Now if you read my last post, I addressed a major speed bump in painting progress recently. I was somewhat vague as I wanted to make a separate post for this update. What happened is I was jonesing to boost my numbers of painted models, and I also have two big horde groups I needed to paint for the Fellowship book, the first is a mob of 18 Wild Wargs and the other: Moria Goblins!
You can guess by the title that I decided to paint the goblins. I chose them over the wargs for two reasons: First, Wargs are boring, and I need to keep up my momentum. Second, I was looking for a bit of a challenge, and painting 40 goblins is no small task. For starters, its essentially an army in its own right from a gaming standpoint. The scenarios in the book only call for 24 goblins and 2 captains, however I had in my possession an extra dozen, making 36 total goblin warriors. Also, since Games Workshop never produced proper Moria captains, I opted to use the metal "armoured" Goblins, of which I had 4. These are essentially just slightly larger goblins featuring full plate and and mail armor, perfect command models. So I was looking at 40 models total, a far cry from what I've been painting up until this point. I thought about just painting what I needed for the scenarios and selling or trading the rest, but goblins don't fetch much money on ebay, and I knew if I didn't paint them while I painted everything else they would never get done, and I would probably take a loss having to sell them at some point.
I quickly set to work after priming up the lot on a cooler, overcast day. I also quickly realized this would be much tougher than originally anticipated! I batch painted the group, meaning I would get a color ready, and apply it to every single model. Since all the models feature armor of some sort, I went ahead and did this first, applying chainmail, then watered down badab black. Lots and lots of badab black. This was a smart step as it made me see progress, which is sometimes just as important as actually making real progress.
What came next was a series of fits and starts of painting, I would get some free time, and sit down and splash a color on most, or all of the 40 models. I'm not gonna lie, there were times when I was really regretting what I had gotten myself into, and consequently chose to keep some colors relatively basic, not even adding highlights or shading to some of the details. Instead of giving a long drawn out explanation of what I did and didn't do, I'll just show you the pictures and list the scheme:
Armor: Chainmail, Badab black wash (thinned)
Skin: castellan green/codex grey mix basecoat, badab black/thraka green wash
Underclothes: Thinned mechrite red (no highlight)
Spear/Bow staves and Leather straps: Bestial brown
As you can tell, I kept it pretty simple. But overall, seeing as this is supposed to be a horde, I think the models tie together well. I thought about painting the eyes/teeth of the models, but I would probably screw it up and take away from the unified look of the army.
What's Next
So its definitely a relief to have the goblins done as they are one of the bigger chunks of painting I had to work through. Mentally it was hard to finish the lot, and they actually sat completed on my desk for about 2 weeks waiting for me to paint and flock the bases.
Now that I am ready to proceed I have a few things I could forward with. Some models are bonuses and would be mostly for fun, and some are essential to the project. I'm thinking of doing a combination just to keep things interesting. I have a pile of elves that need paint for one of the later scenarios, so I think I might do those. Regardless, here is a list of whats on my desk at the moment (seen in the background above)
Must Do's:
-Lorien Elves (x6)
-Haldir of the Woodland Realm
-Mounted Ringwraiths (x2)
-Cave Trolls (x2, only 1 essential)
-Tom Bombadil
-Lurtz (x2 different sculpts, one will serve as Uruk Captain)
-Uruk Scouts (x8, 2 with hobbits) <--need more of these!
-18 Wild Wargs
May Do's:
-Goldberry
-Galadriel
-Celeborn
-Paralyzed Hobbits (for Barrow Downs)
-Alternate Hobbit models
So, while I am still missing some key models needed for the book, such as a Balrog, and a Warg Chieftain, I do have most of what I need, and honestly I'm well more than halfway done with the model side of things, which I have to say I find rather impressive as I'm not known for my completion rate when it comes to hobby projects.
That's all for now, remember, feel free to click an add you see on this page, also if you like my work please share it on social media and leave comments here!
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