The Nine: 1980's Citadel LOTR ME 64 Black Riders - Ringwraiths.

 

"The Nine are abroad again. They have crossed the river secretly and are moving westward. They have taken the guise of riders in black"
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, page 274.

One of the things I have been doing recently is sorting through and re-basing my old 1980's Citadel Middle Earth (ME) range of miniatures, released from 1985 until 1987. I have been sorting these into armies based on the multi-figure  based Midgard system, and into 400 point armies. I like the Midgard basing as it doesn't require hundreds of miniatures for armies. One of the things which put me off collecting many of the old ME range was the Warhammer need for lots of regiments of 10, 20, or more miniatures, which would have been too time consuming, not to mentions expensive. 

Now Citadels old ME range was, in my opinion, very characterful, fun, and not too realistic in the sculpting, being more of a comic book/artistic approach. I shall do a blog update on the range at a later date, but for now I will concentrate on the Black Riders. 

The below miniatures, with the exception of the Witch King, are the two variants of the ME 64 Black Riders - Ringwraiths, blister pack. Both packs (and the Witch King) consisted of one mounted, and one dismounted miniature. Whilst the dismounted miniature was the same in both ME 64 packs, the first released mounted miniature was wielding a dagger and riding a solid based horse (1985), whilst the later one was on a slotta based horse with a different rider and armed with a sword (October 1986). I have mixed both types in here.

The Witch King I have based separately. There was only one sculpt of him, again a blister pack of a mounted and dismounted miniature. He was coded ME63 Lord of the Nazgul.

There's not really much you can do with these miniatures if you intend to paint them up as Black Riders, as the black cloaks are largely all of the miniature, and they are described as being mounted on black horses. I did however try out something. I gave all of them a very light white highlight, and then a wash with red ink to give a slightly faint, perhaps Mordor induced, red glow. They were fun to paint, unsurprisingly quick, and I enjoyed basing them with a verdant base to emphases the dark blackness of the riders themselves. 

Enjoy:) 

The Nine. 

Moving in column. 

ME63 Lord of the Nazgul.

The first base of Nazgul. 
The two on the edges are the first release, the two in the centre are the second release. 

Side view.

The second base. 

Side view. 

The next blog update might be some Ents. 

Citadel C20 Trolls.

I have been 'sneaky painting'. 
Whilst I have been very busy with things outside the world of miniatures (and Christmas as well!), I have mainly been re-basing lots of Oldhammer era stuff in my remaining spare time. However I have felt I really wanted to paint something, and so have been sneaking some time to paint some relatively straightforward models when time allowed.  Hence 'sneaky painting'! 

I have chosen, amongst other things, Citadels pre-slotta C20 Trolls, from about 1984. Of course, they are full of quirky detail and character, and were fun to paint. I wanted to give the impression that they were Stone Trolls, and they they were almost born from the rocks around them or at least had an affinity to them, in a similar way to Tolkien's Trolls being created from stone. I did this by painting them the same colours as the rocks on their (40mm square) bases.

Enjoy :) 

C20 Trolls. 

The C20 Stone Troll coming down from the mountains, looking for trouble. 
Yes, I should really have ironed out the backdrop! 

Hobol Firebreath. 
Armed with a big stone hammer, and big stone nose. 

Rear view, although it's unwise to get downwind of any of these Trolls! 

Grog Stuntychrusher. 
Armed with a boulder, quite suitable for a Stone Troll

Side view showing his lolling tongue. 

Davogrod Gutsucker.
Armed with a knuckle duster, and really big nose!

Rear view.

Shakined Bone Bender. 
Shhh, don't say it too loudly, he can hear you from a mile away, but he's armed with enormous ears, and a bone! 

Rear view. 

Skuttlescree Soresmear. 
Armed with both a stone club and a big nose.

 He appears to have somebodies skull in his left hand as well! 

Rear view showing a captive pig. 

Rattlebones Bowlegs. 
He's not really armed with anything other than the usual Troll attributes of brutal strength, strong stomach acid, and a lack of personal hygiene. 

Rear view. He's captured some birds along the way. 

Next update date maybe some C48 Gargoyles which I have been painting. 

Essex Miniatures Giant by Bob Olley.

 I have been very busy basing my Regiments of Renown Miniatures, as well as random 1980s stuff. However I've not quite finished them in time for a blog update (I have also been very busy with other non-hobby things). Anyway, as I haven't painted anything in a few weeks I thought I would share something which I painted a few weeks ago, but never got around to blogging about it. 

I quite like Bob Olley's sculpting. As I have mentioned before this was not always the case, but I appreciate their depth of detail and quirkiness more now. Of course I like his Iron Claw range Goblins the most, but there are some other of his sculpts I like as well. Essex Miniatures have many of his 1980s (pre-GW) ranges. On the Essex Miniatures site they can be found in the 28mm Fantasy section with the code prefix 'Q'. 

The miniature of his I painted recently is the Q83 Giant: in Fur Cloak, Mail and some Plate armour, with Axe & Spear. He is a great chunk of metal, 55mm tall. Like all of Bob Olley's sculpts he is wonderfully detailed. The spear does look like a spade, but it kind of works. Personally, I think it's lovely sculpt, and makes a great Giant and centrepiece for my Iron Claw Goblin army. He reminds me of the Ogre in the film 'Time Bandits', played by the late Peter Vaughan. 

The Ogre can be found here on the Essex Miniatures website:  https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/products/q83 

Enjoy :)

Front view. 
He is based on a 50mm round base. It's nice to see a giant miniature which isn't too gangly, and has some armour. I do like the head on the fur cloak over his left shoulder. 

Rear view.

Next update should be some Regiments of Renown, although I would like to paint something, so I'll see what happens over the next few weeks. 

Basing Goblins (and friends, and enemies).

 I haven't managed to do any painting for a while, but I have been focusing on basing, re-basing, and organising my collection. I have got to a point where I want to reorganise my collection, take stock of what I have, and aim to focus complete anything I require. 

All this is no mean feat as I do own quite a lot of miniatures, several thousand probably. It will involve a lot of basing, paint stripping, painting. Over the last few months, with the exception of a distracted foray into Rogue Trader Eldar, I have been basing a lot of my old Fantasy Tribes miniatures onto multi bases for the Midgard rules set, something I have yet to blog about.

Now as that nears it's completion it had got me thinking about how to organise my collection as a whole and I came up with the the following ideas that I would use organise everything. My Fantasy Tribes Great Goblins/Gnolls and Dwarfs, and some pre slotta miniatures would be organised for Midgard. My 3rd Edition Fantasy miniatures would be organised into armies consistent with the Warhammer Armies book. My 1980's Regiments of Renown shall be an independent project, with Regiments of 20, and the miniatures based individually. I have quite a lot of Chaos stuff as well, and they shall be organised via the Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned books Daemon Army lists. In addition, I have a collection of non Chaos Daemons with which I shall construct an independent Daemon army (mainly Great Daemons and Gargoyles).  I will still have a Chaos Army constructed via Warhammer Armies book Chaos Army, and my pre slotta Chaos army via Midgard as well.  

Other than the main focus of 1980's Warhammer Fantasy, I still have my 4th Edition Chaos Dwarfs to finish off, and the Tomb Kings Army to re base (and a Bone Dragon to construct and paint). Then there's the 40k collections, which I am less concerned about at the moment, although it would be nice to re-visit the Chaos Legions at some point. Finally, I would like to look at doing a few historical projects, something which I have always wanted to do, but have always put off by never finding a good set of rules or being daunted by just getting started with uniforms or organising. 

Anyway, back to 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy. Where to start? Well Goblins of course! Now lets get the basing thing out of the way first. With the recent release of Warhammer The Old World, the basing size of infantry has increased to 25mm. Even in the 1980's some people preferred 25mm round bases for miniatures, and this has carried on ever since. I have always disliked 20mm bases. Many of the miniatures never really fitting on them, and ranking up some ranges was a nightmare ( Marauder Dark Elves!!). Also, I felt that may 1980's  miniatures are lovely, but squashing them into regiments with tiny bases meant that you never got to appreciate them. So I am basing all the infantry on 25mm square bases. By doing so I have found that I am acquiring a new found love and appreciation of the miniatures, and having more fun basing. I shall be adding shields to many of the miniatures at a later date. 

Enjoy :) 

Goblins!
This is just the start. I have a lot of goblins and I am looking forward to returning to paint them. I have based them with rocks on the base to suggest the Worlds Edge Mountains. I always think of Goblins up in the mountains, annoying Dwarfs.  

From left to right,C12 goblin Biglub, Oggbod Dogbreath from the MD6 Goblin Battle Chariot releases, and C12 Blodgutt.

C12 Leg Ripper, Dofblot ( this is the name listed for a Goblin which looks like him, but I am not convinced the listing is the correct goblin), and Blimblam Blimblamblamblom (I kid you not!). 

An unlisted Goblin (he's not from the MD6 Goblin Battle Chariot releases) Splat, and Hagbagg. 

Goblin archers. 

Bugshot, Blart, and Keen Eye. 

Mastog Underarm, Arag, Anseg Shortbow.

Bartog the Naff, Deddwud Fargo from the Goblin Battle Chariots, and Jonsog Moonhat. 

Two goblin fanatics, Haggrub Grinswathe and Bograt the Loon. 
I have based these on round bases the same size as the Goblin Fanatic template. 

C12 Bagblower, the Snotling Wizard (to be used as a Level 5 goblin Wizard), and the C21 Goblin Wolf Riders wolf Fang.

Pre slotta C20 Trolls. 
Davogrod Gutsucker, Skuttlescree Soresmeer, Rattlebones Bowlegs, and Shakined Bone Bender. I have and half dozen of these in the paint stripper queue, including the Hobol Firebreath and Grog Stuntycrusher. 

A pair of C09 Dark Elves. 
Morathar Manbane, and Crossbow. 

Imperial Dwarf Crossbowmen. 

 Dwarfs. 

More Dwarfs. 

Even more Dwarfs. 

Two Dwarf Command, and a Norse Dwarf (I think!). 

A mix of C15 Orcs, Orc Champions, and Orc Command.  

Ratnose Snotgurgle, the Goblin Wizard from the Goblin Battle Chariots mail order flyer. I mail ordered him at the time (1988) and he has been a Level 25 Goblin Wizard all these years! 

C28 Giant: Bottle Snortle. 

C28 Giant: Nine Fingers.

Trolls.

On the left the later C20 Warrior Troll  from 1987.
On the right is the Talisman Troll. I tried to position him so it looks like he is stepping off of the rocks. 

Some of my Regiments of Renown. I have all of the 1980's Regiments of Renown, and am only missing three of the miniatures, and in need of a few more troopers here and there, from the whole range. 

RR18 Eeza Ugezod's Mother Crushers. 

 RR4  Mengil Manhide's Dark Elves (version 2). 

RR6 Mad Mullah Aklan'd's Death Commandos. 

RR2 The Knights of Origo.
The musicians sword broke and so I replaced it with a thin piece plasti-card and drilled and pinned it in place of the original blade. 

RR17 Knights of the Cleansing Flame. 
The trooper miniatures are a pain as I have found that the spears can be very brittle if bent. I'm pleased to have an unbroken Standard Bearer, with the brazier top still attached though.

A few of my Slaves to Darkness Khornate Daemon Legion.
 There are a lot more in the paint stripper. I also have been basing my Slaaneshi, Nurgle, and Tzeentch Daemon Legions. 

All of my Chaos armies are based with spikes in the bases, made using cocktail sticks. The idea is that it is an extra spiky part of the Chaos Wastes or Daemonic Plains. Below (two down) is how the bases will look once painted. 

A (famous!?) Bloodletter  conversion. 

Chaos Familiar with the Chaos spiky base. This little chap is part of my 3rd Chaos Dwarf army, but more on that in another update. 

Next update will probably be more basing. I am very busy with a lot of non hobby stuff at the moment, and so basing and organising is an easy, relaxing thing to do. I've been spending a fortune on Milliput though!