The Grey Company

January was a good month for my revitalized gaming hobby.  I finished another long dreamed of project for LOTR (MESBG), my Grey Company.  I have had most of this stuff in the box of shame for years.  This is the project that I selected for our slow grow league but I managed to just paint it all in one go.  I was supposed to do 200 points to start and then 100 points a month until we got 600 points done.  Turns out this collection is more like 800+ points and it's only half of the planned army.   The other half is the Army of the Dead and that is just getting started.

The entire Grey Company collection.  I can't use all this as the same time but I have all the options.

Arathorn, father of Aragorn.  You can't take them both but Arathorn is way cheaper option.

Halbarad.  One with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar.

Twelve of the original metal Ranger of the North.  There are two of each pose.

Five of the six original metal Dunedain figures.  I would love to find that last figure to complete the set.

Five plastic rangers used as Dunedain.  I have my eye out for the metal Grey Company figures from the War of the Ring release.  I have never actually seen them.

The Fellowship of the Ring

 After many years away I am returning to Lord of the Rings, now known as Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game.  I last played in 2012, just prior to the release of The Hobbit.  There were many reasons for leaving the game I had grown to love, but I won't get into that now.

I purchased the first edition of the game - The Fellowship of the Ring - sometime in 2001 or 2002.  Soon after I purchased this set.

Gandalf.  Painted in 2003.  I don't think I ever used him in a game.

This is the original metal Fellowship from 2002, I think, I got them right around that time.  Back then, there were no 'armies' or 'match play'. It was all open play and there really wasn't much available.  There was a focus on recreating events from the books/movies so it made sense to buy these.  Beside, they are COOL!

Aragorn.  Also painted in 2003.  I used him in a couple games but I felt guilty so he went in a box.  Back then, we did not use to many heroes and most of my group felt they were overkill and gamey.

Intially, I painted Gandalf and Aragorn.  The rest of the fellowship was primed and I started the flesh.  I am not sure why I stopped work on these but stop I did.

Boromir.  Painted last week.

Several years later GW released the campaign books and I really wanted to work through all those narrative scenarios.  I would definitely need the Fellowship for that!

Gimli.  He could use a little more work but he is fine for gaming.

Sadly, that plan never really worked out and so these excellent figures sat in a box...for about 20 years.

Legolas.  I am not happy with his face.  Too much contrast makes him look undead.  I think I will need to redo the face.

Now that I back, I am renewing my desire to play the campaign through.  I will definitely need the Fellowship!

Frodo.  Hobbit feet are kind of tough and my eye are not too good anymore.

The Hobbits are the earliest member of the Fellowship you need for the campaign scenarios so I worked on them first.  Then you need Gandalf and Aragorn and finally the rest of the Fellowship.

Merry.  I really love this sculpt.  Ne seems so serious and determined.

I am using the old The Fellowship of the Ring campaign book from 2005.  That book has some great tutorials for building the terrain you need.  Much of it is modular in design and can be used for several scenarios and functions.  Cool old school stuff.

Pippin.  Another great sculpt!

Sam.  Not happy with this face either.  Not as bad as Legolas and I probably will not redo this one.

This one checks a lot of boxes for me; first figure painted this year, first figure painted in many months, first LOTR figure painted in more that 10 years, painted items that have been in the backlog for 20+ years!  That is a big win!

Black Knights

 Another unit for my Age of Sigmar Undead army is complete.  These are Black Knights.  These are for Legions of Nagash or they can be used as Hexwraiths for my Nighthaunt army.  The reality is I will likely never use these for AoS but I have already used them for Warlords of Erehwon.

This is a really great set by Games Workshop.  I have now built this set as the Black Knights and the Hexwraiths.  I think they look much better as the Black Knights.  I might need another box.

Dreadblade Harrows

This will be the last of the Nighthaunt posts for a while.  These two Dreadblade Harrow models are the last of my assembled Nighthaunts.  I probably will not be getting back to these for a while.  Even though these have been in the paint queue for a while I have used them in a couple of games and I like them.  These really shine when you make one your army general.  I think the models are great.  They were really easy to build and to paint.

Darrakar Guardian of Souls

This is Darrakar Guardian of Souls with Mortality Glass.  This is another model that was a limited edition for some special event.  I can't remember what the event was.  This guy actually gets some new gear and spells and, therefore, is almost worth the spendy price tag.  I have a couple of extra bit left over from this that will allow be to convert an extra Guardian of Souls figure from Soul Wars giving me all three options.

Garkorr Bladegheist Revenant

This is Garkorr the Bladegheist Revenant.  This model is a limited edition and I think it was a store anniversary model or something like that.  The model is very cool but it is not even a special character.  It is just a VERY expensive battleline unit model.  The unit doesn't even have a leader.  That seems like a huge waste to me so I have decided I will use this as a Knight of Shrouds since I only have the mounted version.

Nighthaunt Hexwraiths

For some reason I forgot to document these on the blog.  The are Nighthaunt Hexwraiths and I painted these a while back.  These are basically stock models though I did remove some of the extra danglly skulls.  I've used these in a few battles with mixed results.

Thorns of the Briar Queen

I started playing Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire at the end of 2018.  I really enjoyed it and for a few months we played pretty regular.  Around that time I bought the Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault set because it had an awesome Nighthaunt faction that I had to have.  The Thorns of the Briar Queen is a great set of miniatures and I was really excited to try then in WU and AoS.  But then the wheels fell off the Shadespire gaming and I had lots o stuff in the works for the Nighthaunts.  I started painting them last year but as so often happens with me I failed to finish them and they went into a project box.  The Great Lock-Down has got me pulling out lots of old projects and getting me to finish them up.  I am really happy to finally have these in the painted collection and ready for action...someday.

Thorns of the Briar Queen

The Briar Queen

Varclav the Cruel

The Ever-Hanged

Chainrasp

Chainrasp

Chainrasp

Chainrasp

Baleful Realmgates

I picked these up a while back at a gamer garage sale.  They were already assembled.  I did not play AoS during the Realmgate wars times and I don't have any of the background or rules.  I though they looked cool and figured I'd just make my own rules for them.  These might be cool for Frostgrave, if I ever play that game again.  Just a quick paint job.  I forgot to take pictures of the backside which is even cooler.

Nighthaunt Endless Spells

I love the Nighthaunts.  I think they have one of the coolest aesthetics of the Age of Sigmar universe.  I really love undead armies in general but the ghosts and spirits are just creepy and cool.  I really like the concept of the endless spells introduced with the latest edition of AoS but I must admit that they are only marginally effective and mostly a gimmick.  Even so I love the models and I bought the Nighthaunt set as soon as it came out.  At the time I wanted to do something different with the paint and this really slowed my progress to the point of not working on them for more than a year.  When I got back to them I decided to keep things simple and just get them ready for the table.  In the end they turned out to be very easy to paint and a very quick project.  I am kind of wonder what took me so long to get these done.

Nighthaunt Endless Spells

Mortis Exterminexus

Shyish Reaper

Vault of Souls