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Care and Feeding of your new Balrog

He's big. He's nasty. He wreathed in unholy fire! Mom, can I keep him?


I was able to purchase this handsome devil from a local 40K gamer.  He had purchased a large lot of Games Workshop models and the Balrog was part of it. He thought it was some sort of 40K unit and never really knew what it was. Strange. Anyway, he was willing to sell it at a decent price.

The Balrog came partially assembled and a bit beat up. That's nothing a little TLC and a lot of modelling putty can't fix. The legs and wings are barely attached. There are many visible seams and mold lines that will need to be cleaned.  And, there will be the challenge of painting him with realistic looking flames. Eventually, it will be the leader of my Moria Goblin army and will be whipping up on meddling wizards who wander into the deep places of the earth.

Also on the 'Thumb'-bench. were these little paper terrain walls. Oringinally, I printed them out from a PDF file and taped them together to make 12" long linear walls.  They were never used.

One day, I was browsing through the same PDF file and found some extra layers in the file.  The extra layers revealed some optional posts and gates. I printed those up, chopped the long walls into smaller lengths, and glued them onto a square piece of cardboard. Later, some debris and paint were added to complete the pieces. The grass pattern was made with some brown, grey and green paint applied with a natural sponge (another item on the bench that wasn't being utilized).



When my lovely wife saw the finished product, she immediately identified them as 'zombie pens'.  Perhaps she was influenced by the Walking Dead marathon we had been watching the day before. The name fits but there must be other uses for them. If you have an suggestion, I'd like to hear it.

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