LORD OF THE RINGS
MORDOR ORC WARBAND
This mordor orc warband was extemely fun to put together. I really enjoyed printing the bases on my 3D printer and adding all the rust. I especially like the gore on the orc captain (I may add more gore to them). These are for my personal collection and will be the first 250 points of a larger osgiliath themed army I am putting together. Almost all of these models are converted in some way and I used a pack of Oathmark goblins to add some variation to them so that they all had some individual personality.
Moria
Who doesn't love Moria? On these trolls I tried out some new techniques using layers of colored spray from black to white and then mottling with grey all the while using a piece of card and some white spray to create areas of highlight. The process worked very well as the model stands out as very naturalistic and real which is something these humanoid-looking monsters benefit from greatly.
Angmar
Orcs and wraiths, coming at ya from the dark lands. I really enjoy lord of the Rings, not only is it my favorite fantasy property in history but it is just so fun to paint. You have a strong inspiration pool to draw from and lots of example pictures to follow online, not even to mention the movies! I used the "paint it brown" method for these orcs from an old white dwarf article wherein the painter used a dark brown undercoat and worked up to different brown and grey tones from there for his orc collection, this creates a generally muddy and dirty color palette that works very well for orcs. For the ringwraiths i experimented with sickly green tones mixed into the black highlights and the results were very gratifying.
Warriors of the dead
The famous warriors of the dead. I painted these using washes and highlights. At the end of the process, I dry brushed them lightly with a sepia brown to give a slight color balance so that they seemed a bit dirty and less washed out. This was very effective.
Sauron
An older lord of the Rings commission but a fun one. Painting Sauron was the main joy here, growing up i could never afford a sauron model, so painting him was a pure excersise of excitment. I used layers of mixed metallic colours, washes, and white highlights to give his armor the ghostly finish it has as well as weathering powers. His eyes are basic but effective also. If I could paint this box set again I would add more weathering to the fallen human heroes.