Lord of the Rings Return of the King: Strategy Battle Game – Scenery!

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Rarely has so grand a title announced something quite so unexciting? So anyway… remember this from 2003?

LotR RotK SBG Box. FFS!

Well, only 11 and some change years later after buying them, I’ve finally painted the scenery that came with it. I started one statue and rubble pile last year, then found the second status and rubble pile, sprayed them, then let them all sit in their own (rubble) pile on the painting desk until a couple of weeks ago, when (as you’d be used to by now) I pulled out my finger and finished the former and painted the latter.

Lord of the Rings SBG Scenery

Rubble from RotK. You might remember it from that one scene in the film.

Actually, I’m pretty happy with how well they came out in the end. Some static flock, some tufts and a bit of weathering powders have given them a look I’m quite happy with over the bog-standard drybrushing.

Lord of the Rings SBG Scenery

LotR RotK SBG Statues

For the statues I ended up repainting the first one. I went for an aged, dirty and yellowed “white” stone. Just the kind of thing to make you think of fallen civilisations. I honestly wouldn’t mind getting hold of another of these sets at some stage soon. I think another of each of these pieces would go well with the ones I’ve (finally) finished here. Now I’m tempted to string some Ivy over these. Thanks, Dareios!

Lord of the Rings SBG Scenery, Rackham Confrontation Hill.

An exciting group shot of my recent completed scenery for scale. They all work pretty well together.

Confrontation Starter Set Scenery: Hill Ruins. (Temperate Scheme)

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Rackham Confrontation Hill Ruins – Temperate – “Front” View

Last year I did one of these Confrontation Hill Ruins in a desert scheme to match my desert mat. Not too much later than that, I started on another of them, going for the “brown dirt and flock” temperate scheme I use on my bases, which will probably see use on my green grass mat. This time I glued sand to the surface of the “dirt” in order to give it the same texture and look as my models. When I took a months-long hiatus from painting last year, it sat unfinished for several months until a few weeks ago. There’s really nothing too exciting here, excepting the fact that I finally finished it, and I’ve decided to show off all of this year’s painted/completed items.

Rackham Confrontation Hill Ruins – Temperate – “Side” view.

The Mouth of Sauron and a Skellyman provide scale, and contrast with the pretty flowers.

A comparison between the Temperate and Desert-painted Rackham Confrontation Ruins.

I did use weathering powders again here, but much more subtly than on the Desert Hill. Obviously the Desert-painted hill looks far nicer on the Desert mat, but the brown dirt should fit in much more nicely on the Grass mat than the Desert Hill. Why didn’t I photograph them on the grass mat? Because I was taking a bunch of other photos at the same time (like last post’s Ogres) and it basically didn’t occur to me at the time. Still, it will work nicely across a large variety of games, so job’s a good’un.