Citadel Miniatures: Forlong the Fat (6-Month Tale of Gamers Challenge)

With my return to work and general antipathy for painting Cavalry, my plans for my Gondor unit for the 6-month “Take of Gamers” painting challenge got diverted, even moreso since I started playing Rainbow Six: Siege this weekend. So I thought I’d spend much of this post complaining. Without enough time or the inclination to finish that cavalry unit, I found another Gondor unit that satisfies the criteria: Forlong the Fat, Captain of Lossarnach.

Forlong the Fat, Lord of the RIngs LotR, Return of the King

Citadel Miniatures’ Forlong the Fat

A casualty of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, I started Forlong at the same time as I started the Axemen of Lossarnach. That is to say, roughly a year ago, and possibly a couple of months longer. As he’d been sitting on my desk for a year, he’s actually an ideal hero figure to complete for this challenge. Now, he’s not much to look at up there, but the rear view will show why it took me so long to complete.

Forlong the Fat, Lord of the RIngs LotR, Return of the King

Forlong the Fat, pimping The White Tree of Gondor.

Sure, it looks nice now that it’s done, but that goddamned tree is such an anti-motivator to paint. It’s a combination of all of the swirls and twirls along with the need to keep it as (close to) perfectly symmetrical as possible. Anyway, like much of the Gondor army, it’s not that much fun to paint, but looks nice when it’s done. I still need to add the static flock once his spray varnish dries, but I’m calling him done now.

Ral Partha Europe, Das Schwarze Auge, Undead Skeletal Ogres, Citadel Lord of the Rings, Forlong the Fat

January’s Painting Challenge models, completed.

Of course, I got a ton of other stuff finished in January. 65 models so far, and while some of that are scenic pieces, only 22 are scenery. Off to a good start to beat my 288 from 2015. Let’s see how it goes…

Citadel LotR Uruk-Hai Pikemen (Lot 1)

These figures were found in their half-finished state – and finished off about a month ago. They were pretty much the last things I finished before stopping/changing over to the December project. Two of them had broken pikes, but I was unfortunately only able to find one. I re-glued it with plastic cement, and as you can see, the repair is a little rough. The other guy is pretty much sitting out for an indeterminate time until I can either find his pike or care enough to drill it out and replace it with wire. Not anytime soon, then!

Games Workshop Citadel Miniatures Uruk-Hai Pikemen

Uruk-Hai Pikemen – the first of many!

No matter – later on when there are many more, the broken-pike guys will just blend into the masses. I’ll probably do 15 in the next batch of these for a total of 24, so I can set up either 2 regiments – or more likely – a horde of Pikemen for KoW. Not sure which rules to use for them yet. I’m thinking that their not-Chaos-Warriors list might be more appropriate for filmic LotR Uruks, though the pikes are going to be an issue. I’ll figure it out later, I guess. Might have to be a customised unit profile, though I prefer to avoid those.

I’ve just checked, and the completion of those guys brings my YTD total to 385 figures, which is more than I’ve ever finished before in a calendar year. It seems rather small compared to the amount I’ve bought this year, so that’s a bit of an issue. I’ll look into that a bit more in a couple of weeks when we all start doing our painting resolutions for 2016…