A new project: the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in 15mm (and a kitbashed troll)

Heartened by the completion of my Five Armies project, I'm now embarking on another Middle-earth scheme: the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in 15mm (using Hordes of the Things or perhaps DBF - or both for different games, perhaps). 

The Pelennor is an obvious choice for a big battle from Tolkien's works. It has a pleasing variety of troop types on both sides, with notably more varied forces of evil than some other battles, in that there are plenty of diverse human troop types alongside the orcs, trolls and Ringwraiths, along with some that could be interpreted as either wholly or partially human (the "men like half-trolls", who are later referred to simply as "troll-men"). And there are lots of varied goodies too, with plenty of scope for characterful leaders, from Gandalf to Forlong the Fat. 

And the Pelennor also has nice historical echoes, including the Cautalanian Fields (aka the Battle of Chalons) and various sieges of Constantinople. 

Alas, while 15mm is great for affordable historical analogues for Middle-earth troop types, it largely precludes the kitbashing of orcs, which was one of the great joys of the Five Armies project. But it does open up the possibility of kitbashing some trolls. 

 Most obviously, the great battering ram Grond is wielded by trolls. And trolls are mentioned in the rout of the Witch-king's army too, if I remember correctly.

What do Tolkien's trolls look like? Well, the consistent theme - from JRRT's own illustrations for The Hobbit to the cave troll in Moria to the hill trolls at the Morannon (who must be Olog-hai) - is that they're scaly. To that end, I kitbashed one using a Frostgrave snakeman body and various dwarf and goblin parts. I'm quite pleased with how he looks - a fairly original take on a much-depicted monster - and he's bang on scale with 15mm figures (Tolkien indicates that trolls were around 12' tall):

The Battle of the Five Armies with Hordes of the Things

 

Over the past few months, I assembled and painted up a set of Hordes of the Things matched forces for the Battle of the Five Armies from The Hobbit. This was for a friend's kids; the armies were handed over at the weekend, and the inaugural battle was fought - largely according to the book, although Beorn was a notable casualty and Thorin survived. In the end, it was the stout Lake Men who put paid to Bolg.

Here are the HOTT elements involved:

Beorn:

Dain and his dwarves:

Thorin Oakenshield and his companions:

Gandalf, Bilbo, the Elf-king and the elves:

The Lake Men:

The forces of good (minus Beorn and the Eagle):

The goblin hordes:

Bolg of the North and his bodyguard:

The wargs:

Warg riders:

"They ride upon wolves, and the wargs are in their train":

The forces of evil:

The eagles:

The whole lot, more or less, including the bat clouds at the back.

My son's ork war machine

 

I was short of prep time for a couple of games of Grimdark Future over the weekend, so I commissioned my son to build me a "great walker". This is the result.     

It worked pretty well in the first game, though less so in the second, where I had to bend the points allowance to fit it in and ended up with too many eggs in its well-protected basket. I'll probably add some tattered banners and graffiti to it before its next appearance.

A space ettin!

I realise that I've had this fellow in the works for more than three years (!) now, but he's finally done. He's a converted ettin from the Descent boardgame. 

Ettin, of course, is an archaic English word that means 'giant'. It's cognate with the Norse jotun: both words seem to stem from a root that means 'eater'.

 In the Monster Manual, Gary Gygax describes ettins as two-headed giants that are evidently "closely related to orcs". He probably got his concept of the ettin from the fairy tale Red Ettin, which features a three-headed giant who keeps two-headed cattle. I thought a sci-fi version might do nicely as a space-orc chieftain.

A whole lot more orks ,,,

Here's another batch of space orcs - most of them old Citadel from the 80s, along with a Mantic marauder and a more recent GW ork with a bit of kitbashing. 

 I added a little bit of an homage to the late John Blanche: a titan of illustration and miniature painting, who will be very much missed. RIP.

And another ...

 This is one of Thrugg Bullneck's raiders from the very first 40K releases. He appears to be a leader of some kind, though he's neither Thrugg, Hrukk nor the unnamed squad leader with the heavy bolter. I suspect he was meant to be a second squad leader but lost his position in a mix-up with the heavy gunner. 

Another space orc!

 

Here's another space orc - this one a conversion of a Battle Masters orc. 

Veteran space orcs

Here's a unit of "orc veterans" for Grimdark Future (and doubtless other games). They're a mix of orks and fantasy orcs and black orcs. 

The two black orcs have simply been equipped with pistols to give them sci-fi credentials.

The orc on the left is a Warhammer fantasy orc with an ork head and left arm.

 

Yet more space orcs!

 There's an old John Blanche illustration from White Dwarf that I like, which I think may have been recycled into the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It was used to illustrate an article entitled The Naked Orc, and it shows a group of orcs that vary massively in stature and proportions. 

I'm going for something of the same effect with these space orcs: a diverse bunch of creatures that are united only by a few specific characteristics. These are the latest two: a Mantic marauder and a kitbashed Warhammer Fantasy orc. Many more to come ...

More space orcs!

 

I'm currently in the process of finishing off a batch of orks, many of which were started years ago. In tow of these three instances, I've retouched old paintjobs, mainly by redoing the skin. The one on the right is a new speed-paint: clothes and gear done very quickly with drybrushing and washing; skin done more slowly.

My plan for today was to get at least 10 finished; I'm up to five as of ten o'clock. I had the day off for the task, but the weather demanded plenty of outdoor exercise!

A space black orc

Here's an "orc veteran" for Grimdark Future - the first of a small unit that I hope to finish this evening. 

With my space orcs, I'm trying to keep the pink snout, ears and lower lip as the unifying characteristics, with a bit of variety in the skin colours - mainly green but also black, grey and brown - and possibly blue and dull red too.

This guy was the test for black skin; I was aiming for the original colour scheme for Citadel black orcs, as seen in Gary Chalk's illustration for Warhammer Armies (or was it Ravening Hordes - I forget). 

 

Flying space gnolls!

One of the unit types in Grimdark Future's "jackals" army list is vultures - canine beastmen equipped with jump packs. Gnolls, of course, are feliform rather than canine, but they have impeccable scavenger credentials. 

 I used space-marine backpacks with space-marine shoulder pads over the exhausts to create the appearance of mobile-jointed jets. The weapon arms come from all over the place.

Space gnolls!

 Kitbashing Frostgrave gnolls into sci-fi versions is something I've been doing since the kit came out. These guys are the picking up of a project I was working on about a year ago. Happily, the kitbashes I made then work as a unit of "jackal" trackers for Grimdark Future plus a couple of heroes (one very big - a converted Wizkids gnoll).

I painted these figures very quickly, chiefly through drybrushing, with a few select layering-and-highlights areas (the black hyena-like features and the red weapons and armour). Drybrushing can look quite rough, but I reckon it's appropriate for dusty scavengers on some desert planet.

More space orks!

The band of space orks is slowly growing. I'm going to mix eras and manufacturers entirely freely for this project; whatever these little green men are, they're going to be a widely variable species.