Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: spud on November 29, 2015, 05:31:37 AM
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Hello. I have been doing various units from the LOTR/Silmarilian in 1/72 for games like Kings of War. The idea is to mix historical 1/72's with 28mm Fantasy. To start, here are some Gondor archers. Based on the HAT EL Cid set
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Really nice idea. I look forward to seeing you develop this.
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Nice, check out the red box rabge, really nice orcs and uruks there
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Hello.
Thanks for the interest! Yes, I have seen the Light alliance LOTR figures, not sure of the other ones....those definately have an LOTR feel, but I am using whatever I happen to find at the hobby shop which fits, rather than committing to one or two particular kits...I use any anicent kit which feels right. Here are some Gondor Spearmen, again from the HAT El Cid. Why 1/72? From that one box I got 2 x 10 archers and 2 x 20 spearmen plus a hunch of extras for about 18 bucks
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Looking good so far
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There's actually a few fantasy 1/72 sets out there.
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/ShowFeature.aspx?id=39
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I picked up 3 of these old GW Dwarf Catapults ages ago.
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Great job, I love 1/72 plastic miniatures!
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Your shield would look better with the tree of gondor freehanded over then ;)
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Your shield would look better with the tree of gondor freehanded over then ;)
Now do that on that bucketload of tiny 1/72 miniatures...
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Yes, my free hand is not very good and this is about volume...I just want to crank out figures for the mass effect. Also doing the baddies. Here are some28mm GW orks as ogres. With the troops for scale.
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used the same ide here months ago! are you sure that you aren't "taking inspiration" from somewhere? :D
What next zvezda elephants as mumakils???
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Cheap plastic toy elephants as mūmakils ?
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used the same ide here months ago! are you sure that you aren't "taking inspiration" from somewhere?
hahaha...no I already started a thread of this on Warseer and Dakka ages ago, but moved here due to lack of interest from the GW heads...in the process of r eshooting all my stuff as thus site only accepts smaller files....do you have a link to your stuff?
I may not tackle the mumakils...I pretty much base what I work on on what I find at the local store.....If I find a kit that fits, I work it in
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in fact I was inspired by a guy who made warmaster in 1/72
plenty of stoff on the lotr label in the blog: http://noigrimintothemaelstorm.blogspot.com.es/ (http://noigrimintothemaelstorm.blogspot.com.es/)
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Nice...I am working on those dwarves as well...I got two boxes for which should give 2x20 swordsmen and 1x20 Elite with the two handers...
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they are really cheap, my next conversion will be using some elves of that range as cavalry the guys with two swords and some archers
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I have a bunch of 1/72 scale elephants and cataphracts I am trying to deal away! I used to be knee deep in that scale but now as my eyes get older..... :D
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Hello. Here are some Gondor Elite. From the Ceasar Knight kit.
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Here are some old GW Dryads..using as Entlings
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Those dryads look better than the new ones too aimed at the horny kids those lol
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Agree...Maybe I am getting old, but I am finding that all the old metal models have more appeal..they just have so much more character that the plastic kits
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I like what you show us here.
Go on!
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Thanks! Hope to have some more pics soon
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Ok, a few more...one of the more enjoyable aspects of this project is finding fresh love for old figures from the bits box...here is a 2 headed giant aka GW ogre.
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Here is the entire Gondor force
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Nice parade. :D They look the business. Nice giant too! You've hidden the join between heads and body pretty nicely.
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The heads connect pretty well...not much filling was required. I picked up 3 boxes of Skull Pass back in the day...some giant spiders
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hat rulebook'll you use, looks like some historicals basing right now
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Though the individual painting isn't very ellaborated, your army looks amazing all together. Please, bring us more 20mm vignettes like these.
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Thanks! Yes, this project is about volume, not individual models. I mainly use the free Kings of War rules which is all about massive amounts of troops with little emphasis on heroes...you do not remove models, just make note of casualties until the unit folds. I am working towards the Last Alliance battle which is described in the Silmarillion as a battle between all that is good vs all that is bad...a good excuse to mix things up....best part is that Gondor army cost less that $50
I use a very fast method to paint..First block out the colors, wash, heavy dry brush of white to pick out all the details then a quick tint of the original colors thinned with a water/dish soap mix...not a wash, but a glaze to add color to the white highlights....the swordsmen are a good example.
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Representing all that is evil, here are some ancient Revell 15th Century Knights to be used as Black Numenorian. These figures represent all that is horrible about old school 1/72...I had them lying around forever until bringing them into this project. The paint flakes like crazy on these old kits so I used a new trick...Aleenes Tack it Again glue...its is more or less glue that does not dry..used for scrap booking, stays sticky and flexible. Too late to prime these with the glue, but have been repairing flakes..so far so good....
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I like the look of the cavalry. Too bad the paint flakes so badly, though--that can be so demoralizing!
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I found the flake to be a problem with older kits...new ones with harder plastic like Ceasar do not have the problem...You all should recognize this dude...using old old school 25mm for the heroes...no idea of the make or year of this, fished it out of ye olde bits box
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I used the army painter inks and now the vallejo sepia ink, not sure about its protection power tough since the models haven't left the display yet.
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Hey Happy New Year all..now down to business...here are my take on the orcs...these were some of the first I did, so a little sloppy...but as I mentioned, this project is about masses of troops rather than individuals. I know about the Dark Alliance 1/72 orcs but felt they were too close to the Peter Jackson/GW style of hulking brutes. I wanted something closer to the description in the Silmariolian...corrupt beings, scavengers armed with whatever they find. I used a mish mash of Egyptians, Romans and Samurai to get a chaotic horde feel. Painted the skin oranage brown and sliced off the noses to give a more beast like look.
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I like your armies! Mass has a charm all its own! I own all those soft plastic figs. Been buying and painting them since the early70's. All you need to do to prevent flaking is wash the figs in warm, soapy water. Prime with Rustoleum Plastic Spray primer. Seal with Plasti-dip clear rubberized spray. You will NOT be able to make the figs shed paint! I have some that are 15-20 years old with zero flaking problems.
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Thanks! Will look into that...one more
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red box! red box! :'(
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I always felt the GW black orcs looked like the ROTK armored trolls. Love how they tower over the troops
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one more
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Hey all. Here is someone you should recognize. A Reaper Bones DnD Pit Fiend...felt he looked pretty close to the classic image of a Balrog. They have a few demons that work well...loving Bones...they are so cheap and characterful. This guys was under 10 bucks. With some orcs for scale.
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Ooh, wings! Don't let Hobgoblin see it. lol ;)
Nice work on that. I like the way the contrast in colours (brown wash over a yellow basecoat?) makes the textures pop.
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Ooh, wings! Don't let Hobgoblin see it. lol ;)
I shall refrain from comment, except to say that these massed forces look terrific! ;)
Nice work on that. I like the way the contrast in colours (brown wash over a yellow basecoat?) makes the textures pop.
And to agree with that!
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As a fellow proxy figure user for Tolkien inspired armies I salute your endeavours in 1/72 scale. In particular your use of varying scales for the monsters and beasties like Ents and Trolls from 25/28mm ranges. The overall massed effect is tremendous.
It is a refreshing challenge to create your own take on the books which I have personally enjoyed immensely. There are a few of us about and MerlintheMad on this forum has been inspirational to me over the years and I'm sure would not object to the plug of his excellent website
http://larsen-family.us/~1066/pelennor.html
with some interesting suggestions for historical equivalents
http://larsen-family.us/~1066/melists.html
Don't forget the various Gondorian levies that came in a variety of guises like the "three hundreds of gallant green-clad men" from Pinnath Gelin, and Forlong the Fat and his hillmen from Lossarnach "well-armed and bearing great battle-axes" I would have thought Saxo/Vikings would suit for Forlong and his band while Crusades or 100yw era archers and men at arms would suit for the remainder.
I have always believed Tolkien's writings were a product of his time as well as his scholarship of myths and legends. You could draw upon these for sourcing figures for your 1/72 armies. The Ithilien rangers were so clearly inspired by 'Robin Hood', while the Haradrim reminded me of the saracens from tales like 'Ivanhoe' and the 'Song of Roland'. I always thought the use of black and white as emblems of Gondor were strongly evocative of the Crusading orders like the Templars and Hospitallers. Easterlings could so easily be proxied by Huns or other steppe nomads.
If I had this project to do I'd probably use Normans for the Rohirrim. The description of Saruman's Uruk legions also strongly reminded me of Imperial Romans and I was particularly pleased with their rendition in the films. I particularly like your take on the orcs... an amorphous polyglot horde of humanoids. I see Romans and barbarians feature. Don't forget Sarumans use of Dunlendings, both mounted and infantry which could be any number of Dark age warriors. I'm scouting around for proxies atm for my 25mm armies. The Morgul army in the books had a host of black clad cavalry that were not solely wraiths but men allied to Sauron. You could field a unit of Teutonic knights that would also suit that purpose we methinks.
As for the mighty Mumaks, you could do no better than contact the guys at Aventine miniatures. Their 28mm metal heffalumps are absolutely gorgeous
https://aventineminiatures.co.uk/
https://aventineminiatures.co.uk/elephants/
Converted 1/72 cavalrymen could serve as mahouts and various infantry as howdah crew. If you sourced 1/72 elephants you could even use the smaller animals as beasts of burden to pull/push siege engines etc. while using the crews as is on the larger beasties...
The rest of the Haradrim could easily be draw form El Cid, Arab conquest and Crusading ranges with Carthaginians, Persians, Numidians etc thrown in for good measure...
The possibilities are endless, particularly given the popularity of 1/72. I find myself looking longingly at all the box sets arrayed in my local model stores and bemoaning the dearth of ranges when I first started gaming back in the day...
I look forward to seeing how this project progresses
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Thanks all the suggestions! For the Balrog, I dry bushed dark red to yellow and then went over the highlights with very thin tints...one more angle
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Everything sukhe_bator said....the fun is finding the right model to match the unit....I am trying to avoid ordering specific kits, rather using what I find at my local shop..Here are some Black Numenorian Elite Foot. This was the same 15th century Knight kit as the Gondor Elite, but with closed helmets. Two full units for 15 bucks..whats not to love.
One thing....I am just getting into photography...seeing how sloppy my figs are up close...yikes....going to have to clean up a lot!
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Looking great spud!
I know what you mean, though I don't have much by way of casual choice to browse in the shops here in the UK in 25/28mm. Its almost all mail order over here. I envy you the ease with which you can adapt figures and achieve massed results. If I had my time over again I think I might have gone down the road you have but using 15mm historical proxies.
Some of my most successful figure projects though are from those picked up ad hoc at a Bring and Buy at one of my small local shows.
I got a whole load of Fireforge dismounted knights from my wishlist for Xmas. I'm planning to use them as foot captains for my GoT Westerosi and Night's Watch and the remainder as Gondorian foot, but having all that lovely choice is actually quite daunting. I like using a limited palette when painting, so I guess having limited figure choices sparks the creative side in much the same way.
Just recently I've had fun converting some surplus GW Uruk Hai sappers into crossbowmen using Perry and Fireforge crossbow parts and green stuff.
Atm I've put them on the back burner in favour of building up a unit of Dunlending cavalry using some Grenadier mounted barbarians and GW Rohirrim with Gripping Beast Dark Age/Viking heads and weapons - I actually find that easier than assembling a load of kits - Go figure!
BTW you should see some of my posts. Photos, particularly close ups, always show up the most cringeworthy bits of your paint jobs.
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Thanks for the kind words. These are some horrible figures that look ok massed up. From a board game called Ikusa, you get close to 450 figures for about 70 bucks...gave acouple of bags away and am using these as Easterlings, painted in the Peter Jackson style.
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Yep, they'll do the trick!
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ya, not the best, but they do the job...probably going to do 2x10 archers and that's it for that. Anyway, here are the forces of Mordor so far...apologies for the blurry pic. In ove 20 years of GW, I have never been able to paint so many troops..always get bogged down in the packs, belts, jewelry, fiddly details that get lost in the mass
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Spud, the old Arcane Legions are 1/72 scale and have some great units to use. You can find them cheap on eBay or at Miniature Market.com.
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Thnx I always wondered about those figs
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I really like what I see. :o
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A very inspiring thread indeed!
Love the idea of mixing scales to have war trolls and right sizes catapults.
Keep an posting, please!
Cheers
GS
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Thanks...The mixing of scales is what keeps me going with this project. 1/72 is the key...it fits with 25mm like this RingWraith as well as the 28mm stuff.
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used the samurai-easterlings idea too I guess that we have a limited range of possibilities in 1/72
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Those Ikusa ones with the cone helmets work well...super cheap. Anyway, Hobgoblins post about orcs had me rethinking mine...I love the image of the Bakshi orks..dark features, red eyes....the red didn't work at this scale, but white does...really liking this scheme...the brown one looks generic bestial while the black ones with the creepy eyes just seem more orcy to me....yes? no? Either way, too late, already started the repaint....65 more to go....sigh
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Hello. Finally finished the first orc unit repaint in the new scheme. As mentioned, I was going for the look from the Bakshi Animated films...dark obscured features with gleaming eyes..the beards on the Sea People..the ones with the horns, make the face look very beasty in black...and of course my OCD demanded a new base style...wasn't crazy about the thin plastic.
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My first gander at this thread. What a fun project!! Looking forward to some batreps/AAR's with these!
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At the end of the day the bases have to a) obscure the figure bases (and the 1/72nd ones are surprisingly thick on some sculpts and b) be easy to handle. I've found to my cost NOT to scale down the thickness of card I use for my 15mm figures. I imagine more 'bendy' plastic 1/72nds are also prone to damage and paint loss from occasional 'fat finger syndrome'. Go with what works best for you...
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This is I think 1/4 inch wood. I started by using the plastic card as a movement tray for individual pieces, but went with a unit approach once I realized how bendy and flaky the 1/72 could be....figured they had to be kept upright so started making mini dioramas. Never was crazy about them so I wont have much to post for a while, as I am re-doing the bases in wood. In the meantime, here is my first unit of Dwarfs from Light Alliance. A bit big and beefy for dwarfs, but works for me. 2 Boxes got me 2x20 sheildwall and and 1x20 two handed weapons, plus some extra's as war machine crew...have 3 cannon from Skull Pass on the way...