Hey all
First of all, I've changed the title to more easily separate mine and James' posts, this was the best to come to me that didn't clash with an already used title. Hope it's everything that you've ever dreamed of and more.
First thing I did in November, was kickstart the painting that I needed to finish for Throne of Skulls late in the month. All I had left to do was 6 Huscarls, so I got them sorted to match the ones that I had done previously.
With all the models that I needed for tournaments now done for the year, I could focus on simply clearing my to do pile, marking off hobby bingo and painting things that I simply wanted to paint. Sitting in my drawer for the last 3 years, begging to be done, was 8 Minas Tirith archers. There was nothing fancy or different about how I did these guys, but it was great to finally see them done. And I'll try to take them to a tournament, so that I can see my opponents scratching their heads and wondering why I didn't bring rangers or citadel guard.
Another small job that had sat in my cupboard of shame, after I had won them as part of the victorious Team Evil in a pre-Covid tournament, was 3 Dunedain. This seemed like another easy task that may not get another chance, so they were opened up and sorted out.
Dipping once again into the drawer, I saw a chance to mark off the 'Paint a member of the Fellowship' box of Hobby Bingo, as I had started the Dying Boromir much earlier in the year, during Boromir week of a BSiME stream. But then deadlines had forced me to put him back in the queue. Since he was half done, this seemed like another easy job to do.
Continuing on the theme of BSiME, in early December, they did their ROTK 20th anniversary special. And since I had bought an old command pack when trading in unused models earlier in the year, and I had recently painted some Minas Tirith, this seemed to be the perfect time for it.
A lot of nostalgia opening up a pack like this
Next up, I had offered a load of scatter terrain that I had just lying around to the local club. I decided that, even though some of it clearly wasn't Middle Earth based, I could just paint them in the same style and it would blend in nicely.
That was quite a nice easy task, that cleared a lot out quickly.
With about 3 weeks left in the year, I decided to choose some small packs of models to clear out in the remaining time, starting with a pack of Mordor Uruks that had sat forgotten for a long while. In the past, I had simply painted the last ones in a mix of greys with some metal and leather boots/gloves. Simply by making the tunics into leather, really made them pop more for me.
Another pack that had sat ready to be done in spare time for months, was the 'Riddles in the Dark' set, this seemed like another straightforward set to slap out, so they finally saw day too.
By this point it was Christmas, and I knew the next few days would be too busy to get anything done. I got a lot of cool stuff, including the Spider Queen. I also got my secret Santa from the EAHC a few days later. All I had to ask for was 3D printed models for Dwalin, Fili and Kili on goats. I got these and a treasure trove of other cool stuff to go with them.
Cheers again to my Secret Santa, whoever you may have been
With a little under a week to go, I chose only two other packs to try and get done. The first was the two Dwarf Kings that I had kept after splitting a MTO several years ago. I decided a while ago that I would paint the royalty in my Khazad-Dum force to have white capes, to help them stand out nicely.
And I had chosen my final model of the year, the year before. As I had wanted to finish last year on a high with this character, but time had run out. However, I had started using a wet palette this year, that meant I was able to do my absolute best effort on this model. And finally finished him in the early hours of New Years Eve.
My last model was Gimli on Dead Uruk, who I bought on a whim in a MTO years ago. I did the gold in my favourite mix (Balthasar Gold-> Golden Griffon-> Agrax Earthshade). For his elven cloak, I found a good mix to match the films was a 1:1 mix of Castellan Green and Mechanicus Standard Grey to give a grey with a slight green tinge. The leather vambraces and boots, I did a base of Dryad Bark, highlighted Catachan Flesh, washed in Agrax and highlighted again in Catachan Flesh. And for his hair, I based in Mournfang Brown, went over it again in Skrag Brown, but to dull the fiery orange down, went over again lightly with Knight-Questor Flesh, washed in Agrax and went over again with another light Knight-Questor Flesh.
The part that I had to think about was Gimli's clothes, as I didn't want a flat red all over, so I based them all in Khorne Red, then highlighted the trousers in a 3:1 mix of Khorne Red and Skrag Brown, washed in Agrax and hightlighted with the same mix. For his top, I did a 3:2 mix of Khorne Red and Doombull Brown for highlighting, Agrax wash and top up with the same mix. As hoped this added a subtle difference for the top and trousers of his clothes, and I felt really happy to close my year on this!
And that's all the models that I painted for the year! I've been keeping count of models that I have painted each year since 2018, and this year also counted the total points also. Previous numbers are:
2022: 90
2021: 98
2020: 104
2018: 144
2019: 184
For this year, 'Final Count...':
2023: 217
Points: 4483
It's a new record! I sincerely doubt that I'll be able to top that in the coming years but that made a large dent in my grey mountain (remember that some are repaints, some were new and some I hadn't remembered to add to the list in the first place).
So, on Jan 1st 2023, my grey mountain had 385 models in it. By Jan 1st 2024, I had reduced that number significantly to 254! I am ecstatic by this and hope to get it down to 150 or less next year.
Hobby Bingo
In Hobby Bingo, I had a productive year and managed to complete every square by mid December!
And for one final, accomplishment/brag that I was really proud of, I got my best every ranking in a GBHL event this year, getting 4th out of 24~ through a good helping of luck.
I may not post any paint blogs for the first few months, as I'll be heavily working on our Seven Stones project, and think the first few months will be simple sculpting. So I'll save it all as a big reveal at the time of the event. If I paint a reasonable amount inbetween, then I'll post about that.
So this concludes my year of Hobbying, hope you all have a great New Year.
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