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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-dûm

-  Flight From Moria

Watcher in the Water

A great article in White Dwarf magazine has an unusual scenario about the Watcher in the Water as well as suggestions on how to make the Watcher and the accompanying terrain.

The Watcher consists of a body and 8 separate tentacles. If a tentacle is hit, then it is removed but a new one emerges from near the body. The tentacles do not damage opponents. Instead the tentacles attempt to grab an opponent and drag them to the Watcher's mouth (usually pretty fatal if that happens). The rules make for a finely balanced game.

In the many games of this scenario I have hosted, the Fellowship usually gets away (although once they did all get eaten). However, it is common for them to lose one or two of their number and use up a lot of Might points. This makes life very difficult if playing linked scenarios through Moria.

Making the Watcher

The tentacles were made first. They have a core of 3 strands of florists wire twisted together and then bent to define the shape. The three strands are bent at the base to form a tripod so that the tentacles are self standing.

The wire at the tip of the tentacles was formed into a small opening that could take the leg of a captured opponent. For the tentacle to maintain balance when a figure is hanging from it, you need to bend the tentacle so that the centre of gravity of the hanging figure is directly above the middle of the base. The best way to do this and still look natural is to curve the lower part of the tentacle forward just slightly then curve the centre back a long way and then curve the top section forward to bring the "pincers" back over the centre of the base (see the pictures on this page).

The wire is then covered in Fimo or Sculpy (or equivalent) which acts like plasticine but you bake in the oven at a low temperature for 20 minutes to harden. Use a knife or toothpick to sculpt the detail before it goes in the oven.

Glue the bases on after "cooking" as the bases would melt in the oven. I used Araldite (2 part epoxy). This is better suited to this application than superglue.  than 

Alternatively instead of Fimo or Sculpy you could use Games Workshop's "green stuff" or Selleys "Knead IT". These are a two part epoxy which is like a stiff plasticine. You knead the two parts together. I recommend you use disposable gloves when using this. Advantage is that you don't need an oven. Disadvantage is that they are more expensive and they set extremely quickly so do not try and do too much at once.

The Watcher was shaped by hand above some crumpled aluminium foil. The foil just provides a base shape so that you do not have to use too much Fimo or Sculpy. Teeth were made from two strips of plastic card cut a bit like a comb and then pushed into the Fimo or Sculpy before "cooking".