Convoluted enough post title for you? It should actually be worse, since the character of Shagrat should really be called Gorbag if we were going by their actions in the books, and then they should both be Black Uruks of Mordor, and – you know what? Never mind all that for now. Let’s just talk about the toy soldiers instead.
So, Shagrat is the one with the heavy armour, shield and sword. He’s also the one pointing, with Frodo’s Mithril shirt. Waitwat? Well, when GW initially released Gorbag and Shagrat (that sounds so dodgy, doesn’t it?) they were doing figures based very much off the films, and so Shagrat got the coat and a pointing pose – probably telling his underlings to kill Gorbag, come to think of it. Later on, when GW changed their focus from being more about the films to being more about selling wargames figures for wargaming, they decided that Shagrat didn’t look war-ish enough, and kitted him out with what they decided was Black Uruk Captain’s gear. No idea why their painted version of him is blonde, though. That’s just weird.
The other model here is a regular Black Uruk, which I had too many dupes of and so converted into a banner bearer using one of the spare plastic banners from either the Chaos Beastmen or Marauders (I’ve got both in the same storage tub). The skulls are pretty oversized, but then I’d say they’re clearly not from humans, and must be from …Half-Trolls. Or something. Not human, though, right?
These three were painted pretty much alongside the rest of the Black Uruks for the most part, just separated out a little at the end and completed last so they could have their little extra bits picked out nicely enough. Two commanders and a banner is probably command overkill, and while I’d like to get that last figure from “Mordor Uruk-Hai 2” blister, I don’t know if I can face painting any more of these guys. Even though they’d be a good idea, thematically…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Oh, I like these three, the banner is really cool, and the Grobag/Shagrat pairing bring a lot of character to the unit. I love how the mithril shirt stands out so much – contrasts nicely with the dark armour of the Uruk-Hai. Lovely!
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Yeah, couldn’t have the mithril shirt looking like an old dirty bag. Having two different Shagrats gives me a lot more flexibility if/when I finally/eventually get to playing through the LotR scenarios from the Movie Campaign books.
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Excellent work, I like the shading and dirty bottoms of the models. The models are so full of action.
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Thanks mate. I try to go for more of a “realistic” look for my LotR figures than my Warhammer ones, to better reflect the grunginess of the films.
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It would take me a long time to finish those figures to that level. The background makes a great effect for the picture. Is there a place that you get those or did you print it out?
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Very nice indeed – I’m not a big fan of the LotR range but I’m enjoying these, your paintjobs definitely outshine the studio versions.
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You’re too kind there, mate. I’m happy enough with these just looking decent-to-good up close. Especially when that means they (usually) look even better from four feet away! 😉
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You are brave to be painting so many Uruk!
That banner came out looking great I didn’t realise the skulls until you pointed them out haha
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Thanks! I couldn’t get around the skull size when comparing the piece to the Uruk that was going to hold it, but at least being Middle-Earth I could justify it.
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Great stuff. Like others have said the banner is great.
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Thank you. The hardest part was highlighting the black cloth so it still looks decent. 🙂
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Love that banner bro. As you say the skulls are a bit big but if not human then they work 👍🏽👍🏽 I’ve got an army mixed with bretonnian minis and minis from LOTR and frostgrave and gripping beast so my reasoning for the size difference will be two races of “human” haha
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Yeah, though you can get away with quite a bit of variation even with one race – which many gamers seem to forget – look around next time you’re in a crowded street and check out how much the comparative height of adult males varies!
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Okay, you can ignore my comment on the previous models. I can clearly see the difference in skin and gear on these models. And just as I figured, they look amazing. Such nice work, really love what you did with the colors.
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Thanks. I went with a dark blue-grey for their skin, and a dark grey-grey for their gear. 🙂
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They look great, a very characterful unit, and really menacing. Now I am nearly at the point where I have to dig up my old Mordor Orcs. I don’t think I got very far painting them, maybe I’ll add them to the Oathmark Goblins so they could all serve double duty?
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Sounds like a plan – the Oathmark Goblins look like they’d make quite good Middle-Earth Orcs. I’d be keen to see them lined up next to each other for a size comparison, as I’ve got no idea on how large the Oathmark ones really are.
Their Dwarves seemed to be taller than GW ones, which is a shame since their proportions would otherwise work well for Middle-Earth Dwarves.
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Took a while to work out that banner was a conversion! Nice choice of pieces – the Warhammer banners tend to be too differently styled to the LotR range to fit in with conversions – but not this one.
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Hey can I ask which colors did you use ? They look amazing !!
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