Balrogs have wings- a proof in three parts

The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip, and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils. But Gandalf stood firm.

JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring. (1954)

"Do Balrogs have wings?" is the question that tears the Tolkien community apart. But I have proof that they do:

The Balrog from Lords of Middle-Earth:

The Balrog from Journeys in Middle-Earth:

The Balrog from GW's Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game:

The Balrog family

Q.E.D.

The GW/ Weta Balrog is a massive beast I'm very proud of. The new FFG one is a poor cousin, but I gave it a good shot with the painting and 40mm basing- and I’m very happy with how it came out.

I started from a white undercoat. I painted up from yellow through orange to red, as shown here. I wanted the chest to be blazing and the extremities less so, with the eyes and mouth white-hot. I left the weapons a pale yellow.

Then I slapped on a lot of Vallejo Burnt Red, leaving the flames in the recesses. I then mixed in a bit of black and went over it again, in a reverse-highlight up to black. A light targeted drybrush of grey brought out a little detail.

Then I painted all the flames white, and brought them up again with the yellow-orange-red-black sequence.

It wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be. My GW Balrog took much longer when I painted it about fifteen years ago, using a similar sequence but without the deep red. My new one is more of a dark brown than a black,  and it looks fine.