"Let go of him, you filth!"

I know I might have said that I was sorting of doing a Men of the West force for the Tale of 4 Hobbits series, but as you can see. I've gotten a touch distracted.

I've wanted the Shelob miniature for a long time, but have never gotten around to buying it. It has dutifully sat on my Christmas list each year and been steadfastly ignored due to Mrs Cheaphammer's profound arachnophobia.

However, with the impending arrival of a new plastic version made me realise that I did want the classic metal model before it disappeared and so we cut a deal that as long as Shelob is never left lying around, the last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world could enter the house.

To put it bluntly, this beast is an absolute swine to assemble. Spindly legs, a bulky metal body, indistinct sockets and no instructions combine to make for a frustrating experience.

Throw in the fact that trying to slightly adjust to stance of the back legs caused me to snap them and gave to pin them on again and I was left wishing I'd waited for the plastic model.

I found painting equally frustrating as there's not actually much to work with on what is pretty much just a big black spider with tiny eyes.

I've seen plenty of people, including Games Workshop, lean heavily into real world spider colouring (particularly black widows) or more exotic patter choices to make Shelob more vibrant.

However, I went for something more film-based which seems to be patches of more fleshy coloured areas, especially around the head. I'm satisfied with the end result, but I feel I could have been more ambitious.

The In the Clutches of Shelob set comes with Frodo all wrapped in webbing. Although there is a separate base provided, I decided to use him a scenic detail on Shelob's base as I can't think of a meaningful reason for having a separate miniature apart from as terrain in a single scenario.

The set also includess Sam armed with Sting and the Phial of Galadriel, which is a miniature I'm not massively impressed with, as the face is a bit janky (on the other side) and there are quite large blocked in sections between the cloak and Sting.

I will probably stick with my original Sam for most purposes.

Am I happy to have finally added Shelob to my collection? Yes, but...in hindsight I might have been better off all round waiting for the almost certainly significantly more expensive plastic set, which would be easier to assemble, have clearer details and include a better version of Sam.

Ah well...

Acquired: -95

Painted: 524

Lead Mountain: 212