Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds await. 

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The hobby progress continues! Just not the painting. I am ashamed by the lack of painting over the past four weeks, my focus has entirely been on building and collecting. With the arrival of several Rohan House kits I have been in ‘terrain mode’ and almost all my hobby time has been spent gathering ideas for the Rohan table, building houses and making supply runs.

Paint Splatter

To say my painting has slowed down is an understatement. A combination of resting on my laurels (I have finished five models after all) and the Holidays resulted in just about zero paint progress. I did manage to get my next batch of five Warriors primed and they are sitting on the paint station awaiting my return. I must admit, I do feel a bit of shame whenever I walk past my hobby desk and see those five primed Warriors. I can feel their judgement.

However, the lack of painting has been made up for by a major building progress. The assembly line awaits!

Assembly Line

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A home for the Horse Lords!

Let me start by saying the Games Workshop Rohan House is spectacular. The details are excellent, there are a bunch of extra bits, the cast is crisp, it’s modular like you wouldn’t believe giving you a ton of ways to build your houses. I’ve got six of these and I’m having a hard time deciding how I want to build them. I started with just the basic house to get my bearings and now I’m not sure what to do with the rest. I am tempted to create a ‘grand hall’ like the one at Warhammer World but I worry about the play-ability with such a large piece of terrain (of course I could create a fully functional interior space). Also this ‘stable house’ from White Dwarf is really cool. As is this burnt out house…I can sense the hobby wobble starting again. I need to pick a course of action. On the other hand, if I get another kit I could build both…

The Rohan Houses will be supplemented by a few Renedra Outbuildings. These buildings are considerably smaller than the GW ones, but that’s not an issue. They are meant to be storage sheds and will add some variety to the table. I am trying to stay focused on the buildings but I’m already looking at options to create those classic craggy Rohan rocks and I’ll need something to represent a few forest clumps. Something that could work for the edges of Fangorn Forest.

Hama mixed in with a whole mess of Warriors.

I have also completed assembly on 24 additional Warriors. I’ve now built all the models in my Rohan collection with the exception of the Riders. I’m leaving the Riders for a later phase as I’m focusing only on models I can use in the Defenders of Helms Deep Legendary Legion (all the models must be on foot). As much as I enjoy building models, the Rohan Warriors are really starting to show their age. The mold lines on a few are especially egregious. I suppose it’s hard to complain too much about a kit that was released in 2002! From a style and design standpoint, these models have aged incredibility well. No complaints on that front.

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Weapon swap examples.

One thing I was worried about is the repeating poses of the plastic Warriors. In my collection of 36 I have 3 copies of each of the 12 different models. I will be able to get some variety using just variations in the painting but I wanted to do just a bit of light conversion work as well. Here are the side-by-side comparisons showing the original models and the ones I swapped in spears. It’s a small conversion, but it should add extra variety to the completed force.

Using a mix of Vallejo Thick Mud and Army Painter Battlefield Rocks, I’ve landed on a basing scheme that I really like. The mud is only being used for texture and will be primed with the rest of the model. I like getting the whole model, base included, primed in one go. After I am finishing painting the model, I paint the base. Getting all these bases done takes some time, but it’s worth doing upfront before painting. Next step is to prime.

The Goal

Plenty of work in progress, but I’ve got bit of hobby wobble at the moment. I need to buckle down and complete one of these components. For next month I’d like to have all the buildings built and then it’ll be the hard pivot back to painting.

No adjustments to the goal this month. Plan remains:

• Fully painted Defense of Helm’s Deep Legendary Legion.
  • Add additional Rohan Models as I go.
• Fully painted Rohan themed table.
  • Rohan Houses are under construction.
• Stretch Goal – Expand this MESBG force into an army for use with Oathmark.
  • I picked up a box of Oathmark Human Infantry, curious to see how they mix with the Rohan.

Progress Report

The Lord of the Rings Progress

Book	Chapter	Overall
The Fellowship of the Ring	Book II – Ch. VI – Lothlórien	26%

Until next time, Forth Eorlingas!