Painting the Ruins of Middle Earth

Keen eyed viewers may have noticed me using my battered and unpainted Ruins of Middle Earth in the last Battle Companies game. I've always liked this set, but it seems to be no longer available now that there's a new set of modular Osgiliath terrain. I've never got round to painting it though, but the proliferation of YouTube videos about the new stuff inspired me.

Preparation and Basecoat

I managed to find all the missing components and assembled everything. Then I took advantage of fine weather to get my airbrush out and got on with the undercoat and base coat.

I primed using a 1:2:3 mix of thinner, black primer and white primer. This gave a good dark grey not unlike the bare plastic, but it covers up the white filler I used years ago and gives a great surface.

I then used white primer, but I sprayed from above so there would still be some dark shadows.

The Gatehouse after the white primer

Wash and Highlight

I felt it still needed more definition, so I experimented on the small stairs section with a wash of (roughly) 50:50 black and sepia wash, with a good amount of water added.

After the wash (a bit yellowed due to lighting conditions)

This looks good, and would make a decent light sandstone colour, but I wanted to go for that true White City look, so I gave it a good drybrushing with pure white.

After Drybrushing

This is better, just the colour I want.  Now it just remains to add some algae staining and mud splashes to give it that 'lived in' look.

For the Arcade ruin I painted the wooden floor with Vallejo Leather Brown, washed with Army Painter Dark Tone and drybrushed with VGC Khaki, then Stonewall Grey.

Finishing Details

The algae is watered down Vallejo Game Ink Black Green, applied where water might collect and algae would grow.  I used thinned Sepia Wash for the mud along the base, but this was a bit faint, so I drybrushed Vallejo Game Color Earth over this.

The Steps

The Gatehouse

The Arcade

All three ruins

I'm really pleased with these.  I've got close to what I think of as the 'Classic Gondor' look, as seen in a certain film trilogy, and they give an unmistakable 'Middle Earth' look to a battlefield.  They will be very useful for our Battle companies campaign, and are designed to provide cover and height on the battlefield.  They'll also make a good backdrop for photos of the Battle Companies.

I have another two sets squirreled away, and I have thoughts as to how to alter one set to make some different buildings.  More on that some time in the future.