The Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle Earth: Starting a couple of Dwarves...

Monday, 9 December 2013

Starting a couple of Dwarves...

Despite the rubbish support for The Hobbit from Games Workshop I still like some of the figures and have started work on a couple this weekend. I watched the extended version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this weekend in preparation for going to see the Desolation of Smaug over Christmas (I have to wait until my daughter returns from university!) It was she who selected Bombur for me to work on. I also wanted to have a go at a Finecast figure so pulled out my outrageously expensive King Thror to do. I had hoped to paint him on Sunday but events conspired against me so I have only just started him.

Thror is a two part Finecast kit with an additional shield. I couldn't find any faults on mine except for some slight damage to part of the shield rim which I have fixed with greenstuff. The sword is very flimsy and is as bendy as an Airfix Ancient Britain! I did need to use a bit of liquid Greenstuff to fill some slight gaps between the two halves when stuck together but it would have been the same for a metal kit too, I think.

I've got plenty of pictorial reference for both figures but they are very small so I think I may have to break out a new Windsor and Newton Series 7 for them! I tried to do a bit on Thror last night but I have realised that I am going to need daylight to work on black undercoated figures. I bought the new Howard Shore Hobbit soundtrack today but it seems, rather like An Unexpected Journey, to be lacking in strong melodies which certainly wasn't the case for his three Lord of the Rings scores. Still, it's atmospheric stuff and means I now have 17 hours and 18 minutes of Howard Shore Lord of the Rings music to paint to, which should keep me in the right mood.

I also bid on a few metal LotR figures on eBay today as I notice that many of the LotR figures have disappeared from the Games Workshop catalogue and, eventually, I want to get them all!

2 comments:

Scottswargaming9 December 2013 at 23:00
Oh good show. Great to see the GW/LOTR stuff getting some love... was the extra footage for extended AUJ worth it?

I must get those soundtracks too, once I get to ITunes later on... I just got a mini speaker set thingie for my Ipod that will allow music soundtracks to accompany games in the games room :-)

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legatus hedlius9 December 2013 at 23:20
To be honest the extra footage, including a bizarre song by the troll King, wasn't really worth it but my daughter is really keen on all the behind the scenes extras. I never watch these as knowing how they filmed something spoils it for me!

Music in your games room will be a great enhancement!
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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.