The Host of Angband (thus far) plus more Elf conversions

I've been busy with my 'Silmarils Rampant' project, both doing some more Elf conversions and painting some evil models. Here are the latest Elves, this time from Artizan Miniatures Romano British range. They fit the GW Galadhrim heads perfectly (so glad I didn't EBAY those Galadhrim Guards!)

I've also been working on the 'bad guys'. I've reworked some of the Orcs I did a few years back - the ones I bought off EBAY part painted and tidied up. I also bought some Uruk Hai similarly part-painted and tarted them up to be an Orc captain's bodyguard. 

I also dug out my old Mordheim Norse werewolf model converted from an old Warhammer Chaos Hound. 

I have also bought myself a fabulous wingless Firedrake from Mithril Miniatures as I wanted a Glaurung-esque dragon as a Greater Warbeast. This excellent model was painted with a colour scheme based on Tolkien's original sketch of Glaurung. I'm really pleased with how it came out. Here's the sketch...

...And here's my version...

And here's the whole lot thus far, including the troll I painted a few years back. I still need loads more Orcs (including some archers), some Warg Riders, 2 more trolls to make a unit of 3 (reduced model unit of offensive heavy foot) and I want to do a Balrog...

More Elves WIP

Ok, so I'm doing some further work on some more 1st Age Noldor Elves. A bunch of West Wind Arthurian minis here (plus an errant Footsore) with West Wind Saxon and GW Galadhrim heads, GW Warhammer Elf plumes, Oathmark Elf plumes and a bit of Greenstuff here and there. I think thesewill look the dog's flopsy bits once painted!

 

Simarils Rampant - Tolkien's Silmarillion 1st Age Noldor Elf Conversion

I recently joined a new group on Facebook called 'Wargaming In Middle Earth.' It's a group dedicated to all aspects of Middle Earth gaming with all sorts of figure scales and rules. What drew me to it is the excellent conversion work of Graham Green, who converts historical Dark Age figures into Tolkien-esque Elves to try to create Elves that actually look like what Tolkien himself would have envisaged, rather than the Peter Jackson or Warhammer things out there that everyone seems to do. Anyway, this really floated my boat as I've always had my own vision of Tolkien's Elves, based on Victor Ambrus' brilliant illustrations in the old Tolkien Bestiary by David Day. Here's an example of one of them. I love this picture!

So I decided to have a go! Thus, after a couple of weeks of chopping, glueing, greenstuffing, agonising over colour scheme and panicking over what on earth I was going to do with the shield, here is my first ever Dark Age historical to 1st Age Tolkien Elf conversion! 

The base figure is a Gripping Beast Arthurian Pict Noble, with a GB sword. The shield is also GB, from the Normans range but it has had the boss filed away. The head comes from a GW LOTR Guard of the Galadhrim Court. The cloak is my very first attempt at large scale sculpting of flat cloth and I'm dead chuffed with it, although it took a bloody age to do! The cloak clasp is also greenstuff and turned out well despite being a rather happy accident after some experimenting with different ways to make said clasp!! He is painted in my usual style. The shield design is based on one I saw on a LBM shield transfer set for Mantic Miniatures Elves. It was hell's own nightmare to paint, to be honest! But I like it now it's done.  

I don't have any particular Elven kingdom in mind for this fella, although the blue colour scheme suggests Fingolfin or Fingon's houses. Apparently the star suggests a link to Feanor. I'll just leave it pretty open. He's gonna be joined by a  war band of similar conversions. I have a bunch of West Wind Arthurian awaiting some conversion work and I have ordered a box of the new and rather lovely Oathmark plastic Elves, so expect more 1st Age Elf goodness over the next few weeks. I'm also painting the evil army, completing several WIP Orc units that I started ages ago and a large wingless fire-drake (Glaurung). Expect pics of these bad guys shortly. These will be used in games of Silmarillion-based Dragon Rampant (I'm calling it 'Simarils Rampant') so that gives you an idea of the force sizes to be expecting.

Anyway, here's that Elf. Hope you like him!