Lord Of The Rings Home Page

Making a Mumakil

Figure Gallery

Making Minas Tirith

-  Main Gate & Level 1

-  Levels 2 to 3

-  Levels 4 to 7

-  Central Rock

-  Details

-  More Details

Making the Mines of Moria

-  Watcher in the Water

-  Precipitous Paths

-  Balin's Tomb

-  Treacherous Stairs

-  Bridge of Khazad-dum

-  Flight From Moria

Balin's Tomb

After moving unseen through Moria for over two days, the Fellowship come upon the tomb of Balin and the site of the last recorded stand of the dwarves. By knocking an old suit of armour down a well, the echoing sounds quickly bring a horde of Goblins and a Cave Troll upon the Fellowship.

The scenario from the "Fellowship of the Ring" rulebook introduces the Cave Troll. It is a welcome stiffener to the weak Goblins.

Making Balin's Tomb

This was the simplest of the modules to make as the foam packing was already basically the correct shape. I just had to cut the entrance and exit out, roughen the vertical surfaces with a serrated knife and it was ready to paint.

Pillars

The pillars use a core of closed cell foam. The bases of the pillars are decorated with several layers of cut foamboard.

Watered down black acrylic paint goes into the holes of the foam easily, then the usual multiple shades of drybrushing finish them off nicely. There is a good article in White Dwarf magazine. The issue arrived just as I was thinking about ways of making the columns. I would have used foamboard for it all, but this was much a quicker method.

The Tomb

As time was running out before the Open Day, the Tomb was taken from the game Hero Quest. It was given some extra paintwork with shading and highlighting to remove the plastic look. The armoured man on the tomb doesn't quite look like a Dwarf, but it gives the right impression.

Making The Cave Troll

For large models, I solder the pieces together rather than use super glue. This must be done with great care so as not to melt the wrong bits. This happened to the trolls chain as can be seen from the picture at the left. While I was soldering the arm to the body and watching the tip of the soldering iron, the hot barrel of the soldering iron just touched the chain and melted the end section.

The details over the solder joins are then carved with a pointed hobby knife. Extra work, but this leaves no gaps and makes for a super strong model.