'A Sword Day, A Red Day!' - 10mm Lord of the Rings

Yes, yet another project for distraction. Really, can we ever have too many hobby projects? Heavens, I hope not.

When I first read 'Lord of the Rings' as a boy I was enthralled by Tolkien's description of the Battle of Pelennor Fields and have always wanted to see it arrayed on the games table in miniature. So after spending this past year re-reading Tolkien's work, I've decided to start the journey to see if I could achieve this.

For me, one of the highlights of the battle was when Theoden looked upon the mighty enemy host in front of Minas Tirith, turns to his Rohirrim, and calls out:

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!

Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,

a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!

Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

With this in mind, I thought I'd start this project with Theoden and some of his riders of Rohan.

Okay, with a subject and some figures in mind, what rules would I use? Well, thankfully GW has their excellent 'War of the Ring', which has a small, but dedicated fan base still supporting it.

While 'War of the Ring' is a great set of rules, I have a couple criticisms. First is with GW's  extortionate pricing, as the cost in figures for two good-sized forces is prohibitive for most hobbyists, except perhaps if done as a club project. 

The second is that I just don't like how cavalry formations look in the game. Sure, it allows people to fit their existing LotR cavalry into sabots, but due to the large circular bases, they only can fit two models per sabot base. While I quite like the large basing for LotR skirmish, it really doesn't translate well for massed ranks of cavalry. 

So after giving it a bit of thought, I decided I'd use the same base dimensions provided in the game, but I'd use 10mm figures in order to give a greater sense of mass.

These models are from the excellent Copplestone Castings range. I absolutely love them as they capture all the Tolkienesque spirit, while also being rather minimal in their design, and so quite easy to paint. I've put them on large acrylic bases as an experiment to see how it works with massed ranks - I think I like it.

I know these are not that much of a 'battle host', as trio of bases represents just one formation, and I want six for the entire Rohirrim contingent. I have a suspicion I will be serving this out to commission painters to finish up for me...

I've decided to put the various heroes on separate bases, so here is Theoden on his mount, Snowmane, riding with his household banner bearers. 

The Mumakil were a bit of a problem to source at first. A have a few different variants as test models. One you see here is a mastodon from Eureka miniatures, another (not shown as I didn't get him done) is a 3D print of a Chaos mastodon, which has a good look as well. I'll have to post him up later. 

Finally, the pick of the litter is this Mumakil from Eaglemoss magazine. This was part of their long out of print LotR chess set series done around when the films were released. He's quite hefty, being in white metal, and is an almost perfect fit for 10mm. His stock paintjob wasn't too bad, but I wanted him to blend in with my other figures, so I primed him up and gave him a fresh lick of paint.

The Eaglemoss Mumakil are rare as hen's teeth, so if anyone ever comes across one for sale, please let me know as I'd like a few more for the force. Sorry, I have no crew for the howdas as they are still coming in from Pendraken (Persian archers). Sigh, another task for another day.

- Curt

Balin's Tomb

For the Tomb chamber of the Painting Challenge, I decided to do up a few figures and some terrain bits depicting the final stand of Ori and his companions in Balin's Tomb, the Chamber of Mazarbul. 

The fate of Balin and his folk was recounted in the Lord of the Rings when The Fellowship found Balin's Tomb and the Book of Mazarbul.

They have taken the bridge and the Second Hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes...drums, drums in the deep. We cannot get out. The shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming.

These are fairly old metal castings, from the release of the 'Shadow and Flame' campaign book in 2003. I'm not a big fan of painting dwarfs, but these models were a pleasure to work with. I also really liked the goblins, who's slight stature came as a nice change from the larger orcs. It reminded me that I really need to get some more of the goblin rank and file so we can get in some of the Moria scenarios down the road.

The tomb and pillars I found as 3D files on Thingiverse (thanks to designers Curufin and jpacek). They painted-up fine using my usual recipe for pale stone of Celestra Grey, Nuln Oil and Pallid Witch Flesh.

For points, hmm, we have 45 for the five dwarfs and four goblins, say 10 points for the terrain bits and goblin drum (about half a cube) and 20 points for the Tomb chamber bonus. So 75 total!

Next, I think I'll head to the Oubliette as I'm fairly positive I can find something quite forgotten in my lead pile to work on.

And a last shot of the group getting an emotional sendoff from Durin's Bane...

- Curt

A LOTR Cave Troll and a Mordor Armoured Troll

I recently finished the last book of 'The Lord of the Rings' and so am quite jazzed with all things Middle-Earth. So, for the Gallery of Ancestors I did up a venerable Cave Troll and his beefier, younger cousin from Mordor.

This fella GW produced upon the release of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' back in 2001. Yep, twenty years ago folks, can you freakin' believe it?! 

This guy's old, grumpy and all metal. Bless 'im. 

He's a repaint from a 'move failure' I had when we relocated across country. He originally has just the hammer and chain, but I've given him a nasty long hafted glaive to make him extra fearsome. While I wax nostalgic about him, he was a bit of a b@astard to put together, with more than a few pins and some green stuff required to make him presentable. Still, I quite like him.

Next is his even larger cousin, an armoured Mordor troll from the 'Battle of Pelennor Fields' boxed set. He comes as a fairly simple plastic kit. While I'm usually not a big fan of plastic models, seemingly always shaving down seam lines or filling gaps, I have to say that this guy is quite well engineered, with lots of nifty build options.

Everyone seems to do up this brute with the huge war hammer, so, ever the contrarian, I went with the big honkin' spear instead. I kinda like this pose. I think he has a bit of a Greek hoplite look to him (if a hoplite were to weigh 800 pounds, have three fingers, and carry a Buick's worth of sheet metal on him). 

'This. Is. Mordor!!'

Sure, this guy's cool and all, but I don't think he's as interesting as the older, metal version. The venerable cave troll has more surface texture, and his 'I'm going to clobber ya' pose seems far more dynamic to me. That being said, the two of them provide a neat contrast in design and production over the past two decades. 

Next: Hmm, I think I need a teleport to The Tomb. Time to rustle up another female figure for the Sorceress.

- Curt

Saruman And His Fighting Uruk-Hai

For the past year I've been slowly re-reading (and in the case of some of the more esoteric titles, reading for the first time) the entire Tolkien oeuvre. I think I'm at six or seven books now, and am just finishing 'The Two Towers'. Gosh, they're just so darn good - it's kind of humbling to reacquaint oneself with the fountainhead of epic fantasy literature.

Reading Tolkien is a complete nostalgia trip for me as I have very fond memories of reading the trilogy while on a month-long family camping trip in the Prairies. I keenly remember burning out several flashlight batteries reading late into the night. So good. Anyway, here we have Saruman and four of his Uruk-Hai orcs (the nasty ones, you know, the ones with serious anger management issues). Such great models due to the fact that they are the old, rare metal ones which I adore. The colour scheme for the Uruks are from my good friend Nick who gifted a few of these to me a couple years ago.

Next Up: A Sci-Fi take on a Golem.

- Curt

LotR Warg Riders

Here are two Lord of the Rings Warg Riders. These are metal castings from the early releases and were a real joy to work on. 

Funny enough, I've had these two bad lads done since the first few weeks of the Challenge, but I wanted to bulk them out with a few more models to make a more substantial force. Anyway, I made the mistake of picking up a box of the newish plastic ones and, well, what can I say but: Ewww.  

It's not that the plastic models are that bad, but after working on the earlier, crisply sculpted metal guys the new ones really suffer in comparison. So much so that they're still sitting 75% done on my desk.  Sigh. I know I won't be able to muster the will to get them done before the end of the Challenge, so I figure I'd best run with these guys for now. 

I had a bit of fun with the fur coats on these two wargs, making them a little more punchy and hyena-like than in the drab beasts in the movies.

Maybe later this spring I'll get the other six done to join up with these, but they'll have to wait for now as I have a couple other entries I want to get done before we call it a wrap next Wednesday.  

Curt

The Fellowship of the Ring in Balin's Tomb

Hello Everyone!

Well, anyone who saw my opening entry for the Painting Challenge in December won't be too shocked with this post.

Picking up from my Frodo and Sam, here are the the seven remaining Companions of the Ring-bearer. All of these figures are first-run GW metals, which were a complete joy to work on. 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will see that I swapped out the 'Fellowship Gandalf' for the one from the Balrog box set. The stock Gandalf is a terrific figure, but I preferred the more dynamic pose of the Balrog one for this scene.

When I was doing the finishing touches on the Fellowship set I thought back on the scene set in Balin's Tomb and realized that I could use the same setting to depict another fellowship, that of Ori and his few remaining kinsmen in their final stand against the orcs and Balrog in the fall of Moria. 

These dwarf models are, again, venerable figures from GWs first LotR supplement, 'Shadow and Flame', released in 2003 (I was amazed I still had a few of these squirrelled away in the Lead Shed). I'm typically not a huge Dwarf aficionado, but these models were pretty darn cool, especially the heavily armoured Khazad Guard.

So, there you have it: TWO fellowships, both making their valiant stand in the Chamber of Mazarbul.

Thanks and have a great week folks!

Curt

Opening Entry to AHPC IX: Frodo & Sam - The Beginning of the Fellowship

In keeping with tradition, I try to open the show with the first entry of the Painting Challenge. 

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This past summer I began reading through the Tolkien canon following the chronological order of the stories. As I've not read the core books since my childhood the process has largely been a study in nostalgia. 

In working through the books what really impressed me was the tremendous importance Tolkien placed on value of allies, friends and companionship. This made me reflect that I'm very thankful for all the great friends I've made over the past eight years of the Challenge, and I resolved to make 'Fellowship' serve as the overarching theme for this edition.

Right, enough faffing about. 

Here we have the starting pair of the 'Fellowship of the Ring', Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. 

These are from the original metal range offered by Games Workshop at the start of the Peter Jackson trilogy. I have some of the more recent plastics, and while the animation and quality is quite good I find they still lack the crispness and definition of the earlier metal sculpts. 

Of course source material for the painting was easy to come by, with loads of books and movie stills available both in the home library and on the net.

The big base is a limited edition resin cast of Balin's Tomb which was offered by GW after the release of the first film. I actually forgot I had it, being it was buried in the shadowy depths of the Lead Shed. I only discovered when I was looking for some LotR figures after  being inspired re-reading the books.  

It's a nicely crafted piece, with loads of detail and nifty labeled base-slots for each of the nine companions of The Fellowship. I did a quick series of layered coats with the airbrush, a few washes and then picked out the details with a fine brush. I wasn't wild about the GW branding so I just left it black, but I did a bit of ink blending with 'The Fellowship' raised label and the character names to give them a graduated red-gold effect.

My plan is to add the remaining members to the Fellowship over the duration of the Painting Challenge, hopefully completing it before it wraps-up in March.

To paraphrase Bilbo, every great adventure begins with a first step. :)

Next Up: Some WWII Coastal Ships from 'Cruel Seas'

From IanW: 28mm Lord of the Rings Archers, Spearmen and Character Figure (45 Points)

From Ian:

OK this is the last from me

Here we have eight Games Workshop plastic Lord of the Rings figures, though I am not 100% sure exactly which race.

The long spear figures had been glued with arms bent in all sorts of angles and needed a little surgery but given I bought them at a games con for peanuts I can't complain.

The bow troops were easy as single piece castings. I wanted all eight for my roleplaying campaign which is a mix of LotR and Wheel of Time.

These will be Seachen who in my world are a mix of Seachin and Aeril (both spelt wrong)

Last figure to be painted is again for the campaign but this is the figure for one of the players and is a Reaper metal figure. Lorielle Silverrain a female elf. It is a surprise as the player does not know the figure has arrived yet!!

I have spent just under three hours on her tonight and mostly happy with the result. I will go over a few details tomorrow evening and both lots still need varnish (the GW ones have had one spray but need a second to get over the army painter shine

I will add my thanks to Curt for again running an excellent challenge that has been lots of fun to be part of.

Great work Ian! I believe those LOTR fellow are Haradrim but I can't be sure. Anyway, they look good and they'll be great additions to your RPG. The last figure is fabulous! I particularly like the soft tones you've achieved for her face - amazing work.

These nine fantasy miniatures will give Ian 45 points, nailing his Challenge target before the bonus tabulations - well done! 

From ScottB: 28mm Castellans of Dol Guldur from 'The Hobbit' (20 points)

From Scott:

With recent events hotting up in the Hobbit movie and Dol Guldur setting really getting developed, I've been playing some LOTR SBG games at home with my son. We've enjoyed some scenarios from the Fall of the Necromancer.. 

For the next scenario in sequence I needed 4 Castellans of Dol Guldur...

I've had these figures for some time (like most of my LOTR collection now), and have wanted to paint them up for ages, but never got round to it.

I am not sure how good they are in the game, but they fit the setting superbly, and I think they are wonderfully evil and menacing looking figures without going OTT in a Warhammer kind of way...

28mm scale figures for the GW LOTR SBG game. Simple black robes, much like the Ringwraiths, with old looking dark armour. But as a final touch I gave them a wash with GWs Green wash, to try give them a slightly ghostly/spectral quality. I didn't want to over do it, so it's quite subtle.

The bases I deliberately left looking rather sparse - didn't think they'd look right standing besides flower clumps!

I also got a pack resin skulls from Slave to Painting and was going to add some to the bases...but on closer look at the skulls, I think they are just a little too big to scale well with the LOTR range of figures - perhaps more akin to the oversize Warhammer stuff, so in the end left them off.

Hope you like them, and I can't wait to try them out in the game.

Lovely work Scott! I really like the effect the green wash gave to these figures - something that could be used on the Nazgul as well I would imagine.

These four Castellans of Dol Guldur will give Scott 20 points. Very nice and I hope you and your son have a great game with them.