Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: killshot on June 15, 2018, 04:56:41 PM
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I have decided to get involved in some Middle Earth projects. I started with the dwarves from Conqueror Models (previously Vendel). First up was a command stand, 16 armed with two-handed weapons, 8 with bows, and 1 champion. I have 8 more with bows to complete. I have picked up Lion Rampant and Saga to check out those rules, but I don’t really have a set in mind specifically. I may just stick with my home made rules.
(https://i.imgur.com/gkEYu7g.jpg)
Next up are 16 Ebob Spearmen with the free Crusader from Footsore as Gondorians.
(https://i.imgur.com/DrUqvzJ.jpg)
Finally, just a shot of them all together.
(https://i.imgur.com/RRK88Dy.jpg)
Right now I am working on a box orcs from Northstar, some Warg riders from GW and a Reaper Giant.
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Ah, saw these on FB. Glad you're posting them here 8)
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This is some god shit!
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They are great. They remind me of how I imagined Middle Earth people when I first read the books.
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Great project - thanks for sharing 8)
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(http://www.radiorectangle.be/files/article_730/diapo/nice-jazz.jpg)
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Very nice (I especially like the properly armoured Men of Gondor) :)
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Very cool!
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Oooo, I like the look of these. Will be following, keep up the great work!
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They work very well indeed. That’s very much how I see Middle Earth too :)
Much more chainmail, much less fancy-schmanzy ;)
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:-*Very Nice job!!... I like specially your Gondorians!!!
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Beautiful
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always thought those vendel figs were top notch - shame the line wasn't continued.
but ebob figs fit a treat with them.
beautifully painted.
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Looking good, killshot. I am especially fond of the command group but they just look 'right' in general as well.
I got a bunch of those Conqueror dwarves on my workbench right now, I am doing a couple of small conversions, weapon swaps (1-hand axes and swords) to replace spears.
The only small points of criticism I have for the dwarf models themselves is the loose weapons feature, and their size. They're just a tad too tall in comparison to most middle-earthy figs (like GW Lotr and Red box which I use), and while having separate weapons is no doubt easier to cast and gives options for weapons, they can end looking like there's no proper grip on a weapon. This is a general gripe I have about many other minis out there with that same feature.
But I think the minis look so good, that I am willing to disregard these complaints. I have filed out the integral bases too so I can reduce the size disparity a tad.
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Really good models and paint jobs. Top notch scenery too (I was genuinely fooled momentarily)!
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Thanks for the kind words everyone! It really helps to maintain motivation for the project. I’m making steady progress on the orcs, but had to fix some after a slight mishap with the matte varnish; we are having some serious humidity this summer and the models came out a little frosty looking despite my attempts to give them light dustings so that wouldn’t happen. Had to give all the models a slight black wash and then the only brush on varnish I have is very glossy. So, going to have to wait and hope for a dip in the humidity.
I’m currently rereading Return of the King to keep my mind fresh on Tolkien’s works during the project. I agree with the feel of chain mail as opposed to plate so that’s what I’m going with. Plus, my extreme guilty pleasure is The Videssos Cycle by Harry Turtledove so there with be a lot of overlap for the humans into that universe as well.
Verderer: I agree with your assessment of the dwarf models as well. I don’t mind the models with two-handed weapons but the bow armed ones drove me a little crazy!
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Really good models and paint jobs. Top notch scenery too (I was genuinely fooled momentarily)!
Thanks, but I wish I had scenery like that! It my backyard lol
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Never heard of eBob before. I love their miniatures, and cheap too! I am definitely keeping them in mind for an order sometime soon, especially thanks to your excellent paint job on those spearmen! Fabulous!!
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Those are some stunning miniatures; I really love their look. Both the dwarves and the men are great, and your colour choice is excellent too. 8)
I knew of Ebob, but never actually checked out their Dark Age range. I will now though. Those Norman Spearmen just look absolutely perfect as Gondorians.
I do know Ebob's offerings to be on the slight side though, so I'm not sure how they would compare to the other minis I've collected for my Middle Earth project; those are on the larger side of 28mm (close to 30mm in some cases), and non-heroic.
Could you please do a comparisson shot of an Ebob spearman next to a well known other miniature? GW LotR for instance? :)
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Thanks again for the comments.
First off is the first Orcish update, Oathmark Orc infantry with GW Warg Riders. Not the best pic but I’m beholden to Mother Nature!
(https://i.imgur.com/8ndPLCF.jpg)
Daeothar: The Warg riders are the only LotR GW models I currently have. Here’s a quick comparison with the Ebob and Conqueror models:
(https://i.imgur.com/yQ4JLtk.jpg)
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Really nice figures, the way I would like to do middle earth some day. The ebob figures for gondor got my attention. I have considered a number of options before but had not decided. I like your rocky basing style as well. I strongly recommend cropping your pictures to widescreen aspect ratios as all the wasted space detracts, IMO.
Also, thought the Conqueror dwarves were new sculpts, not rereleases of the Vendel ones. I compared pics and they are strikingly similar, but I do think I see some differences including the hammer shape of the ones with hammers. I suppose this range could include the Vendel ones with additions or even modifications to the original masters. Can someone confirm?
I like the Conqueror and Vendel dwarves and have been tempted before, but it's all or nothing with them, as they don't fit with other dwarves due to the short beards and tall stature.
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The Conqueror dwarfs are all-new sculpts I think, but indeed identival style wise. They are just a little bit taller than the Vendel ones, but well within established scientific norms for variation in dwarf height ;-). I have both and they fit perfectly together, really glad this style of dwarf is available again!
Nice painting BTW, an inspiration for my own dwarfs (and I have some of those Ebob normans too...might have to "borrow" your idea in the future).
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Speaking of eBob, everyone interested in ME should check out his spiders, if you haven't already?
I have some of eBobs Scots clansmen from the medieval Rebellion range, and they are rather delicate. I bought them to use as Dunlendings or similar, and they go well with LoTR minis, and they're tiny bit shorter than the general 28mm ranges of say Foundry (but their sizes are all over the place, depending on range) and plastics like GB, Warlord etc. Haven't painted them yet though.
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Fairly large update, meant to post more updates as I went but oh well. Just continued to paint the army. Only thing left is a giant and then I’ll call them complete for now.
(https://i.imgur.com/xpVc6sE.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/crYiU7f.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/h7CYBnj.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Fi5tjjv.jpg)
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Impressively motivating 8)
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Great stuff :)
Will we see them in a battle report at some point?
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Thabks, Silent Invader!
Great stuff :)
Will we see them in a battle report at some point?
Thank you! I just put the finishing touches on the last 8 dwarf bowmen from Conqueror Models (pics coming soon) so the plan is to fight the orcs against my dwarf-man allied army this coming weekend.
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That's a great looking force you've put together
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I look forward to more 8)
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Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any gaming so far. Middle Earth has been covered in canning products over the last few weeks. The smell of pickling cucumbers has permeated the house. No complaints though, love to eat them!
Enough of that, I know what is really wanted is painted plastic and lead - and without further ado:
Final 8 bow armed dwarfs from my first order from Conqueror Models.
(https://i.imgur.com/VStjLDd.jpg)
The Dwarven army with human allies, almost looks as though I may have to fight the Battle of the Five armies or any northern campaigns during the War of the Ring. Might see Bard II eventually.
(https://i.imgur.com/Qb4UXxj.jpg)
Next up, Mercenaries from Khand. An additional unit armed with bows and one with spears are definitely in the long term plans.
(https://i.imgur.com/BBPO2Qm.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Pon07N3.jpg)
Finally, the Reaper Giant. Really struggled to finish him, probably because I really enjoyed painting the Wargames Foundry Huns as Khand horsemen.
(https://i.imgur.com/nXWK0k7.jpg)
Finally, army shot of the Army of Mordor
(https://i.imgur.com/FVXRCqA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YXua6EU.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NnG6p1G.jpg)
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Finally, able to get a game in using the Dwarfs, men and orcs! This was an opening battle during the northern campaign when the forces of Mordor attempted to sweep out the Men of Dale and the Dwarfs from Lonely Mountain aside to open a second front against Gondor.
The deployment of the armies
(https://i.imgur.com/M4zJ0zO.jpg)
The battle would rage fiercest around the farm house all day as the Dwarfs and their King attempted to hold the forces of Mordor at bay.
(https://i.imgur.com/oxykhwu.jpg)
The Men of Dale backed by Radagast attempted to hold the right flank against fell creatures from Mordor.
(https://i.imgur.com/cKgPMHW.jpg)
The dwarf center was heavily engaged, desperate to defeat their orcish adversaries before Mordor reinforcements arrived.
(https://i.imgur.com/fqslEg2.jpg)
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Despite the valiant efforts, the right flank was destroyed and the remaining Warriors from Dale fell back before they were overwhelmed.
(https://i.imgur.com/C3UNdw4.jpg)
The battle around the farm house turned against the dwarfs as the giant arrived and began to crush dwarf warriors.
(https://i.imgur.com/yCsJKwe.jpg)
I forgot to take a lot of pictures as the game got going! We used a rule set that I wrote and there needs to be a few changes. My orc army is much larger than the dwarfs and men and have quite a few more units as well. Add to that, my son’s dice were on fire led to a massive defeat.
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;D
Young people 's dice rolling is a force multiplier.
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;D
Young people 's dice rolling is a force multiplier.
You’re so right! Needing 4’s he would consistently roll 6 out 8 on the dice.
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Addition to the dwarf army: some Hearth Guard from Conqueror Models. I swapped out their normal shields with some round shields to kit in with the rest of the army. Absolutely love these models and I definitely plan on adding to them! Also included, two dwarf heroes but they were cropped out when uploading the pictures.
(https://i.imgur.com/GCWvCSh.jpg)
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Superb! These are the classic Vendel Dwarfs?
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Superb! These are the classic Vendel Dwarfs?
Thank you, no this is a new line from Conqueror Models
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Addition to the dwarf army: some Hearth Guard from Conqueror Models. I swapped out their normal shields with some round shields to kit in with the rest of the army. Absolutely love these models and I definitely plan on adding to them! Also included, two dwarf heroes but they were cropped out when uploading the pictures.
(https://i.imgur.com/GCWvCSh.jpg)
Oh my those are tremendous
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They look the biz 8)
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Wow amazing
(but toy really need a cloth/mat ;))
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Thanks everyone. @thebinmann, I agree! I hope to get one pretty soon.
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Definition of a dwarf ... "Grimm, fearless, proud ... with waists and knees!"
Check, check, check, check and check!
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Thank you, no this is a new line from Conqueror Models
Killshot,
Are all the dwarves Conqueror? Or just this specific unit?
Grimm
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Suitably grim and resolute looking Dwarves. I love what you have done with them. I agree, the change in shields for the hearth guard is spot on. My only complaint is that the beards are too short. Other than that, they are perfect.
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Grimm: my entire dwarf army is currently made of the Conqueror Model dwarfs. They are an absolute blast to paint. I still have plans to continue to expand the army further.
Ethelred and Brandlin: Thank you! Definitely agree with your assessment of the miniatures.
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Grimm: my entire dwarf army is currently made of the Conqueror Model dwarfs. They are an absolute blast to paint. I still have plans to continue to expand the army further.
Same sculptor so that is a good thing there.
Coincidencly, the Vendel range saved by SSG was saved from SSG and released.
Someone on a forum somewhere was asking about the Vendel range, couple weeks later the announcement.
I just cant fir ge life of me remember where I say the query.
But your dwarves are damn ssxy.
Grimm
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Same sculptor so that is a good thing there.
Coincidencly, the Vendel range saved by SSG was saved from SSG and released.
Someone on a forum somewhere was asking about the Vendel range, couple weeks later the announcement.
I just cant fir ge life of me remember where I say the query.
But your dwarves are damn ssxy.
Grimm
Thistle and Rose miniatures appears to have picked them up http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=487490
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Hello, nicely done! Enjoyed both armies and the report! :D :D
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Amazing project. The Dwarfs and Gondorians are a blast :o
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Everything here is tops, the choice of minis, the painting, the atmosphere of the games. :)
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I really love this project!! Those Dwarves are very good!! Thank you for the battle reports.
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Thanks everyone, I haven’t had much time to work on the project lately. I do have another box of orcs I’ve almost completed and I have received two boxes and the command figures of the humans from North Star. Now just need to find some time!
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I had commented that it was a pity the Dwarves had short beards, but I could be completely wrong.
Messing around doing nothing particularly useful I found a Tolkien Wiki page that mentioned some notes from one of the History of Middle Earth volumes.
It states that there were several groupings of Dwarves: Longbeards (Durin's house and , I suppose, possibly others), Broadbeams and Firebeards. So possibly some Dwarves did have shorter beards.
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Belegost
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Finally getting back into painting, been busy with work with long days. Anyways, finished up a second box of orcs! Standards are skulls from GW’s skull box.
(https://i.imgur.com/Y31qGjK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/U9rHgsy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/hvlF9pH.jpg)
Started on some humans. Did the champion as a test for the color scheme.
(https://i.imgur.com/0DPhuFh.jpg)
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Those orcs / goblins have turned out well.
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Yup, those orcs look great. The red and mustardy clothing works really well.
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Forgot to include the latest army update.
(https://i.imgur.com/S6WgPDB.jpg)
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Those orcs / goblins have turned out well.
I agree- they really remind me of the Tolkien-inspired 1970's illustrations of Orcs .
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Finally finished up some of the Oathmark humans. I really like the plastic kit and have another one that I plan to do some different conversions.
(https://i.imgur.com/k5Fc3Mq.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nmKI581.jpg/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/SIXY9p7.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/pmhrRj6.jpg)
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Close up on the archers
(https://i.imgur.com/SIXY9p7.jpg)
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They look great! That's a really nice shield design: simple and very effective.
Terrific stuff!
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Though I'm not a fan of plastic miniatures, I have to admit that these humans do look nice.
And the paintjob is even nicer.
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Nice work.
I always think these figures would make nice fantasy Britons/Saxons/Angles. Wonder what they look like with round shields?
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@hobgoblin: thank you, I went back and forth on trying a more intricate design but decided that simple worked better for the look I was going for.
@shaved dwarf: thank you! I think this is a great plastic kit, probably one of my favorites.
@Nord: thanks, I have been considering using round shields for the swordsmen.
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Complete 15 more Oathmark Humans. Added some round shields and swapped out some heads with Fireforge Templar heads.
(https://i.imgur.com/kUYeCLQ.jpg)
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Nice :-*
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The unit came out great.
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which kingdom are they meant to represent? Gondor's Feifdoms, Rohan, the Bjornings?
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Thanks everyone. I know they have the Rohan colors but I envisioned them more as Fiefdom troops
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Thanks everyone. I know they have the Rohan colors but I envisioned them more as Fiefdom troops
perhaps Anórien then? the strip of land north of the Ered Nimrais/White Mountains and south of the Anduin river which was the only bit Gondor kept after giving the rest of the lands north of it to the Éothéod to form Rohan. since the West Road ran through it and Rohan bordered it, Anórien was a fairly strategic region for Gondor (one reason Mordor blocked travel through it by grabbing Cair Andros during the siege of Minas Tirith, forcing the rohirrim to go through the Druadan forest and the mountains) so it would have a fairly strong militia, and given the proximity to Rohan it is likely that a lot of intermarrying occurred up there, resulting in a lot of rohirric elements in their army.
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Very nice!
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They look great 8)
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Lovely work :)
Fiefdom fits in my head better than actual Rohirrim.
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Loving this project. Aesthetically much more suited to LOTR than Peter Jackson and GW.
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i'm curious to see what he does for the Rohirrim. Tolkein himself wrote he was inspired by the Anglo-saxons when he invented Rohan, but since the real anglo-saxons were not big on cavalry there aren't all that many miniatures makers making mounted saxons at all, much less in the kind of variety needed. and things like mounted Picts or late rome germanic tribesmen tend not to have a lot of armor on.
thinking on it, his best bet might be to kitbash, using gripping beast plastics with late roman/arthurian cavalry bodies, arms, and mounts, and then heads and shields from the saxon infantry set.
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Thanks everyone!
I have some fuzzy plans on how to build some Rohirrim. I think a good starting point is the Dark Age Cavalry box but I haven’t gone much further than a generic plan.
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the dark age cavalry box makes unarmored riders. basically tunics and helmets.
https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2018/03/gripping-beast-dark-ages-cavalry-kit.html
i suggested the Late roman set because those riders have chainmail over their tunics. the suggestion of the saxon infantry set was for heads and infantry use (the saxon infantry come with enough extra heads to equip the riders no problem)
https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2018/06/photo-review-gripping-beast-late-roman.html
though if the late roman style helmets are ok with you you could probably just use the late roman set straight.
or buy both the late roman cav and dark age cav set to mix and match. :)
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I would use normans with round shields for the better equipped cavalry.
Milo.
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Conquest Normans with GB Saxon heads and round shields?
I used that combo to make some "sons of eorl" and was happy with the results, sorry no pics handy though.
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I am in the process of painting up Gripping Beast Dark age cavalry (unarmoured), Late Roman Cavalry and making dismounted equivalents from the Gripping Beast Dark Age infantry. I wish I had seen the oathmark humans before I bought the infantry as they are closer in style to the mounted figures and there are plenty spare heads on the spues and bits box to kit them out.
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Finished up the final Humans from the box.
(https://i.imgur.com/2IadhrY.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/P0vxbfx.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/EnIu7R5.jpg)
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Some light cavalry made of Gripping Beast Dark Age cavalry, Oathmark heads and weapons and finished up with cloaks from Fireforge.
(https://i.imgur.com/Pnovyzc.jpg)
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They look great! The Dark Age cavalry scrub up really nicely with some head swaps, I did a few for my Game of Thrones force. The cloaks work great too, really reinforce the dynamic poses.
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Agreed! Excellent kitbashes there! Impressed at how well the different manufacturer parts work together there too!
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Solid work overall. I really enjoy seeing this project adding up. Like full forces.
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Thanks everyone! This is the last foray into Middle Earth for a while. Going to back to the Old World with some Dragon Rampant forces next.
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Those turned out extremely well, nice job!
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They work very well :)