Middle Earth Mega Project

After my previous post featuring Gandalf on the stump that is all that is left of the Bridge of Khazad Dum, my “Middle Earth Mega Project” would not be complete without a look at the opposite side of the bridge, not just in terms of visual but of the mindset of the Balrog!

It’s quite easy to sympathise with the Balrog given hindsight. How would you feel if your home was invaded by a bunch of ruffians, who woke you up from a deep slumber by dropping buckets and suits of armour down wells, throwing stones into ponds and upsetting the wildlife, enraging the neighbours and their pets, as well as destroying the local and only bridge (clearly an exemplar of “Post-Durinic-Dwarven-Minimalism” and no doubt listed by the local planning department), causing you to fall into a near bottomless chasm where you were to be rudely assaulted by a cantankerous old man, clad in a grey dressing gown who frankly could do with a bit of a wash up and a shave!

I don’t know about you but I would be “FLAMING-ANGRY”!

“Trolling” a matter that I am sure has absolutely never taken place on any Tolkien related group, forum or gathering, and certainly not by bored and bothersome “Normies”!

This is another great sculpt by Games Workshop from back in the Days when the films were fresh in the cinemas, depicting the point where the Mighty Cave Troll in Moria almost Spanks the Granny out of Frodo, by attempting to create Middle Earths first ever Hobbit kebab! Fortunately Frodo didn’t get skewered and the film didn’t end there!

I have painted the Troll as naturalistically as possible to paint a fantasy creature, and painted the Foe Spear a deliberately contrasting Mithril like shine in direct contrast, which also adds to the feel that it was a Dwarf weapon.

A great addition to any Moria Army and always an entertaining Monster on the table top.

This one is dedicated to my two work pals who’s names I shall simply Tolkien-ify (I think I have just invented that expression, please everyone use it so that the Concise Oxford Dictionary has to publish more Fantasy related nonsense?) as “Spam-Wise Ray-Gun” and “Tricksy Mr. FroJoe Entwood” who have inspired me to create some of these posts during our daily work Tea-Time-Tolkien-Talk!

A really colourful moment in the Extended Edition of ‘The Return of the King’, I look forward to recreating it on the table-top with some of my gaming mates, who previously nick named the handsome chap above as ‘Mr. Whippy’! He does in fact remind me of character working on a building site in Dagenham who was obsessed bacon sandwiches and ice cream, so perhaps Mr. Whippy is not too far out!

I love the models of Frodo and Sam in Orc armour which add a load of possibilities to use them as infiltrators in my own scenarios.

One of my favourite moments in the Trilogy, Gandalf standing his ground against easily scariest monster in Middle Earth, guaranteed to test the fortitude of anyone’s bowel control!

It wouldn’t be a “Middle Earth Mega Project” without a depiction of this legendary moment.

I scratch built the Moria Mine workings (more on this to come) for this competition as a backdrop and a fun piece of M. C. Escher inspired modular scenery madness for my games.

In the background are various fools that should be flying!

A particularly memorable character and army from the ‘Return of the King’ movie and a great addition to anyone’s collection, the King of the Dead and his insubstantial chums are a power to be reckoned with on the tabletop. This guy if he gets a wound will kill even an Oliphant dead.

I used an effective yet incredibly simple (reminds me of my Cousin Olly’s appalling chat up line aimed at the now Mrs Cousin Olly) paint scheme. I used a ratio of circa 1/4 mix of Daler Rowney ‘Sap Green’ (375) with G.W. Skull White. I then dry brushed with the original mix mixed with more skull white at a 50/50 ration. I then dry brushed really finely with pure Skull White. This gives the unit a spooky tone that is seen in the film and is most striking on the tabletop.

I used clippers to cut several of the Warriors and the King himself of their bases, and drill holes with a pin vice to accommodate  a copper rod, to match the way they vapourously (I think that I have just invented a new word?) move and float around the battlefield and their subterranean purgatory.

I plan to use these chaps as a powerful backup to Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, the Sons of Elrond and the Grey Company as a late arriving relief force at a Mega Siege of Gondor and Battle of the Pelennor fields that I am Planning.

Gosh. this ones definitely a “Bit Scary” to the level that it will have our arachnophobe pals dumping their lunches at first sight!  Better not show to Justin of OTT Fame!

I painted the unfortunate Frodo from the old “In the Clutches of Shelob” boxed set on a built up 40mm base. I used pebbles and sand to for a rocky outcrop for Shelob to place her unwitting “Din-Dins” in the form of Frodo tied up in Spider-Silly-String and apparently covered in slobber (Sounds like a fun Friday night!).

I used a pallid green built up with mixed flesh tone highlights to give a sickly look to the poor Hobbit.

I plan to use this fun piece for an objective marker for my “Cirith Ungol” Army.

I have had a lot of fun with this truly horrible character, and love the whole bloated, foul, corpusculent look that he embodies on the tabletop. Always fun at the head of a ‘Goblin Town’ army, even though I have yet to see them do anything other than get ignominiously spanked and routed off the tabletop!

I also love the cobbled together throne with a somewhat foul surprise.

Clap! Snap! the black crack!
Grib, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down, down to Goblin town
You go, my lad!
Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
Pound, pound, down underground!
Ho, ho! my lad!
Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,
While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below, my lad!

Definitely a First-World Problem and not perhaps the most search engine friendly title.

I love this model which which I cast in resin from an original metal Dwarf Hero, heavily converted and weathered with the now extinct Forge World Weathering Powders.

The idea was to produce a Dwarf King statue for my subterranean games in Middle Earth which would represent one of the Dwarf Ring Bearers, now in a deserted corner of Moria or an abandoned Dwarf hold lost to Goblins or worse, it has become rusted by lack of care during the passing of the ages.

On recent close examination the I am more than happy with the main model and it’s corroded look, and that it is starting to fall apart (spot the axe?) and has started to erode with rusted fragments being re-absorbed into the rock in which it was originally mined.

The only thing that bothered me was the smallest detail, the Magic Ring held aloft by the Dwarf, which looks more like a medium sized donut than a ring. This became all I could see with this model, so I decided to make a smaller ring. I tried unsuccessfully to model a smaller one in green-stuff, like I did before but this just did not go well. So in the end I cut a minute link from the smallest non precious metal jewellery chain that I could find.

I am now much happier with the size of my Dwarfs ring and look forward to getting the wee chap on the table top to be the splendid centrepiece and battlefield objective that I intended him to be.

This was a particularly fiddly job, and my patience and my language were at times put to the test. At one point the Dwarf’s thumb and forefinger snapped shut firing the ring a meter and an half away into the carpet, which then took me half an hour to find. So I spent a wasted half hour on all fours searching Gollum like for the ring.

I am now happy with the far smaller ring and the end result, which is a touch exaggerated, but any smaller and you won’t see it.

The ring can be seen in it’s original for on the plyers bottom left image, with a commemorative 50 pence piece for size.

This guy is a close combat MONSTER mounted on a monster if used correctly.

This ‘Knight of Umbar’ has two special rules ‘Armour of the Sundered Land’ and ‘Combat Mimicry’.

‘Armour of the Sundered Land’ means that he does not loos a precious point of will if he wins a round of close combat. Keeping him on the table for longer, which is especially important as he only has 12 will points and that is not much when you want him charging on his Armoured Fell Beast and ruining as much of the enemy as you can.

‘Combat Mimicry’ means that he can expend a point of will to match Fight, Strength and/or attacks of the enemy. This means that he can match and Ent if he needs to and no pesky loosing to a draw because of a lower fight value. Combined with ‘Transfix’, this can be deadly.

The armoured Fell Beast has a defence of 7 rather than 6, meaning that most heroes and infantry will need a 6 to wound it.

I have seen this guy wreak destruction on enemy heroes and troops, but he can’t afford to get bogged down and surrounded. Choose attacks when it suits him at key enemy heroes and pesky troop break throughs, and don’t be afraid to use transfix and a might point for an ‘Heroic Combat’ where his 12″ move can allow him to cause more destruction.

I used the old metal Witch King on Fell Beast, which I then chopped up and mounted on to a converted ruined castle kit, which I painted to look like a wall of Gondor or ruin in Osgiliath. The wrecked wall section allows the Ringwraith and Fell Beast to stand out in clear contrast, and adds a real feel of danger and destruction, which is what this chap is all about.

Arguably the foulest of the Nine, we get a glimpse of this chap in the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ parking his red eyed horse above the Hobbits hiding amongst the tree roots, with all natural things recoiling from his presence.

In game risky and tricky to use well.

I love the characterful pose of this model, really capturing the spider-like tricksey, sneakiness of Gollum. To add a touch of realism and ground Gollum in His home in the lake under the mountain, I added some minute slate chips which I painted then dry brushed in grey as rocks, and added some water effects in between.

A great fun addition to any collection, also brilliant in game as a funny yet dangerous foil for the ring bearer.

A simple yet effective conversion with the addition of a plastic bow to an old and sadly OOP model of Merry, from the ‘Merry and Pippin vs Grishnakh’ blister pack.

I love the look of shock on the miniatures face that adds a great deal of drama to my Hobbit Archers unit. He looks horrified at perhaps an enemy monster, or has he just taken down a Goblin and is ducking an incoming arrow?

My God Daughter Sophie used him in our recent game and he took down a Goblin archer and jointly saw off a few swordsmen (with help from several Dunedain, who were in the Shire purely as peace-keeping advisors!) and it was great to use him in a game.

He’s not going to win any prises, but I am really happy with the result and the conversion end result really looks convincing in terms of stance, feel and stands out amongst a unit of archers in regular poses.

Always a fun and visually striking addition to an Hobbit force is Farmer Maggot and his loyal hounds.

Quite capable of slowing down or even seeing off a Ring Wraith at starting stats. I have even seen one of his jammy dogs bit and wound an Oliphant with full crew in the Howda and have it stampede off the table!

My God Daughter Sophie used him in a recent game and he and his dogs managed to take down a couple of warg riders and keep their corn crop free of malefactors.

These two pieces of scenery came with the first starter set with the first run of releases from Games Workshop.

Simple and easy to paint, I use them as objective markers, but with an added twist to add more jeopardy to the game. When I use them as a single objective marker, with the standing statue on the table being worth 1 victory point, but I give it a defence of 6 and 3 wound, and anyone trying to destroy it must start in base contact and not move, then strikes automatic hits in the fight phase. If it gets destroyed, I then use the toppled and smashed version, which is then worth zero victory points. This allows a losing player to enact a “scorched Middle Earth” strategy (just like a certain ‘Sharky’ from the books), which means that a quick last minute bit of vandalism can chip away at a soon to be victorious enemies victory. Also if all is going South and you can’t hold this objective, you can permanently prevent it from falling to the enemy.

It’s a great and underrated bit of scenery, and my solution adds further fun allowing it to be used in games.