Having been lulled back into the hobby after watching countless GBHL Podcast Youtube channel videos (kudos) over the last few weeks, I have re-committed to the hobby I left circa 6 years ago.

Thankfully I didn't sell off my collection for a bargain price when I quit, rather I packed them away to the dusty confinements of my attic where they remained until two weeks ago.

I trawled through my various bits and bobs and realised that all of my hobby supplies had dried up like figs in the interim period. I still had many unpainted models from when I quit, however I decided to treat myself to a few pretties.

Aside from the numerous Ebay lots I purchased, I got some shiny Rivendell Knights and Galadhrim Warriors as well as half a dozen blister packs of various goodies.



I have always enjoyed the painting side of things but not having touched a brush in the intervening years I'm a bit fearful of my initial forays back into it. I'm going to start trying to get my feel back with the brush using a couple of Ranger of Middle-Earth models as victims. I am still waiting on a delivery of various paints but I have managed to base them with sand and give them an undercoat.



While a bit sceptical, I'm really looking forward to cracking into the painting. Hopefully with plenty of practice and some pointers, I can reach a satisfactory level. The end goal is to get some forces on the battlefield.

I will be painting anything that tickles my fancy so you never know what you might find me painting next, I may even edit in my backlog list in the near future.

Thanks for looking

Ha Welcome back!

Its always hard to start again, bit I found coming back very rewarding, I picked up my old skills and learned many new ones

Good luck!

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Iron sharpens iron
So a friend sharpens his friend.
prov. 27:17

Greetings, and welcome to the OR!

I tend to get my hobby mojo in spurts of activity that vary in length and intensity, so that's pretty normal to me. Good luck with getting your painting chops back!

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Respectfully,
Jonathan

Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly

Battle Companies

Welcome back ! when I started again it wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be.

Came kind of naturally, like riding a bike !

Welcome back! I also returned after years of non-hobbying. Back in the days I was a horrible painter.. Read the painting guides in the Tomes Of Wisdom. Believe me it helps so much with your painting skills! I learned all the washing, bleding skills within a week, so it should not take you to much time. I will keep looking in this WIP, good luck!

@J.R. Thanks! That's reassuring to hear, how long have you been back in the hobby?

@Erunion Thank you! lol I better get as much base coating and basing done as possible while my enthusiasm is high then
Think I'll ease myself into the gaming side of things with some Battle Companies. My first White Dwarf was WD297 with the first rules for it and I've always been a fan so I look forward to looking into your sig rules.

@Silver_legion Thank you! That's good to hear, I was never the best with the brush so not a high standard to reach again

@SonsOfHurin Thanks! I will 100% be checking out the guides, I too was a fairly terrible painter back in the day so I need all the help I can get

I would second looking at guides and the likes, I did a similar thing and I think my painting has quickly progressed with the help of the odd guide and a bit of luck when trying out new techniques So definitely dont worry about reaching your old level of painting and even going beyond that !

Hi!

Nice metal bitz. Nothing beats opening the old metal bitz - it's like pewter candy!

I also work in hobby bursts. Sometimes I get a project done in a few days and then leave the hobby for weeks (months). For painting, there's a lot of resources out there, like the "How do I improve my painting skills?" thread recently.

Wish you the best of luck!

Elladan

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The Sons of Elrond

We have the Appearance of Men, the Souls of Elves, and Behave like Dwarves.

I've thoroughly enjoyed by return to painting over the last couple of days.

To get back into the swing of things I decided to experiment/practice on one High Elf archer and two Rangers of Middle-Earth.

Having seen High Elves done with a sort of terracotta/reddy colour, I decided to give this colour scheme a go. I'm not sure whether the red and silver go too well together and if the red is a bit too bright.




I had trouble with the basing, every coat I dry brushed on seemed to soak into the sand and remained a black/dark brown colour which I tried to cover with some static grass. Any advice?

With the Rangers I wanted to do an Autumn theme with them mirroring the woodland terrain they are most often found in.






Upcoming plans are to continue on painting Rangers (Faramir + about 20 normal rangers + 3 Rangers of the North) and start on my Rivendell/Wood Elf army using some variation of the above colour scheme.

Comments and tips are greatly appreciated as I would like to know where I can improve. Having read many of the painting guides on the site, I feel my skills have drastically improved already from whence I left the hobby a few years ago.

@Silver_legion Thanks for the advice, reading the guides really helped me get back into the grooves of things. My main sticking point at the moment I think is painting hands and faces so I'll have to study the relevant guide.

@Elladan & Elrohir lol it felt like Christmas opening them all
Thanks for the recommendation of that thread, proved to be very useful indeed!

Looks great already!

For the drybrushing, check out this short vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0m5ol ... 6t&index=4

You don't have to use Citadel Dry Paints, your paint just has to be rather thick. If it's naturally watery then maybe let it dry on the palette a little.

Hope that does the trick!

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The Sons of Elrond

We have the Appearance of Men, the Souls of Elves, and Behave like Dwarves.

Thanks

Cool video, that should help greatly with the basing, I'll test it out today. I probably had too much paint on the brush. I'm using mostly Vallejo Model Color paints also and have found some of the colours to be watery themselves so I'll try letting it dry on the palette for a bit too.