A new power is rising. It’s victory is at hand. Or not. Because I doubt I’ll have them armed and ready within two weeks. Even so, I was able to paint these Uruk-Hai pretty fast.
It wont surprise you that I’ve started painting Lord of the Rings/Hobbit miniatures if you read my tutorial on how to strip paint from miniatures, using some LOTR minis for it. At the beginning of this year I did a little bit of cleaning, and took the chance to organize my old cabinet and make some space for the new minis I was painting. I had a lot of plastic LOTR minis from the Fellowship and Two Towers starters sets (and a few metal ones too) that I was never going to paint. So I moved them out.
I thought that was it. But it somehow rekindled the spark, the Hobbit and the Lord or the Rings books are one of the main reasons for my love for fantasy, after all. And now 5 of the Uruk-Hai have found their way back to the cabinet, this time painted, with more are on its way.
That being said, I have no idea what I need to play the game. Are the rules from the Hobbit starter set enough? Does the hardback Hobbit rulebook include the LOTR army lists? If anyone could help me, I’d appreciate it. I want to start building an Isengard list. And then some Osgiliath Defenders led by Boromir. Shut up! Boromir is awesome and I don’t care if archers are too good in this game.
These five Uruk-Hai have two main colours. The metal armor and weapons and the red-brown skin. As painting metallics can be a bit tiresome, I decided to start with them by airbrushing. Fast and easy! As everything that wasn’t supposed to be metallic was either the sking or most likely some kind of leather I painted it all with Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Red. As the name suggests, it’s a paint with a really good covering and in a couple of layers I had it done. As a bonus, the Heavy Red was a really good starting point for the Uruk-Hai skin. Win-win!
As for the bases, I used my usual mix of Vallejo Textures, adding a few bigger rocks for extra texture. Usually I use the Texture paints to blend some green stuff scenic element or to hide seams but this time I had none of that and was able to put a thinner coat of the Texture paints, which gave a really fine coarseness.
After 13 years as sad grey plastic it was time for these Uruk-Hai to get some love, and I think they did. I really did enjoy painting them, and I already have another group of five cleaned as a little treat for when I finish some more of my half painted minis.