"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria"

It is coming...I cannot get out...

The end of the year moves inexorably closer, and with it the need to complete my Hobby Bingo card.

At last count I had four tasks to complete:

• Paint more minis that you buy (acquire) this year,
• Build a gaming table or enough terrain to fill a table,
• Try out a new paint or hobby brand that you've not used before,
• Build a display board for one of your armies.

Although the painting/buying task is going well, I needed to take action on some of the others.

I figured that the fastest way to build enough terrain to fill a table was to choose a small table with not much terrain on it.

Enter the Balin's Tomb scenario for the Quest of the Ringbearer campaign. A 2'x2' board with terrain that all comes on a single sprue.

An added bonus was that it was quick to paint up. The majority of the terrain is meant to be stone and so was easily dealt with via a dark grey base and a light grey drybrush.

There was more work on feature pieces like the tomb itself, but even then I didn't go further than a wash or contrast over a base colour as speed was the order of the day, especially given that this is being done for a single scenario.

Having said that, some of the pieces are quite versatile and could be added to some of my other pieces to furnish some future dungeon.

I do feel that some if the purely scenic pieces could have benefitted from being larger to enable them to function as meaningful difficult terrain.

However, given that this sprue started life in the Mines of Moria starter box, I can understand why Games Workshop went for the purely aesthetic option.

In addition to the terrain, I've also 'made' a board by painting some reinforced cardboard packaging with emulsion paint from a tester pot.

Again, speed and convenience win out over hard labour and expense on something more durable. It'll work for the scenario perfectly fine.

I'm arguing that this little arrangement allows me to tick off two boxes on the Hobby Bingo card:

• Build enough terrain to 'fill' a 'table' - the table is small and the terrain is sparse, but it works for the scenario,
• Try out a new paint or hobby brand that you've not used before - not sure if Homebase counts as a 'hobby brand' but I'm constantly picking up resources from different manufacturers, I just hadn't clocked this box earlier in the year. I do this all the time.

That just leaves two. The painting tally is certainly helped by 12 more models done without purchase. The display board is more problematic as I can't really see a need for one.

I'll have to get creative with the terms and conditions.

Acquired: 116

Painted: 204