A Tale of Three Middle-Earth Wargamers- Part 1: The First Warband

 

Welcome back to our little hobby project we've been working on. We're going to be checking in to see how we've all managed to progress over the last month with our projects, but first a little reminder of what we're doing.

Each of us is aiming to build a 700 point Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game army over the course of 4 months- with a final battle in the fifth month when we're done. In our first month, we each painted up a starter warband- containing the general of our armies, and either 8 infantry models or 4 cavalry models for the beginnings of their warband. Lets check in with how everyone got on with Month One:

Isengard- Onod

Onod: An just about finishing my models on the final day of this month's painting, here are the first of the orcs alongside Saruman. I had a very busy April, so this ended up being even more of a challenge for me- trying to paint all of my models in just 10 days (a couple of late nighters were pulled in the end).

Saruman was the first model to be painted- and I decided that I wanted to try and push my painting skills by trying something new with this model. I'm never that confident with painting large areas of white or cream (I largely avoid doing so)- and so knew that the normal base-wash-highlight probably wasn't going to be something which I could pull off effectively. I settled on trying to do a stippling painting style, building up shades and highlights in a way that would hopefully give Saruman's robes a natural feeling. Off to Youtube I went (there are a few videos explaining stippling, I found Vince Ventura's explanation the most helpful!) and then to the painting table. Saruman ended up being a one of the longest paints I've done on a model, certainly for a model that size. I'm really proud of the results though, and I actually found stippling a technique that seemed much more natural to me than other styles of highlighting I've tried.

The Orcs were next- and they got a slightly more rough and ready paint job! I kept the colour palette to blacks, blues and browns- the Orcs seen in Isengard during the Movies don't really have a hugely distinct colour scheme- so I decided to use The Fang, a blue-grey paint, as the linking colour for the army (You'll note I used it on Saruman's saddle too just to give him a little more of a link to the rest of the force). Isengard armies are usually more of a dark reddish brown in colour, due to the Uruk's skin and the scouts armour- so I included some of these colours too, but I also wanted this to feel slightly distinct from the fighting Uruks at Helms Deep. I'm happy with them overall- and I think adding a few small free-handed White Hands really helps solidify these as distinct to Mordor Orcs.

Next month, I've got some models I'm really looking forward too as a bit of a surprise for the force- but I'm going to leave it there for now!

Mordor- Old Toby

Old Toby: My models for this month were the Witch King, 6 Morannon Orcs and 2 Mordor Orcs (for Kardush to eat- or whatever he does to regain Will).

I tackled the Morannon and the basic orcs first and found them pretty straightforward for the most part. Splash of red on the tunics went a long way to brightening them up a bit. I will need to paint a lot of these over the coming months, so efficiency will be the name of the game with these models.

The Witch King was a different challenge altogether, as he’s the standout model in my army. I wanted to paint him in a fairly movie accurate way. This meant the metal of the crown and the gloves would be fairly simple. The horse was straightforward as I’ve been priming in black and it seemed best to leave the horse black too.

The main difficulty came with the cloak, and robes. I didn’t want to leave them just black, so I decided to try different dry brushes to see which looked best. After trying bone and white I decided to play it safe and drybrush in grey. I’m really happy with result, especially after adding the basing. One part I’ve been enjoying more than expected is the basing. I’ve settled on an initial layer of technical paint to give a bit of colour and texture, then on top a mixture of basing sand, coal and gravel. I’ve also subsequently been adding grass tufts to try and make the models more unique. A productive first month and hoping I’ll continue to improve as we go!

Rohan- Mayor Whitfoot

The Mayor: My models this month were Théoden (leader), with horse, a Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spear and horse, and 3 x riders of Rohan.

So, you’re probably wondering why I’ve chosen to use so much Wraithbone... Unfortunately, it wasn’t a conscious chose. As it does sometimes, life has gotten in the way of hobby, and I find myself looking forward to the inevitable double dose of painting next month (Ed: When we'll bring you a double dose of Rohan photos!).

A little about the minis. Fortunately, Théoden is available with horse and no heavy armour or shield, but there is no infantry model of him without heavy armour, so I’ve gone with the standard foot model. My aim is to provide a dismount for all my models, just in case I fancy performing a mass dismount on occasion. The bases I’ve used are from Generation Shhift 92 (https://www.facebook.com/Generationshift92) and I love them.

The general painting strategy for these models is shown on my test model, the humble infantryman with sword and shield. After priming with Wraithbone, I will base coat each element in the appropriate colour, with a good mix of browns for leather and creams for cloth. Then washing everything apart from skin in a brown wash (the skin will be a flesh-coloured wash), the models will be tabletop standard. That’s the hope anyway.

The horses are painted using contrast paints. Each of these horses has been given a coat of each brown contrast I have. I will henceforth be mixing the paints in various ways to achieve a different colour on every horse. I’m very happy with my test model, but very disappointed I couldn’t achieve my month's target. I’ll be redoubling my efforts and hope to have much more colour and less grey next month!

Next Month

There we have it then- the first Month complete, and our leaders ready (almost!). For next month, we're challenging ourselves to add some elites to our warbands- powerful warriors who will provide some strength to the forces. Until then, thanks for reading!