Mammoth middle earth. Men of sauron.

[Hobgoblin]

These are fantastic! The red shields are superb.

I'd echo everyone else in saying that the Orc looks really good - not least because the size difference with the Men gives the thing an extra layer of Tolkienry. You can understand why Gimli would prefer to fight that fierce-looking fellow than the much bigger Wild Men!

I'm slightly puzzled by your comments about the Oathmark kits. They seem to me very unlike GW things and very much in the vein of historical kits; I've found it easy to mix and match parts with Gripping Beast, etc. Is is the way the arms align or something? The weapons also strike me as much more similar to those found on historical sprues than GW ones.

Very interested to see what you do with the yellow orcs!

[Mellal]

Brillant concept, I like the way you see the LOTR warriors.

I must say nonetheless that you are the first man I read saying he prefers to paint flesh over anything else 

[Maxromek]

Been following you an dthis project on Insta for a while, awesome stuff!

I think you capture Tolkien's vision very well, and on top of that, twsiting it towards something definitely looking darker than what he imagined Love it!

[Sunjester]

I waqs expecting something sung by Welsh redcoats!

[Mammoth miniatures]

These are fantastic! The red shields are superb.

I'd echo everyone else in saying that the Orc looks really good - not least because the size difference with the Men gives the thing an extra layer of Tolkienry. You can understand why Gimli would prefer to fight that fierce-looking fellow than the much bigger Wild Men!

I'm slightly puzzled by your comments about the Oathmark kits. They seem to me very unlike GW things and very much in the vein of historical kits; I've found it easy to mix and match parts with Gripping Beast, etc. Is is the way the arms align or something? The weapons also strike me as much more similar to those found on historical sprues than GW ones.

Very interested to see what you do with the yellow orcs!

Thankls for the kind words hobgoblin - I consider you the master of all things orc on LAF so it's nice to get your feedback.
It's not that the kits are bad, they go together very well, I just find them very similar to older GW kits like the empire militia or catachan warriors - very limited in pose unless you're clever with your craft knife. The weapons all skew a bit too big for me - again, this is just me apparently having a very specific orc in mind, not a fialure of the kit per se. I have used victrix arms on the torsos and they work well enough for me. the details are certainly softer than i'd like but given that I'm only really using the bodies and heads I can get around that. I may try the armoured orc torsos and see if hard edges work better.

In the mean tiem I have dug out my old wargames factory orcs - a truly odd kit but one that skews closer to victrix more realistic proportions. I will try bashing them with a few other bits and see what resaults.

Brillant concept, I like the way you see the LOTR warriors.

I must say nonetheless that you are the first man I read saying he prefers to paint flesh over anything else 

Flesh it easy - these chaps only use three piants - white, GW fleshshade, and red ink. cloth - bah, nasty stuff.

[Mellal]

Flesh it easy - these chaps only use three piants - white, GW fleshshade, and red ink. cloth - bah, nasty stuff.

Three paints but not 3 layers right ? Cause your skin is absolutely lovely.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Three paints but not 3 layers right ? Cause your skin is absolutely lovely.

thankyou.
I think most of them are only 4 or 5 layers. In short I prime the mini white, then I add red ink/wash into the crevice's/areas that would rub/blood would show under the skin/shaded parts. Then I do a flesh wash. then highlight the flat areas or raised areas with white. From there it's just a matter of repeating the process any number of times until you get the desired depth of tone. Sometimes I'll throw in some blue wash or green wash if i want bruising/shadow. But it's a very fast and loose process - with a hair dryer each man only take about 10 minutes to paint. I add scars with either red ink if I want them to be old wounds, or Tamiya clear red if it's meant to be a fresh cut.
for flavour I'll sometimes darken the feet/ankles with brown wash to show mud.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Another orc! I have taken delivery of some warlord games (was wargames factory) orcs sprues. I much prefer the look of them, although they absolutely need new arms. I think my orcs are just going to have to be a hodgepodge of kits, but i'm getting closer to something I'm happy with.

On that subject I also got a sprue of warlord zulu warriors - mostly for the torsos. I have used them before to make inq28 figures and though they'd make good dynamic champions for my evil men, but after fiddling with them I though thtye'd make better orc champions. this figure is an oathmark goblin head and hand, warlord body, and victrix sword arm. He's going to be both a visual link between my men and orcs, but also a nice way to add variety to the evil horde. I'll probably make a few of these. It was also good fun to paint, and helped me establish a nice recipe for my orcs. I don't know why I shied away from green initially- maybe a bit too much of the post GW panic. But by basecoating him in green and then doing my usual flesh paintjob over the top, you get a nice realistic green tone.







I realise that my evil forces have grown quite a bit faster than my good, despite this all starting off with a desire to make some dol amroth warriors. I will then endeavor to get some more men of Gondor painted before the hopes of men dimmish too far. After all, gondor will need more men to take on those mumaks...

[Mellal]

This new orc looks amazing, can't wait to see more of his kind. Mens can wait 

[mikedemana]

I think your method produces a nice, slight green pallor, and for those of us who can't stand GW green orcs, it looks great! Since they are degraded elves originally, according to Tolkein lore, perhaps that pallor came with Morgoth messing with them...?

Keep up the great work!

Mike Demana

[Mikai]

Again some great work! Loving it! The white sprinkels are supposed to be some kind of warpaint or some skin disease which they might likely have?

[Little Odo]

That last orc looks absolutely fantastic - the paint job really works. The shield is a lovely bit of free hand too. This army is coming together very nicely.

[eMills]

I really like your work on this project so far!  Love the evil guys' shields. Looking forward to more men of Gondor.