"Nine He Gave To Mortal Men..."

"...Proud and great, and so ensnared them."

These four 28mm scale "white metal figures" of Lord Rascal's Ghostly Wraiths are produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range. Sculpted by Steve Saleh, I have painted them to represent the "dreaded ring-servants of the Dark Lord Sauron in Middle-earth" so as to field them as a 'Lord Of The Toons' Bellicose Foot unit (Reduced Model Unit) for “Dragon Rampant” by "Osprey Games".

Originally I had planned to simply paint these figures in exactly the same way as I've pigmented all my ghosts, using a white undercoat with plenty of green shading and simple white dry-brush. But having seen the 'official' paint-job on the now OOP Twilight Ringwraiths manufactured by "Games Workshop", I thought I'd try a distinctly bluer palette, so therefore primed the quartet with two layers of "Vallejo" Steel Grey.

'Lord of the Toons' - Faramir and Boromir face four of the Nazgul

The Fallen Kings were then 'muddied down' with a wash of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, before being dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Steel Grey, and an even lighter touch of Heavy Bluegrey. With the bulk of the spectres finished, I subsequently 'picked out' their grotty gloves with a combination of "Vallejo" White and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and their eyes with a dab of  "Citadel" Abaddon Black.

I also layered their teeth with a dash of "Vallejo" White, and decided to imply a haunting look in their somewhat softly-detailed faces by adding a splash of "Citadel" Druchii Violet just beneath their eyes. This colour sort of replicated the facial make-up I spotted the actors wearing when they appeared in Peter Jackson's 2001 epic fantasy adventure film "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring".

"Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures" WIPs - The Bone Golem has been primed, shaded and dry-brushed

Despite still having another four of Lord Rascal's Ghostly Wraiths left to finish, I've momentarily turned my attention towards a considerably larger-sized figure from “Wizkids” impressive Nolzur’s Marvellous Miniatures range. This Bone Golem is absolutely packed with detail with all its skulls, ribs, leg bones and grisly cartilage, but should look pretty impressive on the tabletop once I've found the time to pigment all its fleshy areas.

In addition, this latest "Dungeons & Dragons" model has encouraged me to dust down the five adventurers I planed to use for an "Expedition To The Barrier Peaks" campaign a few years ago. Consisting of such notable treasure-seekers as a Gnome Infiltrator (with repeating crossbow), a Half-Elf Sorcerer, and a Lizardman Warrior, these 'Out Of Production' miniatures were all made by "Wizards Of The Coast", and predominantly came from the company's discontinued "Chainmail" range...