I was going to begin this post by saying “I don’t really remember how I stumbled across Trench Crusade” but after dredging my memory for a week or so, that’s no longer true. Back at the tail end of 2022 I discovered the work of the sculptor James Sherriff (@brass0_0monkey on Instagram, go give him a follow) and purchased a pack of Power Armoured Female Warriors from him. Included in the parcel with these minis when they arrived was a wee card promoting the Tank Hunter Communicant Kickstarter which was for a collection of models sculpted by James which are based on artwork by Mike Franchina. The kickstarter had completely passed me by, but luckily for the tardy folks like me not only had it been fully funded, but they were accepting late backers as well, so I added a pledge for the minis I fancied and thought little more of it other than looking forward to painting up some cool minis when they arrived. A few months later, through a backer update on the pledge manager it was announced th...

Missives from Middle Earth #7 "...A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor to show his quality."

In my last Missive from Middle Earth I outlined my aspiration to bring my Garrison of Ithilien force up to around 500 points by painting up another couple of Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows. Over the festive break I was able to get a few painting sessions in as we had a very quiet Christmas in the Tangential Contrivances household, so I knocked out the archers quite quickly (not having a shield and the extra steps that entails makes them a lot faster to paint!). It turns out that I hadn't quite done my sums correctly though, even with two additional bowmen, I had left a few too many points unspent for comfort. After some hasty recalculation, looking back over the army list and then digging through my stash of MESBG minis, I came up with a solution to the problem in the form of one more Knight of Minas Tirith. Having used one of the lances from the kit to kitbash my Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner though, I found that the pose of sole remaining lance arm wasn't working...

Missives from Middle Earth #6 - "...despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt."

It's been a little over six months since I last wrote of my adventures in Middle Earth which is far longer than I'd originally anticipated, but once the new edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game was announced in August, I decided to hit the pause button until there was more info on how army building would work going forward. My thinking was that while of course no one from Games Workshop would come round to my house and tell me how I could use my models, I didn't want to end up working on stuff which might be rendered invalid in the new edition as hobby time is precious. The upshot of this being that Hurin and Ingold have languished unattended upon my painting desk for the latter half of this year (though, I did paint their bases at least!). Having taken delivery of a shiny new copy of the Battle for Edoras set and the revised Armies of Middle Earth book last weekend, it turns out that there are no profiles for them thus far, so I think I made the right choic...