Aragorn, You Need More Men (July-Aug ‘26)

Hey all, despite the heat of the Summer, I managed to get a fair bit of hobby done.

In July, I continued my efforts to get all of my backlogged Numenor done. I began with some spears and swords. I found that I had far too many swords and not enough spears so make paperclip shafts and used the sword blades to convert them. They are now painted, but I'll save that for a big group picture when all spears are finished in the relatively near future.

We also had a BSIME theme that I had been waiting for, when we had Farmer Maggot week. I managed to sort him out in one sitting to join his dogs.

But before long, I had another few models to sort out for an upcoming event. At this, I was going to be using the Road to Helm’s Deep army. There wasn’t much to do for it, but they were heroes and I wanted to do a decent job. The first was a mounted Legolas and Gimli, given to me by a mate, when he left the hobby ~20yrs prior. While the paintjob was nostalgic, I wanted to do it justice. 

I quickly noticed something as I prepared to paint that had somehow gone under my radar for all that time…Legolas was missing an arm. Luckily, I have my bits box. So I took a spare Carn Dum warrior’s arm and smoothed it out to match Legolas’ look. I then replaced the hand with a Royal Guard’s sword and felt satisfied with the repair.

I then got him all repainted. While I was at it, it felt that this was a good opportunity to do my mounted Legolas while I was in the swing of it so I pulled him out the pile and got him done.

As I was getting Legolas out the pile, I also discovered an unarmoured Theoden mounted that I forgot I owned. Since this was THE army for him, it seemed silly not to sort him out too.

With that sorted, I returned to my Numenor. I took a spearman, whose hand was missing and used a blue stuff moulded Minas Tirith sword to replace it. This was to be my Captain.

This was followed by the rest of my swordsmen.

Now I wanted to do something bigger to break the monotony and so I did Elendil himself. I also did his dead model too, this was to use as a marker for the ‘Shards of Narsil’ rule. The purpose of the butterfly was something to angle him for the pic.

Next up, I decided to do Isildur to complete the leaders. Like Elendil, I did his floored version, the purpose of which, I’ll explain below.

In the BSIME bingo, there was a square for making a diorama of 2+ models. Since I had been doing Numenor, and had the models, it made sense to do Isildur as he was about to ut the Ring from Sauron’s hand. 

I had a spare large oval base from my Cave Drake and used that. I put some stones onx painted them up and added some ashy flock. Simple but effective.

And so that was my summer done. I have about a month and a half left (at time of writing) before our daughter arrives, so my aim is to finish Numenor, my Harad warriors (converting some into command) and hopefully also my Iron Hills ballista before that. Could be ambitious, but we’ll see if I can do it.

Until next time!

Clearing the Backlog, Part 30 – Why do I keep doing stupid things?

As a hobbyist, this can be a question you pose yourself a lot. In my case, the stupid thing was painting a 750 point Legions of Mordor list in the space of just two weeks for an EAHC event. 

But first, let's add a little bit of context – if you follow Battle Streams in Middle Earth [and I highly recommend doing so!], you'll know that they have an annual Hobby Bingo challenge. Two of the squares consist of painting both a Good and Evil army of at least 600 points. The Good army was easy enough to complete this year, as it will be my Rohan force, and I've made good progress so far by painting up a full warband of Riders of Rohan, plus Erkenbrand, Grimbold, and a number of Command models – a Captain, a banner bearer, a hornblower, and the Helmingas banner and hornblower models that come in a set with Grimbold

The plan is to eventually add Theodred, Elfhelm, another warband of Riders of Rohan [which I'm excited to reveal will be the brand new sculpts] and a host of Warriors of Rohan, giving me a completed Fords of Isen themed army to counter the invaders from Isengard. As to the Evil army, this would be tricker, as I wasn't quite sure exactly what to paint. So, a quick delve into the pile of shame, and I found I had a sprue of Morannon Orcs, two Mordor Trolls, plus an old metal Ringwraith on Fell Beast. A quick bit of list building later, and I had my 750 point list:

Fortunately, I'd already painted one warband of Morannon Orcs as part of my display board for last year's Throne of Skulls, so it was simply a matter of gluing them to some bases and adding basing material. The orcs were all painted in my dirty metallic scheme (Leadbelcher basecoat, wash with Nuln Oil and then Agrax Earthshade and then drybrush Necron Compound), whilst I picked out the cloth with various shades of red and brown. I then applied Geek Gaming Scenic's Base-Ready City Rubble to the bases to recreate the war-torn streets of the ruined city of Osgiliath. A couple of hours work, and I had a horde of orcs ready to go.

For the trolls, I painted the armour in the same way as the orcs. As for the skin, I started with a basecoat of Steel Legion Drab, before applying a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. I then drybrushed the skin with Steel Legion Drab, Baneblade Brown and then finally Karak Stone. The cloth was painted with XV-88, before being washed with Agrax Earthshade, highlighted XV-88 and then Balor Brown. The last step was to pick out the scales and straps with different shades of brown, and I had two trolls to join the orc host!

As to the heroes, my obvious choice for an Osgiliath themed army was Gothmog, so I picked up the new plastic sculpt. The armour and cloth was painted the same way as the other orcs, except that I used Iron Warrior instead of Leadbelcher for the basecoat, giving him a darker look that helps him stand out from the rest of the horde. As for his Warg, I started with a basecoat of XV-88, before applying washes of Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade – I then highlighted the fur with Balor Brown, Baneblade Brown and Karak Stone, before using Basilicanum Grey contrast to paint the Warg's skin. I then based him to match the rest of the army, and he was ready to announce the time of the orc had come!

Another hero I decided to include was Guritz, who's special rules for reinforcements would definitely come in handy. However, I didn’t have a spare one to hand, and also didn't have the time to get hold of the resin version. What I did have, however, was a spare Morannon Orc and the Battle Games in Middle Earth conversion sprue, which has an orc head exactly like Guritz's, and his scythe-style weapon. A quick bit of snipping, gluing  and some Green Stuff later, and I had my discount Guritz – it was then simply a case of painting him in the same way as Gothmog, and my orc heroes were finished. 

The last model for the army was some air support – a Ringwraith on a Fell Beast. I'd managed to pick up the old metal version a while ago, and the Osgiliath style ruins on the base made it a perfect match for the army. For the Ringwraith, I started with a black basecoat, before using grey-blue colours for the highlights. As for the Fell Beast, I started with a basecoat of Corvus Black for the scaly skin, before washing the model with Agrax Earthshade. I then applied drybrushes of Eshin Grey and Skavenblight Dinge, before stippling Baneblade Brown and Karak Stone on the underbelly. For the wing membranes, I started with Stormvermin Fur, before washing with Agrax and drybrushing with Baneblade Brown and Karak Stone. I then picked out the spines and claws with black, before applying a light grey drybrush. I then picked out the teeth and saddle, and the Fell Beast was done. 

This left just one other model that comes in the Fell Beast boxed set – Frodo! He was fairly straightforward to paint, and fortunately the night before the EAHC event was the latest episode of Battle Streams in Middle Earth – painting Frodo was a nice way to unwind after a busy couple of weeks painting, and he rather conveniently ticks of the "Paint either a member of the Fellowship or Thorin's Company" bingo box!

So, here it is, my 750 point Legions of Mordor army in full:

This is probably one of the easiest armies I've painted, simply because a lot of it was just doing blocks of basecoats, washes and drybrushes. The base-ready City Rubble also meant I didn’t have to spend time painting the bases either – all I had to do was glue it on and then apply a matt sealant to hold it in place. I've not really used base-ready materials before, having normally relied on the old standard of applying sand to the base, painting it and then adding static grass, but I was quite satisfied with the effect, and I'm already planning a Gondor army to go alongside the Mordor one. I might also do an Osgiliath themed display board for them to fight over too!

The ease of painting the army also meant I didn’t feel under time pressure to get it done for the event, although I was admittedly a bit nervous about the deadline when I started painting. However, the frenetic painting paid off, as I won the Best Army award for the event, something I was delighted with! Unfortunately, despite being voted the best army, it spectacularly failed to perform on the tabletop, and I managed to lose all three games and went home with the wooden spoon [Oh well, at least it looked good!].

I also managed to get one additional model painted up, this time to tick off another bingo square, “Paint one of your five favourite Middle Earth characters”, and there was only really one character I could chose - Gandalf the Grey. This version is from the White Council boxed set that was released alongside An Unexpected Journey, and it really is a lovely sculpt.

So, to backlog progress - the Rohirrim, orcs, trolls and Ringwraith (plus Frodo and Gandalf) have helped me get my painting count for the year to 148 models! Only 52 to go to hit the 200 model target for the year, and I still have projects planned which should help me reach that total. Now, time to crack on with that Rohan army!

Aragorn, You Need More Men (March-June 2026)

Hey all

I decided to extend this by two months, as I originally intended to post just after the Seven Stones post. But then decided to space it out, rather than have several posts so close together, and go back to the post every other month after this.

So going back from March through to now:

Continuing with my Harad project, with preparation for the GT, I grabbed three of my old raiders and repainted them in the same style as my infantry. 

Then I returned to my infantry again, getting another load sorted. These came from our local Phil, who was getting rid of them. And since I had used several of mine for the Seven Stones Project two years back, I restocked my own with them. I had more bows than spears, so converted a few.

 

As the GT loomed, I wanted to repaint the big killy thing in my army to better match my Easterlings aesthetic amongst my Grand Army of the South. I was much happier with the repaint compared to the job that I did 13~yrs ago.

Now for the easiest grey pile reducing job, I wanted an invisible Bilbo for my Assault on Ravenhill at the GT. So I got these bases and decorated them. I decided that the one that’s second from the left felt the most Bilboey, although the middle one also had the same vibe too.

I also wanted to have a Hobbit era Legolas without Orcrist, so dug out the one standing on his log. It’s an old paintjob that I remember being my last painted model for 2013, done on NYE before heading out for a party. But one that I didn’t feel stood the test of time, so I redid him. He was also my last model needed for the GT.

After the GT, we had a local teams event. For this I decided to just adapt my GT army a little. The first model that I needed for this was a Harad King. He ended up being pretty solid for me, nearly one shotting the enemy leader, Freca, in a surprise attack with a Heroic Combat.

Next up was one that I had been really looking forward to, Raza. He’s a really cool looking hero with an interesting rule.

The final models that I needed to do were the Abrakhan Merchant Guard. I felt so much happier with them afterwards as the old paintjob, like many others, just felt dated.

Then I went off to work on my Seven Stones contribution for a long while. But when that had finally been completed, we had a stream for BSIME, and up came Prince Imrahil as the theme. So went and found him out the pile and got him sorted out. I’m saving the mounted one for when I finally do my Fiefdoms army.

After this, I found myself at a bit of a loose end. And didn’t really know where to go. I did finally think of the pack of hobbits that a mate from outside the community had got for me, and decided to clear out all the hobbits that I had accumulated (not that many, fear not. Not enough to make an army.)

I began with the pack of shirriffs and lone militia. To wander off on a small tangent, this militia was the spare one that I didn’t need for our Middle Earth Traitors theme in Seven Stones last year. Not knowing what to do with him, I offered him to James, who didn’t need him either and threw him into the prestigious Seven Stones raffle. Wherein I promptly won him back. Unable to pass him on, I decided he must he fated to be with me and painted him up instead.

I then moved onto doing Farmer Maggot's dogs. Grip, I did as a Rottweiler, Fang as a Dobermann and Wolf as a sort of terrier. Maggot himself, I am saving for his upcoming stream.

We then had another EAHC event coming up, and in this I had the chance to bring a terrain piece that was themed to my army. The only thing I could think of to go with the Army of Erebor was the Throne of Erebor so I dug that out. This was a failed print that CJ had done and failed, so it was given away for free and shamelessly harvested by me.

The other terrain piece that I did, was a paintjob for out local community, doing up an elven fountain for our boards. I added some mix of 50:50 water and PVA glue to add a little pooled water inside of it.

The last job that I got done in this period, was when I finally decided on my next paint project. The Numenor army that I had been slowly accumulating through Christmas and people selling them off locally. 

I decided to do an alternative scheme on them, based a little off the feel of the Rings of Power Numenor (bright colour, water focused and a hint of Sun worship.) It might be well off the vibe in ROP, but it’s what was coming to me. 

I gave them bright baby blue capes to represent the sea, yellow undershirts to be the Sun and grey overcoats to represent the lack of ability to find a good alternative to mix those colours together without looking childish. 😆

I felt happy with the end look, and am now currently about ten models deep into the new army! Maybe next blog, I’ll have the finished force!

Until next time!