Mumak & Mumak – a Middle Earth plog

And with those, that’s the starter box (and a bit more) complete.

I now absolutely adore the MESBG miniatures range, and it’s gotten me over my fear of painting entire armies.

Next to do – Mumaks!

Again, no work in progress on this one. Contrast, drybrushing and a little drybrushed lighting from the sword go a long way.

No work in progress images of this one sadly, but a nice simple paint job brings him to life. The base is the dark gravel again, with some tufts that have been darkened with contrast.

How lovely do these look? So very pleased with the finished result, and so happy with how they have come together.

If GW ever re-release these in transparent plastic, I’ll definitely get more.

Obligatory Quality Street lid picture of the ghosts well underway and prior to taking proper pictures.

The transparent ghosts were done simply with careful drybrushing on the upper parts of the body.

For the solid plastic ghosts, I primed them in Wraithbone spray then gave them washes of teal, green and blue before drybrushing as per the transparent ghosts. The transparent plastics have a lovely finish that of course the others can’t match, but they all look great as a force and do tie together well.

Next, I was ready to start working on the army of the dead. The Pelennor Fields box comes with twenty miniatures for the ghosts, but I was able to get hold of the limited release of miniatures molded in transparent aqua/green plastic. A box of warriors of the dead and also king of the dead with heralds.

The translucent plastic is very brittle so care needed to be taken getting them off the sprues, as too much pressure can easily snap them. In addition, my plastic glue of choice – EMA Plastic Weld melts the plastic to form a bond, which can leave a cloudy finish on transparent plastics. Fortunately, most of these miniatures are one piece plastics.

These look great when assembled, the next challenge will be painting them so that the solid and transparent miniatures look consistent together.

Really pleased with how these look finished. The basing really makes them pop and look so bright and colourful.

Next up is to tackle one of the main hero characters (well, 2 but the same person) – Theoden.

I’m trying to be relatively close to the film representation, but adding my own spin on it – brighter red, probably a bit more gold etc.

I’m also spending more time on his horse, to see if I can actually enjoy painting horses. I know I kinda rushed the Riders of Rohan horses, so putting extra effort in on this main character.