Milliput is my friend - GW Balrog work

Feed me hobbits!

This week went to town with the milliput on the GW LotR Balrog figure.  So much milliput.  Part of this was because the figure had been broken apart and bits had been snapped off, especially around the wings.  Part was because of the usual GW approach to cutting up figures for the molds.  No hidden joins under overhanging sculpted details to make things clean.  Nope, been spoilt there with new resin figures.  Just the good old 'slice off the pieces' and let the buyers fix up the joins.

Wings after glue

I pinned (using chopped up paper clips) and superglued (with Zap-a-gap) all the pieces together.  The arms were the easiest as they had sockets.  The wings originally did but the inserts had been snapped off and were still in the figure.   So drilling and pinning there.  The back flames had tabs so they didn't need pinning.  The head had nothing, just a smooth join so pinning was a must there.

Wings after putty work

...and some more putty

Original base glued inside the new resin base, pre milliput

For the base the figure came with a 60mm flat base, totally different from the usual GW lipped bases. So I went off to The Combat Company and got a 60mm resin base.  I glued in the plastic base inside to add some bulk and used more milliput to hid the edge gap.

Love this barn

I also put together the Renedra barn and have now glued this onto a piece of 3mm mdf.

Reaper Fire Giant

Finally I put together the Reaper Fire Giant.  Only one tiny seam line to fill in on this one :)

Gabions for 28mm figures

Gabions in action

The more Renedra plastic terrain I buy the more I want.  The set of 20 gabions (wicker/wattle baskets full of dirt) was another small set that I knew would make a nice addition to the terrain pile.  Each gabion is formed from two halves, with a flat disc to form the top.  I glued some sand/rock mix to the top disc to make it look like it was full of dirt.  Once glued and undercoated black I did my normal dry brush technique (much like what I had done on the wattle fences for the Saxon hut previously) on the sides and a lighter dirt dry brush on the top dirt pile.

Lots of rocks in there

To stop them rolling around the table I used some of the rectangular Renedra bases I have and glued a number in a row to make simple barriers.  I made a few 5 unit gabions, a few 3, etc.  Then the bases were flocked/static grassed and the edges painted green to fit into the rest of my terrain pieces.  A simple little job with a nice end result.