It's been a while, as my last update was early September and I ended up being too busy to get this done when I hoped in late Oct/early Nov. So here we go.
September
With nothing on the horizon (that I was yet aware of) to paint for, I decided to clear my three Vault Warden teams from the pile. Doing these in the same style as the team that I did previously, but I did the original one as a Scottish flag. Looking at the old Shadow and Flame book, I wondered if I could do some hidden meaning with it. Seeing that the X looked the same as their symbol for '4', I decided to make them all have the symbols for 1-4.
It was then as I was checking over my army for the Warhammer World Teams event I realised that I was short 4 elven spears, so I hurriedly bought some out of CJ's for sale pile and got them done up to match the others (essentially traditional colours with Incubi Darkness cloaks).
Finally in September, for the one day event on the Friday before Teams, I wanted to take Arathorn's Stand LL. This would require me painting up the last six Rangers of the North in my pile. In the rush to do them, I forgot to take a photo, but I did them the same as the others (typical Ranger colours with grey cloaks).
October
I began October by finally doing the new mounted Elrond, using the same approach as I did for his foot version last year. This was similar to the elven warriors but mixing gradually more Caledor Sky into the Kantor Blue to give stronger highlights and doing the same with the Lupercal Green adding Waaaagh Flesh and then Deathworld Forest.
After doing him, and looking ahead to my Throne of Skulls army (Leaders of the Fourth Age), I realised that there was a handful of other models that I would need to paint up. So I grabbed my mounted Arwen when the BSIME stream for Fellowship week came up. I painted her up similar to my foot version from several years ago. I also tried a tip mentioned by our local, Will, 'Never go for pure white, always do an off-white, even if it's very slightly tinted'. So I made Asfaloth a very pale grey, and tbh it was great advice.
The next BSIME stream was Merry and Pippin week, and I had got the new Gandalf box a few months prior. I was happy with most of the model, but don't think I quite got the face right.
Next up, I started doing some of the new Arnor/Angmar releases for a large scale scenario we were going to play in early December. I needed to paint Aranarth, Aldrac, Fraecht and a warband of Carn Dum warriors.
I kicked off with Aranarth, figuring he'd be the most straightforward and had a nice striking pose. I changed the scheme from the official one and made it more green/brown to be more Ranger-esque.
Next up, I went for the two heroes that I was most keen to get stuck into, Aldrac and Fraecht. I scrapped the red from the Carn Dum colour scheme as I wanted a more rugged and nomadic look to them, so opted for a dirty brown look.
November
Off the back of those two heroes, I did the warband. And I knew they were going to be a very long winded effort with all the bones and details across their models. They took me a little over three weeks in the end, but I was happy with them.
It was as I got to the end of the Carn Dum job, that I realised that I needed Eomer foot and mounted done for Throne of Skulls still, so he was quickly dragged through the queue. I made a cock up as I put the heads on the wrong way round (foot on mounted and vice versa) and it left a bit of an awkward fit with his plume against his spear. But a little knife work and green stuff fixed that.
It was a gorgeous model to paint and one that I've put off until I could give it the time it deserved.
With a week to go until Throne of Skulls, I finally got a ticket, but also realised to my horror that I wasn't done... My mounted Elessar was painted, but in an old scheme that I had tried but was a little off put by now. So I hurriedly resprayed and got him done with a couple of days to spare.
December
With Throne of Skulls done and no more events to paint for this side of New Years Eve, I was free to pick as I pleased. Another BSIME stream came up and the theme was legacy-ed models and profiles. I had claimed a couple of the named Ringwraiths that I had always admired yet never bought, the Dwimmerlaik and the Tainted. So I put them together that night and in early December, decided to polish them off and remove them from the pile of shame.
I decided against the coloured robes in the official paintjobs and kept them as the wraiths are in the films, as I've seen others do it before and appreciate the darker look to them for it.
The end of the year was now looming so I chose something that had been neglected and just needed finishing, a few leftover and forgotten Morannon Orcs from my Battle of the Pelennor box back in 2018, finally done and ready to fight.
With a handful of days left in the year, I wanted to finish with something cool, ideally retro and that I have a particular fondness for.
Digging into my pile of shame, I found something that I grabbed last year at the 7th City Grand Prix, a model I had great memories of from 20yrs ago, but sadly lost to time. Now I could redo him, and although I usually paint his kin in blue, black and white, I decided to do him in his traditional look.
Old 'Old Dain', I figured that I could use him as a Dwarf King in my Army of Thror next edition to represent Nain, Dain's father'.
I did his red with a base of Khorne red, highlighted with a mix of Khorne Red/Skrag Brown and his green based in Waaaagh Flesh then highlighted with a mix of Waaaagh Flesh/Deathworld Forest.
End of year round up
In the end, this year I had painted far less than last years, but I'm not unhappy with that as 2023 was an insane push and I spent a lot of the early year sorting out the Seven Stones project for May. Compared to 2023's total of 217, this year I managed 124. This reduced my pile of shame from 316 to 229 (due to new models bought), which isn't a terrible effort. Although the new War of the Rohirrim starter box and my b'day/Xmas has undone all of that progress (back to exactly 316), but never mind, it's cool stuff!
The effort for Seven Stones did deliver as James and I managed to win the coveted Palantir for best theme as one of our two big achievements for the year. The other being our team (Tom and the Mellon with Tom and Vince) winning the Most Sporting trophies for the Warhammer World teams event in September. With those two big awards won, the year was automatically considered a big success to me.
I kept track of my game results in tournaments for the year too and in total, from a pool of 80 games, I had won 34, drawn 6 and lost 40, so also not a bad mix. I also tracked the heroes that I had slain, and my biggest victim ended up being Mauhur, who I killed a total of six times!
Finally, we look at hobby Bingo, I managed to fulfil it last year. But this time, I didn't quite manage it, simply because time wasn't on my side, but I gave it a good bash.
Shockingly, I didn't get around to watching LOTR nor the Hobbit all year, we were expecting to move from April onwards and it never happened. I had been holding them up my sleeve as entertainment whilst we sorted out internet service after the move. For a display board, I had ideas of doing one for my Kings army in November, but simply couldn't make the time. I almost achieved the man/dwarf/elf one, but never got a third elf nor two more dwarves sorted (I realise as I'm posting that I hadn't added Old Old Dain to the list). Finally, I intended to paint mounted Dwalin on goat for my favourite character, but again never got the time.
All in all, I left behind 2024, feeling like I had achieved a lot and could look back fondly. Now let's see what 2025 offers.
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