At Dawn, Look to the East (Anglia Hobbit Community): Clearing the Backlog (Nov-Dec '22)

Hey all

This is my final paint blog for the year. I decided to pile November and December together to make it a bit meatier as I didn't have loads of time to paint in again. (Next year, I may just make it every other month, rather than once a month).

In November, I began by quickly banging out a Vault Warden team as I had ended up adding one to my Battle Company locally. Rather than leave the shield plain, I added a Scottish flag design to the front, as it goes nicely with my colour scheme to the army (primarily blue with white on the Kings).

My next quick job, was the last two of my Mirkwood Elves. Simply because it finishes off an entire force, and that excites me far more than it should. I did these in the same green colour scheme as I have for the rest.

Since I had enjoyed painting the dwarves earlier, I decided that I would finish off the Dwarf command box that I opened up for the Battle Company challenge earlier in the year. While I tend to make the warriors mostly blue, with black undershirts, making them very dark colours. I decided to give the Shieldbearer a very bright, white and gold shield, as I figured that he is defending the King so we can make him blend with the royalty a little.

To finish off the month, I had to paint up some Feral Uruk-hai for Throne of Skulls in early Dec. They were relatively straightforward and fun to paint up. I liked the faceplates that remind me of Bolg and got plenty of practice in freehanding my white hands. I did these using a method that I had seen someone do previously, sadly I forget who. This is done by simply painting, in Rakarth Flesh, a backwards 'C' then doing a small line about half its width from the gap in the C. Then doing four lines for the fingers, with the index and ring ones being the same length, the middle one being slightly longer (about the same length as the palm) and the little finger obviously being the smallest. You then go over this, once dry, drybrushing with some Pallid Wych Flesh. You can see one that came out nicely, on the face of the central Feral.

In December, I began by doing the same and finishing my last three Feral Uruk-hai, this wouldn't have taken very long, however, our household got struck down by a nasty cold/flu. So our time and efforts ended up being on sorting out the monkey boy, and it took me until halfway through the month to get them done.

After this, I decided to prioritise getting a Hobby Bingo square achieved. There was one nice easy one I could get done, 'Paint a model with the Spirit keyword'. Looking through the pile of shame, I saw that I had the Betrayer, who had sat unnoticed for years. He seemed like a simple enough task, so out he came.

I had him finished around December 28th~ and tallying up all my models that I had done for the year, I was sitting on 89...there was no way that I could leave it just shy of 90, not while I still had time.

I had begun the year with Dale, so I would finish the year with Dale. Girion, has also sat in the pile of shame since at least pre-pandemic, now his time had come! The first thing that he would need, would be a Great Bow. Luckily, as if I had foreseen this moment, while using green stuff earlier in the year, I had already made him one with the excess.

The majority of his colour schemes were easy to decide, but the part that stumped me for a while was what to do with his coat. In the GW pictures, it appears to be a dark brown, with an orange? trim. While in the pictures of Luke Evans in costume, it appears to be a dark red. In the end, I went for an inbetween and did it with a Mournfang Brown, covered by a layer of Doombull Brown, then washed in Agrax Earthshade, followed by Carroburg Crimson to give it a slight red hue (not very visible in the pictures). And I was happy with the appearance. For the trim, I kept it simple and just painted it Steel Legion Drab and washed in, the old favourite, Agrax.

And with that I hit a nice round 90 for the year's tally of models! Adding in the influx of new Birthday and Xmas models, including an EAHC secret Santa of goodies (organised by Tom Hawker), my pile of shame had shrunk over the year from 419 on Jan 1st down to 384. This obviously fell very much short of my target to get my queue below 300, but aim for the stars and that. I'll renew that target for next year.

These secret Santa models in particular would be helpful for one of my two big projects for next year (Moria and Lothlorien). And speaking of next year, here's a couple of previews of things that are converted (even mildly) and queued for it.

Mounted King Thorin