had won 9-4.

Game 5- Escort The Wounded (Vs. Jay (Dragons Of The North))

Opponent's Heroes: Dragons and Cave Drake

It’s been several years since I’ve played Jay, and finally I’d have another crack!

Based off a practice game that I’d played, I knew that the best approach would be to just grab two wounded and get up the board ASAP. So Dwalin grabbed one and Tauriel/Legolas grabbed another to get him out of the woodland. Whereupon Legolas dropped and Kili took over. This was so Legolas could start popping off shots at the Dragons.

He began this in style, using two might to take two fate off the lead Dragon (red). And over the following turns taking one away from the Drake too. Jay, meanwhile, took an objective each with the second dragon and drake to save them, then flew the second dragon back, taking the last from the lead dragon and rescuing him too.

I used two of Thorin’s might for Heroic Marches to cover as much ground as I could, weaving through a ruin for cover, and managed to get my two wounded saved. Sadly, Thorin was roasted as I did so.

I then retreated back into the ruin, to avoid the Dragons picking me apart. Tauriel, Dwalin, Fili and Bilbo managed to pin the Cave Drake. After chipping off four wounds, Bilbo charged in, threw a stone and took its second to last wound away, before Dwalin slew the beast. Kili was then eaten by the second Dragon as Legolas fought the lead one, winning but failing to wound.

As my might wore thin, Jay managed to gain the upper hand with patience, and gradually my heroes were killed off; Tauriel, Fili, Dwalin were slain by the second dragon, despite landing a few blows upon it, and Legolas was eventually devoured by the lead one. Bilbo was the lone survivor as he stood alone in the ruins with the Ring on. 

Jay had rescued all three wounded to my two, he had slain my leader, broken me and neither of us had any banners. So I had lost 20-10, but given the matchup and quality of the opponent, I was happy to accept that.

Game 6- Command The Battlefield (Vs. Louis (Halls Of Thranduil))

Opponent's Heroes: Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel

Opponent's Troops: Mirkwood Knights, Mirkwood Elf Warriors and Wood Elf Sentinels

Louis was another opponent that I was rematching. I believe that our last battle was at TOS ‘23? 

I got the edge early on as I gave priority to Louis so that he’d have to arrive first. He had Thranduil arrive in the South West corner and Tauriel in the middle of the South edge. Legolas failed to arrive.

I then had my Hasharin fail to arrive. Amdur then came onto the Eastern edge behind Thranduil, and Suladan, the South near to Tauriel.

We exchanged bowfire and the elves shot a couple of my archers, who then shot a wound off Thranduil’s elk. Tauriel also managed to snipe out Suladan’s horse. However, one of the acolytes managed to throw a knife and kill the sentinel nearby.

I then went on the very aggressive offensive. Amdur’s unit went for the elven rear and pinned them. Amdur flanked one of the elven glaives and others pinned some of the knights. In the melee, several on either side fell, with me putting a good few holes in the elven lines to exploit next turn.

The Hasharin then arrived behind Amdur’s unit to reinforce it. 

In Louis’ turn, Tauriel charged at my archers, grabbing two. The sentinel then sang at another and pulled him in too. Predictably, Tauriel murdered them all. My archers managed to shoot a couple of elven bows dead. But Legolas had arrived behind me and instantly shot three wounds onto Suladan, killing him!

Over the next few turns, Tauriel gradually ground down my archers until none were left. 

I had several turns of gaining the priority in a row, and took full advantage. Managing to almost destroy Thranduil’s warband. So Louis made a sensible decision and pulled him and his surviving knights back. I called a combat with Amdur, involving several warriors including acolytes and the Hasharin and gave chase. I then won priority and was just out of range of Thranduil. So I threw several guys into Tauriel’s archers and Thranduil’s knights to try and break them. My Hasharin saw an opportunity and threw a knife, slaying the second sentinel. After all the fights had resolved, I had broken the elves, but wasn’t far off myself. 

Over the rest of the game, I tried to wear down the elves in the south west corner, lost 2/3 of my raiders in the north west to courage after breaking. And Louis held firm, using Legolas’ courage and the last sentinel’s music to keep a vital knight in check.

I had captured the north west, Louis had both the north and south east, and had outnumbered me in the south west. We were both broken, he had slain suladan and 25%ed me. I believe that he was only 1/2 off himself. So Louis had claimed the victory, 13-4.

Results

In the end, I had managed to get 3 wins and 3 losses, breaking even nicely. (A bit of a rarity these days!) I had achieved a VPD of +1 and slain two leaders. I ended up 27th out of the 64 players. 

I was really happy with that performance, especially as I had the opportunity to potentially get 4/2+. I always really enjoy these WW tournaments and hope we continue to see them well into the future!

Tournaments that I'll attend

EAHC Teams 18th April

Fog of War 4 16th May

Seven Stones 23/24th May

Aragorn, You Need More Men (Backlog Clearing Jan-Feb '26)

 Hey all

It's the first hobby post of this year's progress. And I'll try to be more consistent this year. 

I'm off to a bad start for getting the grey pile down, having bought quite a few second hand Haradrim warriors from local guys. But I have plans for them, so it's not buying for the sake of it.

Kicking off with January, I had received a secret santa gift at Xmas, and vowed to make whatever I got one of my first projects for the year. What I received, having asked simply for 'Warriors (not Moria Goblins)' was a box of Mirkwood Knights and a box of Dragon Cult Acolytes.

So I kicked off with the Acolytes. The idea behind asking for warriors was to make whatever I got a total surprise. And if I was given something that I already had, I'd use it as a chance to convert a little or a lot depending. Since I have some already, I played around with them in building and managed to make them a little different to add some variety.

Then I had to put the Knights on hold, as we had a big siege battle coming up, so I had to quickly paint up the siege equipment for it. A handful of ladders and a couple of battering rams (one made hastily with sprue).

After this, the Knights got held up again, as we had our league opener approaching. I needed to paint up my new Theodred for this and I didn't want to rush, as I wanted to mix loads of colour into it.

I'll list below the mixes that I used (all were 1:1 for ease of matching, when I needed to come back);

Brego- A mix of Dryad Bark, Mournfang Brown and Doombull Brown.

Armour ?plates?- Corvus Black and Waaagh Flesh mix

Shield- Lupercal Green and Catachan Green

Red trim- Khorne Red and Doombull Brown mix

Trousers- Rhinox Hide and Dryad Bark mix

Saddle- Castellan Green and Waaagh Flesh mix

I felt that this gave plenty of different shades to differentiate between the different parts of the model, without changing the look too much.

With all that sorted, it was finally time for the patient elves to get sorted. I painted them to match the ones that I had done several years ago, but adjusted the builds, like the Acolytes to vary the poses a little.

With those finished, thanks again to my secret Santa! I'm trying to think of an event that I can take them to!

Now entering February, I managed to swing a ticket for the GT in Warhammer World, and needed to think about what to take. I decided to do one all hero force, to make unpacking/packing a lot easier. So for my good force, I chose Assault on Ravenhill. It'll be 50pts down, but I like the look of it and am not expecting to win.

So for my evil force, I was thinking, when our local Tom asked if I wanted some spare models before he sold them. And I ended up exchanging a spare plastic Bolg to him for a warband's worth of Haradrim warriors, adding this to the eight archers that I needed to paint. Inspired by this, I decided to do Grand Army of the South, using a mix of Harad and Easterlings.

First up, I sorted out all the models that I had got from Tom and tidied them up. Then got them painted nice and quickly by my standards. I decided to also do a custom paint scheme based off my portion of the Seven Stones winning army that James and I made in 2024 (example pic below.

After they were all done, I had another offer from our local Phil, who also had some Harad to get rid of. Since I was still pretty short, and these were a decent price, I thought 'Screw it!' and grabbed them too. 

While they were on route, I got my Suladan out his box and sorted out a repaint for him, as he didn't look quite suitable to lead a freshly painted army. There wasn't much in the way of custom colours here; just a mix of Hobgrot Hide and Pallid Wych Flesh for the horse tail, Administratium Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh for the horse fur, and Naggaroth Night and Phoenician Purple for Suladan's top. I figured that this blended him into the paint scheme nicely and would match up the customised Hasharin that I made back in 2024.

I also had to decide what symbols to do on his banner. After a little browsing, I decided to use the Sauron's eye symbol from Rings of Power on the side banners and the snake symbol featured in dungeons in Skyrim.

 

One little trick that I have used before on Gamling, is to draw out the freehand design onto some paper, then fold it up into the same shape as the banner. This helps me know how the design should look when it's creased up.

It took me a good while to get him done, but I was very happy with his new look.

And that is it for the first couple of months. I feel like I've been good and productive, so am happy that I'm on track for a good year (even if my starting number of unpainted models has climbed from 327 to 350 🥴). Until next time!