Mumakil [1]

I got a Mumakil for my birthday and I've started assembling it. Their was quite a lot of mold lines in places that need to be cleaned up, particularly on the tusks. The model itself fits together pretty well, but there are some gaps. The beast is completely assembled, and the howdah is done. I've just attached the howdah to the Mumakil with blutack at the moment, as I think it will be easier to paint while its unattached. Tomorrow night I'll make a start on filling the gaps with Green Stuff.

I might also make some customisations, as per the Mumakil suggestions in Issue 339 of White Dwarf. I quite like the armored harness that the Mumakil is wearing, as well as the spikes on the tusks. The barbed wire stretched between them is also pretty memorable from the movies. And of course, I'll need to get a Mahud to stand at the front and steer the beast.

I was looking at some pictures from Return of the King, and there is another pair of spines that extend from the howdah, over the back of the elephant, with pennants hanging from the end. They aren't on the model, but there is a couple of spaces on the back of the harness where it looks like they should fit. I wonder what happened with that? An oversight on GW's part perhaps?