2015 - The year in review.

It seems appropriate at this time of year to review what I've done for the last 12 months, particularly as I am finally finding some hobby time again after a few months of downtime.

I picked up my paint brush again in January for the first time in about 10 years and am pleased to be able to conclude that I still very much enjoy painting miniatures. So, my achievements for this year painting wise are as follows:

• 72 Moria goblins, including the Goblin King of Moria, 2 captains, 3 shamans, 22 archers, 24 spearmen, 15 prowlers and 5 gundabad blackshields.
• 1 Balrog
• 1 Giant Eagle
• 1 High Elf (paint scheme test)
• Merry, Pippin & Sam (and half of Frodo!)
• Gandalf & Gimli (these were mostly done, just tidied up the faces and fixed a few chips)

For a total of 80 miniatures.

I also entered the Armies on Parade competition at my local store (Winchester) and placed 4th which made me pretty happy. I was a bit nervous about showing my collection to the wider world but I am so glad that I pushed myself to enter because it was a great event. I'm hugely grateful to Adam at the Winchester GW who made me feel welcome from the first day I set foot in his shop and always has time for a chat and a bit of advice whenever I pop in.

Christmas Pressies

It was a good Christmas for modelling this year with both mum & dad and my sister contributing to my collection:

From my sister:

• Arwen foot & mounted
• A small layer brush

From mum & dad:

• Easterling Kataphracts
• Easterling warriors
• Rangers of Middle Earth
• Uruk-hai scouts
• Uruk-hai command
• Mauhur
• 6 Citadel Guard w/ bows
• 6 Citadel Guard w/ spears
• 1 Mumak Mahud
• 3 Rohan Royal Guard

That should keep me busy for a while!

Armies on Parade 2015

It appears I forgot to take a picture of the final version, but this is pretty much it (except for the waterfall and water I added to the river bit). No prizes were won but I was pleased to have entered

There wasn't a plan, I winged it and built the core out of cheap foam insulation

Then covered it in plaster bandages for strength

And added modelling sand and small rocks for texture

Based it in grey poster paint and PVA and made some accent pieces out of balsa wood

Drybrushed the whole thing in grey+white poster paint and painted the wooden pieces in a few shades of brown

Then decided it was too small and made a whole extra piece to go with it!

Aim was for a dwarven mine overflowing with goblins.

The Mighty Balrog

I've had this Balrog for a long time, he was one of the first models I bought for myself. I was never particularly happy with the fire though, so for my Moria army I decided to repaint him with a more 'realistic' colour scheme (with the hottest bits in the middle not at the edges!). I also changed the way I painted the body to leave a bit more contrast and I have to say I much prefer the revised version.

He has a slightly weird base as I lost the original one and made one out of an old flowerpot, but I did such a good job of sticking him down I couldn't get him free without damaging his legs so Balrog 2.0 was just glued on top of an official base for the re-paint!

And for comparison - this was his original colour scheme.