Hey everyone,

I started this hobby when SBG first came out, so in 2001 or '02. Stayed with it just into RotK and even picked up Shadow & Flame, but dropped out before those armies really got going. Life then got in the way and my spare time was spent doing other things.

Sort of restarted a little over a year ago. My girlfriend - we met in 2009 - happens to be an even bigger LotR nut than me. The movies and universe that is; she'd never heard of the game. I introduced her and got reacquainted myself. We picked up some of the - then new - washes, which really helped my painting. She herself picked up a Mumak and some Harad units. We continued painting for several weeks, never really paying attention to the gaming aspect. The fire slowly died out.

That is, until a few weeks ago. I started reading up on stuff, took her through some basic rules and play, and we picked up some of the new paints just yesterday. I also struck a nice deal on a bunch of heroes from an online shop that was closing down, they should add nicely to our collection.

So now, we're painting again like crazies - she deems unpainted mini's "unfit" for battle. Unfortunately, I never really got around to paying those 40 Uruks and 30 something Rohirrim from back in the day. Heroes were alright, but I lacked the techniques to quickly churn out painted rank-and-file units - they tend to get boring after some time. With washes comes easy shading, however, so that issue should soon be behind us.

Of course, there is still the gaming aspect - a lot has happened in the years I was gone. I have all three of the original rulebooks, now dubbed journeybooks, but missed the ORB, WotR and the new sourcebooks. That's quite a reading list, although I'll leave WotR for now due to a lack of sizeable armies.

Sorry for the somewhat rambly post. I have yet to get in touch with the local LotR community - so far, you are the first to suffer my newbie-ism. Wish me luck!

Well it's good to see the both of you have gotten back into the hobby. Welcome to the site and I hope to see you around the forum. I wish I had started as early as that, but I'm afraid I only discovered 3-4 years after the RotK came out. Have you got a specific army your into?

Drum

I am currently working on a Rohan force (I picked up the Two Towers starting set when it came out), might continue with Isengard afterwards. My GF has started on a Harad army, and is already showing interest in an Elvish army.
I have always liked Dwarves, but they weren't available in plastic for a good long time. I can definitely see myself working on those as well.

All in due time though, I've still got a massive backlog of mostly unpainted and primed miniatures.

aha well plenty to keep you busy then I see. Rohan has to be one of my favourite armies (after Gondor admittedly) so much so that I built Helm's Deep. Now the dreams Minas Tirith - that would be a challenge! Anywhoo look forward to see some of your pictures up.

Drum