Hey all
The biggest update since my last paintblog was that the house move finally happened in mid December! And finally, I was able to crack out my hobby stuff again!
This obviously didn’t give me much time to work with before the year ended, especially with Christmas round the corner. But I managed to get a small handful of things achieved.
The first project I did in our new home, was started as the BSIME Christmas stream was on, and what is more Christmassy than a Central European demon, who punishes naughty children? I, of course, refer to Krampus. Or in this case, his Middle Earth doppelgänger, the Snow Troll, along with Shank and Wrot. Getting them built up alongside Bolg for later.
I cracked on with the orcs first, as I’m a little rusty on my painting. I had an issue, in that I couldn’t find any of my greens after the move. So had to improvise for the skin, mixing Incubi Darkness with Steel Legion Drab, giving a mint green colour. I then washed this with Athonian Camoshade to give it a nice green hue. I didn’t do anything particularly fancy for the metal or leather, just my usual approach.
For the troll, I took a similar approach to Gandalf the White, much earlier in the year, colouring parts of him with Steel Legion Drab, various greys etc and would build up the colours with increasingly pale off-whites.
Once I had fully painted him, I then took the plunge, mixing Administratium Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh to make a pale off-white, then drybrushing the entire model. This risked ruining the entire thing if I went too heavy so I took my time with it. But eventually got a nice frosted look all over. Finally, I finished by colouring his eyes with Khorne Red, a small highlight of Mephiston Red and then dotting his pupil in.
I had finished that small project just after Christmas and didn’t have long left before the New Year. When I started the last hero for the year, Bolg. He’s been a personal favourite to use for years, so I had been itching to do him since seeing the new models for him. I hadn't glued his mounted model onto his warg for the sake of not worrying about remembering a warg for him being dismounted. The first part that I painted was his warg with a variety of shades of brown, making it darker at thicker fur and warmer in the thinner patches.
I did a few colour mixes to sort him out, including Corvus Black and Leadbelcher for his armour, highlighted in plain Leadbelcher, Mournfang Brown and Rakarth Flesh for his face loin cloth, yeah it’s faces, I always forget that, and Baneblade Brown and Administratium Grey for his skin.
In the end, I had to allow myself New Year’s Day to finish his mounted half, so I gave myself the break as I had lost a lot of time in the year. But I was really happy with his look!
And that was what I managed in those two weeks. It may not be much but it’s the start of a new base for my hobby. And also just looking back at these before i post this, I do feel really proud of how good that I feel that they are for me.
End of year round up
So to summarise the year’s painting, I had a long hiatus between May and September, when I couldn’t do any hobby, due to the expected move. And, even when I did get back in in September, it was only a small handful of projects. I got a fair bit done in preparation for Throne of Skulls, but not a lot. Obviously, Hobby Bingo wasn't such a priority in this time and so a lot that I intended, didn't happen. But next year I'll get back on the horse.
Because of this, I didn’t get anywhere near matching previous years totals (typically 100-200 models) and only got 51 done (2546pts worth). But I’m not going to beat myself up over this, as it was just bad luck. I had intended to get my grey pile down from its starting point in Jan of 316, to 250 or less. But instead, it is now at 293 (with Xmas models yet to be added).
In my gaming, I’d had a bit of an off year, winning about 1/3 of my games. And my best event result was breaking even, but that’s not too important, more just an interesting thing to track. The unique hero that I’d slain the most was Legolas (4).
It appears that I hadn’t set a target last year so I shall do so now, I’m going to try to get my paint pile down below 240 by New Year 2027. I’ve chosen a good and evil army to do as big projects with a few dozen models each; Numenor and Lurtz’s Scouts. I’m thinking I’ll crack on with the latter first as a potential evil army for the GT (if I can get a ticket).
For now, onto 2026!
