Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 8.

This is a bit of a photo drop really, as I had finished painting this army quite some time ago  (May or June) and have moved on to other things. 

 I have been too busy at the moment with other life commitments to have had time to blog. I have really enjoyed collecting, painting and completing this army, it is just a shame that I was unable to blog it as I went along, hence the drib-drab of blogging for it. When I have had any spare time I have been re/basing old 1980's miniatures (Rogue Trader stuff and Realms of Chaos Daemons), which is quite relaxing of an evening, and which I intend to start as new projects as summer turns into autumn. I have photographed a few of the last couple of evenings WIP at the end of this blog update. 

Enjoy :) 

Warg Riders.
I have eight bases of orc warg riders, and two accompanying heroes for each group of four bases. The warg riders represent Light Riders (Noble Cavalry and Light Chariots) class in the Midgard rules as this category has been used to represent orc warg/wolf in the army lists in the rulebook. Instead of four miniatures per base I have opted for three for the same reasons I reduced the numbers of infantry miniatures on the orc warrior bases: the size, and the scarcity of the miniatures. 

Warg Riders.
From left to right: a Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg, M1314 Orc on charging Warg, and a converted M315 Orc on running Warg (the spear was broken and replaced with a sword).
The 2008 Salute miniature is relatively common compared to the other Orc Warg riders, and so I have mixed several on the bases, as well as using two for heroes. 

M1314 Orc on charging Warg, M51 Angmar Wolf Rider with horn and scimitar, and another Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg.

M1314 Orc on charging Warg, M315 Orc on running Warg, and a Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg.

One of the Salute Zero Eight Mithril Miniatures Goblin Chieftain on Warg, individually based so he can do heroic (well maybe not quite heroic!) things on the battlefield. 

The Warg riders riding off to war. 

Orc skirmishers. 
I thought that the army would require some skirmishers and so I based up eight bases of three to represent Skirmisher (shooters), and one hero. Again, three rather than four to a base, but this also allowed me to add more rocks and give the bases a feel of much more broken ground. 
The miniatures used are a mix of Mithril Miniatures archers from various ranges, and from the MW336 Orcs of Mordor boxset. 
I might add another Orc hero to these as one doesn't seem enough. 

Orc Hero.
This orc is the Orc archer from the M288 pack. I painted his bow with bands of colour to differentiate him as a hero, and to add a little bit of extra detail. 

Orc archers. 
I'm not going to list each of the archers on the bases as they, like the warrior bases are a good mix of the Mithril ranges. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

Orc archers. 

WIP
I have been, amongst other things, re-basing my old early Rogue Trader miniatures. Here are some Eldar Dreadnoughts, with a re-based Eldar Pirate as well. 

Rogue Trader era Eldar War Walkers, and a Vampire Class Spirit-Warrior. 

The next update will probably be either a mix of Mithril Miniatures and Rogue Trader things, or just Rogue Trader stuff. I am currently basing and painting some Imperial Army miniatures, a range I really like, and remember waiting all summer of 1987 to purchase them once Rogue Trader/40k was released.

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 7.

 Another quick update on my ongoing Mithril Miniatures Evil army. I say ongoing, but I have actually already finished painting the army. My main problem is having enough time for photography and then updating the blog. I have already moved onto painting some Chaos Dwarfs, and some 40k Praetorians, but their photographs will have to wait until the Mithril Miniatures have had their turn. I did really enjoy painting the army, and I am very pleased with how they turned out. 

Anyway, back to this blog update. This update concerns Mithril Miniatures boxset MB396 Shelob's Lair. Originally produced in 1997, this boxset was made to represent the confrontation by Frodo and Sam against Shelob, with Gollum lurking in the background. The set consists of Shelob, who is a multi-part kit, and a single miniature of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum respectively. I haven't painted the latter three yet as I wanted to focus on Shelob. I only acquired this boxset this year, in March, as a birthday present from my mother (who incidentally, doesn't really like spiders!). 

As mentioned, the Shelob miniature is multi-part, consisting of a body, an abdomen, eight legs, and two arms. She was surprisingly easy to assemble, the arms being a little fiddly but no real problem. The design of Shelob represents her spider-like form, but does have other elements also suggesting the fact that she is more a daughter of Ungoliant than a giant spider per se. This is suggested in such details as her more humanoid looking face, and her possessing arms (although ending in claws). One last thing to mention is the model is big, very big. The last photograph demonstrates how large she is. 

With painting I wanted make her both dark but with colour, so I opted for a gradation of red, with the brighter red on the legs joints and edges of the body to contrast the darker red parts. I also thought it would give her a spider look, without actually copying a particular spider colouration. In addition, I also wanted to keep the look simple and uncomplicated, and to preserve an stark evil feel. I'm very pleased with how she came out. 

Enjoy :) 

Shelob.

Top view showing the colouration on her legs.
 I positioned the legs to give the impression she was creeping along.

Her face and arms.
As I mentioned before, the sculpt suggests her true non spider ancestry from Ungoliant, which I think was a good choice. 

Legs and rocks. 

Rear view of her huge abdomen.

Scale comparison. 
I had to make a special custom base for her. In the foreground is a base Orc warriors on the standard 125mm by 50mm base. At the far side is one of Shelob's Giant Spider daughters from Mirkwood. Shelob is a big model, and her base is much bigger than a normal Midgard base, but it's an appropriate size for her.

My next  update will be something else from the Evil army, but I am not sure what. 

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 6.

It's time for the Trolls! These form the heavy hitting shock troops of the evil army. I have collected six bases of them, with three to a base, made up of a mixture of different Trolls from the Mithril Miniatures ranges. In the Midgard rules they will count as Heavy Infantry, with Big and Brutal traits.

Painting them was very straight forward. I recall reading somewhere that the Trolls of Middle Earth had a greenish tinge to their flesh (but not in the same hue as GW Trolls!) and so I went for a dark olive green look,. I also kept their clothing suitably drab, and their armour rusty. Again, like all of the Mithril Miniatures, they were fun to paint and looked good when painted due to the good sculpting and detailing. Like their Orc miniatures, Mithril Miniatures Trolls are very dynamically posed. I am pleased with how they have turned out.

Enjoy :)

The column of Trolls advances!

From left to right:
M416 Dol Guldur Troll attacking; M148 Olog-Hai Troll; M284 Cave Troll attacking.

M414 Dol Guldur Troll throwing rock; M295 Mordor Black Troll; and a converted M174 Troll of the Underdeep (he was missing his dagger in his right hand, and so I added a bits box blade in his left).

M148 Olog-Hai Troll; M23 Large Stone Troll; M48 Troll with Morning Star.

Another M148 Olog-Hai Troll; an unconverted M174 Troll of the Underdeep; M415 Dol Guldur Troll with stone axe.

MS471 Troll Drummer; MM443 MERP 'Dagorhir the Warlord'; M284 Cave Troll.
This base is designed to look a little like a command base.

M295 Mordor Black Troll; M148 Olog-Hai Troll; M49 Angmar Troll with cleaver.

The next update will probably be on some of the individually based character models and heroes which I have painted for the army. 

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 5.

 A slightly delayed blog update on my continuing Mithril Miniatures Evil army painting. Here are six bases of MZ675 Warg Captain with Wargs.

There's not too much say about these. They are nicely sculpted wolf miniatures, slightly smaller than Mithril Miniatures other Warg miniatures, especially the ones with the orcs riding on them. They come in a pack with three different sculpts, which for skirmishing or vignettes is fine, but a little limiting for multi based wargaming, especially with four to a base. To counteract this I mixed the ratio of sculpts to create little mini vignettes.

Again they were fun and quick to paint. I went for a Timber Wolf look as it has that classic wolf look.

Enjoy :)

All six bases.
I went for four to a base to use as Light Riders.

All six again.

As mentioned above I have made each of the bases into little vignettes. 
This one is 'Howling and circling' .

'Prowling wolves'.

'Stalking wolves'.

'Preparing to fight'.

'Calling to the army'.

'Howling together'.

Next update will be Mithril Miniatures Trolls. 

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 4.

 This is the second update concerning Mithril Miniatures Orc warriors. I have painted a further three groups of four bases of orc warriors, in the same manner as the others. They are still fun to paint, and at the end of this update are all the orcs I have completed painting so far.

Enjoy :)

The second batch of twelve bases.

Orc command.

Another orc command.

Warriors.

Warriors.

Warriors.

Warriors.

Warriors.

Top view of all the completed Orcs so far, all 24 bases.

Another view of the completed Orcs.

The next update will be Mithril Miniatures MZ675 Warg Captain with Wargs.

Mithril Miniatures Evil Army: Part 3.

 I have painted six Mithril Miniatures M103 Giant Spiders. These were initially released in 1989 and were meant to represent the giant spiders of Mirkwood.

They are mounted on the larger bases (125mm x 100mm) partly to represent monstrosities in the Midgard rules, and partly because they are quite large models. I enjoyed assembling them more than I thought as the legs are all separate to the one piece body section. My experience with gluing GW Tomb Scorpions lead me to dread assembling these, but they fitted together nicely, and allowed a lot of customisation of poses to give that extra creepy feel.

I painted them in the vague style of false widow spiders, but avoided a direct copy as I thought it would spoil their own style. I don't like False Widow spiders after being bitten twice by them over the last few years, the first time requiring antibiotics! So the colour choice was an purposeful extra creepy choice for me. Anyway, I am very happy with the way they have turned out, and I was happy that my positioning of the legs on or around the rocks seemed to have turned out nicely.

Enjoy :)

All six spiders.

All six spiders again. 

Skittering spider.

Scuttering spider.

Sneaking spider.

Crawling spider.

Creeping spider.

...and finally a lurking spider. 
(I though name them rather just type spider six times!).

Next update will be some more Orc warriors.