Tree? I am no tree! I am a Twig

Some of my girlfriend's favourite characters from The Lord of the Rings are Treebeard and the Ents, alongside Merry and Pippin. To this end, last year I bought her the plastic Treebeard model, and this year we're going a step beyond and attending a doubles tournament where she can finally let loose with a Fangorn list.

She's beaten me once in a test game where her Ents hurled the Grey Company like confetti so I'll be more than happy to have her on my side. 

With 400pts for each player, Treebeard alone won't be enough, and in my usual fashion I didn't want to just field two of the official Ent model or one of the named Ents as an unnamed one (let alone take the hit to my wallet). Followers of my Instagram will have seen the progress updates, but instead, I picked up some fallen sticks from a local park, dried them out in the oven and set about with the superglue towards building a vaguely humanoid shape.

The is simply twigs, and I used bark that chipped off to cover joins and bulk out certain sections.

A spare Treebeard hand worked for one limb, but for other I found grape stems worked really well when grouped together properly.

The only non-natural components besides the plastic hand is then the face, which I didn't fancy trying to whittle or piece together, and elected instead for a bit of greenstuffing work.

And so, the final result. He stands a touch taller than Treebeard, so I think it's fitting to be an Oak Ent with the extra bulk taking the form of an extra wound.

I'm really happy with how this came out, and hopefully it will look even better once we getting the painting and flocking done (that's down to my girlfriend).

Next time, I'll be going from the perhaps epitome of life in the form of tree shepherds, to something much more undead. Until then, check out my Instagram and I'll catch you next time.

Shieldmaidens of Rohan

After a much tinkering and procrastination, I finally finished the three Shieldmaidens of Rohan that I started back in June. Each one has a foot and mounted version so I've averaged a model a month, which is quite the poor show. In either case, here they are:

I've gone quite simple with this, and kitted them out in three wargear options available for Riders of Rohan (even though it's technically only two, it just depends on which weapon they are holding). This is simply because that is what they will represent on the tabletop, and it is a great way to add variety to my force of Riders as it grows. I really try my hardest to avoid duplicating models where possible.

The base of each shieldmaiden is one of the female Mirkwood Ranger minis. I wanted them to be "authentically female" rather than just giving a normal warrior slightly longer hair or something. Without going third party, the GW range has limited female options, most of which are hero options (Eowyn, Arwen and Galadriel). The Rangers however offer a good mix of options that are relatively easy to "Rohan-ify" and come in plastic, which is much easier to work with than alternatives.

Most of the rest of the components then come from existing Warriors or Riders of Rohan, although I did take some hands and weapons from 3D printed Rohan scouts (I believe they are Medbury). This was because they have smaller scaled hand sizes that better matched the Ranger's own. The Rohan models hands seem almost twice as large.

So, why Shieldmaidens? They don't exactly exist in the lore and Eowyn is the big exception to the rule. I have three reasons:

1) They add variety to my army.
2) They represent my girlfriend and two daughters.
3) They represent the real-life female jockeys that made up the cast of Riders in the Jackson films.
4) It's a bit of fanfiction that I accept is lore-innacurate.

With the upcoming "War of the Rohirrim" (WotR) film (two days away at the time of writing), the fairly recent culmination of Rings of Power's second season and also the recent announcement of the Hunt for Gollum... duology? Trilogy? (Tolkien help us), the conversation around Middle Earth canonicity is huge right now. I generally fall on the side of "stick to the canon" but not without wiggle room for a good adapation. For example, the Jackson trilogy? Good adapation. Rings of Power? Bad adaptation. WotR? Remains to be seen.

WotR is ostensibly the story of Helm Hammerhand, one of the greatest kings of Rohan and reads as almost mythological. It's the story of a man driven to wrath when his country comes under threat from both outside and in. What we are getting in the upcoming film instead seems to be the story of Hera Hammerhand. Whilst this character exists in lore (unlike RoP Isildur's sister. Where's Anarion gone Amazon?), she is little more than an unnamed plot device. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, Tolkien's writings on Helm is a mere two pages, and addresses a period of several years. There is scope to build a story around Hera or her brothers there, however the film I want to see is about Helm and the war between Rohan and Dunland during the Long Winter. So long as we get that faithfully, even if Hera is the main character, I will be happy with the film... assuming it is well-written of course.

We know why we are getting this story as well. Ostensibly the producers wanted a female-led film. One set in Rohan, with parallels to Eowyn is an easy selling point. Middle Earth's stories are limited to Eowyn, Luthien and Haleth for good female-led options, and two of those are Simarillion-era stories, and not well-known to the average Lord of the Rings fan. That last one also being the name of Hama's son in the Jackson trilogy also throws people off.

I'd originally written a long rant extolling the virtues of good adaptions and trashing Rings of Power, even bringing up various video games (some good and fun, but very lore-innacurate) and The Hobbit films (bloated a messy with some good sections), but it's a discussions that's been done to death.

It's easy to say there is no perfect adaptation of Tolkien's works. Jackon's films are perhaps mostly highly ranked (excepting The Hobbit trilogy), but even it has gaps and changes. Tom Bombadil and The Scouring of the Shire are big ones many people point out, but I personally miss Aragorn and Eomer's banter at Helm's Deep, The Passing of the Grey Company, and Theoden slaying the Serpent King.

So, how am I resolving my shieldmaidens into the lore of Middle Earth? They will simply exist in my army as women who picked up thier husband's gear in their stead, be they away figthing, hunting or just dead. Rohan is a country with a long history of war, and there is many a time where the women of Rohan may have had to take up arms to defend hearth and kin. They just may not have ridden as official members of an Eored. I don't think this detracts from Eowyn's story, and I think it is lore-friendly enough.

Until next time.

Rohan First Stage Complete!

Well it's been a hot minute since I've been on here. And that's really cos it's taken me a hot minute to finish painting the Rohirrim. Painting was never my favourite part of the hobby, I definitely enjoy building and playing more, so motivation is tricky to get sometimes.

That said, Theoden rides again!

 

This was the original 300 points I planned for, and was entirely built from the Pelennor Fields box with the exception of the King's Huntsman. I'm incredibly proud of the Royal Guardsman conversions.

I've already got the expansion to 500pts prepared as well:

 (Didn't even notice I'd knocked Theoden aside).

This expansion will be a lot quicker to prepare, as I'm using official guardsmen and had already painted one of the additional Outriders. The Deorwine sculpt is fantastic too. In fact, the only work required will be to add a banner to the additional Guard in Theoden's group.

Future expansions will almost definitely be Eomer and some Riders and a decent unit of Grimbold's Helmingas. The inclusion of my Huntsman and unmounted Outriders show it clearly that I did not want to stick to pure cavalry. As I've already planned to get a detachment from Minas Tirith, I felt the Helmingas would form a good hammer to a Gondorian Shieldwall.

HOWEVER!

This series of posts was supposed to detail the build up of two equal forces, and Mordor has been greatly neglected.

Despite finishing the Kardush conversion and basing and priming the front line Orcs, that remains the full extent of the work. The Troll Chief is still missing an arm! Green Stuff will be employed to finish him up however, as I want him to look as unique as possible.

I have turned an eye to expansion here too:

 

I've made one and a half Black Numenorians, but I think the first expansion will go to the Ringwraith (a spare Rohan horse and the extra wraith body from the Witch King sprue), and a retinue of Warg Riders. I'm using the Fell Wargs from the Hobbit range here, which are probably amongst the best of that range and I prefer them to the LOTR plastic Wargs (the metal ones are good, but that would be expensive).

The Wargs give the force much needed mobility and ranged power, and a Wraith is always powerful, and synergises well with Kardush.

Let's hope my next update comes along quicker!

The Second Royal Guard

Let me preface this one by saying I'm by no means an expert and the images below should clarify that. Before this week I haven't even worked with Green Stuff for around 6-7 years and I was no master sculptor back then either! This all takes a lot of time, patience and a steady hand. Good tools and a good work area help, but practice makes perfect and there are plenty of tutorials online!

I was happy enough with the first Royal Guard that I figured I go a little bit more in-depth with the second here, as my method differs from the inspiration as mentioned in the previous blog. As I'm looking for variety in my Royal Guard, I went with this Rider next:

A lot less preparation work went into this one. The previous rider saw me remove the upper arms entirely, as well as the shield boss, and bow and quiver from the riders back. This time I kept the rider's arms, and merely shaved down the shoulders a little.

Step one was simple, as the rider's helmet lacked a crest, I added one with green stuff. The main difficulty here was shaping it and keeping it flush with the centreline of the helmet. An alternative method would be to simply precut a piece and glue it once hardened.

Then I added the collar. A simple semi-circle from shoulder-to-shoulder, which I then pressed a couple of lines into for the detail.

Pauldrons were next. For these I took a wedge-shape of greenstuff, thinner at the bottom, and applied it to the rider's shoulder. Then I pressed into it to create the separation of the plates, and pressed in the edges. The previous model I did each plate individually, but this was much quicker and less fiddly.

Once the pauldrons were done, I added a small circle of greenstuff to each end of the collar, overlapping slightly with the top plate, to represent the cloak clasps. 

Onto the back next. Step one was simply repairing the damage to the back where the bow and quiver used to be. I didn't go too crazy with the folds, just ensuring that they followed the sweep of the existing cloak. Then, I took a triangle of greenstuff to create the hood, pushing the ends over the shoulders to meet the clasps. A line was also scored in to show the trim.

A smaller square was added next, pushed up to the rim of the helmet, then dotted to give the appearance of chainmail.

Finally, the horsehair plume was added over all of this. A simple teardrop shape of greenstuff that I drew lines into slowly to give the appearance of flowing strands. This can be awkward to do and I'm not happy with this one as it's easily the worst plume I've done on the models so far, so it may get redone.

And that's it!

After this it's a simple matter of attaching the spear arm and a press-molded shield. I've done very simple and amateurish green-stuff molding here, so I'd recommend checking Youtube for proper tutorials from actual experts if you want to do the same.

Conversions - Royal Guard and Outriders

 

Rohan Royal Guard and Outriders are metal models, which translates to them being fairly pricey. Whilst I will be purchasing a few just to own the official models, for variety and to save my wallet a little, I wanted to convert my own. With the models included in the starter box, and another sprue each of Warriors and Riders I'd ordered, I would have more than enough spares.

The idea was helped along by HobbyMachine's own conversions (found here), so I used their process as the basis for my own.

This Rider here has the closest armour and helmet to the Royal Guard.

All he is missing is the hood and collar, the shoulder pauldrons, detail on the arm guards, helmet plume and shield. I took to him with the clippers, shaving back the cloaked shoulders, and also removing the bow and quiver from his back, as Royal Guard do not get bows.

Then it was time to apply greenstuff to add in the missing details. I did this in several sessions, to avoid smooshing previous work and build up in places where details sit on top of each other. Considering I haven't worked with Greenstuff in a good few years, it's not the worst thing I've ever done and hopefully the paint job will help it look the way it should.

              

My one problem is the shields. As I don't yet have any of the official models, I used the next best thing and tried to cast my own from Deorwine's shield. My inexperience with casting ended up with this rather large and bulky shield, evidently Deorwine is a slightly different scale.

I'll have to give this another go, but it might have to wait until I can get some of the metal Royal Guard. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thankfully, the Outriders are much more forgiving, a simple plume on the helmet will do the trick, as I'm not trying to emulate their fancy helmets. I'll be painting them differently to help them stand out as "not-Warriors".

Until next time!

EDIT:

I think the biggest issue with the shields is thus:

A standard Rider's shield is on the left. The one I used for the casting is on the right, and the size is incredibly apparent.