28mm Champion Demon

[Khurasanminiatures]

Here's the green for a 28mm champion demon. Roughly human-sized, they are sent to our dimension by the dark powers to kill lawful champions and do other very naughty things.

A demon champion generally wields a poisonous axe and a scourge of flame. Some have wings, others have flames erupting from their backs.









Actually had this fellow made for our 15mm Great Enemy range (Morgoth's army) as Gothmog, the greatest of Morgoth's Balrogs and the Captain of Angband. Tolkien fans will recognise his black axe, with which he slain some of the greatest leaders of the Noldor. The model has the option for wings or flames because there's a lot of debate as to whether Balrogs had wings or not, so I punt on the subject and allow either.

All that said, I made sure the model was made to be the size of a 28mm figure, so he's an enormous balrog in 15mm or a devil in 28mm. Sculpted by Tom Meier. Cheers for looking.

[Vorokoth]

Cool, ugly lookin' fella. Vermis will hate his hooves.

[TheImp]

The head is a lot more detailed than the rest. I think it would be a much better piece if TM would give the body some more time.

[Khurasanminiatures]

That's the old dilemma with balrogs, creatures that are supposed to be shadow and flame. If you go purely with that, most detail doesn't make sense. They wouldn't really have fur or wear anything. Peter Jackson's clever solution was to have the creature lava-like with the outer body being like the crust on the lava.

There's this guy, the Moria balrog:



And the balrog slain by Glorfindel (who is killed by it simultaneously):



Both pretty balroggy, but there's not much to them in terms of detail. I think he'll need to serve as a canvas for flame effect painting, or the subtle use of black to show the "void with legs" that a balrog is supposed to be.

[Tim C]

Nice figure would definitely consider buying one to paint as a demon champion.

[pete]

fookin' tasty.

[Goldwyrm]

Very nice. Love the face and wings the best. Tom did a great job.

[Vermis]

Cool, ugly lookin' fella. Vermis will hate his hooves.

With the split going way up and hidden by hair, it's reasonably doubtful whether it's two digits or one chunk with a crack in it. Doesn't bother me as much as the bit of stiffness in the pose. (To be honest, I guessed it was Tom Meier's sculpt as much from that as from the style and detail. Well, that is Tom's style...) But pretty nice overall.

IIRC Ted Nasmith's was the first depiction of a balrog I'd seen, way back when I was wee and didn't know what a balrog was (I think it was an edition of The Two Towers in the school library, which was way too thick and intimidating for me at the time, even if it wasn't halfway through the story and the library wasn't missing the corresponding copy of The Fellowship. Would be years before actually I read it.) and I haven't seen it since. Serious nostalgia overload, as you might be able to tell. Although these days I prefer John Howe's take. But I digress.