2018 - the year in review

Well, what a difference a year makes.... Okay, well, 3 months if I'm being honest. January to September were pretty quiet but since the Pelennor Fields boxset and the new rules were released I've found a re-invigorated love for the hobby.

Summary for the year:

Army of the Dead - painted a 700 point army including King of the Dead, 30 Warriors of the Dead and 6 Riders of the Dead (694 Points in total). It could use a Banner and an Aragorn, but is technically playable as-is.

Morannon Orcs - painted 36 Morannon Orcs and 6 Wild Wargs and purchased / build the rest of a 1000pt army. Finishing this will be top priority for 2019.

With a total of 79 models painted I have finally achieved my target of at least one model per month (if you average it out!).

Target for next year - consistently paint at least one model each month!

I'm keeping my target low as December has shown me that sometimes life gets in the way of hobby and things just don't work out. Having been on a roll in October and November I almost failed to finish a single model in December and only some last-minute New Years Eve painting has kept me on track. Still, it was a nice way to spend the day!

Summary for the year

Month	Bought	Painted
September	84	0
October	14	31
November	22	42
December	0	6
Total	120	79

I gave myself a pass for the September purchase of the Pelennor Fields boxset, so that's a win for painting more than I bought each month as well

2018 - December Update

A quieter month this month - work was manic, plus I managed to be ill for about 3 weeks with a combination of stomach bug and cold (which sucked, but was kind enough to clear for a couple of days over Christmas before coming back with a vengeance!)

I started the month fairly well and managed to build and prime most of the rest of the models for my Morannon force, including a few little conversions. The only unbuilt model is the Catapult & Crew.

Not a lot of painting done this month, but I did manage to finish 6 off my wild wargs today to avoid a complete wash-out. I've also painted the rest of the wargs and 'just' need to do their riders and tack.

6 Metal Warg Riders, to be played as Mounted Orc Trackers

1 converted Morannon Orc Captain (the old Gothmog Model with a head swap from a Siege Uruk-Hai that's been 'sculpted' a bit with a scalpel)

Gothmog Mounted

Banner Bearer & Drummer

6 Orc Trackers

Guritz & Gothmog's Enforcer (1 spare, but seemed a shame to leave him in the box!)

1 Mordor Troll, with interchangeable hands. Painted with primer as it got too cold to spray paint.

Painted - 6 Wild Wargs (dismounts)

Bought - None

Gifted - Shelob, Sam & Frodo

Wild Wargs

My sneaky finish with 3 and a half hours left in December - 6 Wild Wargs, based over the course of the day as I was determined to get something finished this month!

I picked a very simple scheme for the Wargs which is almost entirely drybrushing / washing. The main areas of the wargs were very quick to paint and the only areas which took time to paint were the mouths and teeth, which were fiddly as they're not very well moulded. Once I decided on the paint scheme I reckon these were about 10 minutes a piece to paint.

There was quite a lot of prep work on these though - the metal warg riders had legs to attach and gap-fill and the plastic dismounts have some very obvious lines in their fur and a peculiar lack of detail on the rear of their backs. I probably spent about 20 minutes per warg green-stuffing but I think it was time well spent as it makes them look a lot better than they do out of the box. Thankfully fur is fairly simple to sculpt, and very forgiving of mistakes!

There aren't actually any Wild Wargs in my Mordor Army list, but these six will serve as dismounts for the Mounted Orc Trackers. I've also painted the six mounted wargs, but not their riders, so they'll hopefully be finished in January.

Wargs

• Basecoat - Abaddon Black

Fur

• Heavy Drybrush - Dryad Bark
• Medium Drybrush - Mournfang Brown
• Light Drybrush - Balor Brown (top half of warg only)

Mouth

• Tounge - Memphiston Red, wash Agrax Earthshade
• Teeth - Celestra Grey, wash Agrax Earthshade, highlight Ulthuran Grey
• Mouth - Bugmans Glow, wash Agrax Earthshade

Flesh

• Face - Stormvermin Fur, wash Nuln Oil, drybrush Stormvermin Fur
• Legs - Drybrush Strormvermin

Bases (as per Morannon Orcs, but with added slate chippings)

• Stirland Mud
• Drybrush Tyrant Skull
• Add Tufts (Warpainter Scrub Grass small / standard tufts)
• Paint Base Rims Steel Legion Drab
• Paint Rocks Mechanicus Standard Grey, drybrush Administratrum Grey, drybrush Celestra Grey

2018 - November Update

It's been a good month this month - having completed the Army of the Dead last month I decided to keep working through the Pelennor Field boxset and paint up the Morannon Orcs so that there were some Evil models to match against them.

I stuck with a very by-the-book theme for the Morannons but it worked nicely and let me paint them up quite quickly too.

Buoyed by my success I decided to develop it into a full 1000pt army of Mordor - with a bit of help from the GBHL I've decided on the following:

Gothmog on Warg
14 Morannon orcs (7 shield, 7 shield/spear)
1 Morannon orc w/ Banner

Guritz on Foot
12 Morannon orcs (6 shield, 6 spear/shield)

Morannon Orc Captain on Warg
10 Morannon orcs (5 shield, 5 spear/shield)
1 Mordor Troll
Orc Drummer

1 Mordor Orc Catapult with Troll

Orc Captain on Warg
6 orc trackers on Warg

So I did some shopping and picked up the remaining models I needed for my force (Gothmog, Guritz, 6 Orc trackers and the Orc Catapault. I've also built and primed all the remaining models for the force from my collection.

I also painted up 6 Riders of the Dead to reinforce the Army of the Dead from last month.

Painted - 42 Models: 36 Morannon Orcs & 6 Riders of the Dead

Bought - 22 Models:  Gothmog Ft & Mtd, Erestor, 6 Riders of the Dead, Mordor Orc Catapault (5 models), 6 Orc Trackers, Guritz & Gothmog's Enforcer