The idea

After I finished my Numenor army I had to create a themed army fighting for Sauron, which should look nice and perform well on the battle field.

I considered many different armies and finally I chose Shagrat and his evil brood from Cirith Ungol. Inspired by the Kauzenburg community convention in 2006 I wanted to have nice and powerful heroes, just like Dahark and Bloodbrother did for their armies. So I chose Shelob, she is definetly a "high spirits model" for an evil gamer.

Also it was very important for me to field many nice white metal models, since I prefer them to plastic.

In the Lord of the Rings, 6th book, chapter 1 "The Tower of Cirith Ungol" you can find almost everything you need to build this army on a solid literature base.

Names for captains like 'Snaga' or 'Radbug' were found quickly and it made fun to read again how blood thursty and brutal the orks in the tower were.

A giant spider, two Uruk-hai heroes, 8 points of might and 15 models with a strength of 4 that is an army list which persuaded me to bring it to life.

Her the entire list:

1x Shelob
1x Shagrat + shild
1x Gorbag + shild
1x Snaga (Mordor Uruk-hai captain) + shield

1x orkish banner bearer

15 Mordor Uruk-hai + shield

15 Orc scouts

15 Orcs + spear + shield

50 models 600 points 30% bows

A good general tries to use the full strength of the Uruk-hai. This means to support them with spears and help them with a banner in their back in order to get the full advantage of the high fight value.

Heroes should concentrate on the flanks in order to weaken the enemy there.

Shelob accompanied by the third heroe is hunting enemy captains and heroes. On her own she would be a little bit too weak but supported with some points of might she is the terror itself for every heroe.

The orc scouts should run for cover since they are very vulnerable.

I started converting with the scouts. That was quite easy since the model´s limbs could be bent easily and nice.

Moreover I made some head swaps with some of the models. Now every scout looks different from any other in the army. 

The Uruk-hai were more difficult. If you are an unskilled and unexperienced converter it is impossible to create a good looking massive conversion. Therefore I decided to convert the weapons. I cut the axes from plastic card whereas some other weapons are loot from battles with elves and men.

Missing spear orcs were built from sword fighters with shields. Two orcs in torn loot armour were converted from warriors of Minas Tirith.

I used goblin shields, turned Rohan shields and orc shields sculpted by Asteriks.

The Uruk-hai captain is a model by Asteriks which was desiged to represent an orc. I gave him a helmet and some pieces of additional leather.

After I painted shelob like a european garden spider, I wanted the orcs to appear very dark.

I was soon very sure that all orcs and Uruk-hai should have black skin. The main colors of the clothing and armour should be grey and brown.

The models were painted with Vallejo and Citadel colours.

Painting instructions

Skin
Black | Black Grey | BlackGrey+Cold Grey | Cold Grey

Cloak and clothing
Charred Brown+Black | Mix 1+Graveyard earth | Charred Brown+Graveyard Earth | Graveyard Earth

Grey clothing
Catachan Green+Black+Charred Brown | Mix 1+Catachan Green | Mix2+Cold Grey | Cold Grey

Fur
Cobra Leather+Black | Mix1+Parasite Brown | Mix2+Parasite Brown | Parasite Brown

Leather and hair
Cobra Leather+Black | Mix1+Cobra Leather | Mix2 + Cobra Leather | Cobra Leather

Metal
Boltgun Metal+Black | Boltgun Metal | Mithril Silver

Banner
Scab Red+Black | Mix1 + Scab Red | Mix2 + Scab Red | Scab Red

Wood
Charred Brown+a little bit Black | Beasty Brown | Cobra Leather