Correspondence From Limbo

Welcome back to Year of the Horse, my semi-regular feature where I write about my journey to learn the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and raise my very own army of Rohan.

Last time I gave an update on how mustering my force was going. I haven’t been able to get a game in since then, but I’ve managed to get quite a bit of progress made on my army since then, with my first 350 points now officially built and painted.

Without further ado, here’s the update.

Hobby Progress

As I laid out in the last Year of the Horse update, I’ve joined a slow grow game in Winchester. The first games will be played at 350 points, and over the past month I’ve been painting up my list.

For those who want a reminder of what I will be taking to the first game, here is my initial list…

I’ve now finished every model I need to take this force, as well as three additional Warriors of Rohan with throwing spears, which has allowed me to get a head-start on the list for next month.

My favourite model of the one’s I’ve painted so far is definitely Theoden, King of Rohan. Theoden is one of my favourite characters in the Peter Jackson films, and the late Bernard Hill portrayed him absolutely magnificently, so being able to paint up my own version was a real joy. I ended up spending almost an entire day painting him, and trying my best to make him look good. I think I’ve succeeded. The majority of the model is painted the exact same way as the rest of my Rohan models, with the only differences being in the way I painted his skin and hair. His skin was a basecoat of Bugman’s Glow, which was layered with a glaze of Cadian Fleshtone and then washed with Reikland Fleshshade. His hair was basecoated with Zandri Dust, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted with some Ushabti Bone.

I also took some liberties with his armour – the official paint job has the belt around Theoden’s waist be done in olive green, while I painted the one on mine in red, and the crest on the front and back of his armour was instead painted in gold. While the armour is a bit messy in places – whoever decided that the gold details would be in the recess should be hunted down – I’m happy with how he came out. I ended up doing some extra highlights on some of the metallic areas to make him pop, and I think they really work. I can’t wait to get him on the table top.

The other big model which I’ve added to this force is a metal Aragorn model I found on eBay. This guy comes from the Defenders of Rohan set a couple of years ago, and I think he looks quite nice. Not to spoil things too much, but one of the purchases I’ve made to add to this list is the Three Hunters, and I think this version of Aragorn looks sufficiently different from the one in that set which is armed with Andúril.

I’ve slowly been getting better at painting metal models, and I think I’ve done a good job with this one (even though I still need to put some varnish on him to stop paint from chipping off). While he doesn’t have the most dynamic pose in the world, he did paint up very quickly. Again, I ended up painting him in more or less the same way as my other Rohan models, although I ended up leaving out the reds and greens in favour of using more browns to set him apart. I also painted details such as the belt and sword scabbard in black to increase that difference between a ranger of the wild and a man of Rohan – I felt that they would probably have access to different materials and leathers.

I painted up Aragorn’s face the same way as Theoden’s. However, due to the age of the sculpt, it took a bit more work to make him look good. I also ended up painting him with black hair by mistake; I completely forgot that Viggo Mortensen was a brunette in the LotR films. However, this does help to make him stand apart a bit more from the predominantly blond people of Rohan.

The other models were also quick to paint up. There were the aforementioned Warriors of Rohan with throwing spears, which I painted up in advance of being used in my list next month, as well as the warriors with hand weapons I painted last month and the warriors with bows. My favourite of these models is the bowman with a rather spiffy mustache. For whatever reason, I like him quite a bit!

As an aside, I was so happy with how Aragorn and Theoden turned out that I entered them into the monthly painting competition at the Hampshire Hammerers. This month’s theme was squads, so I grouped them with three other Warriors of Rohan (one with bow, one with hand weapon, and the third with a spear) to create a group of five. I like Aragorn and Theoden quite a bit, although I’m a little worried that the other models I have used aren’t my best work, and that might penalise me. I will be sure to report the results here as soon as I know.

As teased earlier, I have a few more models on the way to bulk out my forces for the slow  grow. Aside from the aforementioned Three Hunters (for the sole reason of getting Legolas, I must admit), I also have Aldor and Haleth, a Rohan banner-bearer and some elves from Lothlórien to add to the force. Although, at this rate, I will soon have painted more elves during the Year of the Horse than actual horses. I will have to rectify this soon…

Stats

Models assembled (total): 22

Models painted: 15

Horses painted: 0

Games played: 0

Total points assembled: 576

Thanks, as always, for reading. I will see you next time.