The Nazgûl: The Tainted. (Jewel of July ’18)

by

28

Citadel Miniatures Nazgûl, Nazgul, Ringwraith, The Tainted

Where the other Nazgûl were slowly swallowed by the taint of their rings, the Tainted gave himself wholly and willingly to Sauron. Now all natural things rebel in his presence, vegetation withers, animals sicken and bold warriors cower. He is an abomination whose merest presence is poison to life, honour and hope.

The Tainted is a “Named” Nazgûl, created by Games Workshop in the period following the marketing period for Return of the King. With The Witch King and Khamûl the Easterling being named in the books (however brief for Khamûl), they saw an opportunity to expand the lore in the same way that videogames and other properties tend to do with licenced IP.

The Tainted appears to have been inspired (at least in part) by the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where a Nazgûl (The Witch-King, I believe) bends down and “sniffs” for The Ring and the Hobbits, and insects and creatures seem to retreat from it (across the hobbits, natch).

Citadel Miniatures Nazgûl, Nazgul, Ringwraith, The Tainted

I tried to represent its written background by brushing the tufts away from the Nazgûl in both it’s incarnations, and also brushed them with a dark grey and brown, to represent the corruption of this particular Ringwraith blackening the grasses merely by being in its direct presence. I also avoided the dirty and dusty effect that I’ve given the “regular” versions of The Nine, because I wanted the sickly effect on the robes to stand out. I’ve already got 2×9 “realistic” Ringwraiths, after all.

I haven’t looked at the rules for it in many years, and while it’s very unlikely that it will feature in the Fellowship campaign that we’re going to play through, I’m sure it can find a place on the tabletop down the line. In the meantime, it’s a nice enough completed model for display. And let’s face it, that’s the fate of a LOT of my models…

28 thoughts on “The Nazgûl: The Tainted. (Jewel of July ’18)”

  7. Nice highlighting, I was going to immediately ask “what blue did you use?”, but then I read that it was a camera effect. It looks amazing contrasted with the black, and I’m sure the more greenish color looks impressive in person too.

    I also really like the hunched over pose of the model on the horse. That was a powerful scene in the movie, so I can see why they would want to capitalize on it. Making me wish the little was old enough right now, and I would pop the movie in. Instead she’s playing ‘feeding Daddy coffee’ while he is trying to laptop…so gotta go…!

    Great work, truly another jewel!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Yeah, it’s very close. You could get the blue that the photos show by using Periscopes as the base, then (I reckon) Citadel’s Baharroth Blue and then finally a touch of white. It’s not a major shift as the actual colour is *just* on the green side of the blue-green spectrum where the teals and turquoises live as the photo version is *just* on the blue side..
      I agree that this is easily one of the better models amongst the “bonus Ringwraiths”. Luckily there are only a couple of truly dodgy ones amongst them!
      Good luck with buying a new laptop as well! 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Not familiar with either of those paints, but that’s nothing new. Slowly I’ll hopefully be able to identify most of the Citadel line. Thanks for the tips!

        Yea, WordPress Reader on my iPhone is my go to normally. Go figure. Unfortunately I can’t view most people’s pics, so I have to wait for laptop time to reply on any new posts.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Whoops! Periscopes is a Vellejo Model Colour Panzer Aces paint. Odd with the iPhone app – I use the WordPress app on my android phone sometimes, and have no problem viewing pics, though I don’t do anything but view, like and the odd comment with it.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Ah, Panzer Aces, that’s why I hadn’t come across it before. I don’t have many paints from that line.

        Yea, not sure why some sites I can see the images and some I don’t. I just browsed though a bunch, yours appeared fine. But I would swear there were times I couldn’t see images on yours. I couldn’t see the images on Convert or Die, and another one, which was blogspot. Maybe image size has something to do with it?

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Pingback: Sauron the Necromancer of Dol Guldur (Jewel of July ’18) | Azazel's Bitz Box.

  10. Pingback: The Jewel of July – Personal Round-Up & July 2018 Painting Round-Up | Azazel's Bitz Box.

  11. Pingback: The Mouth of Sauron (Foot & Mounted) – Technical August | Azazel's Bitz Box.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.