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.

My D&D Characters in MESBG

Even as a kid I wanted to see the Heroes of my own imagination represented on the Tabletop. I remember making my own "Fellowship" that included a couple of Dunedain and some Dwarves and an Elf (no Hobbits though), they all followed in the trail of the real Fellowship, fighting through Moria and eventually heading up north to Mirkwood and entering the Defence against Sauron's assaults there and at Erebor. When I started playing MESBG, it seemed only natural I would give them their own statlines so I could include them on the tabletop.

Those characters are lost to time, but as I read through the new rulebook I realised I could do the same against for my D&D characters when I read the entry for the spell Nature's Wrath.

The statlines below were designed to be reasonable, and create mid-tier Heroes. They won't be fighting off the likes of Aragorn or Sauron, but they can stand alongside the calibur of Eomer and Lurtz and hold their own. The points values were decided using the chart for determining your Battle Company's Rating from the Battle Companies book, with minor adjustments to balance against existing Heroes (for example, that chart would have Axel cost the same as Gimli, despite being statted slightly weaker).

To actually be used in a game, they should be considered as part of the Wanderers in the Wild list.

So without further ado!

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.