FATE OF THE WITCH KING

Finally! I've managed to create a Witch King model with a little gravitas. I never liked the models they released for him as none of them looked as cool as he did in the movie. Personally, I think this new model is simply, badass. To start with, I decided early on that he'd need to be set on a larger cavalry base. I know this isn't strictly within the rules, but it isn't technically outside of them either, as far as I know. It just seems to fit better. I wouldn't do this for another run of the mill captain. To give him a little lift, I used another piece of slate from the garden to act as a podium. Green stuffed onto the base, I placed a few scattered skulls around it to add a feeling of dread. I started with the special edition Fate of the Witch King model, which you can still buy from GW. A quick sawing off of the limbs and hands, and he's ready.

To get the pose just right was the main aim for this model. I wanted him to be posed just as he falls off his fell beast, and openly chalenges Eowyn to a duel. He holds his flail in one hand, and his sword in the other. After repositioning his left arm, I could then give him his weapons. The flail was made using his left hand and flail, replacing the chain with a real chain I managed to get from a jewellers.

After I moulded his sword back into his right hand, and a black undercoat, he was ready for painting!

This model was very simple to paint, as there's only three colours really. Drybrush codex grrey over the black on his robes, leadbelcher for the metal areas and bestial brown for the skulls. A black wash was needed for the robes after this, and a wash mix of black and scorched brown for the metal areas for a slightly rusted, dirty look. The skulls were layered with snakebite leather then bleached bone. For the final parts, the metal areas were highlighted with chainmail and the skulls were picked out with skull white. The base was finished to a typical standard of my army, with the rock podium being drubrushed with codex grey, fortress grey and white... And here he is. Now for the fell beast...

And to go with him, I thought it'd be best to finish Merry and Eowyn too...

BATTLEFIELD & OBJECTIVE MARKERS

I built my scenery board years ago to represent Amon Hen in a way. I have no idea why I did this, as I had neither an Uruk Hai army or the Fellowship at the time… But it has served me well. I used simple techniques with MDF, polystyrene insulation sheets, pet store sand and grit and Dulux paints. I’m in the middle of making my new Osgiliath board, and I’ll keep that posted as it’s evolving. 

To go with any scenario I could think of, on this board or any other, I made a few simple objective markers; fallen heroes, campfire, strategic point, weapons pile and treasured item.

The strategic point was made using one of the statues that come with the small ruins box. This was just put onto a cavalry base and decorated with long grass and sponge.

 

The fallen hero was made using the scenic base that came with my Pelennor Gothmog. It didn't suit either of my new models so I thought it would be the perfect for a scenario.

The weapons pile was made for my own version of Escape from Goblin Town set in Ithilien. It can work for both good and evil, which is why there's a massive troll hammer wedged into the ground among some scattered Osgiliath bricks. The campfire was made using balsa wood and rocks from the garden. I'm working on a better one with actual flames and smoke.

Lastly there's the treasured item, which takes the form of The One Ring! I didn't have any beads lying around the house, so had to make it out of gree stuff. I also didn't have any gold paint at the time (not very prepared) so mixed sunburst yellow with chainmail. It gave the right sort of effect.

OSGILIATH VETERANS

A cost effective way to add some Osgiliath Vets to your Gondor army. All it takes is a little green stuff and a few bits! So far I have three, which I have donated to my friend’s army. Our forces have been built for one single purpose from the beginning 7 years ago really, to do a 2-part epic battle in Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. The scenery is still in the making…

My vets include an axeman, a spearmen converted from an old banner bearer, and finally an archer, who was made using an eye-patched head from that old conversion sprue. The rest, being new hair, bags, cloaks and blankets were made using green stuff. The cloths were painted using a graveyard earth with a scorched brown wash. This was followed by progressive highlights using graveyard earth and bleached bone, finished off with a tiny white tree as a strap button. The armor was the same as all my Gondorian troops, simply chainmail washed with a thinned down black, with an extreme highlight of mithril silver. I can't remember the names of the new paints, I'm using the ones I had from a few years ago...

 

GOTHMOG MOUNTED ON WARG CHIEFTAIN

To give my army a leader who both looked impressive and intimidating and could act as a force to be reckoned with, I chose Gothmog. Trouble is, I wasn’t satisfied with any of the individual models GW brought out for him, so I decided to make customize my own. As soon as the Warg Chieftain, or Alpha Warg model came out, I knew I had to have an Orc hero mounted on him. So that’s what I did. I've never seen it done before, so I'm actually quite proud of this one.

The model below is made up of the Warg Chieftain model and Gothmog Pelennor version, which comes with a different warg. The warg itself was made to look more dynamic by basing his already sculpted base on some slate from the garden, this gave it extra height and more balance.  A saddle and strap had to be made so Gothmog could sit comfortably on him. Finally after some green stuff around the joints and sawing a small section of mane off, he was ready. This is the result…

And just to show how intimidating he looks, I posed him next to an average height Osgiliath Veteran of mine. Huge.

And of course, no mounted model would be complete without the separate models. The warg acts quite nicely as a Wild Alpha Warg in certain scenarios.