Today we have another duo for the Jewel of July Challenge – indeed – another pair of Lord of the Rings models. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee – with the particular sculpts that GW released for the final part of their quest to cast the ring into the Fires of Mount Doom. I’m.. not entirely sure why I bought these two. I think they may have been secondhand, where I’ve been much more likely to pick up models that I wouldn’t get at retail. I mean, they’re nice enough sculpts. They’re just very, very limited in their use beyond display models, even if you’re playing a LotR narrative campaign (which we will be doing soon).
I painted the pair of them really grubby. Much more than GW’s example models, which are mucky yet a lot cleaner. Given Frodo’s pose here, we’re really talking about the point of the film where it reaches the climax of The Ring’s tale – the first of about five endings – and both hobbits are both filthy and sweaty and covered in muck on their clothes, faces and everywhere else by this point.
And so then, are these figures as well! In the photos they look a bit roughly washed, especially in some of the clothing folds – and they are, with washes, powders turned into muck, and more – though the satin spray I hit them with gives them a sweaty sheen – again, to represent their look when the ring is cast into the fires, and it does a lot to reduce the roughly-washed look. Also, the figures are bloody tiny!
Here’s a shot of them alongside the Ral Partha Giant Spider from the other day. It might have been a useful scale shot for the spider …except it’s with LotR range Hobbit figures.
Still, GW’s Shelob model isn’t a lot bigger, so perhaps this may end up being a proxy once we get to playing through TTT/RotK? It could pass for a Child of Ungoliant in my book!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Aw, poor little hobbitses… They look great mate!
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Thanks Alex! 🙂
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I think you’ve got the grubby look spot on! I’m glad I didn’t try and make my Paraguyan infantry grubby now, ’cause I’d never have got ’em to look this good!
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Well, these guys would be the equivalent to some hard fighting in poor weather. The good thing about mucking models up is that you can start conservatively and always add more as you go.
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I was also really impressed by the grimy look right from the start here. Very fitting for that point in the movie.
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Thank you, Alexis!
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They are small. Good job nice and grubby.
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Cheers mate. That they are!
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I get what you mean about the figures being limited but as I display and not play I like these two very much.
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Yep, they’ll look nice on the shelf. I’ll need to paint the Gollum to go alongside. Eventually.
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Oh, Gollum!
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Very nice, I mean very grubby, I mean very nice grubby halfling models!
I think the spider scale works quite well with these two. I think when the spider was made it was when Ral Partha figures’ scale was creeping from 25 to 28 mm -ish.
More jewels to be sure. 👍👍👍👍👍
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Thanks, Mark. That sounds right to me, that larger size seemed to be a part of their D&D line at the time. I’ve got (had?) a few others from that line and they seemed more in keeping with my Citadel figures than the other older, RP models on the shelves.
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Really nice. Those two definitely look like they have been through hell and back!
Love the Samwise model, but Frodo looks like he is doing an awkward fist bump. If I didn’t know better, I’d really be wondering what’s going on with him.
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Yeah, that ring is tiny and hasn’t come out amazingly in the photos. As opposed to “Frodo does the Black Power Salute.”
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Good work, you’ve really captured the griminess of the hobbits by this part of the journey.
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Thank you – they’re pretty much done by this point, so it only made sense to make them as grubby as they are in the film and not that half-grubby that the demo models show.
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Couldn’t help but have a giggle at the last photo – it looks a little like Frodo is threatening the spider which has put it’s hands up in alarm! Anyway, nice work on these, they look suitably grubby as you’d expect by that stage in the adventure. They’d been doing without handkerchiefs for quite a while by that point.
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Yeah, I thought they worked well together. If you imagine he’s holding the Phial of Galadrial it kinda works, too!
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