Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIII Submission #6 - Some Lord of the Rings Bits and Bobs

 For this submission I decided to work on clearing away a lot of loose ends to make room on my desk for some large projects that are coming down the pipe. What we have today is a mix of Uruk-hai Berserkers, Mordor Uruk-hai, some Dwarf Heroes, a trio of Trolls, and a collection of Mines of Moria terrain and dead.

The three Uruk-hai Berserkers are metal figures from Games Workshop that were mixed in with the secondhand Uruk-hai Scout that I was given. The paint job left much to be desired, so they got stripped back down to raw metal and then were primed black with a rattle can. Vallejo acrylics were used for most of the colors - Cavalry Brown for the skin areas, Leather Brown for the loincloth, sandals, and gloves, and Gun Metal for the helmet and sword. They were then given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade.

 

  The three Mordor Uruk-hai were from another blister of metal figures from Games Workshop that I picked up years ago, and they have been sitting in the pending box ever since they got mounted on their bases and primed black. Again, I used primarily Vallejo acrylics, but also some craft store acrylics that I still have in my paint box. I used a colour called Hippo Grey for the skin areas, and Charcoal for the cloaks. The leather pieces got painted a mix of Leather Brown, Chocolate Brown, and Flat Earth, while helmets, greaves, gauntlets, and weapons were painted with Gun Metal. Finally I gave them a coat of Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

 

 

 

 Next up are four Dwarven Heroes consisting of a Shieldbearer, a King's Champion, and two Heralds.These are resin figures from Games Workshop that were available at one time as metal miniatures. Like the Dwarves I painted for last week's submission, these were mounted on their bases, some sand glued down to the base with PVA glue, and then primed black with an airbrush. I used mostly Vallejo acrylics, but also some Partha paints for the True Blue and Bronze Metallic.

King's Champion and Heralds

 

Side view to show off the banners

Showing off the shield design

A Shieldbearer is a Minor Hero bodyguard

 

 The three trolls are a mix of two Games Workshop Cave Trolls, one in metal and the other in plastic, and a Reaper Miniatures Mountain Troll that I am going to use as a Mordor Troll. The metal Cave Troll I purchased years ago, and like the Mordor Uruk-hai, it was prepped and then gathered dust. The plastic Cave Troll is the one that comes with the Mines of Moria starter box. Somebody bought it, but was only interested in the Moria Goblins and the Fellowship figures, so I ended up with the Cave Troll and the terrain. The Reaper Mountain Troll is a massive metal figure that has since been replaced with a plastic version of the sculpt. Again, Vallejo acrylics were used, followed by a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade. I had used Medium Flesh on the Mountain Troll as a base colour, and with the Earthshade wash, it came out looking a bit more orange than I expected, but it still looks pretty menacing. These all stand 55-60mm tall.

 

Reaper Mountain Troll, plastic Cave Troll, and metal Cave Troll

 

The backside of the trio of trolls

 

 Lastly I have two sets of terrain pieces from the Mines of Moria starter box. I got one set from someone who only wanted the Fellowship figures and the Moria Goblins, and the other from someone who just wanted all the figures, including the Cave Troll. So I ended up being given a total of 8 pillars, 4 trapdoors, 2 chests, 2 wells, 2 sarcophagi, and 6 assorted skeleton/skull pieces. These were all primed black using a rattle can, and then dry brushed with progressively lighter shades of grey. I used Iraqi Sand on the skeletons and skulls, Stone Grey on all the pages, Chocolate Brown on the chests and book covers, with Bronze Metallic and Gun Metal painted on various other bits. I then used a fine tipped Sharpie to put lines of dots and dashes on the pages to look like writing. Finally everything got a wash with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

Two sets of Mines of Moria terrain

 

An elevated view

 

A closeup showing the dead and skeletons and the detail on the pages

 Thanks for stopping by.

Orc Companies of Mordor

This is the last of my Lord of the Rings mega-projects, and the one that took the longest. I started this just after I had completed my Elven Heroes of Rivendell and Lothlórien back in April. The first company of orcs took approximately a week to paint, the second company took two, and the third nearly a month and an half. It was a combination of burnout after cranking out nearly 300 minis over the winter, plus the lure of longer days and nicer weather that pulled me away from my workbench. However they are now complete - three companies of Mordor Orcs each consisting of a captain, a banner, four bow, four two-handed weapon, eight spear, and eight hand weapon and shield, 78 minis in total. 34 are the newer plastic figures, while the rest are all metal, including 38 'old school' releases that I picked up secondhand about the same time as I bought my metal Dwarves. 

 

All the figures were mounted on their bases, and sand and pebbles were glued on before priming everything black using a rattle can. The paints were primarily Vallejo water-based acrylics using lots of different shades of gray and brown with the occasional muted red, blue, or olive green. Once the base colours were applied the figures were treated with Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. I then painted the bases and applied some pale green flocking to give them a unique look, different from my other Lord of the Rings armies. Once all the ground work was complete, they all got sprayed with a few light coats of Rust-Oleum Matte Clear spray to take down the shine left by the Quick Shade. I still have an armoured troll waiting in the wings to supplement all these orcs to provide a serious threat on the battlefield for the forces of Mordor.

Numerous, cruel and utterly incapable of redemption or compassion, the race of Orcs is nonetheless sprung from the same stock as the immortal and graceful Elves. Indeed, the first Orcs were once Elves, yet their fate was to be a very different one to that of their brothers after Morgoth's taint fell upon them. These ruined beings swiftly multiplied, as all unwholesome things are wont to do, and their numbers fed the armies of darkness, first of Morgoth and then of Sauron.

 

In the late years of the Third Age, Orcs are to be found in all the dark places in the world, from which they pose a constant threat to the Free Peoples. Fortunately, the fractious and quarrelsome nature of Orcs ensures that without an exceptional leader, or overwhelming numbers, they are a poor match for the well-trained and organized armies of the western kingdoms. It is only when under the command of one of the Nazgûl or another of Sauron's dread lieutenants that the mailed first of the Orc becomes a thing of power, for Orcs fight with unceasing fury when they fear that which is behind more than that which stands before them.

 

Radbug's Ruffians - for the captain I used a 'Grishnákh' figure to which I added a shield from my bits box. (On a completely random note, Grishnákh is left-handed.)

 

Lagduf's Lads

 

Shargo's Snagas - for the captain I used a 'Gorbag' figure to which I added a shield made from a small thumbtack.

 

I am happy that these are finally off my workbench, and not mocking me on a daily basis. Now that things are starting to open up a bit more locally, I am going to take a break from Lord of the Rings painting for a while, although I hope to be motivated enough to do some Bolt Action figures. I have a few boxes of plastic Russians that need attention.

Thanks for reading.

Gothmog and the Warg Riders

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge ends tomorrow at midnight, and while I am not an official participant, I have been acting as a 'running partner' for my fellow Conscripts who are in the challenge. Congratulations to all who were able to meet their personal goals. Over the winter, I was able to complete over 196 foot, 14 mounted, and 3 large 28mm scale Lord of the Rings miniatures. This cleared a backlog going back nearly a decade. I had started prepping a group of 34 Games Workshop Rangers of Middle Earth as my next project, but I didn't think I could get them finished in time. I decided to switch to the old metal version of Gothmog, both on foot and mounted, and a box of plastic Warg Riders.

 

Although there were only six mounted orcs, I always find doing random colours on a group of miniatures challenging. I much prefer soldiers or warriors in some kind of uniform. The wargs were the easiest part of the project since I painted them all the same, followed by the two Gothmog figures. At least they were alike in their paint scheme, but the hodgepodge of orc riders was giving me a headache trying not to paint them in a uniform pattern. 

The wargs come with a fur ridge that can be placed on their backs to fill in the gap where the rider would sit, so they can also be used as wild wargs without a rider depending on the scenario. All the miniatures were primed matt black using a rattle can and then painted with a variety of water-based acrylics with lots of drybrushing of highlights. Once painting was completed, they were all given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade, followed by a light coat of Rust-oleum Matt Clear spray. Here is the final result.

Gothmog, Lieutenant of Minas Morgul, featured in the movie 'Return of the King', commanding the Mordor forces at the taking of Osgiliath, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields

Warg Riders with Bow, Sword, and Spear. The Orcs of the Misty Mountains have some control over the wargs living there

'Wild' Wargs with the rider replaced with a fur ridge. In the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, attacks can hit either the rider or the mount. If a warg rider is killed, the warg has an attack ability that is independent of the rider.

Thanks for reading. Once again, congratulations to my fellow Conscripts participating in the Painting Challenge. The return of nice weather will probably draw me away from my painting desk, but I hope to keep whittling away at my collection of unpainted minis. Cheers.

Nazgûl! - Ringwraith on a Fel Beast

After the massive Uruk-hai project I needed a change of pace to something a bit quicker. Almost a decade ago I bought a used Games Workshop 'Ringwraith on a Fel Beast' off of eBay. It was very cheap as it had experienced some battle damage, and it needed some repair to get it 'shipshape and Bristol fashion' once again.

 

The first problem was the wonky base. It had a crack in the rim, and it wobbled a bit. I took some 3mm polystyrene card, cut a circle of the correct size, and glued the base to it. This made it sturdier, and solved the problem of the wobble.

 

The second problem was all the broken bits. The plastic wings no longer had the posts attached that originally fit into sockets in the metal torso. One was missing completely, while the other was stuck in the socket. Also the right wing had three of its 'spiky bits' broken off as well. The seller had sent all the broken pieces, but I didn't think glue would give a strong enough bond to hold them securely. And lastly, the ringwraith's sword was broken off. It was time to use my combination of floral wire and epoxy putty to replace the broken off pieces, including the posts that were on the wings. 

 

The final problem was the buildup of layers of glue where the wings fit on the torso. The previous owner had glued the wings in place multiple times, so it was no longer possible to produce a good bond. I scraped most of the old adhesives off with an X-Acto knife, then used a wire bristle brush to clean the metal torso further. Finally all the surfaces were cleaned with some isopropyl alcohol to dissolve away any remaining residue.

 

I used super glue to affix the neck to torso, and to attach the tip to the end of the tail. 5-minute epoxy was used to attach the wings to the torso to make sure there were no gaps as the surfaces were rather uneven. Once the epoxy had set, I used some more epoxy putty to smooth out the area around the joints. The final building phase was to do the ground work on the base. The figure is cast with a section of damaged wall that has a discarded Gondorian helmet beside it, so I went with that theme and did the base in same style as my Minas Tirith miniatures - paving cut from plastic card, bricks cut from sprue, and coarse sand for rubble. Everything was allowed to cure overnight.

 

The model was primed black using a rattle can, and then painted with Vallejo acrylic paints using a lot of drybrushing, especially on the wings of the fel beast. Here is the final result.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and healthy. Hopefully we will be able to gather around the gaming table soon.