Goonhammer Reviews: Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, The Path of Cirith Ungol Shelob & Gollum Models

Thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with a copy of these models for review.

The Sprues

The tooling and detail is the same excellent standard that we've seen in pretty much every GW kit of the 2020s, and everything is on a single frame.

There are a number of very small elements (the ends of the legs in particular) that will be vulnerable to miscasts or issues if the plastic mix or temperature is off when it's injected into the tool. The kit we received was perfect but I see it as a vulnerability.

Assembly

I started with Gollum and the webbed up Frodo. The Frodo is two pieces and thus very simple. Gollum is seven pieces, some of them very small, on a hobbit sized character. He goes together well but I didn't glue him into the base due to the possible issues with painting parts of him if I did.

Shelob has a lot of pieces, with almost as many going on the scenic rocks as Shelob herself.

The rocks need to be put together perfectly and this is fairly easy, but double check them as the glue dries. I went over some joins with Tamiya Extra Thin as I built the kit to make sure the joins were solid, without gaps, and that the different pieces all lined up. The rocks are a bit fiddly to put together, and actually benefit from assembling them step by step as shown in the instructions, as clipping out and cleaning up all the rock pieces and then trying to assemble them is a bit jigsaw puzzle-esque.

The legs are the most challenging part. Most of the legs have contact points with the rocks, where they join up with one toe on the leg and one toe on the rock. This attaches Shelob to the base, and there are six contact points.

The issue is that if you glue Shelob down to the base then painting the rocky outcrops and Shelob's belly is quite hard, so you need to make a decision about whether to glue Shelob down before painting or after.

Making sure the legs line up with the contact points on the rocks is also critical, and I'd advise gluing the legs on one side of the body in and then bending them in their sockets to check they fit into the rocks before the polystyrene cement fully sets, then leaving the kit for a while and doing something else, then do the same with the other side. You can glue the rocks on the left down to the base first, fit the left legs (your left, Shelob's right), and then come back and fit the right legs (your right) and glue the right side rocks down and check the fit of the legs at the attachment points.

The main weakness of the kit is the legs attaching to the rock, and that is the part that will most frustrate modellers. I chose to not glue Shelob down so I could paint the rocks and Shelob's underside, and we'll find out if that is a mistake.

Painting

There are three models included in this set. By far the largest is Shelob, but the base is a major part of all the models.

The Base

I base coated all the bases with two coats of Mechanicum Grey. I washed it with Nuln Oil, then dry brushed with Dark Reaper, Eshin Grey and Celestra Grey, getting progressively gentler. I did the base rim with Abaddon Black. With the base done, I can move onto the figures.

Bases painted - credit Thundercloud

Shelob

Shelob has a lot of textures. This lends itself to drybrushing.

I started with a Corvus Black basecoat. This is a solid very dark grey (or German Grey), and serves as a solid base for the black carapace of Shelob.

I then drybrushed Shelob in progressively gentler coats, starting with Dark Reaper, then Eshin Grey, then Celestra Grey and finally Ulthuan Grey.

This gave me a Grisaille as well as highlighting the carapace.

The GW studio Shelob scheme has some mottling. This is actually super hard to do, and if you want to do it you'd need to get out a fine brush and build it up. The area with the texture in the scheme is fairly flat, and I dotted with a white brush rather than stippling and then glazed with Volupus Pink.

The face was done with Volupus Pink for the face, Black Legion for the eyes and Gryph Hound Orange for the scarring.

The tip of the foreleg on the left (Shelob's left) is very delicate, and came off while I was undercoating it. I was able to find the piece, paint it and reattach it. I think I'll be reattaching it multiple times if I take Shelob places for games.

Shelob - credit Thundercloud

Frodo

Frodo is a very simple model, entirely wrapped in webbing. I did a grisaille of Administratum Grey, Ulthuan Grey and Corax White, drybrushed in layers. This is actually enough to look good, but I wanted the sort of green that the webs in the film had. To do this I used a 50/50 mix of Nihilakh Oxide and Contrast Medium. I then very gently drybrushed with white to highlight.

Frodo - credit Thundercloud

Gollum

For Gollum, most of the model is skin. I started with Bugmans Glow, then Cadian Fleshtone, then a mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Light Flesh, then a glaze of Light Flesh. The scars on the back were gone over in Light Flesh again. The hair was Corvus Black, and the buttflap was Thondia Brown and XV-88.

Gollum is very small and hunched over, and the picture below is about 400% bigger than in real life. No doubt brilliant painters will pick out more detail than me, but I stopped at the teeth, which you won't be able to make out unless you hold the model so close to your face that it's almost up your nose.

Gollum - credit Thundercloud

Conclusion

The kit is very nice, with the only issues being the delicacy of some pieces.

Shelob paints up very quickly if you drybrush, Frodo even quicker, and Gollum actually took me the longest.

The Path of Cirith Ungol - Group Shot - credit Thundercloud

Shelob is a massive upgrade over the previous model, though moving to a larger base will impact it as a play piece. It is more detailed, though careful handling will still be required when playing with it. It bodes well as to what GW might do with future LOTR releases, as a new Shelob was somewhat out of left field compared to expectations of things like revised Riders of Rohan.

The build was a little tricky in places, and the major issues are the points of contact between the rocks and legs. I kept Shelob separate until painted, and having done so, there isn't really any detail I would have missed by doing this. It's up to you, but getting solid joins is pretty important to using the model as a play piece.

I would recommend this as a kit, I enjoyed painting it and it makes a nice centrepiece monster in an army. In terms of LOTR Shelob only appears in two legendary legions, but makes a great centrepiece in them, and as a modelling and painting project makes a great centrepiece monster that I think we'll be seeing turn up in painting competitions. The base lends itself to additional modelling with things like webs and poor victims.

A highly recommend from me, and if the legs were a little less fragile it would be a 10/10. It's great as a display piece but I worry about transporting it to games, even though I've magnetised it, and GW are no stranger to fiddly models, and at least it's no new resin Angron.

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Tags: Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game | shelob | frodo | gollum