January
January was a productive month for me in terms of hobbying - I finished off a few models that had been sitting around for ages, including my mounted Witch King and reinforcements for my Assault on Lothlorien army. I also started a new hobbying plan of pulling random models out of my backlog to help break up large painting projects - January saw me finish Golfimbul. Lastly, I made a start on my first army project of the year - my Army of Dale.
February & March
More progress throughout these two months - I painted up some more Men of Dale, along with King Brand and his son Bard II to lead them into battle. This however was where I ran into the painting obstacle that was the Knights of Dale - it took me forever to paint them because of all the detail on them - famously finishing the models at 1:45 in the morning the night before the Grand Tournament at Warhammer World...
I also continued the trend of random models, this time pulling Khamul the Easterling and some Castellans of Dol Guldur out of the backlog and painting them up. By the end of March, I'd painted nearly 50 models - good progress so far!
April, May and June
A mixed few months of hobbying here, as April and March saw little time for hobbying - May and June however were much more productive months - I continued progress on the Men of Dale, but also worked on a small cohort of Easterlings to join my Mordor forces. May also saw me working on a trio of Galadriel, Elrond and Celeborn, along with a display board for Seven Stones. By the end of June, I'd doubled my number of painted models for the year!
July & August
Here's where progress started to stall, all because of half a dozen models - my remaining Knights of Dale. Whilst being lovely models, the sheer amount of detail made them a very daunting prospect to paint - to the extent that I was painting anything and everything apart from them. However, after much procrastination, I finally got them finished, and at last, Project Army of Dale was complete!
Having finished the Men of Dale, I got through some pretty easy models I had lying in the backlog - some Ringwraiths - these provided a nice distraction in between the Knights. I also managed to paint up Erkenbrand to start a slow-growing Riders of Theodred force. I was up to 100 models painted, but it had taken a long time...
September
Here's where progress picks back up, and there's one race in Middle Earth to thank for it - dwarves! Throughout September, I smashed my way through over 30 models for my Army of Thror project, including Thror himself, as well as Thrain, Young Thorin, Young Dwalin and a host of Erebor Dwarves. I also painted up a small contingent of Dwarves, led by a repainted original Dain Ironfoot model, to join my army of Khazad Dum. In just one month, I'd taken my painted count from just over 100 to nearly 170! Progress indeed!
October & November
One main project occupied my time over these two months - my Thorin's Company army and display board for Throne of Skulls. I had a lot of fun painting both the Company and my display board for the event, and was thrilled to walk away from the event with a Favourite Army nomination - a great reward for all the work and effort that went into the project!
December
So, to December. A lovely time of year for hobbying, because with no tournaments on the horizon, I can just have some fun and paint any random model I feel like! I did however have a few projects that needed finishing, so I started with those.
First of all were the remaining models in my Army of Thror force - Young Balin and a warband of dwarves, plus a banner bearer I converted (the banner being a 3D print produced by Guardians of Wiltshire) - I stuck to the same techniques as before but again varied the colour of the cloth and beards in order to make them look different from the rest of the army - the end result turned out great, and my Army of Thror was now complete!
Next up, I painted the last few Ringwraiths to finish off the Nine. Nothing fancy, just layers of different shades of grey over black - simple, but effective!
I also had a few cavalry models I wanted to finish off, consisting of the mounted versions of Khamul the Easterling and The Dark Marshal, having painted the foot versions earlier in the year. I also dug my mounted Hurin the Tall out of the backlog and finished him off, given that he'd been sitting half-finished for ages.
My last models for the year were a few Uruk Hai scouts - I'd noticed whilst doing some sorting that I only needed to paint a few more models to give Lurtz, Ugluk and Mauhur full warbands in my Lurtz's Scouts list, so I grabbed the models I needed and painted them up. I also painted up a banner bearer, and the two Uruks carrying Merry and Pippin - I may well use these as banners going forwards as they suit the theme nicely. I even got my hands on the old captured Merry and Pippin models and painted those up too - they'll make perfect objective markers for the force!
So, to the final count - I am sitting pretty on 230 models painted for the year! Another excellent year of progress, and whilst not quite as many as I managed last year, it's still a number I'm very happy with. There's still plenty of models left however, so expect a few more posts throughout next year to see how I'm getting on. I must be getting near the end of the pile soon, right?... Right?
Hope you all have very Happy New Years, and happy hobbying for 2024!
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