The Nine are Abroad

I've always been a fan of GW's 'character wraiths', where each of the nine Nazgûl are modeled as a distinct character. I've also been frustrated many times at only having five Ringwraiths (the ones that came with the old Weathertop set). I could never justify purchasing the set of nine, only to get rid of five of them. On top of that I would still lack mounted versions, as generic black riders are no longer sold and are a great frustration to track down second-hand.

 

It seemed sensible enough then, that I should acquire the foot and mounted sets for the character wraiths, which are available to buy new. I was reticent for a while, since six out of the eighteen models were finecast (shudders), but in the end I found myself possessed by a whim and grabbed 'em. And while the finecast resin was a massive pain to work with, I did have a lot of fun painting up these models. It was really fun working to give each wraith a unique look, although I think I have had more than enough of painting black for the foreseeable future.

The Witch King of Angmar

As one of the dreaded finecast models, I was rather worried when it came to this guy. Thankfully he seems to have turned out pretty well outside of his sword, which is a little bendy (somehow I didn't notice until after he'd been painted!).

The Dwimmerlaik

The Tainted

I ended up leaving this guy till last because I thought the glowing effect on the robes would be hard to do. As it turned out all it took was some careful dry-brushing and high-lighting. I'd probably say that he was one of my favourites to paint.

The Dark Marshal

The Shadow Lord

The Undying

Khamûl the Easterling

Sadly, this is probably the worst victim of finecast among the set. His sword might look crooked now, but it's not even half as bad as it was before! I did the best I could, but it's such a thin and fragile piece that I was scared to apply too much pressure for fear of breaking it. What an infernal material to make models out of!

I decided against painting his armour golden/brazen, as I felt this separated him a bit too much from the other Ringwraiths for my liking.

The Knight of Umbar

The Betrayer

Overall, I'm quite happy with how they turned out, though I wish they had all been metal. I certainly intend to try and avoid buying any more finecast models in future, but given that some rather iconic/important models have been done in that material (uruk-hai berserkers, guards of the fountain court, minas tirith commanders, etc.) I may not have much choice in the long run.

Having enjoyed the Ringwraith project so much, I've ordered a number of Rohirrim to round out that part of my collection (short of a couple of characters who were all out of stock on the Australian webstore. Really loving that international sales policy GW...). Outside that and the Ringwraiths, I've painted/finished painting a number of other more miscellaneous Middle-Earth models, so I'll have to get together another post on them in the next few days. See you all then.

Cheers!