LotR – Mirkwood Spider Army

I needed a break from terrain and basing armies, so I thought I would start a new army. However, I needed something that I could paint very quickly, would be useful and would not be too expensive. After chatting with a buddy of mine that is big into LotR, I decided to work on one of the armies that I had miniatures for already. I was going to do undead, but another buddy of mine just painted his army, so I lost interest. However, after some more FOW basing projects, I got back to it. I had about ten spider models that I had painted some time ago, but had not settled what game I would use them with. Looking at them sitting on my work bench with no bases, they looked sad and needed some love.

So, I got out my army book and looked at the Mirkwood Spider list in the Hobbit Book, Figuring out the points, I found I was way short of what I would need. I could have just filled out the army with other critters, but decided it was time to go all in. So, I went to my FLGS and ordered enough additional spiders to fill out a full tournament sized army (like I will ever play in a competitive tourney….). At $4.99 a pack, you cannot get much cheaper!

The list allows for three types of spiders. First I needed a spider queen, so I used the giant spider from Reaper Bones black. They also sell some spider swarms, so I picked those up to reflect the spider broods that the queen can make during the game. I bought Wiz Kids ten warp spiders to use as Mirkwood spiders. This is what is needed for the scenario in the book, so seemed a good number. I then filled out the army with a whole bunch of Wiz Kids giant spiders. These come three to a pack and are the right size to fit on the required base size. I then went onto Amazon and ordered a bunch of third party 40mm and 60mm round bases. With all that, I had everything I needed to get to work.

First for the spiders. I kept it simple. I sprayed all of them with some Krylon black spray point. You have to be careful in spraying these figures as they are very light and can blow off your painting surface, So, some careful burst spraying and I finished those up. Next, I sprayed all the bases with some Krylon dark brown camo paint. With that, the base was set for each.

I decided that I would stay with black for all the large spiders, so I just hit some of the missed spots with black paint. I then dry brushed them up two levels of gray highlight. The smaller spiders all got a dark brown heavy drybrush, followed by a earth brown highlight.

Next was the bases. I decided that it would be faster to get the bases ready and then glue the figures on later. So, I covered each with some Vallejo dark brown mud pumice. Once that dried, I hit each base with a medium brown dry brush and then with a light tan. Next, I glued on some Scenic Express mixed dark green turf. I opted for the darker color, as I thought this would make a nice forest floor. I then glued down all the spiders. I then went to my tuft collection and pulled out two colors (one darker and one lighter) to add to the forest base effect. A little white glue and these were all attached.

I finished up by spraying all the models with dull coat. Once the set, I went back and painted the eyes of al the large spiders. I started with a gloss coat on the eyes and then a small white dot to reflect the reflection effect. With that, I now have a full spider army! Now I just have to put then on the table.

• Manteuffel