I recently finished the last book of 'The Lord of the Rings' and so am quite jazzed with all things Middle-Earth. So, for the Gallery of Ancestors I did up a venerable Cave Troll and his beefier, younger cousin from Mordor.
This fella GW produced upon the release of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' back in 2001. Yep, twenty years ago folks, can you freakin' believe it?!
This guy's old, grumpy and all metal. Bless 'im.
He's a repaint from a 'move failure' I had when we relocated across country. He originally has just the hammer and chain, but I've given him a nasty long hafted glaive to make him extra fearsome. While I wax nostalgic about him, he was a bit of a b@astard to put together, with more than a few pins and some green stuff required to make him presentable. Still, I quite like him.
Next is his even larger cousin, an armoured Mordor troll from the 'Battle of Pelennor Fields' boxed set. He comes as a fairly simple plastic kit. While I'm usually not a big fan of plastic models, seemingly always shaving down seam lines or filling gaps, I have to say that this guy is quite well engineered, with lots of nifty build options.
Everyone seems to do up this brute with the huge war hammer, so, ever the contrarian, I went with the big honkin' spear instead. I kinda like this pose. I think he has a bit of a Greek hoplite look to him (if a hoplite were to weigh 800 pounds, have three fingers, and carry a Buick's worth of sheet metal on him).
'This. Is. Mordor!!'
Sure, this guy's cool and all, but I don't think he's as interesting as the older, metal version. The venerable cave troll has more surface texture, and his 'I'm going to clobber ya' pose seems far more dynamic to me. That being said, the two of them provide a neat contrast in design and production over the past two decades.
Next: Hmm, I think I need a teleport to The Tomb. Time to rustle up another female figure for the Sorceress.
- Curt
