(Lead) Mountain Musings - "The Lord Of The Rings" September 2022

"A new power is rising. Its victory is at hand."

This month's effort to chip away at my rather large backlog of metal, plastic and resin models will primarily focus upon the completion of an additional 100 points for my Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Isengard army. To be honest, I already have enough spare "Games Workshop" figures to complete this task in my collection, having previously painted a sizeable amount of Uruk-hai from the Nottingham-based manufacturer’s old "The Lord Of The Rings" range many moons ago.

However, whilst these extra Bezerkers, crossbow-carrying Uruk-hai and sword-welding "Orc-folk" will doubtless prove useful on the tabletop. They are a bit of a hodge-podge. So I'm hoping to bring a bit more cohesiveness to these 'new recruits' by expanding their numbers into viable, standalone units (which I can then swap in and out of different battles/scenarios) rather than just fielding the odd Orc with a bow here and shieldless Uruk-Hai there. I may even manage to finally pigment some Warg Riders having found a long-forgotten box of the cavalry models.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - Sauron has been primed, roughly layered and shaded

Furthermore, I thought it might be fun to work on some of the rule-set's more recognisable miniatures, possibly with a view to creating either a Barad-dûr, Angmar, Mordor, or Moria force. To that end I have started working on an old metal figure of Sauron, which I picked up second-hand quite a few years ago. This monster costs a whopping 400 points in-game, but can be used as an unlikely ally for my Isengard army, and would therefore allow me to plonk 1000 points of 'Evil' onto my tabletop should I ever need to.

Hopefully, I can get quite a few battles in over the next few weeks too, and become reacquainted with both how the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game plays in general and all the little nuances of Saruman's swarthy soldiers. To that end, I'm actually planning on running a few playthroughs against an understrength Gondor force I once painted, as well as any 'opposing' figures I can complete this month - such as what if Sauron single-handedly attacked Isengard as he didn't trust the treacherous White Wizard to keep up his end of their bargain..?

August 2022 - The popularity of 3D printing makes it mark with "Twisted Pinnacle"

There can be little argument that the past four weeks have been disappointing as far as hobby output is concerned. In fact, its been my least productive August in seven years, and would have actually been a lot worse if it wasn't for "Twisted Pinnacle" and their excellent 3D prints of the Sentry Robots from the 1979 science fiction movie "The Black Hole". My Horus Heresy project by "Games Workshop" also badly stalled, to the point where I really need to get a 'wiggle on' if I going to field a 500 point Sons of Horus traitor army any time soon. 

Fortunately, my enthusiasm for the hobby has been rekindled with a sudden return of interest in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. This alone should encourage me to increase my prolificness over the next few weeks. However, I also have a few other small-scale projects planned, utilising miniatures from "Crooked Dice Game Design Company", "Battlefield Miniatures" and "Alternative Armies", which should cement my monthly aspirations...