Yes, yes, I fell down a rabbit hole.

 One dug by Lord of the Rings.

That'll teach me to watch a few episodes of Amazon's "Rings of Power".

I pulled out my pile of LotR shame, and oo-er, it's a big one.

I was thinking, Uruk Hai, Minas Tirith, Warg riders...

So this happened over the weekend.

They need finishing, but that is how I am heading. I think I have 8 or 9 painted and another 6 or 7 in various states. Enough to give Rohan some trouble.

The GW Uruks always suffered from bendy or plain old broken pikes, but I have salvaged a dozen which are now now on the paint bench.

Wouldn't a pike block of 60 of these fellows look good? 3 ranks, 20 files. And because pikes are Landsknechty, I had to do this:

Nothing like a Berserker with a two-handed sword for ruining your day.

And then there was Minas Turith. I have a few goodies and some scattered infantry, but, I want to go fairly big on this army, so went for this for the core of the army.

I'd add Citadel Guard and Guardians of the Fountain Court and probably more knights as well. However, I think this is a good start!

WIPPY Orc

 Not a Russian lost orc either.

I have been playing about a bit recently with colour and technique in ways I have not really done before. So much of "toy soldier painting' is colour by numbers. Grey coat, red cuffs. The right colours have to go in the right places otherwise the miniature is "not right". And that's fine and there are so many miniature painters whose work I deeply respect who paint historical miniatures (and certain fantasy and SF miniatures) without going outside the lines so to speak.

However, I have been chafing under these restraints for a while and decided it would be nice to paint outside the lines on occasion and play more freely with colour and technique. So, here's a WIP shot of a GW LOTR Orc. He's largely painted over a military green base coat with an overspray from above with a 'cold' off white then given a GW yellow wash. Some rough overpainting of metallic colours and that's where we are now. I might do some edge highlights on the armour to sharpen the definition. Some more washing to grunge it up a bit and I think that might do.

UPDATE: Finished with some poo-brown ground work and some of the sickliets grass tufts in the inventory.