Warmaster: Orc Army Progress, and special Guest!

 My goblin/ Orc Lord of the rings themed warmaster army continues to grow. I have 5 more units finished and needing basing-  pictures of which will be in the next blog. 

Here's what I have left- only 3 more weeks till the Tournament- I'm gonna make it????

Now, for the Special Guest!  An Orc army is allowed a giant- and that got me thinking... for a LoTR themed army, the best Giant I could think of is the big man himself- Sauron!  Just picturing him plowing through ranks of men and Elf- well I figure if that visual stuck with me, it has also with my upcoming opponents.

My pal Jeff Grien had an extra Sauron from the 28mm game, and gave it to me for a giant. Sadly, when I got it home I realized it was missing an arm and mace.  Not deterred, and excited about it still being a great deal,  I went to the local GW store  to order the bits and create a complete Sauron. 

Here's the interesting bit- Speaking with J.P. the manager, he offered me a deal I could not refuse- he'd swap out the old Sauron as a return, and charge me the difference for a shiny (erm, well you know what I mean) new Fine Cast version!  Gift horses and all, I jumped on the seemingly suave "first one's free" offer , and had a new Sauron for $10 plus tax!

I just noticed they are bringing back the Citadel moniker...

Here's a quick review of what I think of the fine cast model..The subject, brilliantly sculpted by the Perry's (I'm putting my money on Michael ) came on three sprues.  The casting was fairly clean, with some thin flash, one fairly bad mold line on the mace and arm piece, and two pretty big bubbles on the main body.

Having sculpted and cast my own models in resin as well as having built lots of models in resin, I would have been a bit put off for such holes in a $45 dollar model.  Not un fixable, but they do need filling.  The sprue line easily scraped down. I am very impressed by the undercutting of the gothic style armor.

The model glued together with conventional thick super glue no problem, and is very light weight. the only thing that worries me is that the mace is very bendy, which to me means fragile. I actually posed the model to have the mace a bit lower, in hopes to not  catch on too many things.  I suppose the same could be said of the crown pieces too. 

My over all impression? Very nice model, not sure if the finecast is that much better, and, although I could see having a few finecast pieces, or forgeworld or other similiar resin company pieces as commanders or Points of interest, I can't fathom the price or fragility of entire armies.  Still I am greatful to J.P. at our local G.W. store for giving me the chance at giving it a try.

put together and ready to give the smack down!

Side view showing he fits on conventional Warmaster base!

YES yes yes- but its fine cast- won't it be melty, you ask?

Well:

After priming it black, I left it purposefully outside in the 86 degree sun for 15 minutes, and got no melting or warping  at all. I'm gonna try a piece of sprue un primed just because of all the hoola baloo.  That being said, I have in the past had plastic models melt in the sun, so it's sunscreen for Sauron and I think we'll be okay. 

Looking forward to getting this bad boy painted up, and luckily with my time schedule, should be easy!