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

[Mallo]

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

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



I decided that I wanted to separate my Middle-Earth modelling & musings into their own thread, rather than just plonk them in to my oathmark/warhammer specific thread.

I (finally!) started the project a little while ago, with the 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!

This has been quite a wordy post- I will try to stick to keeping wordy stuff in the future to my blog. If you are interested in the more wordy stuff going forward, then that can be found here: https://orcmischief.blogspot.com/

Otherwise, here is the interesting bits (the actual painted models!)

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 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!

[LouieN]

I am with you on this!  Thanks for sharing. 

The models look great. 

Always recall don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough. 

[Old Hob]

800-900 orcs! Blimey. I reckon it would take me approximately 50 years to paint that lot!

The Bakshi kit-bash is spot on. It's a shame you can't just get a head sprue for the old Wargames Factory orcs. I'm not keen on most of the kit, but the McBridian heads are superb. I have had some joy making simple hoods for the bareheaded Oathmark goblins with green stuff, which could be an option?

Look forward to seeing your progress.

[Hobgoblin]

Great work! Which Victrix sprue is the robed body from?

[Mallo]

I am with you on this!  Thanks for sharing. 

The models look great. 

Always recall don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough.

Thank you! That's a great saying! Being just good enough is definitely good enough for the amount I have to do for this project! 

800-900 orcs! Blimey. I reckon it would take me approximately 50 years to paint that lot!

The Bakshi kit-bash is spot on. It's a shame you can't just get a head sprue for the old Wargames Factory orcs. I'm not keen on most of the kit, but the McBridian heads are superb. I have had some joy making simple hoods for the bareheaded Oathmark goblins with green stuff, which could be an option?

Look forward to seeing your progress.

Thanks!

haha yeah I can see this project taking me 50 years as well! Perhaps I should have started it when I was much younger and able to paint for 12 hours a day with out putting my back out! 

I have two of the huge sets of the orcs, but it would be nice to be able to get more hooded heads! I've picked up some of the atlantic wargames goblins, there is a lot of spare heads in there so hoping there will be suitable ones in there too! I could try greenstuffing some, but I do try to avoid sculpting where I can as I really don't like doing it!

Great work! Which Victrix sprue is the robed body from?

Thank you! Its from one of the Late saxon sprues, probably the huscarls. I have quite a lot of the victrix sets, but there just isn't enough of the robed guys to build a whole unit so I'll have to resort to gripping beasts for the rest.

[Desert Scribe]

That Bakshi film provided my mental imagery for theater-of-the-mind orcs when I first started playing D&D!

[Sunjester]

A great start, I shall be following this project with interest. At the Tring Wargames Club we regularly used to play all-day big Middle Earth set battles (up to 2000 figures on the table) without a single GW model in sight. We haven't done a really big game for ages, so this might inspire me to set up another one.

[DivisMal]

Love it!

While the Bakshi movie has its lengths and shortcomings, I always loved the take on orcs.
That kitbash is really excellent and I am keen to try a copy it.

[Grumpy Gnome]

A noble project and a clever kitbash to kick it off! 👍

[Spinal Tap]

What an ambitious project - look forward to watching it grow and have bookmarked your blog.

[Mallo]

That Bakshi film provided my mental imagery for theater-of-the-mind orcs when I first started playing D&D!

I love the film, the orcs are fantastic!

A great start, I shall be following this project with interest. At the Tring Wargames Club we regularly used to play all-day big Middle Earth set battles (up to 2000 figures on the table) without a single GW model in sight. We haven't done a really big game for ages, so this might inspire me to set up another one.

Thank you! I set out to do this project as a none-gw model project. Most of the kits I've brought to date were alternative minis. But I got a good deal on a lot of GW stuff, and I actually really like a lot of the models so now its ended up as a mixed model project! I hope this does get you to play another big game- more huge middle earth battles need to done!

Love it!

While the Bakshi movie has its lengths and shortcomings, I always loved the take on orcs.
That kitbash is really excellent and I am keen to try a copy it.

Thanks! Yeah the movie does have some parts which have not aged well at all, but I still love it! Please post pictures if you do try the conversion for yourself!

A noble project and a clever kitbash to kick it off! 👍

Thanks! I put off starting the project for far too long, and I know if I didn't start now one day I would be regretting it!

What an ambitious project - look forward to watching it grow and have bookmarked your blog.

Thanks! I just hope that I don't run out of steam on the project, as I'm painting all the models myself! 

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Orc warriors/Rabble:

Batch painted the next unit. Originally I was just going to use the oathmark goblins, but having ended up with a ton of these GW Morrannon Orcs I didn't want to waste them. I honest 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 dont 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! 

[Pattus Magnus]

The figs might be a slog but you got them to look good! I also have a bunch of Morannon orcs in the painting queue and I understand why you didn’t enjoy them. I swapped in a few Oathmark goblin heads to give a bit more variety.

[Mallo]

Quite a few other projects stole a lot of time from Middle earth last year (especially real life interference, which included moving from the tiny office to a much larger 'war room', which actually currently looks more like a war zone than a hobby zone!)

But this is where I was currently with the Middle Earth Project just before Christmas 2024:



25 Orc rabble.
A few odd bits of scenery (all add-ons from larger pieces)
Some 'grey' Eagles from the 'Grey plastic mountains'!
20 Far Harad warriors (Need their bases done)
18 Goblin town goblin warriors
6 Easterling riders 
8 Moria Goblins
10 Last Alliance Elves (Partially completed)


Since then I've built something in the regions of 100-ish more models ready for undercoating (we've had a number of terrible storms, snow, and general winter blues not suitable for outside spraying) and have some plans to bolster the numbers with some 'easy' wins with the painting when I get back to it this year before tackling some of the more 'fun' or 'difficult' projects, like characters or larger models.

One thing that has slowed me down, is basing + model count issues. I spend far too long agonising over how many models to put together for a unit or chasing an extra model or two on the 2nd hand market instead of actually painting. GW model count can be an issue trying to get units done for other games (eg trying to get a full unit put together for oathmark, trying to get a full 5,10,20 set of all bows, hand weapons, or spears from their sets). Sometimes even pulling models from their sets for their own rules can be tricky eg. War of the ring wants a unit of infantry (8 ) riders (2), but then they do their packs in infantry (3) or riders (1) or (3). I've started making the spare bases to fill gaps to save on buying correct model counts (and empty base that can be filled with the odd skull or bit of extra flocking etc) has helped but I'm honestly temped to ditch all these rules sets and maybe try midgard which seems to only worry about unit frontage and it seems most people only take 8 models per unit at 28mm anyway. (I'm not really wanting to go with multi-based trays to save on minis, as individually based still lets me play 'skirmish' games with the minis, warhammer based rules, and/or other games).