Sukhe's Armies of Middle Earth

[sukhe_bator]

Some of you have shown an interest in seeing my Lord of The Rings inspired armies and terrain under one banner, so here goes...

Background

I've been a lifelong Tolkien fan and have been collecting related fantasy figures on and off for about 30 years. They have been my single most enduring themed figure collection. I have in more recent years been collecting ad hoc those GW minis from the PJ films that seemed to most fit the descriptions of the various races in my minds eye, but I have some more whimsical fantasy figures that I have adapted. My aim - quite simply to recreate my version of some of the iconic battle scenes of the TA using masses of troops, and with the scenery to match. Harad, Easterlings, Mordor, Morgul will each be armies in their own right...

My take on LoTR is that it is very much a product of Tolkien's times, so the inspirations for his races and characters seem rooted in the popular stories of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, the narrative of Outremer as well as his exposure to the classical sagas and tales he studied as a linguist.

Gondor
 
The descriptions in the LoTR, particularly the emphasis on mail, shields and the emphasis on the colours black and white strongly suggest to me the Hospitaller, Templar and Teutonic orders. The effigies of the knights in the Temple church always remind me of the fallen kings and stewards of Gondor. http://oreald.com/pictures/t/y/0000184.jpg
Thus my LoTR Gondorians are firmly rooted in the late C12 and C13, but with the lesser troops with their outmoded dress and equipment straying a little later into the HYW period.
I rewatched 'Kingdom of Heaven' recently, and for me it was in essence a conflict between 'Harad' and 'Gondor' but with different flags...

Harad

These seem to me (un-PC as it may be) firmly rooted in the generic Middle Eastern and North African opponents of the Arab conquest and the later 'Saracens' of the crusading period. Films such as 'El Cid' were inspirational to me growing up. While the tale is C11, the European knights all sport C13 equipment and heraldry. Who cannot fail to picture Herbert Lom as the 'Serpent lord' rallying his troops at the Pelennor fields. Harad have contested Gondor in the past so I reasoned must have a comparable depth of culture and technology level. Thus I've cast widely and looked to the C12 and C13 armies of the Middle East, but given the continuity in equipment and fighting styles used have expanded the source of figures back to the Arab conquest and even the Achaemenid and Sassanid Persians, with men of Far Harad drawn from the Sudanaic desert tribes of that period as well as recruiting Beja with pre-gunpowder weapons.   

Mordor

I was particularly taken by Nick Lund's Chronicle orcs when he first started up and have made that my main collection. I liked the thickset, brutish look, that was at odds with the more comical goblin-like take other fantasy figure sculptors adopted as the accepted look for 'orcs'. I continued to collect his figures when he moved to Citadel and Grenadier and have amassed a respectable horde, including over 40 wolf riders.

More recently (after realising that Mordor's human allies outnumbered his orc legions) I converted 150 Em4 plastic orcs into a second Orkish legion.

The knotty problem of suitable humans for the host of 'black clad cavalry' that issues from Morgul eludes me somewhat, but I plan to supplement the GW Black riders with suitably matching barded and cloaked crusader cavalry...

I'm a fan of the PJ trolls, so these are pretty much as they come...

Easterlings

Variags of Khand and Easterlings I see as a combination of cultures based around the Hunnic and Turkic semi-nomadic cultures. I've used converted BTD Kurds as suitably shaggy looking tribesmen and equipped them with axes. For the more civilized parts I've used Curteys medieval Tibetans into spear armed regiments and aim to supplement them with converted Gripping Beast Huns and Mongols and Fireforge steppe warriors.

More to follow... with a series of pics for each army, and scenery
 

[Mr.J]

Yes! I'm looking forward to this.

[Dilettante Gamer]

That's the stuff, Sukhe!  Enjoyed reading your vision and rationale - and am grabbing my virtual popcorn for the show. 

[Garanhir]

Something tells me I'm in for a treat.

[Giger]

Really looking forward to seeing the images

[sukhe_bator]

Grond
In no particular order, my take on 'Grond' the great battering ram pulled by great beasts (in this case oliphaunts used as draught animals, in suitably protective bardings).


In concept I have not departed unduly from the conventional triangular 'sow' or penthouse covering, though I've included an angled front shield and a walkway on either side for missile troops.


You can see inside to the lower level where the ram will be slung by chains and crewed by countless minions.... It will be made to scale to the 'one hundred foot in length' complete with green stuff ravening wolf's head tip covered in runes of destructive power.

Artillery
No self respecting besieging force would be complete without a battery of 'trebs'. These are heavily inspired by the stone counterweight trebuchets seen in the PJ film, but tempered with a dose of realism based on reconstructions around the world.




And some homegrown 'scorpions'


All I need now are suitable Orkish crew!

[Quendil]

Wow 

[Mr.J]

It begins. They look great. Particularly looking forward to watching Grond progress.

[Emir of Askaristan]

Those are already excellent and they're not finished yet!

[Vermis]

I've seen great putty work; I've seen great plasticard work; I've seen great build-a-keep-one-brick-at-a-time lunac work; but I can't remember if I've seen really great miniature balsawood(?) work, 'til now. That's wow!

[sukhe_bator]

More balsa madness...Some other siege equipment closer to completion...
Mantlets
Southron archer's mantlets

Orkish mantlets

A prototype for a shielded siege ladder which I will probably adapt at some point and make multiple variants...


And a variant on the Chinese 'cloud ladder' for use by Harad assault troops


Haulage continues to be a problem, so I had a stab at converting 'great beasts' based on the PJ 'rhinos' from the RoTK from small toy rhinos and hippos...

[blackstone]

Great stuff!

[Hupp n at em]

Wow, tons of good stuff here.

[sukhe_bator]

The Fords of Isen
This was one of the set piece battles I always had in my mind to model, and terrain was an important part of it. The river banks of the Isen, higher on one side than another, inspired by the rocky terrain of NZ in the PJ films.
Theodred's last stand on the Eyot of the river Isen, and the assault against the Rohan forts guarding the crossing that are described in depth in Tolkein's Lost Tales...

The eyot itself, described as looking like a hand, so I modelled the rock strata to look like fingers with a rock and shingle 'palm' tailing off onto a beach...

The Causeway forts as originally envisaged were earth and timber stockades with stone revetments with a central gatehouse, and separate entrances to the compounds on either side with room for garrison buildings, stables and a watchtower. The modular components make them multipurpose and I will eventually model corner towers etc. so I can have a fully developed earth and timber defensive system that can double for Holdfasts etc. in Westeros. I plan to mount the sections on a modular system of bases so I can include storming poles/defensive stakes...

[Hammers]

Dear lord! You really have a thing for mastodon projects in more than one sense!