Orctober - 10mm Mordor Army Finished

They are done.  All the Mordor troops I currently possess are now painted and, where possible based, ready for Fantastic Battles.  You can see them started here, and some more progress here.  Of course I intend to add to them, as is they are about 500 points worth, and that includes a hefty 100 points in the Witchking.  Fantastic Battles uses a command system so I suspect that having unreliable as a racial trait for orcs means that I'll need lots of captains to try and keep order.

The whole army so far.  Most based for Fantastic Battles, with a small pile of 'spares' ready for the next batch.

I wasn't sure what colours to paint wargs. Tolkien describes them as grey, which works well for a fairly naturalistic scheme, and the minis themselves are very much 'big wolves'. The film wargs are more shades of brown, and I felt this contrasted better with the dark tones in the armoured riders (armour, shields and flesh on some of them). The undercoat had a Vallejo Game Color Khaki drybrush, I then darkened the back with VGC Beasty Brown (the same colour as the fur cloaks worn by some of the orcs, animal welfare issues?) and further darkened the back with a line of Army Painter Dark Tone. I darkened the eye sockets, but perhaps they would have looked more menacing with a red dot?

I'm not completely happy with the red eyes on the shields.  I think it looks a bit crude, but then it is orcs painting it, and on the tabletop it should look OK.

Heroes and commanders.

I'll probably use the Nazgul as a wizard.  The Warg Chieftain will be a thief attached to the rest of the wargs

Witchking on Fellbeast (to borrow film terminology), probably a Dragon/mage Lord character company and Mordor Trolls

Warg riders and wargs

Two companies of orc bows

Orc warrior company and orc 'elites'.

I selected some of the best armoured orcs to base as a separate company in case I ever want any guards, think Bodyguard of Bolg from The Hobbit.  They are based more in ranks as they might be better represented by a Regular company.

Three more orc warrior companies

Another view of the army showing my attempts to make most of the companies look fairly irregular.

The minis were based on Renedra 40mm square plastic bases which had previously had magnetic sheeting stuck to the bottom.  Heroes have 20mm square bases.  The bases were then textured with a mix of fine (Chinchilla) sand, burnt umber craft paint and PVA glue.  This was carefully applied with a dental tool, then smooshed into place with a damp brush. A few stones were added for rocks. I normally drybrush with lighter browns and bonewhite, but the mix, when dry, showed the light colour of the sand as highlights so that wasn't necessary.  I don't really know how I managed this, I hope I can replicate it in the future.  Once dry I glued fine static grass in place with PVA craft glue, then neatened up the edges with burnt umber paint.  I may add some tufts in the future if I can find some that don't look ridiculously large, and maybe some clump foliage too.  

The Witchking hasn't had his base finished because I want to add some ruins to it.  I'll see what I can craft.

I certainly think that my painting method works well on these tiny minis.  Only the Nazgul were painted in a more traditional method of increasing highlights.  Black is a hard colour to get looking right on minis, but I think these came out OK.

I'm really looking forward to trying the game.  Bodvoc has had a game or two already, and thinks it will work well for Lord of the Rings style games.  I'll also look at expanding my forces.  More orcs certainly but possibly also some Haradrim and/or Easterners.  I already have a few companies of Minas Tirith troops, since its good to  collect two armies I'd better do some more of them too.