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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Bilbo's Trolls

"Look Mr Frodo, its Mr Bilbo's trolls!"

In my never ending quest to collect all gaming material related to Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, I came across this delightful set of petrified stone trolls...


They were originally produced by Thomarillion in Germany, but I believe they ran into copyright or licencing issues so had to stop producing them... However, a few emails later, I was put in touch with someone who was prepared to sell his own '2nd-hand' set... One Paypal payment later and a short nervous wait, and sure enough they turned up, carefully wrapped, in as new condition. They are made from a white resin/plaster(?) cast material, and came as three individual models.


I painted and varnished them, and based them up an a piece of 3mm MDF, and then added scenic materials...


A rolling stone gathers no moss, as the saying goes... so I decided to add some moss effect to these definitely stationary trolls! Then I added a sprinkling of DIY fallen leaf litter... I thought about adding more bushes and stuff to the base, but I wanted miniatures to move easily around the piece, so left it clear... though its easy to add some clump foliage or lichen clumps loosely as required... For similar reasons, I decided not to add the remnants of the central campfire... I figured after 60 years it would have been all over grown and dispersed any way...



I wanted them positioned just far enough apart to allow models to be placed in between them, so this little terrain feature can be fought over...


Here, a roving band of orcs are tracked through the Trollshaws and confronted by a patrol of rangers from Rivendell...

I really enjoyed this smaller terrain interlude, compared to my more recent and ongoing larger efforts, it was a nice easy distraction, and I look forward to seeing the piece in action on the tabletop soon :)

Thanks again to my German friends who helped me source this wonderful piece.

Cheers
Scott

37 comments:

  1. It is a great little vignette, Scott. Well done, sir. Very well done.


    -- Jeff

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  2. You live in Hobbiton and you get the Bilbo's Trolls set?! They make a wonderful piece to do battle on.

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    1. Thanks Robert, :) It wasnt an easy find, took some tracking down, but glad I got them in the end. I like the idea of simple skirmishes in and around the Trollshaws, and these set the scene perfectly :)

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  3. Wonderfully atmospheric mate. I personally would add the odd bush or shrub but that's just me.

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    1. Thanks Millsy. I have some ivy I might trail up the standing troll... I can also dot some lichen and clump foliage around as needed :)

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  4. They are superb Scott, what a wonderful addition to the collection.

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    1. Thanks, I mixed WS turf powder with their scenic cement liquid glue and applied with the GW sculpting tool.

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  6. Very cool models Scott! Great work on this piece!

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  7. Looks great and you did an excellent job with the moss.

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  8. The ground cover looks very convincing and it will make a nice piece in any game. Is that a troll pecker I see there in the second picture?

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    1. Thanks Dan. Yes indeed a wee todger is clearly evident! ;-) I can only assume when the trolls were turned to stone, their clothing mustn't have been, and it has since rotted away...? ;-)

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  9. Excellent, you really hit it perfectly

    Ian

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    1. Also, what do you use for your leaf litter? Tea leaves?

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    2. Many thanks ;) I actually used real leaves! I collected brown fallen autumn leaves (its winter here now) . Let they dry out fully them put them in wifeypoos high powered blender - then sieved to separate the small usable bits from the larger waste. sprayed the model with Woodland Scenics scenic cement and sprinkled on... and sprayed again to seal... then cleaned out the blender and sieve before wifeypoos noticed! ;-)

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  11. That is excellent. Great piece of terrain to add to the gaming board.

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  12. Fantastic work mate - wonderful!

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    1. Many thanks Paul :) Hope you are settling in well in the US?

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  13. Top paintjob and excellent scenic presentation.
    Real eye candy, mate !

    Cheers
    Stefan

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  14. Fantastic! Not seen them before! It is right they go to Middle Earth!

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  15. Wow, lovely work Scott. Such a nostalgic vignette for me - reminds me of my first read of the book.

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  16. That's one very nice terrain piece to fight over and around.
    Excellent flavour.
    cheers

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  17. Very cool! It is awesome when you source something rare like that.

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  18. Great find! Those trolls look ubercool!

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  19. you've done a beautiful work on those figures !

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