The Hobbit: Goblin Town Scenery

I'm getting the Escape from Goblin Town box set for Christmas (not long now!) and I thought I'd like to do something extra with the scenery. So I decided to make a Goblin Town board, with helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy walkways and columns of stone.
The first bit I've done serves as a backdrop and also a high entry/exit point for the Dwarves to make a dash for. It's made out of polystyrene, styrofoam and scenery mortar to blend and add texture. So here are the pictures (as always, click to enlarge):

The cliff face, complete with tunnel entrance, flaming torches and rickety railings.

The tunnel entrance.

Close-up of the torches. These were made from cotton buds, with the cotton drawn upwards, glued and painted.

Gandalf makes an appearance in the nick of time - ready to blast some goblins!

I'll make some more when I get the Escape from Goblin Town set. Until then, happy Christmas!

Finished Knights of the Green Hills and beginning of Anfalas

Knights of the Green Hills

I finished painting my Knights of the Green Hills, who will ride with Hirluin their lord. So here are the pictures! (Click to enlarge)

The different horses and colours of horses help to distinguish the two above. Also, the one on the right has a little beard.

The two above are the same figure, but I did a headswap for the one on the right to make them look different.

Anfalas

I decided that my pikemen should have a different colour scheme to add some flavour to the army, so I decided to have an alliance between Pinnath Gelin and their neighbours to the south - Anfalas. The Fiefdom of Anfalas was a sparsely populated place, and the men were mostly hunters and farmers. Only the household of their lord, Golasgil, was in any way well equipped for battle.

So here is the beginning of Golasgil's household troops, a banner bearer and a pikeman:

The design on this banner depicts a white bird and the White Tree. I chose blue partly because there was no blue in my Pinnath Gelin army, and also Anfalas is along the coast, so the sea would have great influence.

Thanks for reading!

Haradrim banner bearer and captains

I have painted one of my Haradrim banner bearers and the two captains, and finally have found time to post pictures (half term holidays - hooray!). 

So here's the banner bearer (click to enlarge all pics by the way):

The banner displays the Red Eye over a black snake.

Here is one of the captains, ready to draw his blade:

This captain stands out from the other Haradrim through his green coat and purple turban:

How to make foil banners

I had a request from a member of the One Ring to write an article on how to make the foil banners you can see in my last post.

So, here's a guide to the process, which is really very simple.

What you need

To make the banner, all you need is:

• a metal pike/length of brass rod
• superglue
• tomato puree tube foil
• a sharp knife/pair of scissors

Method

1. Cut off about 1 inch of the metal pike/brass rod to make the crosspiece. Cut out a triangle from the metal foil, with the short end being just under 1 inch long:

2. Cut a semicircle from the top of the triangle:

3. Fold the ends of the triangle round the crosspiece and superglue in place:

4. Insert the main banner pole through the hole as shown below and shape the banner around the pole, and superglue in place:

Done! It's as simple as that!

The finished banner

Haradrim Commanders

As I mentioned in the previous post, I ordered some Perry Miniatures Muslims from their Crusades range to act as Haradrim command models and heroes. Like the Wars of the Roses figures, they are excellent.

These are pictures of them pre-painted to show my slight conversions and additions.

Firstly, the two banner bearers and a hornblower:

I added the cross-piece and used tomato puree tube foil to create the banners, simple but effective.

Here are the two captains:

The one on the right has had his small axe swapped for a sabre to compliment the Haradrim style more.


This character-filled miniature is a Turkish captor with a prisoner looking uncomfortable underfoot. I will use him as Dalamyr the Corsair with a poor Gondorian captive:

Finally, here is my version of the Golden King of Abrakhân, created from a seated Seljuq Turk Emir and his court, and two oxen. Whether or not sitting on the backs of two oxen would be feasible in the real world or not, I was pleased with the result!

This picture shows how the King is removable as I pinned the throne to the oxen's backs. The rope was made from a thread of string, twisted and superglued.

This royal attendant adds a little character to the piece - I call him the Ferrero Rocher Man!

Another mini I put on the base to add character is the drummer - it has no affect in games, but looks nice. He's probably there to keep the oxen in step!

Here are the two guards who stand on either side of the King to protect him from attacks. In game, I'll pretend they have two-handed weapons.

This miniature was a difficult one to decide what to do with. If used in the historical context, he would have been an advisor leaning over to whisper plans in the Emir's ear. However, since my Emir/King's throne is not on the ground, but high on two oxen's backs, the advisor had no-one to whisper to. Then I thought of having him lead the oxen with a rope attached to the yoke, which is passed through a hole I drilled in his hand behind his back. He is now, instead of whispering, shouting: "Make way for the King of Abrakhân!"

Gandalf, Aragorn and Pinnath Gelin command

It's been a while since I last posted due to being on holiday, but I had plenty of time to do a bit more painting! 

I've painted Gandalf, Aragorn and Legolas (pictures of the latter will come soon):

I spent more time than usual on layering and highlighting on Gandalf and Aragorn, and I was pleased with the result!

Some more men of the Fiefdoms:

Here is a captain who will lead a warband of archers, hand raised and ready to signal a volley:

And here is the mounted banner bearer. I was pleased with the White Tree design, which isn't very difficult to do. It's really just semi-circles working outwards from the centre.

In other news, I've ordered some Muslim leaders from the Perrys' Crusades range to be Haradrim commanders. I have an interesting idea for how to use a seated Emir, so watch this space!

Hope all you viewers had a good summer!

Reinforcements for Pinnath Gelin

I got the Perry Plastic Mercenaries box, which are, like the first box, excellent figures.

I have painted the first of the captains, and this one sports a rather flamboyant feather on his helmet:

These are the other four captains I made from the set. The third has spare command arms from the War of the Roses Infantry box set.

And here are two musicians: a trumpeter and a drummer.

Here are all the figures I built from this set. I used the spare arms I had left from the Infantry box to convert some more pikemen and have a few more two-handed weapons.

I also painted some more of the Infantry box figures. Here is the captain with two-handed weapon and his banner bearer:

These are the two banner bearers from the Infantry box. As you can see they are the same apart from the stripe at the end, which is to distinguish between units in battle.

Finally, another of the metal horsemen: