Sam’s Shire Hobbits

Colour is slowly but surely starting to creep its way into my Shire army. Still, a long way to go though, and I especially want to go back and spend more time on the heroes.

Had a bit of time so I stuck on some classic Doctor Who and decided to get stuck into painting my hobbits again.

For the time being, I am not bothering with shading or details much. I just want to get to a stage where my hobbit army has some colour to it. Then I plan to go back over it and shade the models at my leisure.

For this bought of painting, I chose those hobbits who have brought their knife to an orc fight.

I tried to keep things as simple for myself as possible, so I painted all of their trousers the same Oak Brown shade. (Because when you’re a hobbit fighting Uruk-Hai, you wear your brown pants).

Similarly, all their shirt sleeves were painted the same bleached bone.

However, it is important to remember that these hobbits are a militia, not wearing uniform, so I had to try and vary the combination of waistcoats and scarfs a bit.

The hats were given a similarly mixed treatment. However, I was still trying to keep things simple for myself so they were all a mix of the same three or four colours.

Finally, I added an Army Painter Strong tone wash. This helps me to get some quick shading and makes them tabletop ready.

However, it does make them very muddy, so I will have to return to them at a later date to add highlights and details so that they stand out more.

My Shire force has sadly stalled in progress since the Hobbit tournament I attended has finished.

Hopefully, by setting up a project, I can get myself back on track.

Alongside the hobbits and Gandalf shown here, it has since grown to include a set of Rangers of Arnor, and a few other Hobbit characters, like Paladin Took, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, and Fatty Bolger.

Just this week, I received the on-foot armoured versions of Merry and Pippin, which I am really looking forward to painting.