The Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle Earth: Cave Troll

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Cave Troll

One of the things I don't like about the Warhammer universe is the use of monsters. Oddly, I basically want my fantasy armies to feature men rather than creatures. Likewise I don't like magic so the surrent focus on this from GW is not to my taste at all, either. I know, I might just as well play Saxons and Vikings! The current White Dwarf is pushing the Warhammer Ogre army which seems to feature large, fat, ugly bald men not dissimilar to many of the scooter riders I saw over the Bank Holiday on the Isle of Wight. Why anyone would want an army of slaphead bikers is beyond me.

There are monsters in the Lord of the Rings, of course, but they are the exception not the rule. This is the first one which appears in the films and I needed to paint it for a game (Balin's Tomb) we had at Guildford some years ago.

I couldn't find many source pictures at the time as a colour guide. In the film he is basically just grey so I toned down the skin tone that GW used on their examples. I was quite happy with the way he turned out and recently put together a plastic armoured troll to have a go at for a change.

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Wargaming Middle Earth

I confess that I had never been a fan of The Lord of the Rings until Peter Jackson's monumental films came out. I had never read the books and had, years before, given up on The Hobbit half way through. Now I have read most of them (I am still struggling to finish the Return of the King) and whilst acknowledging their influence and scope still don't think they are particularly readable.

No, for me , it was the fantastic images created by the film that inspired me. Oddly, when Games Workshop came out with their Fellowship of the Ring boxed set I didn't buy it as I couldn't see how you could turn a film featuring largely invincible heroes into a satisfactory game.

It wasn't until D'Agostini came out with their Battlegames in Middle Earth part-work that I got interested, at the prompting of my little boy, Guy, and subsequently subscribed to the magazine; eventually collecting every issue.

I painted the 12 goblins included in the first issue in a day and my little boy and I immediately played a game using these and the cardboard Aragorn included as well.

Since then I must have acquired hundreds of figures, although very few are painted. Most are designed by the Perry brothers and are, as a result, completely gorgeous. Some of them are truly remarkable portraits, in 25mm, of the actors who played the parts in the films.

Occasionally, LotR games are played at Guildford but the main driver for me in getting more figures done is Guy, who loves playing the game.

So over the next year or so I will see how many more of these splendid figures I can get onto the gaming table and even have a go at making some scenic items.