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So along the same lines of the last push to keep one of our favorite games prevlant in our FLGS I am suggesting an army painting challange.

Rules of the army painting challenge........

No rules, Paint as much or as little as you like. The goal is to build and paint SOMETHING every month, even if it is a single character or goblin. Their will be significant prizes awarded each month for this in the form of bragging rights only, online and irl. For the first month, January(we will see if this can go on), you can make your pledge here on this thread and I will update the first post to include the pledges everyone has made. The more participants the more fun this will be. This thread will be the place to post your WIP pictures as well as your completed minis for showcase. At the end of the month we can take a vote of the community for players choice and for that month you can tell your parents you won something. Our goal is steady progress on building and painting forces. If we have enough completed pledges we can vote for players choice. Any point from now until the end of january you can make your pledge and post your wip and completed work. Bonus for having pics of your newly painted minis getting in some action........

Guidelines(more like suggestions)
Start the month with bare or primed only minis, please.
At any point during the month you may add to your pledge but once you make the pledge its a sacred online oath that means almost nothing(i wont take down old pledges, unless you ask really really nicely or not). If i miss a pledge please PM me
Post prepainting pictures and WIP as much as you can(we want to see the work you are doing)
When posting several pics or large pictures please try to use spoiler tags. I/we love to see the work but thread pages that become a mile long due to lots and lots of good pics.

Pledges FOR FEBUARY

Paradigm-In February, I will paint:
6 Rohan Outriders
5 Osgiliath Veterans
24 Morannon Orcs
10 Corsairs of Umbar

Namiel- 8urukhai and isengard troll

Beafraid-Get one unit (36 figures) of my Hithaeglir Goblins (Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures) that I started last fall finished, including basing... For February.

And get at least two more of the Lesser Goblins sculpts finished

Phatonic- Joining along for feb 6 rohan royal guard, erkenbrand, 8 riders of rohan and 12 warriors of rohan.

Eldercaveman-February pledge will be 10 Uruk Hai and maybe Saruman or Lurtz

Da Boss- This month I am pledging 8 Warriors of Rohan as a minimum. If that goes well I will try to do a further 8 until all 24 are done!

tikhunt-I can get behind this. I shall pledge Gandalf on Cart by the end of February and maybe a Treebeard maybe, possibly, probably not. Gandalf on Cart definitely though.

envy89-But this month im gonna sit down and paint up at LEAST.

2x Uruk hai zerkers
2x Uruk hai banners
2x Uruk hai pikemen
6x Uruk hai with sword and shield
1x Vrasku

That will be my starting point. If i can finish more I will but this will get me started.

Swastakowey-Aim to paint the other 32 goblins over the next week or so.

Wolf-It was 20 Mordor orcs and my Burhdur


JANUARY PLEDGE STATUS
Namiel - isengard saruman and 12 urkhai
Paradigm - 10 Easterlings, a Captain and a Banner ...COMPLETED!!!!
Nathand298 - 12 Uruk Hai Scouts, Grima Wormtongue and the Isengard Command Squad (Captain, Shaman, Drummer and Banner)
Da boss - 10 urk-hai...COMPLETED!!!!
ckig -10 uruk-hai and their captain, otherwise, maybe a cave troll!
Captain Galenus - 6 Galadhrim warriors and old Thranduil
Eldercaveman - 5 Uruk Hai
Redeaston - Unarmoured Haldier and 6 wood elves with bows 2 mounted and one foot ringwraith 2 Barrow wights 5 wild wargs 8 Uruk scouts with bows.

I think the best way to do it would be to have participants pledge a set amount (anywhere from a Warband+hero to a whole army) and then update with their progress. That way, people can commit to add much or little as they feel comfortable doing and no one is left out. I guess it depends on whether you want it to be an actual scored competition or just a motivation/progress thread.

I like the idea of keeping it ongoing, so there's no pressure to rush to a deadline and people can afford to take time out (real life does happen) without feeling they're failing or letting themselves down. I guess something like this could be pretty much permanent like the Community Showcase and 'Show off your...' Threads in the Infinity and Mantic forums.

 Paradigm wrote:
I think the best way to do it would be to have participants pledge a set amount (anywhere from a Warband+hero to a whole army) and then update with their progress. That way, people can commit to add much or little as they feel comfortable doing and no one is left out. I guess it depends on whether you want it to be an actual scored competition or just a motivation/progress thread.

I like the idea of keeping it ongoing, so there's no pressure to rush to a deadline and people can afford to take time out (real life does happen) without feeling they're failing or letting themselves down. I guess something like this could be pretty much permanent like the Community Showcase and 'Show off your...' Threads in the Infinity and Mantic forums.

I like the idea of the monthly pledge allowing people to pledge whatever it is they think they can do. My ultimate goal would for people to be working steadily towards a good sized playable army, maybe 2 to teach a newcomer.

January plege

Isengard saruman and 12 urkhai

I'll be in for January, not sure with what yet as it depends on if a deal for some Mordor goes through. If not, it'll be Fallen Realms.

I like the idea of a monthly pledge too. It will help to get people motivated.

I will definitely pledge something, even if it's just to base and touch up my Moria and Mordor armies and repair damage to them.

I have been inspired by the discussions here to go and pick up at least a box of each of the Fallen Realms plastics, because let's face it they are awesome. So I might switch and do them instead.

This sounds like it could be fun!! For January I'll pledge the few bits I picked up a couple of weeks back (but still haven't gotten around to painting) - 12 Uruk Hai Scouts, Grima Wormtongue and the Isengard Command Squad (Captain, Shaman, Drummer and Banner)

Lots of uruk-hai here

Guess I'm also in for some too - 10 uruk-hai and their captain, otherwise, maybe a cave troll!

Okay! To make up for my shame in the challenge last time I have got some Uruk Hai that I'm going to paint in the next few days to kick start this challenge.

10x Uruk Hai

Not sure what I'll do for January, but I am tempted by Corsairs or Easterlings. I want to do all the plastics...

I shall wait till christmas to see what I want to get done January, seems fair right ?

Seems like fun! I'll be joining in, and will aim to strip and paint 6 oop metal Galadhrim with swords, and possibly an old Thranduil... Again will see what fruits Christmas brings and will finalise on that.

I look forward to seeing WIP photos to inspire me!

I am going to try to sort out my entire Angmar collection into warbands. I'll start painting after that.

Regarding painting Uruk-Hai. How man white hands would you guys say is enough?

I have been a busy painter getting a large lot of uruk hai painted which i sadly couldent get pics posted for the game (it was 50+ minis where all i need are white hands)
My thoughts were to paint 1-2 on half my zerkers. 1-2 on captians, sparingly throw some around on the joe warriors so it dosent look overdone and then banners of course.
I just dont want it to look overdone / tacky since i am sort of taking my time painting my uruk hai (ill try to get pics loaded up one of these days).

As for the painting challange itself im not sure if i want to keep pressing my Uruk-Hai up to war of the ring sizes or if i should take a break and speed paint (dip) some gondor up.

 Envy89 wrote:
Regarding painting Uruk-Hai. How man white hands would you guys say is enough?

I have been a busy painter getting a large lot of uruk hai painted which i sadly couldent get pics posted for the game (it was 50+ minis where all i need are white hands)
My thoughts were to paint 1-2 on half my zerkers. 1-2 on captians, sparingly throw some around on the joe warriors so it dosent look overdone and then banners of course.
I just dont want it to look overdone / tacky since i am sort of taking my time painting my uruk hai (ill try to get pics loaded up one of these days).

I think 1-2 per model at most. Probably one on some of the warriors and leave the rest without. I'd also suggest mixing up where you put them; do some on helmets, some on legs, chestplates, shields ect.

This is awesome guys. I am loving the support for the hobby right now. If i am missing something on the pledges please pm me and ill fix it but as of right now i am pretty sure i have everything correct

Looks like I won't be getting the Mordor stuff this side of New Year, so put me down for 10 Easterlings, a Captain and a Banner for January.

10 Uruks completed!
I was at my girlfriends when I decided to join the challenge, so I got some Uruk Hai and a limited number of paints and one detail brush (set me back 40 yo yos) to paint over the holidays.
I'll spoilertag the results, because they're all cameraphone pics and I'm a bit of a crap photographer, so best not to ugly up the thread!



Talked myself into at least getting some Corsairs done after this. They are awesome miniatures, and pretty versatile too- they could work well as generic brigands in other games.

Good stuff, and congratulations on being the first to finish the January pledge, in December no less!

 Paradigm wrote:
Good stuff, and congratulations on being the first to finish the January pledge, in December no less!

Lol, good effort mate

I have decided to pledge the 6 Galadhrim warriors and old Thranduil, though no promises that I will be very prolific as I am already filling up next year's diary...

Awesome work already and im excited to see us with as many pledges as we have. Ill be posting up pics soon of my pre painting and maybe some work in progress.

I'm going to see if I can get my Lotr armies started off in January so I'll pledge 5 Uruk Hai.

Lots of love for the Urk-Hai. All of this evil is going to make me get back on my wood elves again. Or maybe this.......

if you havent seen battle of 5 armies then you are wrong....

Thought I may as well join in with this as LOTR/Hobbit is going to be my main focus for the next year. I am aiming to try and get everything for the LOTR journey books painted so I can work through the scenarios with my boys. I have most of what’s needed as far as miniatures go I just need to get them painted. I also need to get a decent amount of terrain done. On top of this I plan to paint up random Hobbit miniatures not any particular force but just whatever takes my fancy at the time.

For January I am aiming for the following which will mean I have almost everything painted for the first journey book.

Unarmoured Haldier and 6 wood elves with bows
2 mounted and one foot ringwraith
2 Barrow wights
5 wild wargs
8 Uruk scouts with bows

The first half of my January pledge:




The rest should be done in a couple of days.

Nice looking Easterlings! Any chance of a quick rundown of the paints used? I like your scheme and might mimic it.

Cheers! It's a very simple colour scheme actually.

Helmet-attached cloth, belts and tabards:Mephiston Red, Agrax Earthshade wash.

Tunic: 2:1 Meph Red and Vallejo Dark Earth, Agrax wash.

Boots and other brown areas: Dark Earth, Agrax wash

Armour: 1:1 Shining Gold and whatever the GW standard Chainmail is called these days, Agrax wash, black wash.

Basically, block in the colors and hit it with the skill-in-a-pot that is Agrax Earthshade.

Awesome, thanks. I prefer simple schemes that produce nice results because I'm a bit lazy when it comes to painting Plus I have all of those paints.

I had an awesome day today- there's a little comic shop in the Japanese district of Dusseldorf that has wargames at the back of it. And I've picked up some great RPG titles that were out of print there before. So I went in today looking at their LOTR stuff, and I was able to get the old, 24 model per box boxes of infantry for Corsairs of Umbar and Rohan for the old prices, as well as old prices for some Riders of Rohan. They also had a cheap metal mounted Aragorn. They've got a few other metal blisters of stuff, and I think I will go and raid them later this week- spending 80 euro in one go was enough for me

I'm actually also sorely tempted by the German rule books they have in there as well. I'm an english native speaker but my german is improving, and really all I'd want are the statlines and so on in the books.

But an awesome haul, and drives home what good value the old boxes were. The corsairs look like they are going to be great fun to paint.

that's a great haul, always worth grabbing the 24-boxes when you see them. The Corsairs are very nice models actually, simple to paint but nicely detailed, and quite conversion-friendly if you want to try for some Reavers or Arbalests.

Easterling were happening, but then these guys sort of took over. Not part of the challenge, but I hope no one minds me showing them here.

First off, Saruman The Wise, probably my favourite character in the books and films.




Next, Elrond of Rivendell.





Galadriel, Lady of Light, and claimant of the single most awesome moment in BotFA




And last but not least, Gandalf the Grey:




And the Avengers Assembled:


Second rank of Easterlings are primed, and I'm thinking my next pledge will be some Haradrim.

I'm all for more pictures being posted. I will be setting myself new goals as I achieve the old ones to keep momentum going, so I hope that doesn't break the premise of the thread.


White Council looking nice there! Especially like grimy, dirty Gandalf vs. Pristine Saruman.