Sharkey and Worm

I got around to painting these two villains that have been in my collection for a fair while. A quick paintjob, but fitting. The GW example has a brown cloak, but as per the text:

...they overtook an old man leaning on a staff, and he was clothed in rags of grey or dirty white, and at his heels went another beggar, slouching and whining.

Galadriel and her mirror

A 3D Sculpt from The Printing Goes Ever On. A quick paintjob- I tried adding an eye of Sauron, and it really sticks out. I may darken the edges of the bowl. I don't know if the 'water' needs some gloss varnish.

Journeys in Middle-Earth: Spreading War

I've finally painted all the figures from the 'Spreading War' expansion for Journeys in Middle-Earth, including the 'Scourges of the Wastes' villains. I used a lot of Contrast, and some of the painting was a bit of a mental slog. There was an issue with the primer being patchily hydrophobic and I had difficulty getting even coats. I placed the larger figures on MDF bases. The heroes have already been seen here.

Heroes

The otherwise nondescript 'Soldiers' received a thin coat of Vallejo sepia.

Soldiers

The Uruk-hai are nice beefy orcs. I didn't differentiate between all the details on their sculpts, its just browns.

Uruk-hai

I don't like the warg-riders all vaulting the same log, but it's not the end of the world. They're wielding slings, but two of them are broken and I'm not going to repair them.

Warg riders

I removed the flames from the top of the oliphaunt's howdah because they were starting to snap as well.

Oliphaunt

The flames on the siege towers, however, are quite durable.

Siege towers

I'm really happy with these beasts, the wings came out just right.

Fell beasts

I used some Vallejo Liquid Mask to cover the Witch King's flight stand before final matt varnishing. It hasn't quite all come off despite attacking it with a stiff brush and Blutac.

Witch King

I don't know anything about these two villains, as I have yet to encounter them in a campaign.

Lord Angon

Eadris

Glad to have them done.

"What is this, a siege tower for hobbits?"

The death of Gothmog

• 1955: Tolkien publishes The Return of the King, and does not specify Gothmog's fate
• 2003: Jackson releases The Return of the King, which also doesn't show Gothmog's end
• 2004: Jackson releases The Return of the King Extended Edition*, which includes the blink-and-you'll-miss-it Death of Gothmog:

• 2008: GW releases a vignette 'The Death of Gothmog'. I like to think this is a Perry.
• 2023: I paint said vignette.

The death of Gothmog

I got this off eBay, partially painted and broken. I had thoughts of making this into a piece with sabots for the figures, like my Sauron piece, but ultimately decided against it. I've got plenty of Éowyns and recently a plastic Gothmog. I stripped the pieces and reassembled it. I decided to place it on a nice oval MDF base from Knights of Dice. I bulked out a little bit of the groundwork with Milliput so that Éowyn and Gothmog are on solid ground.

Stripped and ready to go

Test fit on MDF base. Note the narrower metal
base before bulking it out with Milliput

I'd thought of doing the miniatures separately, but during a test fitting they got stuck in place so I painted them all together. It wasn't too hard. I started from black and then drybrushed browns and creams in the grisaille fashion, which the French call Le Slapchop.

My favourite part was painting the cloaks. The rohirrim cloaks are built up from Vallejo Russian Uniform, and the elven ones are built up from German Feldgrau.

The reverse of the scene

Gimli dual-wielding and has a two-handed axe
strapped to his back

Dying orc #738 is really dynamic with his helmet flying off
and sword leaping from open grasp.

Aragorn and Andúril

Gothmog

Éowyn desperately grasps for a sword from her dead comrade

I was slightly disappointed with it, but then I flocked it. I used some pretty dry colours to match the film- the Pelennor fields have been somewhat abused by hordes of orcs and stampeding mûmakil- and it really came to life. I haven't varnished it and am somewhat afraid to.

*251 glorious minutes!

The time of the orc has come

I've painted sixty orcs. These are a bit better equipped than your usual rabble, but still aren't elite troops.

I have also painted their leader, Gothmog. Tolkien never described Gothmog as orc, man or wraith, but Peter Jackson portrayed him as a memorable and charismatic orc. There is an engaging rumour that the prosthetics were based on Harvey Weinstein.

Warriors of Minas Tirith

These sculpts are from 2003, but somehow I've never painted any Gondorians before. I started with a Gunmetal spray base with some lighter drybrushing, then used a grey wash (Contrast Basilicanum Grey). I find this dulls the armour without being too dark. I used a pale grey on the shields.

Journeys in Middle-earth: even more heroes

Heroes from the 'Spreading War' expansion for Journeys in Middle-earth. I used a fair amount of Contrast on these. I tried painting the eyes but it is far from my best effort there. The LEDs are quite unflattering!

Dwalin

Fréahild, Rohan Shieldmaiden

Calaminth Took, hobbit

Boromir

Beorn and The Great Bear

Rénërien, daughter of Círdan the shipwright

Spreading War

The Great Bear is an underwhelming sculpt. I  can't explain how Fréahild became a Shieldmaiden of the forgoil, but I do think she could have got a bigger sword. It's not a miscast; there's a tiny scabbard on her left hip.

The matte varnish is still drying in these photos, with a greyish residue in the crevices.