Hey all
It's the first hobby post of this year's progress. And I'll try to be more consistent this year.
I'm off to a bad start for getting the grey pile down, having bought quite a few second hand Haradrim warriors from local guys. But I have plans for them, so it's not buying for the sake of it.
Kicking off with January, I had received a secret santa gift at Xmas, and vowed to make whatever I got one of my first projects for the year. What I received, having asked simply for 'Warriors (not Moria Goblins)' was a box of Mirkwood Knights and a box of Dragon Cult Acolytes.
So I kicked off with the Acolytes. The idea behind asking for warriors was to make whatever I got a total surprise. And if I was given something that I already had, I'd use it as a chance to convert a little or a lot depending. Since I have some already, I played around with them in building and managed to make them a little different to add some variety.
Then I had to put the Knights on hold, as we had a big siege battle coming up, so I had to quickly paint up the siege equipment for it. A handful of ladders and a couple of battering rams (one made hastily with sprue).
After this, the Knights got held up again, as we had our league opener approaching. I needed to paint up my new Theodred for this and I didn't want to rush, as I wanted to mix loads of colour into it.
I'll list below the mixes that I used (all were 1:1 for ease of matching, when I needed to come back);
Brego- A mix of Dryad Bark, Mournfang Brown and Doombull Brown.
Armour ?plates?- Corvus Black and Waaagh Flesh mix
Shield- Lupercal Green and Catachan Green
Red trim- Khorne Red and Doombull Brown mix
Trousers- Rhinox Hide and Dryad Bark mix
Saddle- Castellan Green and Waaagh Flesh mix
I felt that this gave plenty of different shades to differentiate between the different parts of the model, without changing the look too much.
With all that sorted, it was finally time for the patient elves to get sorted. I painted them to match the ones that I had done several years ago, but adjusted the builds, like the Acolytes to vary the poses a little.
With those finished, thanks again to my secret Santa! I'm trying to think of an event that I can take them to!
Now entering February, I managed to swing a ticket for the GT in Warhammer World, and needed to think about what to take. I decided to do one all hero force, to make unpacking/packing a lot easier. So for my good force, I chose Assault on Ravenhill. It'll be 50pts down, but I like the look of it and am not expecting to win.
So for my evil force, I was thinking, when our local Tom asked if I wanted some spare models before he sold them. And I ended up exchanging a spare plastic Bolg to him for a warband's worth of Haradrim warriors, adding this to the eight archers that I needed to paint. Inspired by this, I decided to do Grand Army of the South, using a mix of Harad and Easterlings.
First up, I sorted out all the models that I had got from Tom and tidied them up. Then got them painted nice and quickly by my standards. I decided to also do a custom paint scheme based off my portion of the Seven Stones winning army that James and I made in 2024 (example pic below.
After they were all done, I had another offer from our local Phil, who also had some Harad to get rid of. Since I was still pretty short, and these were a decent price, I thought 'Screw it!' and grabbed them too.
While they were on route, I got my Suladan out his box and sorted out a repaint for him, as he didn't look quite suitable to lead a freshly painted army. There wasn't much in the way of custom colours here; just a mix of Hobgrot Hide and Pallid Wych Flesh for the horse tail, Administratium Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh for the horse fur, and Naggaroth Night and Phoenician Purple for Suladan's top. I figured that this blended him into the paint scheme nicely and would match up the customised Hasharin that I made back in 2024.
I also had to decide what symbols to do on his banner. After a little browsing, I decided to use the Sauron's eye symbol from Rings of Power on the side banners and the snake symbol featured in dungeons in Skyrim.
One little trick that I have used before on Gamling, is to draw out the freehand design onto some paper, then fold it up into the same shape as the banner. This helps me know how the design should look when it's creased up.
And that is it for the first couple of months. I feel like I've been good and productive, so am happy that I'm on track for a good year (even if my starting number of unpainted models has climbed from 327 to 350 🥴). Until next time!
