1955: Tolkien publishes The Return of the King, and does not specify Gothmog's fate
2003: Jackson releases The Return of the King, which also doesn't show Gothmog's end
2004: Jackson releases The Return of the King Extended Edition*, which includes the blink-and-you'll-miss-it Death of Gothmog:
2008: GW releases a vignette 'The Death of Gothmog'. I like to think this is a Perry.
2023: I paint said vignette.
The death of Gothmog
I got this off eBay, partially painted and broken. I had thoughts of making this into a piece with sabots for the figures, like my Sauron piece, but ultimately decided against it. I've got plenty of Éowyns and recently a plastic Gothmog. I stripped the pieces and reassembled it. I decided to place it on a nice oval MDF base from Knights of Dice. I bulked out a little bit of the groundwork with Milliput so that Éowyn and Gothmog are on solid ground.
Stripped and ready to go
Test fit on MDF base. Note the narrower metal base before bulking it out with Milliput
I'd thought of doing the miniatures separately, but during a test fitting they got stuck in place so I painted them all together. It wasn't too hard. I started from black and then drybrushed browns and creams in the grisaille fashion, which the French call Le Slapchop.
My favourite part was painting the cloaks. The rohirrim cloaks are built up from Vallejo Russian Uniform, and the elven ones are built up from German Feldgrau.
The reverse of the scene
Gimli dual-wielding and has a two-handed axe strapped to his back
Dying orc #738 is really dynamic with his helmet flying off and sword leaping from open grasp.
Aragorn and Andúril
Gothmog
Éowyn desperately grasps for a sword from her dead comrade
I was slightly disappointed with it, but then I flocked it. I used some pretty dry colours to match the film- the Pelennor fields have been somewhat abused by hordes of orcs and stampeding mûmakil- and it really came to life. I haven't varnished it and am somewhat afraid to.
