The Thread of Middle-Earth by Hammers

[Captain Blood]

Amazing Peder 

I didn’t realise GW had done soooo many versions of the same characters from different stages in the movies.

Not like them to milk an idea to death

Still, it’s a neat idea to paint all of them.

Glad to see you still keeping your hand in 

[Munindk]

You could add the 3 Legolai from the Hobbit range, if you want a big troupe or drum of Legolai.

[Hammers]

Games Workshop has released the Nine Ringwraiths, each with a distinct cultural foot print. As there is not much written in the lore about them (three are fallen Numenoreans, among them the Witch-King, one is called Khamul the Easterling) they have taken liberties and invented fluff for them. Nothing to criticize, and I think they have done a pretty good job. Better than the equivalent in I.C.E's MERP, where they are quite outré.

This one they have called "The Betrayer" a nickname he has earned for betraying the Harad lands to Sauron. A little corny but ok...

The first image he is riding a fell beast, and I decided to make the monster a desert dwelling sub-species of the breed.









I wanted it to be of a lighter colour and bred to hide better among the dunes of the Harad deserts.





Weta Workshop developed wicker armour to be a cultural marker of the haradrim so I figured the monster should have that to protect it's long neck and chest, in case some dastardly young shied maiden should get any ideas..







Detail of the scales. I pick out the occasional scale in off-white to make the over all look more interesting.




The freckles are supposed to be sun spots. Animals can develop them, especially in areas where the skin folds or bunches up, like joints.




A few vipers added to the base as a little flair. Black snakes seem to to be of cultural importance to the haradrim, according to the The Return of the King.

[Plynkes]

That's spectacular, H, I love it. Never seen these figures before. I really like the idea of a faux-Arabic Nazgul in a turban, though.




I've never been happy with the way those flying things have been monster-manualled by fans (or miniatures companies) as 'Fell Beasts' though. I'm not sure Tolkien ever directly called them that, and if he did I reckon it was merely descriptive, not the formal name of the creatures.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Very nicely done! Love the cultural and biological (?) twists you’ve included. May even steal the idea of sparkling scales - if not for pixies yet for deeply serious historical stuff 

[James Morris]

I really like this! Sunspots are an excellent and very plausible touch.

[Hammers]

Amazing Peder 

I didn’t realise GW had done soooo many versions of the same characters from different stages in the movies.

Not like them to milk an idea to death

Still, it’s a neat idea to paint all of them.

Glad to see you still keeping your hand in 

Thanks Richard. Yeah, hero characters abund. And, yes, I ’ve been painting a blue streak lately, so many in fact I have not had time to post much of them.

[Hammers]

I've never been happy with the way those flying things have been monster-manualled by fans (or miniatures companies) as 'Fell Beasts' though. I'm not sure Tolkien ever directly called them that, and if he did I reckon it was merely descriptive, not the formal name of the creatures.

Well, it is Fell Beast in the books. And Hell Hawk and Nazgul-bird. Hell-hawk sounds like a late WWII fighter bomber and Nazgul-bird sounds like a ghost parakeet.

[OSHIROmodels]

Love it 

[Constable Bertrand]

Hammers, loving the desert dragon the skin and scales turned out amazing. I'll need to keep that in mind when I get around to my own dragon.

Lovely as always 

[Elk101]

Superb work on that fell beast!

[Phil Portway]

A great job on this one too. I may pinch the idea of a paler beast as is appropriate to desert dwellers
 

[Malamute]

Very kewl Hammers, lovely work  :

[Basementboy]

Beautiful! I don’t usually like add-one to classic settings like middle earth, but this one is really nice! Love the turbaned Nazgul, getting big Lord Soth vibes

[Hammers]

I am a sucker for all things apocryphal in J.R.R.T's Middle Earth so I could not resist painting up these GW Variags.

Variags are, beyond stemming from the land Khand, are by J.R.R.T. not documented. Neither are they portrayed in Peter Jacksons LotR. The Perry brothers, who sculpted these, seem to have been inspired by a mix of eastern Asia people, Korean, Mongols, japanese...

My personal take on these are, as they are in Gondorian chronicles described as "wild", a mix of a central, Mordor-backed khanate, with uniformed household troops with the bulk of the force being affiliated clan troops on foot, horse and camel.





The above is a mood board (a technique I find increasingly helpful), experimenting with the colors I am considering for the unit. The model is variag horseman Kublai, which in westorn means "I just shat my pants, that's why I am squatting like this"




Above are the heraldries of the khan of Khand and is household troops. In formal terms it is the "ombre sun in splendor, on a field gule, rays of serpants ombre and ors (dependent on elevation) in the nombril point"

...meaning...

an image of the black sun on scarlet, its rays being snakes in black or gold depending on rank, heads centered on a blackpoint.






The khand of Khand in his chariot



...and on foot.








Variag horesmen





Warriors, lead by a chieftain or prince. The back banner not only sports the khan's emblem but the rank of it's bearer.




Tribal variag percussionists, calling all troops to war with a riveting renditions of John Bonham's (of Led Zeppelin fame) intro to "Rock and Roll"




What do you call a a camel with three humps? Pregnant!




This is how I picture the main force of the variags. I bought a box Fireforge mongols for the purpose of bulking out this variag army. I'll get to painting the aby day now...