Painting my Silmarillion Elf Conversions UPDATE 20 Feb Thingol of Doriath

[guitarheroandy]

Here is a test paint job for the forces of Doriath from The Silmarillion that I converted and prepared about two years ago originally for Dragon Rampant (there's a thread on here somewhere with the builds). Lost mojo and real life kinda got in the way, but I figured now was the time to have a go at splashing some colour on them...

I've gone for a 'realistic' book-appropriate look so have totally avoided all reference to the PJ LOTR movies. It's not that I dislike that look, but I wanted this force to look the way I imagine the Elves when I read The Silmarillion.

This figure is basically a Victrix Anglo-Dane Huscarl. The head is the bottom part of a Victrix Repubican Roman Montefortino helmet with the top of the helmet being one of the 'headless' nasal helms from the Huscarl box set. The crest and the Elf's hair have been created with Green-stuff. The stars on the shield are WW2 US Army decals.

I chose to paint this model in layers over a black undercoat - first time in years I've tried that. To be fair, I'm nothing like the painter I was when I used to use this technique all the time, but it's worked out ok and I'll stick with it for this army.

This Elf is one of Thingol's bodyguards - the gold-embroidered grey tunic, blue-grey cloak and gold-decorated weapons and white-crested helmet indicate his status. Lesser warriors will sport no gold helmets or weapons and will have different coloured tunic trim.

I'm happy with the colour scheme. I've gone for greys and greyish blues and greens as the main colour theme as grey is mentioned a lot in the books and I guess would do for most Elf houses (as Doriath didn't really do a lot in battle in the Silmarillion). I dunno if stars are appropriate for the shields (I'm sure there are stars on Thingol's heraldic symbol so I guess it's ok -I'm not that much of a stickler for full 'accuracy' anyway).

I hope you like him and hopefully I'll keep up some progress - I'm painting these in between doing units for a Wars of the Roses army for a summer campaign at the club, so progress won't be speedy.

[Kelly_]

Great job on the color choices, the leather and gold really complement the grays and blues without overpowering them.

[DivisMal]

I like him. Especially the „grounded“ vision (i.e. no super dynamic, flying death kick sculpt) works great. Not sure about the starrs, though. They look too modern for me.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looks great! I think the stars work.

[Little Odo]

Looking very good so far. Just wondering what a whole unit will look like 

[guitarheroandy]

Looking very good so far. Just wondering what a whole unit will look like 

Well, this is Dragon Rampant and it's a reduced model unit of Elite Foot, but nonetheless I can assure you that I've begun work on the rest of the unit! 

[guitarheroandy]

I've managed to finish the first unit in my 'book accurate' Silmarillion Dragon Rampant Doriath army.

Here is Thingol, King of Doriath, with his banner bearer and his bodyguards. They are a reduced model unit - on the table, each bodyguard is worth one strength point and the command base is worth three.

The guards are all Victrix Anglo-Danes with Republican Roman Montefortino helmet heads, the tops of which have been replaced by the 'headless' nasal helms from the Anglo-Dane box. Thingol is the Oathmark free metal hero that came with the first Elf boxed set deals. He has a GW Galadhrim Court head and a plastic cloak from the bits box. The banner bearer is an Anglo-Dane with a GW Galadhrim hero head. The banner was hand drawn.

I'm pleased with these - the 'three layers on a black undercoat' approach was hard to do after nearly 10 years not doing it, but thanks to a brilliant new lamp I was able to do a decent enough job although extreme close-ups aren't the best idea!

I'll be back to painting Wars of the Roses for a week or two now, but I'll be painting Mablung of the Heavy Hand and his Thanes next from this army...

[Olsson]

An excellent little unit with a lot of character! I've always quite liked seeing the various people here on lead adventure try and do the more dark ages themed versions of Middle Earth. You've picked good colours that make them pop, and the little details truly do evoke the feeling of them being noble and august warriors, befitting the elves. While I like the star theme it seems to be that you can see the outline of the transfer clear plastic on a few shields. Have you thought of sealing them in with some varnish?

Looking forward to seeing more.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Brilliant work!

[guitarheroandy]

An excellent little unit with a lot of character! I've always quite liked seeing the various people here on lead adventure try and do the more dark ages themed versions of Middle Earth. You've picked good colours that make them pop, and the little details truly do evoke the feeling of them being noble and august warriors, befitting the elves. While I like the star theme it seems to be that you can see the outline of the transfer clear plastic on a few shields. Have you thought of sealing them in with some varnish?

Looking forward to seeing more.

I'm not an expert on using decals, so thank you very much for the tip. I'll try a coat of gloss varnish then do a layer of Dullcote to matte them back down. 

[Little Odo]

The unit looks fantastic - great work. I like the battle scene too; the comparison they make with your motley group of rag-tag orcs (nicely done btw) make the elves look very noble. Nice painting all round on a great concept. Looking forward to seeing more when you get around to completing your Dragon Rampant army.