Attack Troll

These attack trolls appear in the Return of the King film where Sauron's army is besieging  Minas Tirith.  The box set gives you a number of alternative versions to build which include 3 alternative weapons, a shield, 4 head/helmet options and the opportunity to build a drummer. 

I reckon that I might need three more sets, therefore. Having painted one the others should be quicker to do as there isn't all that experimenting to do as regards paint colours.

I went for the horned helmet version first as it is the one I remember from the film, bursting through the gates of Minas Tirith.  I thought I had finished the figure last week and put it up on my main blog but looking at it again it looked somehow wrong.  I realised that I had left the cheek guards off the helmet but that was remedied today and the figure is now finished.  

I sometimes find the colours that Games Workshop use on their LotR figures a bit odd compared with the colours in the films, which tend to be much more muted than they often depict them.  In this case I looked at the Weta Workshop site as they, naturally, produce the most accurate models of their creatures.

Weta Workshop bust

It was clear that this particular troll has a pinky grey-brown colour.  Fortunately, I had a pretty good match for this with Humbrol number 250, desert pink, which was actually designed for RAF planes in the first Gulf War!

Given it was a big figure (much larger than the cave troll I painted before) I used five colour shading rather than my usual three.  For the armour I used a base of Citadel Bolt Gun Metal, then a darker shade by mixing some Choas Black in.  I then highlighted using Chainmail and then Mithril Silver.  I then applied a coat of Badab Black wash to take off most of the shine before dry brushing some rust on using Humbrol 100.

Once I'd sorted out how to handle the flesh the rest was comparatively straightforward. I'm never 100% happy with my completed figures but this one went better than most.  It probably has armour which is still too bright but overall I am quite pleased with it.  Got me thinking about finishing some more Minas Tirith soldiers anyway.