Dunedain, Elves, Orcs and.. Mr Wolf and Mason Go There and Back Again. 23/03

[Hammers]

Here you have too Copplestone's half-Orcs which are a must:

I love these and have them all. They are not 100% up to current sculpting/casting standards (several having that Mr. Shit-My-Pants stance)  but I have used them for uruk-hai (does the canon tell us whether these cads *did* actually shit their pants)?

[Hammers]

it was funny more than terrible.

Its a bit like the sweden denmark rivalry I suspect. Good mates but dont want to share the same house.

I think that's different. Norwegians and Danes bitch about Swedes, Swedes smile politely back at them and shares the joke with other Swedes when alone.

[Hammers]

Right. This is all very inspiring an threatens to pull me back into LotR gaming. It was pretty much the only thing I gamed back in the day. Me and my friends made quite a sport of trying to amass miniatures for whatever we visioned. Most was based around the Mithril Miniatures available at he time, bulked out with what suited. Mithril were primarily intended for the collectors and RPG market and were to expensive and had to few rank and file variety for even moderate massed battle.

In the end we had done everything from Battle of Bywater, Flies and Spiders, Morannon, Pelennor fileds,  the Fords of Isen, White Wolves in the Shire, Helms Deep...

Now, 15 years later, I have a collection of about 2000 Mihril Miniatures, painted and unpainted, sitting in a chest. On top of that I have a collection of GW LotR. I long got the day when I revive some of the old scenarios. I especially enjoyed the battles in the Shire.

[Mason]

Hammers: You are at least partially responsible for this new found LotR interest of mine, so I hope it does encourage you to break out the old figures.
 

Some recent comments of yours regarding Laketown have gotten me thinking about some scenery too, at the beginning I was only thinking of figures...

[Hammers]

Hammers: You are at least partially responsible for this new found LotR interest of mine, so I hope it does encourage you to break out the old figures.
 

Some recent comments of yours regarding Laketown have gotten me thinking about some scenery too, at the beginning I was only thinking of figures...

Yes, that would be quite lovely. Mithril made a quite good background article in their 'fancine' on the plausible 'real' history of Laketown and Dale. The attack by Samug is not all that much fun to game, IMO, but there are several other battles of the cannon (along with other plausible what-ifs scenarios). For Laketown guard I am not happy with neither Mithril nor GW and would try to source something different, perhaps the Dark Sword Minis Nightswatch minis.

The people of Dale and Laketown are Northmen,according to Tolkien, related to Rohirrim, the Woodmen of Mirkword, the people of the vale of Anduin and more. I'd like there to some cultural consistency between them.

[Mason]

Seeing as how the Rohirrim were originally inhabitants of the Upper Anduin, (IIRC) and I am using Saxons for them, then I see the other Northmen to look more like Norsemen with more of a Rus influence the further East you go.

That's my take on it anyway.

[Blackwolf]

Thanks for the comments chaps Some Orcs up today

Hammers; I/we would love to see you start on LOTR again

As for the stirrup question that Deafnala mentioned; well...I have converted some plastic Normans with Saxon heads,they are now rejects,not happy with them; for one thing the Riders of Rohan loved their horses and were excellent riders,so no curved bits for me,only snaffles.I could of course convert the figures,however my skills only go so far. And the interesting thing is that stirrups don't make for better cavalry,they just make it easier. So I posit that to keep the feel/ mood I want some things will inaccurate,but then the films are the mother lode of inaccuracies So I'm not too worried.

[Blackwolf]

Some orcs,more to follow...




All Asgard,given to me by Paul,they still stand up,I think ,cracking figures.

[tradgardmastre]

What an enjoyable and inspiring thread this has been filled with some super ideas and figures...

I have advanced on 2 fronts really regarding Middle Earth gaming-

I have been collecting Minifigs Mythical Earth figures ( to replace/rebuild the ones I had in my teens) ove rthe last year or so.maybe a little longer.

I got the GW Moria set around ten(?) years ago and have collected the odd addition to it.

Now i am tempted to try something a little different for skirmish gaming inspired by your thread.I looked at the Night Watch figure you mentioned and did wonder too if a 12/13th century vibe would fit Laketown/Dale?Some early HYW archers perhaps for guard?
I did find the costumes/design for Dale most interesting but don't quite see them that way .
Finally any troll ideas to share with us?
cheers
Alan

[Blackwolf]

Hello Trad,sounds like good plan; I also had those Minifigs,thousands of them,the whiff of nostalgia...Ah.
 I like to think,and it's backed up by Tolkien's writings that the men of Dale as Northmen are related to the Rohirrim,just a bit more earthbound.Now Tolkien writes that the Rohan before leaving the North had Gothic style names only adopting the more Anglo-Saxon names when they settled in Calenardhon (Rohan),so if I ever get round to the men of Dale I'm inclined to give them an Ostrogothic/Frisian etc sort of look rather than the Eastern flavour that the Hobbit films portray...However I am rambling

[Mason]

 

Bloody hell, mate!
Those Orcs look gorgeous.
 

The Asgard Orcs are the things that I am looking forward to painting the most.
My intention was to get four units of Gondor done first, but my resolve is wavering having seen these.

I am changing my mind and now think that I shall alternate between units of Gondor and Mordor.
You are a bad man, Mr Wolf.
 

[Blackwolf]

 

[Hammers]

Hello Trad,sounds like good plan; I also had those Minifigs,thousands of them,the whiff of nostalgia...Ah.
 I like to think,and it's backed up by Tolkien's writings that the men of Dale as Northmen are related to the Rohirrim,just a bit more earthbound.Now Tolkien writes that the Rohan before leaving the North had Gothic style names only adopting the more Anglo-Saxon names when they settled in Calenardhon (Rohan),so if I ever get round to the men of Dale I'm inclined to give them an Ostrogothic/Frisian etc sort of look rather than the Eastern flavour that the Hobbit films portray...However I am rambling

Cris Tubb of Mithril Miniatures picked up on another  aspect of the Dale/Laketown Northmen which I like. While they share ancestry with the Rohirrim, their culture were under the influence from others for a long time. The  men of Dale would pick up on many things dwarven as the lived under the shade of Erebor. So would the Lake men, probably, but since they were mainly traders, they would also absorb items and styles from the neighboring Easterling tribes (which whoever of this amorphous mass lived closest).

Personally I think that's something PJ's The Hobbit got right, sort of, in the costumes and armor of the Dale/Lake men guards. They look vaguely ... Rus (?), although a bit too over the top and too much fantasy.

This is all just inference from what is after all a story, but it helps me in create something which feels more realistic. More gamers than I seem to aspire to achieve the same.

[Blackwolf]

Of course,and an good point you make too. In the end it's the the name Bard which evokes a look to me,one that happens to be Northern German and an look I like
  It goes back to what  I wrote about stirrups,or lack thereof; whilst I find this acceptable,curbed bits(and spurs) I do not.

[Mitch K]

Some orcs,more to follow...




All Asgard,given to me by Paul,they still stand up,I think ,cracking figures.

I remember buying my copies of these orcs, nearly thirty years ago, from the comic and game shop in the arcade in the middle of Leicester . I still have them and, to my mind, they are still the best orc figures I've seen. These capture what I thought orcs were like long before GW or Peter Jackson started stamping their "orthodoxy" on fantasy...