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Mallo's Middle-Earth Mega-Project Mega-Thread!

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul



I (finally!) started the project earlier this year, with the original intention of completing enough painting and terrain for playing a huge game set during the Battle Under the Trees (BUtT!), but due to lockdowns the project became more about buying miniatures than it did about being able to host any games! So now I have to really get cracking on the painting and work through quite the tremendous backlog I've acquired!

The project has taken over most of my other on-going projects as well. Whilst the aim was always to build towards putting on a huge mega game for the BUtT, I've also started putting together items for armies dedicated to 1st, 2nd and 3rd age forces. I'd even like to do some 'whats ifs' 4th age battles in the future. We'll be playing some games of Oathmark with the the finished units, but I will also be adapting & expanding the fubar rules for use in this project and would like to create lists dedicated to all the 4 ages.

At last count, I had approximately 800-900 orcs and goblins, 200 dwarves and a huge stash box full to busting of elves, Easterlings, Rohirrim, Haradrims and at least two of each of the oathmark boxsets. These are all 'alternative company' models- victrix, fireforge, oathmark, conqueror models etc. Whilst for GWs MEBSG, I picked up a very good deal during lockdown which contained a lot of really nice models for a bargain price. I've since been gifted a huge collection of other stuff from the vast citadel range to add to that stash! So now I really need to get in to painting it all! At last count I have 2000+ miniatures for this project, and there are still a couple of mega units I intend to buy and add to this project!

Isengard Orcs:

First up, here is my conversion for my take on the Ralph Bakshi Styled Isengard Orcs.





He was made from a victrix body, and a warlord games orc head (ex-wargames factory orcs), but its too costly to do a whole unit (as there is only like 1 of these bodies per sprue) so I've brought several of the gripping beast arab sets to continue this unit!

Goblin Town Warriors:



Next up I batched painted a unit of Goblin town warriors. I did the whole batch of all 18 at the same time (over the course of a few evenings!). I went for a 'finished' paint job, rather than a 'perfect' one, and I've switched over to using Army painter washes and cheap craft brushes (instead of the more expensive versions of both!)

They need a final coat of varnish, and then I can add the grass tuffs to finish them off (and hide some quite unsightly painting errors!). I may even go back to them in the future and add some other details (like picking out the rope on the makeshift weapons and their eyes etc.) But I have so many to paint and not enough time, I have to cut corners where I can. I don't think it will be too noticeable outside of the forum photos anyway! I'm hoping quantity is a quality all of its own!

Absolutely love that orc standard bearer - he looks really intimidating with the robes and that talisman. I had a look at your goblins close up, and they hold up pretty well for a speed paint. Great work!

I like the bakshi orc. I know that movie has probably aged... very poorly, but child me loved it.

A big delay stopped any progress over summer, but I did make a dent in the backlog of orcs before the several month long break! I am back at it now though, I have another batch of 50+ models ready for primer!

Scarper wrote:Absolutely love that orc standard bearer - he looks really intimidating with the robes and that talisman. I had a look at your goblins close up, and they hold up pretty well for a speed paint. Great work!

Thanks! The speed paint of the goblin town goblins did work really well! I've picked up some more, which doesn't really help the backlog but it should give me an easy win of another unit painted up next year! I was able to get a few more parts to make more matching robe orcs, so looking forward to getting a whole creepy unit done!

amazingturtles wrote:I like the bakshi orc. I know that movie has probably aged... very poorly, but child me loved it.

Thanks! Yeah the movie has aged a LOT, but I still enjoy rewatching it every year!

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Orc warriors/Rabble:

Batch painted the next unit. Originally I was just going to use the oathmark goblins for this project, but having brought up multiple cheap battle for pelennor fields sets just as they were discontinued, I ended up with a ton of these GW Morrannon Orcs and I didn't want to waste them.

I honestly though they would be quicker to paint- but they are awful sculpts to paint. I like the models overall, but they have not aged well. But having slogged through them I think I can cut the painting time down in half next time. I'm also loving the army painter washes for this project- I think I have the hang of using them and they work much better overall on these sculpts than my quickly diminishing supply of remaining GW washes (The details don't seem to be sculpted deep enough for the GW washes to settle in correctly.)



Painting 25 at once was not fun at all. Usual bits left for batch work at a later date- varnish and tufts. I'll also go back and add some evil red eyes to the shields once I have 100-200 done and have can do a lot of shields in on go! I had to really force myself to skip over painting things like belts and straps- I did them on a couple and whilst they look great they are not at all noticeable on the table at all and would have added another whole evening of painting.

I also chucked together three 'spare' empty bases. These will be varnished and given grass tufts as well. These are going to be used to plug the gaps in the GW model units, where they have the odd number sets and I don't currently have a spare mini or two to round units up to 5/10/20s. Eventually I'll have spare models or fill the gaps with more appropriate unit fillers. But for now the spares can be used to plug the gaps and let us start playing some smaller games shortly.

I don't know what I'll work on next right now- but what ever it is it won't be another batch of 25 Morrannon orcs, these were a total slog to finish! lol