One Last Update for 2019

With the holidays nearly here, this will almost definitely be my last update this year.  I’ll be taking a bit of a break from hobbying to enjoy time with my family though I will be looking forward to getting back to it next year.  With a lot of time off work this week, I did manage to make some notable progress on my ongoing projects.  Let’s take a look at Theoden first as he is probably the more exciting of the two.

I have made some real progress on Theoden since my last post.  I have to say that in hand he looks even better than in the pictures as the light hits the various metallic parts.  Taking pictures with TMM is a real challenge which is one reason why I think many people are more impressed by NMM painting.  One big breakthrough that I’ve had is I feel like I’ve unlocked the secret to painting at a high level and it is more obvious than I anticipated.  Instead of painting a display piece from beginning to end with no breaks, you have to take breaks and only paint it when you’re in the mood.  This makes it much easier to paint your best and not get burnt out.  At this point, I think I’m on pace to get him finished up in a relaxed way before March.  If that is the case, I should have no issues entering him in Golden Demon which I know I’ve mentioned before but there are plenty of times where I talk myself out of that goal/idea so I’m hoping that I will follow through as I think it will be a great experience for me even if it is a bit intimidating to actually follow through.

I also finished up Ruffians 5 and 6 as well.  I officially have enough painted to play my first Scouring of the Shire scenario!  That is pretty exciting and while I enjoy painting the Ruffians, I am ready to take a break from them before I finish off the remaining half of the box.  They are time consuming compared to your average infantry and their faces aren’t as fun to paint as I would like.  They really give your paint collection a work out too as I didn’t necessarily anticipate using a dark blue but you need so many dark gray, brown, and green colors that I felt like the variety was needed.

Post-Christmas, I am very much looking forward to making more progress on Theoden and making some terrain for the Maggot’s Farm scenario.  I need to get some flock and clump foliage for that project as I will be making some farm fields which will also allow me to base the Hobbits and Ruffians I’ve painted thus far.  I really look forward to that as well as showing off unbased minis is still a bit painful to me for whatever reason.  2020 should be another exciting year both for MESBG and for me hobbying and I will be looking forward to sharing my triumphs and tribulations along the way 🙂