Mordor Catapult crew

I made these guys a little more brightly coloured than your average orc by the addition of a brighter yellow spot colour.

The reason being that I wanted to pick them out more easily, not on the field of war, but when selecting them for a game.

I have a cunning plan for when the second catapult arrives from the carpenter's shop of my good friend, John Curtis.

I can use Shagrat, less the Mithril coat, as the captain who points out the target.

I think I'll make them stand out with a different colour, bright green or red perhaps.

Catapult Troll

 Our catapult Troll ('our' because my old mucker, John Curtis, is busy constructing a catapult)

I feel that too many limitations are put on Trolls so that they all turn up with pink fronts and grey backs.

I starting him off with an undercoat spray of Caliban Green.

The painting started with various dry brushings.

The chest in Vomit Brown, the front of legs and inner arms are Balor Brown,


The back, working downwards from Steel Legion Drab to Mournfang Brown with much of the feet and toenails retaining much of the original green

I then used washes,  Cassandora Yellow for the front, Carroburg Crimson for the back and legs and a splash of Guilliman Blue on the feet.

Some of the 'rocks' are balls of left over Greenstuff, others are stones from the drive.

I glued on some smaller stuff first as, obviously, the Troll, with the huge wheelbarrow, who delivers the ammunition, would have tipped the rocks on the pile, none too gently, and there would be fragments of stone everywhere.

As usual, when I see these models on the blog, I realise that they are unfinished.

I have noticed that his teeth and eyes are unpainted.

A second Rohan Royal Guard

The second Rohan Royal Guard has joined the first.

His horse is now Theodred's, so he rides the grey.

I tried to give a little variety by making him older but unless I went in for serious amputations, there was little else I could do.

The helmet plume is different but thank goodness for the main variable - the horse.

Putting these models up on the blog has it's uses, even if only for me.

I now notice he lacks the red edging to the horse blanket and that the original one needs another coat of green on the base.

Theodred

Theodred's horse (Brego?) has turned up.

It had been borrowed by a member of the Royal Guard.

Now I have a grey for the Royal Guard, ready painted, but the guard himself needs painting.

The Theodred model is a neat one.

I did set out to give him redish hair as I thought I'd read that somewhere but followed the images I could find making his hair similar to the rest of the Riders of Rohan but with a reddish tinge.

The horse was only attached by one rear hoof and, though I liked that pose, I put the rock in as extra support (it's glued to the front hoof) as I thought he'd be too fragile in games.

The three 'reds' used are horse leatherwork - Dark Flesh, armour edging - Khorne Red, saddle blanket edging, Mechrite and Blood Red in equal measure. The horse is Rhinox Hide with additions of Mournfang Brown as a highlight and Mournfang is used for armour leatherwork and the scabbard. Theodred's armour is Dark Angels Green and Shining gold.

Mamuk Mahud

The Mamuk Mahud follows the recent Mahud except for the still unknown desert colour.

His arm didn't settle in to the super glued slot properly.

These things are such a rough fit that you have to dollop in the glue and then hold the join for ages.

I've realised that the Mahud King, when on foot, doesn't lug that wood and wicker back pack around.

Thus the poor quality one I tried making is redundant.

Making a difference

I have a Mahud King but he's missing his weird arrangement on his back so I'm trying to make something that looks similar.

The 'wicker' is  Greenstuff impressed with some ribbon and then removed and the stick supports are heavy duty electrical wire.

Yeah. OK. So it doesn't look much like wicker, but it's a start.

I'll use telephone cable for the cross pieces.

The pieces of 'cloth' for the front (rear?) of the wicker is Greenstuff shaped, then pressed down between two pieces of plastic (a curry tin wrapper!)

I've used the same idea with Greenstuff to try to make these two identical Mahuds look different.

Usually I have trouble making Superglue stick, using too much perhaps.

This time I wanted to move the 'cloth' around but it stuck instantly and I couldn't adjust it.

Mahud Raiders

Please note the subtle differences between these two Mahud Raiders.

The angle of the blowpipes and shields, the colour of their kit bag at the saddle, The raised leg on one camel and the knock-kneed rear end of the other, even the slightly different highlighting on the pair.

However, does all this make a jot of difference when GW advertise that there are six different poses and fail to add that they've sold out of five of them, years ago.

They did this with half trolls and, no doubt, with other models.

All designed to keep us raiding the bank while trying to find the missing one.

Still, they're not half bad models.

Shame the painting has let them down in places - the ropes round the tusks are particularly bad.

More Mahud

 The second set of Mahud warriors have been a problem from start to finish - when I do finish.

I first ruined some of the detail by spraying too close or perhaps it was too cold.

It's not too noticeable but I know it's there.

Then I discovered that the notes I took on the previous batch were incorrect.

The base colour for the shield is Rhinox, not Mounfang as noted down.

I tried to correct this, after dry brushing (when I'd noticed the error) by washing the shields in Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil.

You can see the difference between the shields.

Then there was the discovery that the witch-doctor type in the picture to the left is, in fact, the Mahud King.

Trouble is, he is missing a piece of kit from his back and I'll have to make one up with wire and Greenstuff.

Then I've got the desert part of the base wrong in my notes and I still cannot work out the original paint scheme.

I've tried half a dozen paints but none of them seem right.

Again, the difference is discernible in the last shot showing new and old.

Lastly, I'd intended to have a sprinkle of dead grass on some of them.

Can I find the glue!

I've sent for a couple of camel riders but more problems there. The inverted camel in the background is not at all happy with his legs.

John's ruined fountain

John has again had the builders in and constructed for my table top, a ruined fountain.

Excellent work John.

I hope you gave them a bonus as well as gallons of Assam Tea.

Constructed largely from polystyrene and gravel with a base of two layers of foam board, it is perfectly topped off with a joss stick holder*,
as the fountain, which has survived the ravages of time and bored teenage orcs remarkably well.

John has even provided some green slime which, even more remarkably, was still sticky after 3000 years.

It will need a reset of the base colour to grey and a dry brush of light grey and then white to bring it into line with the previous ruins.

*Joss Stick Holder is the centre piece and is not to be confused with Joss Charles Buttler, the England batsman.

Rohan Royal Guard and Banner Bearer

I realised that, though the troopers were as finished as I can cope with, the horses were only partially so.

I've given a little more highlighting and finished painting horses head and leather work.

I'd not even given them teeth.

How on earth could we tell their age?

Note that the Royal Guard's horse is one of those expected to balance on one leg.

I have given him a piece of broken fence to tether a front hoof to.







I've yet to finish the rocket but I've cleaned up (washed) the new set of Mahud Warriors purchased from ebay, a few weeks ago.

I look forward to painting those but I'm unsure if I should use primer, then undercoat.

They are partly painted and I don't want to lose too much detail on the shields.

Perhaps I'll try removing some of the paint before I start.