Quick but Satisfying

After sprucing up my Grey Company the other day, it seemed like the natural next step to do the same to the rest of the Fellowship models I owned, so I spent a relaxing afternoon going over them with a few extra highlights and washes. 

Not too bad at all I reckon. It was pretty simple to do and the Fellowship as a whole looks coherent again, so that pleases my autistic sense of order and neatness. 

I had to improvise a bit on the bases though, as the superglue I used for the flock frosted a bit as I applied it, but I reckon I made it work ok. I'll have to try and find a weaker glue to do basing with I think, as that's happened to me a few times recently. 

I'm particularly happy with how Boromir turned out, as he was the most basic of the original paint jobs. I managed to get some really nice shadows and highlights into his tunic, as well as a tiny bit of freehand on the sleeves to really bring the model to life

It really does show how far I've come in terms of painting quality if you compare it to the original paint job I did back in 2019.

It's always nice to revamp old projects like this, but I think next I'm going going to move on to something new. Not sure what yet, but I'll see what catches my attention. 

That's it for today. Just a quick one for now. Until next time though, happy hobbying! 

Mordor Glow-up!

It really says a lot about my mindset when I take an army which already won a best painted award, and feel the need to spruce it up!

I have a problem. 

To be fair it was just a couple of hours of work, but I think my point still stands. 

It came about as I was looking at the spears I painted the other day alongside the existing models I had for my Mordor army and the difference in quality stood out in my mind. Not massively, but enough to bug me. 

So onto the painting table they went:

It was only a couple extra highlights on each model, but the difference is pretty drastic. The army should at least look a bit more united now.

That's the problem with going back and adding to an old army project though. Your level of painting will inevitably improve and there's the danger of being locked into an eternal cycling of touching up and improving what you've already done. I just have resist the temptation to to go back again if/when I add more to the army later!

On a similar note, I finished my Grey Company too:

This was just taking the Fellowship models I painted about four years ago and bringing them in line with the Legolas model I did for my Mirkwood Rangers last year, plus a few touch ups on Elladan and Elrohir.

I absolutely love how they look as a group and I'm quite proud of how they turned out. I feel they're some of the best figures I've painted for a while. It was really satisfying to be able to go to town on some individual characters as a break from the massed army painting I've been doing for the last few months.

So yeah, that's both my armies ready for the event next weekend. I don't think I've ever been this prepared so far in advance! I've got a week off work next week so I'll have to see where my painting inspiration takes me. I'll definitely be doing something. My hobby mojo is in overdrive at the moment!

Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Orcs and Banner

Having been slowed down by a nasty bout of Covid, I'm back with a bit of progress. Once I was actually able to sit down at my hobby desk, I actually managed to crank out what I needed for my next Middle Earth event pretty quickly.

The Orcs are nothing special tbh, but I like how they turned out. They also give me a solid chunk of spears to back up my Black Numenoreans. I've played the game for years now, but had shockingly few spear Orcs painted up. This should unlock a huge amount of varients of armies for me to try out, so are a good investment to make. Most of them came from the models a mate handed me just before Christmas which I complained about, so it's good to get them done for that reason too. 

The other thing I finished up was Halbarad with his banner:

One of the main reasons I'm going to be running Grey Company as my Good list at the event was so I had an excuse to get him done! I've had him laying around for about four years now, so it's nice to finish him up. I converted a mounted version of him too, but that can't be used in the Legendary Legion, so that can wait for now. 

Looking at the picture, I don't think the banner photographed too well. I think it looks a lot better in person. I might have a play around with my light box and phone camera to resolve that issue for the future.

Getting these done far quicker than I expected has now left me with a few weeks of not really knowing what to work on. I'll have to have a think about what I'm going to do next. I'm thinking about sticking with the Middle Earth stuff and clearing some more of my backlog, or else sprucing up some more things for the event, but I'll see how I get on.

Until next time, happy hobbying!