From FrederickC - Some Lord of the Rings Bits and Bobs (107 points)

 No big points bomb this week as I have been down with a cold for a few days. I decided to work on clearing away a lot of loose ends to make room on my desk for some large projects that are coming down the pipe. What we have today is a mix of Uruk-hai Berserkers, Mordor Uruk-hai, some Dwarf Heroes, a trio of Trolls, and a collection of Mines of Moria terrain and dead.

The three Uruk-hai Berserkers are metal figures from Games Workshop that were mixed in with the secondhand Uruk-hai Scout that I was given. The paint job left much to be desired, so they got stripped back down to raw metal and then were primed black with a rattle can. Vallejo acrylics were used for most of the colors - Cavalry Brown for the skin areas, Leather Brown for the loincloth, sandals, and gloves, and Gun Metal for the helmet and sword. They were then given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade.

 The three Mordor Uruk-hai were from another blister of metal figures from Games Workshop that I picked up years ago, and they have been sitting in the pending box ever since they got mounted on their bases and primed black. Again, I used primarily Vallejo acrylics, but also some craft store acrylics that I still have in my paint box. I used a colour called Hippo Grey for the skin areas, and Charcoal for the cloaks. The leather pieces got painted a mix of Leather Brown, Chocolate Brown, and Flat Earth, while helmets, greaves, gauntlets, and weapons were painted with Gun Metal. Finally I gave them a coat of Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

 

 Next up are four Dwarven Heroes consisting of a Shieldbearer, a King's Champion, and two Heralds.These are resin figures from Games Workshop that were available at one time as metal miniatures. Like the Dwarves I painted for last week's submission, these were mounted on their bases, some sand glued down to the base with PVA glue, and then primed black with an airbrush. I used mostly Vallejo acrylics, but also some Partha paints for the True Blue and Bronze Metallic.

King's Champion flanked by two Heralds

A side view to show off the banner designs

A Shieldbearer is a Minor Hero bodyguard

A view from another angle to show off the shield design

 The three trolls are a mix of two Games Workshop Cave Trolls, one in metal and the other in plastic, and a Reaper Miniatures Mountain Troll that I am going to use as a Mordor Troll. The metal Cave Troll I purchased years ago, and like the Mordor Uruk-hai, it was prepped and then gathered dust. The plastic Cave Troll is the one that comes with the Mines of Moria starter box. Somebody bought it, but was only interested in the Moria Goblins and the Fellowship figures, so I ended up with the Cave Troll and the terrain. The Reaper Mountain Troll is a massive metal figure that has since been replaced with a plastic version of the sculpt. Again, Vallejo acrylics were used, followed by a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade. I had used Medium Flesh on the Mountain Troll as a base colour, and with the Earthshade wash, it came out looking a bit more orange than I expected, but it still looks pretty menacing. These all stand 55-60mm tall.

Reaper Mountain Troll, plastic Cave Troll, and metal Cave Troll

 

The backside of the trio of trolls

 Lastly I have two sets of terrain pieces from the Mines of Moria starter box. I got one set from someone who only wanted the Fellowship figures and the Moria Goblins, and the other from someone who just wanted all the figures, including the Cave Troll. So I ended up being given a total of 8 pillars, 4 trapdoors, 2 chests, 2 wells, 2 sarcophagi, and 6 assorted skeleton/skull pieces. These were all primed black using a rattle can, and then dry brushed with progressively lighter shades of grey. I used Iraqi Sand on the skeletons and skulls, Stone Grey on all the pages, Chocolate Brown on the chests and book covers, with Bronze Metallic and Gun Metal painted on various other bits. I then used a fine tipped Sharpie to put lines of dots and dashes on the pages to look like writing. Finally everything got a wash with Citadel Agrax Earthshade. I am not quite sure how this should all be scored, either just based on volume, or counting the 6 supine skeletons and two seated dead as half figures. The points claimed are for the mix of the two methods, but I will accept whatever adjustment Minion Miles makes.

Two sets of Mines of Moria terrain

 

An elevated view

A closeup showing the dead and skeletons and the detail on the pages

The points being claimed are as follows:

10 x 28mm figures @ 5 points = 50 points

8 x 28mm half figures @ 2.5 points = 20 points

3 x 54mm figures @ 10 points = 30 points

0.35 of a terrain cube @ 20 points = 7 points

 

Minion Miles: WOW these are great - especially the banners - top notch stuff.

From FrederickC - Uruk-hai Scouts and Leaders (250 points)

As my second submission for the Challenge, I present 48 Uruk-hai scouts and 2 commanders. This is the first project on my Lord of the Rings "To Do" list, and it adds to the large Uruk-hai force that I completed in March 2021. It consists of two boxes of 24 plastic Uruk-hai Scouts and two different metal versions of Lurtz, all from Games Workshop. One of the boxes I had purchased new, while the other was a secondhand set that I was given. The gifted set needed a fair bit of cleaning, like removing the old paint that was "heavy on silver", trimming some of the rough areas where the figures had been attached to the sprues, and a bit of repair on some of the swords. One sword was missing completely, so I replaced it with some hammered florist wire. The Lurtz figure firing his bow came with the gifted box, and the other was an eBay purchase which came with the upper part of the bow missing. This was repaired with a bit of hammered copper wire.

Once everything was cleaned up and repaired, some small pebbles were glued to a few of the bases to get some variety, followed by some sand. All the miniatures were then primed black using a rattle can, and painted with acrylics, primarily Vallejo. I used three different browns, two different shades of grey, as well as gunmetal. As a final step I applied a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. While it leaves the miniatures rather glossy, it made all the browns seems richer, and made the swords and armour look appropriately grotty.

Uruk-hai scouts out scouting for Hobbits

 

Close-up of the left group

Close-up of the right group

"Find the Halflings!"

The points being claimed are as follows:

50 x 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 250 points.

 Next stop - Amon Hen.

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A very nice point bomb, Frederick! These refurbished fighting Uruk-hai scouts look excellent. With this 50 you're getting close to half the number that attacked the Fellowship at Amon Hen! 

Great work!

- Curt

From StefanK: Finally Curtgeld... and Thalia (55 Points)

Traditionally my final post of the challenge contains the Curtgeld. So here we go:

Here we have three figures the first of which is Thalia. She is a Zombicide: Black Plague survivor and I guess that any resemblance with Red Sonja is purely occasional:

Anyway I acquired this special kickstarter exclusive figure a while ago with the idea in mind to build a barbarian themed survivor party. Unfortunately we haven't played too much Black Plague since but Thalia remained a figure I wanted to paint anyway.

After our ACW project was done (for the moment...) I thought she might fit into this challenge to give Lady Sarah another female figure to choose from.

As usual for CMon figures Thalia was of great detail and good casting quality. That board game plastic isn't easy to clean but fortunately the figure didn't have too much flashing. As usual I used a choice of Wargames Foundry and Vallejo paints.

On the first picture Thalia is accompanied by the to Uruks I want to give Curt as his well deserved entry fee:

They are from the oldish Games Workshop game but nevertheless nice and characterful figures that show some evil warriors on their way to Amon Hen to hunt down the Fellowship of the Ring.

Since I sold all my LotR figures years ago I asked a friend to have a look at his spares and luckily he discovered these two fellows and supplied them gladly.

Again I used mostly Vallejo paints to bring them to live and I hope you - especially Curt - like my humble work. It was pretty fiddly to work out the skin colour for those Isengard breeds but finally I decided to use a scheme I employed for African skin a while ago.

Finally I based them on 30mm bases and applied a badge displaying the donor and the occasion those figures were given.

Well, that's it then. More or less. My final words shall not be about figures and painting. In fact I want to address our busy and tireless host and his loyal minions:

Many thanks to all of you for making this challenge possible again!

It was a great pleasure to follow all the fine entries and it was an honour to be a humble part of it!

Now spring is coming and summer will follow. But in autumn at the latest I'll keep my eyes open for the roll call for the Xth painting challenge which I'm yearning for already.

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Absolutely brilliant work Stefan. The Not-Red Sonja is terrific and I'm sure she is a brutal character to run in 'Black Plague' (a great game btw - one we actually liked more than Zombiecide). As to the Curtgeld, I can only give my deepest thanks - these two Uruks are wonderful and will have a place of honour amongst the growing warband. Of course the painting is up to your regular high standards, but I also want to give you the big thumbs-up on the bespoke labels - now, that's class! :)

Thanks again Stefan!

- Curt

From MattK: Uruk-Hai Scouts and more Goblins (125 points)

Ironically, the above Uruks were painted to squeeze in a third picture for this week but I'm super happy with how they turned out. I'm sure someday I'll grow tired of painting these models but so far 25 models in I'm still enjoying every part of the process. They're a little basic but they come together so nicely in my opinion.

The next picture requires a bit of an explanation. In addition to the Gloomspite army I'm working on, a friend and I ran a game at a local show (Flintcon) with some of the models. We decided to do a bit Goblin Squig Hunt game. Each player got a team of goblins (one netter, one herder and one "bait")

So to go with the models I already had I needed to actually paint some foot goblins. So presented below are 16 goblins with various kit.

Finally to go with these (and the several squigs from a few weeks ago) I painted five more metal squigs for the game and my collection. I think I may have finally hit the end of my pile of metal squigs and I think I'm down to just one box of the new plastic ones.

So all told 25 more 28mm infantry comes out to 125 points

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Uruk-hai form columns, yes? So, clearly French!

Well done, otherwise! 125 points!

Edit: I have thoroughly enjoyed spending the Friday guest minion budget on the finest food and alcohol San Francisco can offer. Now that I have returned to Friday Follies HQ, I have updated your points total accordingly.

From MattK: More Uruk-Hai (75.5 points)

For this week I painted more Uruk-Hai and I finally Finished my Colossal Squig.
First for the Isengard force is a banner bearer.

This is one of the metal figures I grabbed in the used bin at a local shop. I'm really happy with how the hand turned out though if I do another banner later in the army, I think I'll try to make it a bit bigger.
Next is a block of 10 pikemen

These are the other half of the plastic box from a few weeks ago. I was less excited painting these but boy do they paint quick.
Finally, here's the centerpiece for my squig army for Age of Sigmar; The Colossal Squig

This guy is HUGE. the base its on is a 120mm oval. The stalagmite are 3d printed from a file I found on thingiverse.
The 11 Uruks net me 55 points but I'm totally at a loss on this beast.

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That is an interesting take on the white hand of Sauruman. More of a wide fingered palm than the usual fingers together you see. Very well done. +10% for the outstretched fingers of Isengard, may they never be pruned.

The squig is ridic! How a gobbo is able to keep that thing in line, I'll never know. Based on the base, it looks to be two 54mm figures tall, so I rated it 20 points. So a well-earned 75.5!

And that looks to wrap up tonight, folks.

From MattK: Squigs and Uruk-Hai (210 points)

This weeks entry marks the real start of my Goblin army as well as a start into my long overdue lord of the rings project

First up I have 10 of the new Squig Hopper Cavalry guys. These were fun to crank out and I got them done on Monday.

 To go with these I finally repainted the old metal squigs and herders I got in a trade from a buddy of mine, back when AOS 2nd edition came out

And to round out these photos heres a shot of all the goblins set up so far in the case at the shop. Along with a neat little flyer I made to promote the shelf.

In addition to these goblins, I finally started my Lord of The Rings project. I'm starting the project out with Uruk-hai and here is 10 test models to get the color down before I open the rest.

By my math
10 28mm Cavalry x 10 = 100pts
22 28mm Infantrry x 5 = 110pts
Thanks

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“Qualifications?”

“Stampeding squigs.”

“That's not much of a crime.”

“Through the Vatican?”

“Kinkyyyy. Sign here for 210 points!"