Defenders of Helm's Deep- Aragorn

"Come!' said Aragorn. 'This is the hour when we draw swords together."

 Every time I reread LotR (ten times now!), it astounds me how much depth Tolkien packed into his characterizations (an excellent example is Merry and Pippin's growth throughout the books). There are also moments where more central characters fade into the background, like Aragorn's role at the battle of Helm's Deep. For the most part, he's very careful to avoid the center stage- always deferring to Theoden or Eomer. At the same time, this is the first we see of Aragorn in his element as king. It is the hour Anduril is first drawn and declared openly, that he claims his birthright as the bearer of Narsil reforged (and at extension the heir to Gondor's throne); and takes up the mantle of leader of men. Most telling is his talk with Saruman's army right before dawn, which culminated in this revelation of his power-

"So great a power and royalty was revealed in Aragorn, as he stood there alone [....] that many of the wild men paused[.]"

To cause this victorious, heckling army to reconsider its attack is remarkable. Again, it's the first time Aragorn reveals himself as something other than Strider to a large amount of people, and the result is telling of future encounters.

That look of emerging power is one I tried to capture in miniature. As with my previous Aragorn, I didn't paint the beard sculpted on the figure.This is per the books, and Tolkien's express statement (in Letters) that the Dunedain do not grow facial hair as part of their Elven heritage. I'm not quite sure how I like it on the sculpt, sometimes it looks good and weather-beaten (as he is 87 during the War of the Ring), at others too Neanderthal.

I like the outfit worn by this sculpt, it shows the transition between Ranger and King well. He's still clad in the rusty greens and browns from the Fellowship, but layered with greaves and mail from Theoden's armory. I wanted the clothes under the armor to look very weathered, and dropping the base colors to a darker tone did the trick. This would also work well as a Pelennor Fields Aragorn, and I look forward to playing the Dunedain (featured in my second post!) lead by him.

The finished miniatures has a certain Leatherstocking feeling to it, especially with the knife and boots- this suits Aragorn well to me. Also, as seen in the above picture, he wears the ring of Barahir, the sole remaining legacy of Beren One-Hand!

Anduril goes to war! The Blade that was Broken shines again!

Defenders of Helm's Deep- Eowyn

"Too often have I heard of duty,' she cried. 'But am I not of the house of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a drynurse?"

Eowyn, The Return of the King

I'd imagine it'll come as a shock to my more constant readers, but I'm very much a purist when it comes to LotR. Due to this, I'll preface this post with a disclaimer-

Eowyn was not at Helm's Deep! She had already departed for Dunharrow. Not even in the Jackson films did she fight in the battle, she stayed with the refugees in the caves. 

Now, I must admit, I can understand completely why GW added Eowyn to the Helm's Deep pack- it makes for an awesome miniature, and means they didn't have to wait for RotK to make one.

And this miniature was a joy to paint. The dress, in particular made for a pleasant experience. I'm very pleased with the results. The sleeves seemed to need some detailing, and folds on both of them made for excellent decorations.

Aside from the sleeves, there's not a lot of detailing. The simpler (and, for me brighter) colors make her stand out from my hordes of earth-toned rangers and orcs.

It can be difficult to tell, but I've also been messing with my skin tones. Thus far, all of the Helm's Deep set have featured subtly different skin- Gamling received heavy washes (even a careful red wash around the eyes) over a darker than normal base, Theoden got my typical colors and the upcoming Aragorn has a paler face, halfway between Theoden and the fair-skinned Eowyn.

Defenders of Helm's Deep- Theoden

"The end will not be long,' said the king. 'But I will not end here, taken like an old badger in a trap.... When dawn comes, I will bid men sound Helm's horn, and I will ride forth."

Theoden, Son of Thengel, King of Rohan! Saved by Gandalf from the poison of Wormtongue to lead his people in the War of the Ring, he perished aiding his allies on the Pelennor Fields. As with my recent Gamling, this figure is from Games Workshop's excellent Defenders of Helm's Deep pack.

I was already on a roll painting Rohirrim armor, and the practice gained from Gamling stood me in good stead painting his liege. I like the darker, engraved look of the armor from the film, but not the full brown color on the breastplate. As before, dark washes were used to achieve a similar but still metallic effect.

I also added a fair amount of enamel inlay in and around the armor's brasswork. This is most notable on the shoulder, which I felt needed more detailing than the plain metal. Gloss varnish was applied over the inlay, which accounts for the sheen in the photograph.

I'm also very pleased with the pale hair. I had originally intended to paint it a tone closer to Bernard Hill's hair from the films, but the dirty white better befits the aged Theoden.

Forth Eorlingas!

Defender's of Helm's Deep- Gamling the Old

"If they come bargaining for our goods at Helm's Gate, they shall pay a high price[.]"

-Gamling, The Two Towers

 Since I was a child I've been fascinated with castles and sieges. It should come as no surprise that the battle at Helm's Deep has always been one of my favorite moments in The Lord of the Rings. It has such wonderful moments- Aragorn's talk with the Uruk-Hai, Legolas and Gimli's friendly rivalry, and the incredible (and unexpected!) explosion of the Deeping Wall. For a while now I've eyed the GW Heroes of Helm's Deep set on shelves, and I finally treated myself to it a couple weeks back.

The first finished model from the set is Gamling, a more obscure character featured both in the book and in the Jackson films. He's described as an old man (who notably knows Dunlending), chief of the watchers on Helm's Dyke. Bob Foster's Guide to Middle-Earth postulates him as Erkenbrand's lieutenant, and that fits from his role as head of the Westfold garrison.

I chose him for a painting contest at my local comic/games store; specifically for the variety of detail on the sculpt. I'm very pleased with how he turned out, especially with the darker tones on the armor and face. The paints on the armor are the same as on lighter toned armor like my Elrond, but the color as been vastly changed by dark brown washes and even some bronze drybrushing.

Originally, I was going to paint an elaborate knotwork pattern (similar to that seen in the film) on his cloak. A triangular design inspired by the Viking digs in York caught my eye, and I decided to use that as a prototype instead. I also used a darker color than usual as a base for the hair, and it made the strands really stand out.

Helm! Helm goes to war!

Host of the Dead- Draugar

Draugar (or the singular form, Draugr) are undead from Norse legend, which form from the corpses of especially malevolent warriors. It was said that, as these warriors died, their will to live proved so strong that their soul could not leave their body, and reanimated it as a Draugr. They retained a semblance of their intelligence, and were tied more or less to the place of their burial, typically a large barrow. 

While many modern sources, from D&D bestiaries to MMORPGs have portrayed the Draugr, the original creature of legend was much less well defined- depending on the power of the soul animating the Draugr, it could have different powers and appearances. Some sources even differentiate between standard and aquatic Draugar.

The method of destruction also varied: while some were 'killed' by the same methods as a living man, others could only be destroyed by fire, or by spending the night in its barrow with its severed head on ones knee.

These particular miniatures are from Games Workshop's LotR line, sold as Army of the Dead. I prefer the sculpts as Draugar and thoroughly enjoyed making them look as nasty as possible, adding mold, leather rot, verdigris and rust to the clothes and gear.

This mostly entailed drybrushing in probably 8-10 different shades, along with some overall ink washes. The subtle differences in color  make a large difference in the effect, although it can be difficult to tell in pictures.

The sculpts and design are excellent, looking ancient in comparison with a medieval Norse aesthetic. The later medieval 'heater' shields are a slight anachronism, and when I paint more I'll probably replace them with circular shields, but I got these three used, and already assembled. 

Men of Ograviss

The Ogrons are a race of ape-like humanoids who hail from the planet Ograviss in the far reaches of Mutter's Spiral. They are unintelligent, and highly obedient servants, which makes them ideal for the purposes of the Daleks...

The Ogrons appeared in a pair of serials with the Third Doctor- Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space. In both they were agents of the Daleks- in the latter serial also working with the Master- providing brute force to supplement the Daleks' cunning.

Classic Doctor Who creatures are often tough to paint, and the Ogrons proved no exception. There is a dearth of good reference material for them, even in their original episodes the often patchy studio lighting and deteriorated tapes make an accurate color assessment difficult. 

Also, the original costumes for many of the creatures used mixed, low-quality pigments- so even when the colors can be identified, matching the tones proves tricky. For example, the flesh tones on the original Ogrons appear, under different lighting, black, brown or even a dark blue. I wound up painting it with my standard black/dark grey tones, but adding a slate blue between the base color and highlights. 

I'm fairly happy with how the colors on these Ogrons turned out, they're recognizable, and as close as I could get to the on-screen appearance. The dark vests were made of a glossy material- almost a cross between cheap leather and satin. I chose not to attempt this effect on the miniatures, as I felt it would look too noticeable, and overscale.

The Ogrons are also one of the many classic creatures I'd love to see return to the show. An episode revisiting the intrigue of the Third Doctor's adventures with the Galactic Federation and its diverse aliens (perhaps in the aftermath of Empress of Mars), would make an excellent addition to the new series.

Fighting Uruk-Hai

Perhaps the blackest deed of the fallen wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings was the creation of the Uruk-hai, half men and half orc. Taller and stronger than other orcs, they made up the elite forces of Isengard's army, leading lesser orcs on scouting parties and into battle.

In the books, the Uruk-hai served, as I said earlier, as leaders for lesser orcs. Parties completely composed of them were uncommon- at Amon Hen a mere four were slain by Boromir, which reflects both how few were there, and their fighting prowess compared to standard orcs. In spite of  this ability, there were too few Uruk-hai to make a lasting difference on the War of the Ring.

This is changed drastically in the Jackson films, where the entire army at Helm's Deep is composed of Uruks, and their ferocious cousins, the Berserkers. While this made for some formidable battle sequences, it also made the Orcs of Mordor which appear later seem tame in comparison. This resulted in an expanded role for the Easterlings and Mumakil at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to increase dramatic tension, which, in my opinion, was a mistake. By taking the focus away from the central evil of Sauron's Orcs and increasing the ability of his servants like Saruman and the Easterlings, Jackson put Sauron on more of a level footing with his lieutenants.

Despite this, I do like the design of the film Uruk-hai, especially lightly-armored Scouts like these, with the White Hand of Isengard smeared on helm and shield. The first copy of the Hobbit I read was filled with the illustrations of Michael Hague (I believe I also mentioned his work here). His goblins were an inspiration for the skin tones and hair of these Uruks.

I've worked on these off and on for the past month, so there are individual differences between the models, easiest to see in the warpaint (or lack thereof). I'm happy with that, as it makes this group look more like a disorganized mob, as fits a band of orcs.

The best known use of scouting Uruk-hai was at Amon Hen, where a mixed force of Isengarders, Orcs of the Eye and goblins from the Misty Mountains attacked the Fellowship, killing Boromir. Archers played a memorable part in this assault, probably allowing the Uruks to weaken Boromir before coming within range of a sword-thrust (overly represented by Lurtz in the Jackson films). 

Rule-wise, I'm interested by Mauhur (mentioned by Ugluk as the leader of another band of scouts) and his "lads", fast as horse-riders. I like playing mobile, bow-heavy forces, and the added clout of the sword-armed scouts seems like it would make for a good army.

I've also painted up a Warg Rider to provide some support to the scouts. I'm particularly pleased with the demented look and dark hide of the Warg, and the primitive look of the rider.

I'm happy with how this force has turned out. Although I may add a few more models to it, I've got a fair sized core of warriors, plenty to play some Battle Companies or a small-scale SBG.