Hobby Summary: April 2025

 

April was a great month for me, hobbywise. I think it's the most I've painted in one month in my entire life. The streak remains unbroken on day 166! I also managed to accomplish a big hobby goal and came quite close to achieving another.

Painted (75)

• 9 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Sand Sprinter (Print Minis)
• 1 Erroish Beast Trainer (Print Minis)
• Gorbag (MESBG)
• Mordor Orc Banner (MESBG)
• Shagrat (MESBG)
• 10 Spider Riders from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Weather Shaman (Print Minis)
• 2 Uruk-hai Command (Captain and Banner) (MESBG)
• 12 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Mordor Orc Captain (MESBG)
• Grishnakh (MESBG)
• Gothmog (MESBG)
• Denethor (MESBG)
• Minas Tirith Banner (MESBG)
• 20 Warriors of the Dead (MESBG)
• Faramir Foot (MESBG)
• Lady of Gallia (Highland Miniatures)
• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (MESBG)
• 1 Annointed (Trench Crusade)
• Heretic Priest (Trench Crusade)
• Artillery Witch (Trench Crusade)
• 5 Heretic Troopers (Trench Crusade)

It seems that April was mostly a MESBG month. I painted two Mordor Orcs instead of one today to enter May without any big unfinished business in terms of projects, that is also the reason I painted the Trench Crusade warband I intend to start a campaign with. I add their photo to this post, but over the next few days I'll post single models and the colour schemes I used.

Finished (74)

• 12 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Sand Sprinter (Print Minis)
• 1 Erroish Beast Trainer (Print Minis)
• Gorbag (MESBG)
• Mordor Orc Banner (MESBG)
• Shagrat (MESBG)
• 10 Spider Riders from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Weather Shaman (Print Minis)
• 2 Uruk-hai Command (Captain and Banner) (MESBG)
• 12 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Mordor Orc Captain (MESBG)
• Grishnakh (MESBG)
• Gothmog (MESBG)
• 20 Warriors of the Dead (MESBG)
• Lady of Gallia (Highland Miniatures)
• 1 Annointed (Trench Crusade)
• Heretic Priest (Trench Crusade)
• Artillery Witch (Trench Crusade)
• 5 Heretic Troopers (Trench Crusade)

Once again, the models for Minas-Tirith remain unbased, so they cannot appear in this part.

Printed (35)

• 15 Separatist Battlebots (Darkfire Designs)
• 15 Stormtroopers (Darkfire Designs)
• 1 Devaronian Commando (Darkfire Designs)
• 1 Heretic General (Westfalia)
• 2 Gwyrdgalas Elf Captains (Medbury Miniatures)
• 1 Lady of Gallia (Highland Miniatures)

The first three entries were printed to have at least one mini from Star Wars to paint each day in May. The Heretic General is a design I like very much, I plan to test out some schemes for my MESBG elves on the Elf Captains and I painted the Lady of Gallia for Mother's Day.

Assembled (47)

• 8 Goremongers
• 1 Uruk-hai Captain
• 1 Uruk-hai Banner
• 12 Mordor Orcs
• 1 Cad Bane
• 1 Maul
• 1 Rook Kast
• 6 Mandalorian Super Commando
• 8 Black Sun Enforcers
• 8 Pyke Syndicate

I managed to assemble half of the Blood and Zeal fomo box, finally assembled all my Star Wars: Legion miniatures and some more MESBG minis.

Assembled Terrain (1)

• Shrine Statue

I assembled and primed the terrain piece from the Blood and Zeal box, but did not get to actually paint it.

Bought (20)

• Blood and Zeal - 18 models (8 Goremongers and 10 Sanctifiers)
• Uruk-hai Command - 2 old metal models

What can I say: I love my KT fomo boxes. And I received the uruk-hai blister from a friend. A week later those models were painted!

Unlocked Achievements:

• More models painted than bought (75 vs 20)
• Painted something recently bought (Uruk-hai Command)
• Achieved a Painting Goal (Paint 100 MESBG Miniatures)
• Painted a unit (WFB)
• Painted a unit (MESBG)
• Painted a hero (MESBG)
• Painted a monster/vehicle (Necromunda)
• Painted a team (Trench Crusade)
• Painted a hero (Necromunda)

Finished: Second dozen of Mordor Orcs

Not much to say, apart from the fact that I sped up a little and finished this dozen today instead of tomorrow as I wanted to have a clear path to painting only Star Wars miniatures in May.

The scheme is exactly the same as for the first dozen of Mordor Orcs.

Painted: Boromir, Captain of the White Tower

 

The Stewards' family is now complete with Boromir joining the ranks of painted models.This also means that the only models for Minas-Titirth that I have left to paint are mounted versions of Faramir and the banner bearer.

The Model

It is quite a good model for its age. Basically a warrior+, with a cloak and horn and a custom shield. I enjoyed painting Boromir and the prep work was not too bad (even though I notices the last bit of random metal thingies immediately before I started painting).

The Scheme

Without surprises, it is almost entirely the same as Warriors of Minas-Tirith. The only changes are: Snakebite Leather for the hair and beard, Wyldwood for the shield, Screaming Bell for the "ornament" under thie shield boss, Skeleton Horde for the strap on the horn and Blinding Light for the "body" of the horn itself.

Finished: Lady of Gallia

This model is special for me, as I painted it as a gift for Mother's Day and that means that it won't be at my house for long (in my country Mother's Day is on 26th May).

The Model

A fantastic sculpt by Highland Miniatures. Because of a couple of my mistakes part of the sword didn't print, but I just shaved it off and I believe it still looks good!

The Scheme

The Horse

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Ashen Stone for most of the horse's flesh
3. Black Legion for the lower half of the forelegs
4. Bony Matter for the hooves
5. Hardened Leather for the head
6. Ratling Grime for the mane, tail and the eyes
7. Soft tone over the Ashen Stone parts
8. Grey Seer drybrush over the Ashen Stone parts
9. Skeleton Horde for the horn
10. AK Brass for the necklace

The Lady

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Guilliman Flesh for the skin
3. Pallid Wych Flesh as a highlight for the skin
4. Strong Skin Shade to tone down the skin (it turned out that my other light skintones went bad)
5. Magic Blue for the dress
6. Skeleton Horde for the hair
7. Flesh Tearers Red for the belt
8. Blinding Light for the dangling bits of the sleeves
9. AK Brass for the decorative elements
10. Reikland Fleshshade on the decorative elements
11. Stormhost Silver for the blade of the sword
12. Space Wolves Grey for the balde of the sword

The Base

1. White drybrush
2. Frostheart for the pond
3. Basilicanum Grey for the rocks
4. Algae Green for some of the greenery
5. Forest Sprite for the rest of the base

Painted: Faramir on Foot

 

The younger of Denethor's sons is almost ready to join the fray (and because of his mounted version I have to rethink how I want to base the entire army). When I showed the model to my friends, they said "Boromir would have been mounted", which is even funnier than normally for me, as I do have a mounted version of Faramir (even though I had to print the horse, because it seems that I either skipped that issue of the magazine or stopped collecting it by then), I don't have any mounted Boromirs!

The Model

Another really old sculpt, but I think it did not change over the years. It was easy to assemble (as it consisted of only two parts) and did not have to many metal snags to fight through. Overall, pretty nice miniature to work with.

The Scheme

Once again, it was mosty the same as the Warriors of Minas-Tirith. The only changes here were: the trim on his skirts was painted in Stormhost Silver and then Space Wolves Grey was applied over it to provide the bluish steel tinge. Also his hair and beard were painted in Gore-grunta Fur with Wyldwood applied over it.

Painted: Minas-Tirith Banner

 

April seems to be the month of banner bearers, as this is the third I painted (fortunately I didn't have to freehand the White Tree of Gondor) and now another faction can benefit from those sweet, sweet rerolls!

The Model

As is the norm regarding MESBG, this is a very old metal sculpt. It has approximately the same amount of details that a standard warrior, but it has to be said that the scabbard of the sword is not a part of his leg, which is a really big improvement!

The Scheme

Nothing new here, I used the same scheme as I did for the Warriors of Minas-Tirith.

Finished: Warriors of the Dead

 

I have been waiting almost 3 months for this kit to arrive. Between the time I ordered it from my FLGS and the time they checked GW's website it was "temporarily out of stock" and I ordered it as a late christmas/name's day gift, bought with the money I received. But hey, when the wait was over I could paint up my first batch of ghosts and I really like the outcome. Now I need the King of the Dead to be actually able to play them... everything in due time, as they say.

The Models

This is a kit that gives us 20 monopose models and a bunch of different shields that we can glue on. It is the newest set for this game I have worked with, thus far, so the details are faaaar better than what I'm used to with MESBG miniatures. The mold lines were not bad (actually there were not many of them at all). I really like the sculpts and I'm happy could finally work with them.

The Scheme

The scheme is really simple. For the miniatures I used the recipe presented by Uncle Atom on Tabletop Minions. The only difference is that I didn't use white zenithal on black primer, because when I tried applying white ink through my cheap airbrush it went on so badly that I had to strip the miniatures and just spray them white. As for the bases, I slapchopped the toppers, slathered Skeleton Horde over the skulls and bones, and then used Desolate Brown on all the parts that were not bony matter.