The time of the Orc has come!

It's literally only just occured to me that the first things I've painted in what, in gaming circles at least, has become somewhat commonly known as 'Orctober', are so Orcs.

How fitting?

This motley bunch are a group I cobbled together for spares and leftovers some time ago. I undercoated them but lost my mojo and they have sat unloved since Matt ruined Lord of the Rings by killing Frodo in my Quest of the Ringbearer campaign.

I was looking to expand my forces of Mordor for a potential foray into the Gondor At War campaign book, but wanted to do so cheaply (as is my way). 

Therefore I started by smashing together the remaining handful of dark ages warriors bodies I had left with some heads and weapons from the Wargames Atlantic and Oathmark spurs I'd used previously.

After that I did something similar with a sprue if Frostgrave warriors, although, if you look closely, I ran out of orcish heads and had to improvise.

I kept the painting really simple, just like I'd done with my other Mordor Orcs (let's face it, they're never the main attraction in an army). Just a black undercoat dryprushed, then leather, metal, skin, fur and bone picked out before an overall wash.

All rather unremarkable.

The only thing of any real note in this batch was the inclusion of this ugly fellow. I've no idea of the manufacturer l, but I know I've had him for a loooong time.

He's a distorted chunk of metal that lacks detail and definition, but he has a certain character that means he might serve as a captain.

If Peter Jackson can serve up that sponge-headed Goonies reject, Gothmog, this misshapen fellow can lead my forces.

I'm not sure if October will feature any more Orcs got me, but 10 is a good amount.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 433

Lead Mountain: 339

Howdah You Do?

Obviously, having painted a Mumakil with a massive howdah, I needed to paint up some guys to ride in it.

Enter the Haradrim.

The War Mumak of Harad kit comes with a sprue of Haradrim warriors to act as the crew, as well as an officer figure. Additionally I had a single Haradrim warrior knocking about my bits box (I was sure I had a few more) and one extra special addition to the force.

I was pleased to discover that I could fit all 15 of them in the Howdah, meaning that I don't have to find extra storage space for them and they can live in my display cabinet.

Mind you, they are not exactly models that I am massively proud of. The sculpts (and their moulds) are showing their age.

There was quite a lot of clean up to do on the mould lines and some of the archers have smudged blobs for hams where they are reaching back to their quivers.

Therefore I decided to not get too worried about the paint job and just aim for table ready - like I've done for the other old plastic sculpts in my Rohan and Mordor forces.

I used a red base coat and added the flesh tone, wood, leather and gold before giving the whole model a wash in Agrax Earthshade.

After this I used contrast black to add variation. I actually used images from the films and cosplayers to guide what to paint black on individual models, ensuring that I avoided being too uniform.

I didn't bother with adding any purple (which some paint guide go mad for) as from my research there's only a handful of warriors in the ambush scene from The Two Towers with any purple on them.

The captain model is a bit of an odd duck as he has a bird helm which I can find no reference for in the films. It's one of those designs which would feel more at home in Age of Sigmar and is indicative of what happens when the Games Workshop design team start inventing things - it all gets a bit over the top.

It also seems an odd choice to include in the kit when the Mahud, who are featured relatively heavily in The Return of the King is right there.

Mind you, Games Workshop did turn him into an individual model you can buy (currently at the bargain price of £16.50), so the omission is easily explained.

But why a bird helmet?

Anyway, whilst we're on the subject of models that don't fit in, I've also done this guy. He's the Saracen character from Talisman and was one of my favourite characters to play in the game because his artwork looked cool.

It being the eighties and me being very young meant that I didn't really think about his handy ability to sell people into slavery, something that was changed in the only later iteration of the game he appeared in.

Anyway, with the addition of an old plastic shield which handily features a snake (the emblem of Harad) I've added him to this force as another captain because he's a close enough fit I can't imagine what else I'd do with the model.

There is a bit of a scale issue, but I could argue that he's from Near Harad and the plastic warriors are from Far Harad...sorry.

I'm really pleased to have got this whole kit done so quickly and it's made for a strong start to the year, which has been added to as I've begun another round of selling off some old models.

This time it's some second edition Bloodbowl miniatures that I've decided I'll never get round to. I have kept a couple of teams in case the urge to play Bloodbowl ever returns, but I already have four other painted teams so I should be fine.

Acquired: -18

Painted: 16

Lead Mountain: 625

That Still Only Counts As One!

First post of 2025.

Surely it needs to be something big.

I mean really big.

REALLY, REALLY BIG!

Oh yeah! That's the way to start off the new year.

A Mumakil, or Oliphaunt, from the Lord of the Rings. A war beast that the men of Harad ride into the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to drive back the charge of the Rohirrim.

It's taken me about a week to do, partly because there's a large model to build and a large surface area to paint, but also because it's a bit of a swine of a model kit.

The first step was assembly which appeared fairly straightforward, which was helpful because the instructions are from the 'vague grainy picture with arrows around it' period of Games Workshop instructions.

Two major problems appeared during this section, first were the four struts supporting the main howdah, which were not numbered, didn't have any defined keying and needed to be slotted in with the howdah above them to ensure they went into the right location. Most of the swearing in the whole build happened at this point.

The second issue were the massive straight join lined down the middle of each leg and across the body and head. This is where the age of this kit showed the most.

And so I took to doing the largest greenstuff application I've ever done on a model.

I don't usually bother with filling gaps as usually paint will cover most issues. However, the lines were so visible that I felt I'd need to do something more definite.

I actually have a surprisingly large amount of greenstuff for someone who doesn't use it and so go on with filling the gaps.

I looked at a few videos before trying this step and one guy had use his knife to cut lines to simulate the Mumak's skin into the greenstuff whilst it was still wet. I'm not sure how successful mine were, but it's better than just a smooth surface.

Looking at the joins now it's painted, I could definitely improve this process, but importantly the joins don't draw the eye, which was my goal, so I'm happy with how I did.

Meanwhile, I started on painting with the base, which is pretty much the equivalent of an entire unit's worth of painting: our dead Rohirrim, two dead Orcs and three dead horses, along with sundry weapons and shields.

I really like the base and decided to go with clumps of grass and flowers rather than using the basing material I usually put on my LotR models because of the level of detail involved, which include horseshoe prints, that I didn't want to cover up.

Next up was the howdah, which was a much simpler affair and done with just four contrast paints, although waiting for each stage to dry was a bit of a pain.

I will say that my top tip if you are going to paint one of these monsters is to keep the base and howdah separate for painting, because otherwise thing will get really awkward.

And finally we got to painting the Oliphaunt itself.

I again mainly used contrast paints, but added some dry brushing of the skin and the tusks to enhance the texture of the skin and deepen the shadows, whilst smoothing out the appearance of the tusks.

I suppose I could have done something to add spikes to the tusks or painted designs to the skin, and I may still do that, but for now my goal was to get it done and on the table.

And so there we have it.

I have to admit that this beast has been one of my white whales of gaming ever since I saw the first model. That's the reason I went for the somewhat frustrating plastic kit (that I had been warned about) rather than exploring 3d printed options.

Given that the scenarios that involve these creatures all included at least two, if and when I get another, I will look at alternatives as this was frustrating at times.

However, I'm really pleased to get it done and it's a great way to start the new year. I now just need to paint a regiment of troops to ride it.

Acquired: 0

Painted: 1

Lead Mountain: 640

Something Wicked This Way Comes

It's Halloween. That means witches, ghosts and spooky scariness...or, all three at once.

'Witch' King

Ring'wraith'

And it doesn't get much more spooky and scary than a magic ghost with flaming sword coming at you on the back of flying terror chicken.

Although I'm a long way away from the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in my Quest of the Ringbearer, I've had this model built for months and been a bit intimidated about starting it; it's not only big, it's awkward to handle.

Two things have helped motivate me to finally get this baddest boy painted: I've built up a head of steam this week by getting lots done; and I've discovered the joy of dumping Basilicanum Grey all over models and they dry-brushing my way to victory.

There was very little other painting to do on the model once I'd found a way to address the majority of the model, and mist of that is washes and contrast paint.

Were I to do another of these (and in theory there is a need for at least three of them in the campaign) I would almost certainly not attach the reins and rider until after the model was painted.

My major gripes with the model (it's an older sculpt so it's got visible joins that I'm not massively worried about) are about the base.

Firstly, the plastic rod does not fit into the hole in the model and so getting it to stick was a pain. I ended up cutting off the ball joint an feed the rod into the body.

Secondly, the base features weapons from the War of the Last Alliance and as far as I'm aware the fell beasts ridden by the Nazgul were only ever seen in the War of the Ring...what a disgrace!

Despite this level of pedantic irritation, I'm enjoying The Rings of Power. 

Go figure.

One of the concerns I had with this model was an issue of storing it safely. However, recently I've gained a display case for my gaming room, which means I can can effectively store my larger models without worrying about them getting broken.

I probably need to sort the way I set them out, and I might have to get hold of some transparent stands to make things prettier.

For reference I have a shelf reserved for future giant elephants.

Anyway, that's my spooky Halloween post. I'm really happy to have got this model finished to a standard I'm pleased with and I'm continuing to build my confidence with bigger models as I have another winged lizard in the works.

No. It's not Smaug. This is Cheaphammer after all.

Acquired: -61

Painted: 368

Lead Mountain: 644

It's a Troll, Fol-De-Rol

Not much more to say really.

It's a Mordor Troll.

I picked this chunky lad up at Vapnartak this year for the princely sum of £5.

As Pete and I have been muttering about playing some of the Gondor at War scenarios for MESBG, it seemed like a good time to get him painted.

The kit itself has both the positives and negatives of GW's earlier plastic kits. On the plus side, it was easy to put together and contained a wealth of options, however, on the other hand, it has some horrid seams down its side which I'm choosing to ignore rather than do much about.

I opted to go for a simple coat of Basilicanum Grey for the skin, as in my head that's the colour of these guys as they burst through the gates of Minas Tirith. Reference material seems to disagree with me, but it's my model and Trolls aren't real, so I'm not going to argue about it.

I decided to focus more effort on having a go at a rust effect without spending money on specific products, and I'm quite happy with the outcome

I had a black base which I gave a coat of Typhus Corrosion technical paint to in order to provide texture. Then I sponged on, in decreasing amounts, Mournfang Brown, Tausept Ochre and Ryza Rust before giving all the armour a light drybrush of Leadbelcher.

I've never really played with rust effects before, but this feels like a decent starting point for me to experiment further.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 366
Lead Mountain: 646