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Author Topic: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!  (Read 3147 times)

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Offline Faeluchu

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[LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« on: August 4, 2015, 04:42:45 PM »
Quote
Now they sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout. And from the walls an answering shout went up; for foremost on the field rode the swan-knights of Dol Amroth with their Prince and his blue banner at their head.. 'Amroth for Gondor!' they cried. 'Amroth to Faramir!'”
- The Return of the King

So, being a huge Tolkien nerd that I am, I have decided to expand and convert my half-painted Gondorians into a proper army of Dol Amroth. The leader of my army will be Prince Erchirion, second son of Prince Imrahil (who fought at the siege of Minas Tirith), and, as such, calls for a conversion (I'm thinking about cutting the head off Prince Imrahil on foot and gluing in there the head of armoured Faramir, since I have like 4 of those, and then greenstuffing some feathers to his helmet and changing the sigil on his shield.)
The sigil itself is of importance - since, as we all know, Prince Erchirion was not an heir to Dol Amroth (that went to his older brother Elphir), I don't think it would be suitable for him to use the swan-and-ship device of the realm plus I want to give my force something a little different (partly because of the fact that painting all those swan ships would take forever with my level of skill.) To this end, I have settled on an anchor symbol - still tied to the sea, so proper for Dol Amroth, but different from the official sigil. My plan is to greenstuff it onto the shields, banners and such after filing off all the White Trees of Minas Tirith. Since my greenstuff skills are probably worse than my painting skills, I've also decided to keep it simple:

As can be seen, this design requires me to simply roll my GS into thin thin rolls and then try to place them accordingly. With a lot of patience it shouldn't be THAT hard, plus it will make painting it much easier plus that way I can boast that I used GS in my conversions :D

The second main conversion that my warriors will feature is that I will attempt to sculpt wings to place at the sides of their helmets, similar to what GW's Dol Amroth Men-at-arms have; definitely smaller than the Knights' of Dol Amroth, since I don't want them to overshadow those models once I get them.

The plan is as follows:
I Knights of Minas Tirith: prepare bases, greenstuff sigils onto shields, banners and cuirasses, paint everything
II Prince Erchirion on foot/mounted: find suitable base models, greenstuff him accordingly
III Warriors of Minas Tirith: as with the Knights
After that I will probably either look to obtain some more units or turn to making some terrain.

Pictures will appear eventually;first ones most probably once I'm done with the Knights' bases and when I try out that method for making the anchors.
Hopefully a month or two from now my biggest problem will be finding someone to play with ;-)

Oh, one last thing: will anyone with a copy of "Kingdoms of Men" rulebook be so kind and send me a PM with a list of wargear that a generic Gondor commander/prince Imrahil can take? I want to magnetize my Prince to have various options at his disposal. I don't want any points values or anything, so I think it's not very illegal to share that info
"Tylko jeśli szybowałeś przez niebo na skrzydłach z ognia możesz zrozumieć Jastrzębia"

BYB is too close to BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze) which is how I started gaming anyways. The proper way.

Offline Cavalier

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #1 on: August 5, 2015, 07:25:15 AM »
Awesome! Can't wait to see some LOTR models. I love the models but never had the cash to try it out. Huge LOTR/Silmarillion fan can't wait to see this. Give us photos!
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Offline Faeluchu

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #2 on: August 5, 2015, 04:07:56 PM »
So I'm done with all cavalry bases; "how did you manage it so quickly?", I hear you say - well, I actually started a couple of days ago :D the bases themselves are pretty simple - I found some thick foam lying around in my hobby stuff, cut it into strips with my hobby knife, cut those into bricks [pic] and started laying out roads.

I left some gaps between them and some missing bricks because, as we all know, the roads that the Numenoreans built have fallen into disrepair and Gondor barely has (or maybe I should say had, since now all is well with king Elessar) enough men to defend its borders, let alone repair roads. But back to the topic: bricks and then some pebbles (the tragedy of my life is that I've found a big reserve of really small pebbles [since the ones in the pics are probably medium-sized, while those were actually small] after I've done all the bases, so couldn't use them, but infantry bases will probably feature them)

A look at one of the bases; I still need to go through them and chop off any bricks that stick out too much

Almost all the horses done; there are 2 more, but their bases are also done and by now they are even glued to them. Which in total gives me 8 horses, for 6 Knights, one standard bearer and, potentially, a converted Prince Erchirion.

Also a note on anchor sigils: I've started doing them on their shields and it's been a bit of a pain in the lower part of my back, but if you don't look too closely they actually look decent. I've had much more problems with trying to fit an anchor on their banners, but that's also doable; I think I'll leave their cuirasses black, since you can't see too much of those anyway when the shields are glued on plus that way they will fit better to the official Knights of Dol Amroth models, which also don't have anything on their armour (at least the foot variety, but I'm assuming the mounted ones are also like that).

Should everything go well there might be first painted Knights around Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed!

Cavalier, the models are actually much cheaper than the ones for 40k or WFB/AoS ;-) but I understand that meta and being competitive and all that requires constant purchases - it would have been the same with me, but a recent marathon of the whole LotR trilogy in the cinema plus reading Tolkien's "Unfinished Tales" really sparked up my, already considerable, interest ;)
"Tylko jeśli szybowałeś przez niebo na skrzydłach z ognia możesz zrozumieć Jastrzębia"

BYB is too close to BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze) which is how I started gaming anyways. The proper way.

Offline Cavalier

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #3 on: August 6, 2015, 06:59:28 AM »
At first I questioned the brick technique you were using based on the first photo, but when I saw them as a group I really liked them! Very very cool stuff.

I love Dol-Amroth, there is a famous painting by John Howe that blew my mind... the cliffs look like they were etched by acid. The whole nautical world of Middle-Earth was never touched on much outside of the Silmarillion so it was very evocative for me. I was always super bummed that they excluded the arrival of the various princes and their armies at Minas Tirith in the movies.

Couple quick notes if you are interested in expanding your Middle Earth knowledge, the Silmarillion is an excellent read, and gets far less obtuse once you get past the first few chapters. I actually enjoy the Silmarillion far more than LoTR, and its appendices the History of Middle Earth complied by Christopher Tolkien are EXCELLENT! At times it reads like a compendium of short stories about some of the core mysteries of the world. Furthermore the audiobooks with Robert Inglis are absolutley amazing, the singing is absolutely incredible.

Anyway really looking forward to following this thread it seems you are really up on your Tolkien lore. Good luck going forward you have a faithful follower in me!

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Offline Faeluchu

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #4 on: August 7, 2015, 04:16:35 PM »
Cavalier, I have read both the Silmarillion and all the appendices many times over, so I'm no stranger to those ;) if anyone's interested in further further reading (because Silmarillion *can* be a bit too much for many people), I recommend checking out Jane Chance's and Tom Shippey's books and compendiums (compendiae?) of Tolkien-related articles, like "Tolkien the Medievalist" and "The Road to Middle-Earth"

So I've had both successes and failures as far as my greenstuffing went; the success is that it's generally done and it looks decently well from some distance, the failure that it's not quite what I hoped for, when one inspects it more closely. Generally speaking the anchors were difficult to pull off in most part, as I suspect, since I didn't really wait for my greenstuff to harden a bit before attempting to do them; afterwards when reading about cape-modelling I've come across several opinions that you have to let it harden when working on smaller details... oh well, lesson for the future.
Also, I've left the Knights' helmets alone for the moment - I've tried sculpting those wings for them, but at first couldn't achieve anything that wouldn't look like a much uglier and bulkier version of all those fancy lines that they already have on their helmets. However I did have some moderate success when scuplting helmet wings for my converted prince Erchirion - I've changed the method for doing them, but it takes absolutely forever now, so I'm wary of doing the same for all six Knights. Might reconsider over the weekend, but not sure yet.
Also one last thing - since the Foot Knights of Dol Amroth have been unavailable from GW's website for quite some time now and I'm not about to pay 30 pounds for 3 of them on Ebay just because they're OOP, I've come up with an alternative plan: use my Numenorean Warriors (of which I have 12 at the moment, about right for a single squad), convert 3 of them to form a command group and give all of them Ebob's swan heads (http://www.ebobminiatures.com/products/head2.jpg) -> that way they'll have a distinct appearance and I won't have to buy a plethora of new models. (It is a bit of a shame though, since I really liked the GW's models...)
Onwards to pictures: first up, how the shields with anchor sigil turned out (as you'll notice, they are very crude in general, but trust me, it doesn't look THAT bad from some distance ;) )



The lances: in this case the results are a bit better and a bit worse - a bit better since they are less visible, a bit worse since it was much harder to make those anchors that small and personally I think they turned out even worse than the shield ones:



And finally, the start of my converted Prince Erchirion - I still need to get the rulebook to work out what weapon options he might have (probably sword and lance, but better safe than sorry) and also to file off his White Tree. He is also going to have a cape at some point. (pictures are a bit out of focus, but that's because my camera is sucky).




Also I'm wondering about the foor model for Prince Erchirion - my original plan was to simply hack off Prince Imrahil's head and replace it with armoured Faramir's head with some scuplted wings, like above. But then an idea came to me to simply utilise the armoured Faramir on foot, sculpt him some wings and a cape - the pros of that are that both models will resemble each other better, especially since I have to scratchbuild mounted Erchirion's shield, so there's a change it will not be as nice as Imrahil's. The obvious downside is that the foot model won't be half as nice - after all, Imrahil is designed specifically to look like a man of Dol Amroth and it's visible in almost every inch of the miniature... well, I'll probably sleep on that problem and come to some conclusion later on.
Next up: spraying horses and either (1) assembling and spraying Knights to get them ready for painting or (2) first sculpting some helmet wings for them.
"Tylko jeśli szybowałeś przez niebo na skrzydłach z ognia możesz zrozumieć Jastrzębia"

BYB is too close to BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze) which is how I started gaming anyways. The proper way.

Offline Cavalier

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2015, 01:05:52 PM »
Hey Faeluchu, great to see a fellow Silmarillion fan and pre-LOTR fan on the boards! As for the project this is looking like a very ambitious project. It seems like you are disappointed in the sculpting though. Have you considered painting the symbols on by hand? It makes it a lot easier to refine, and much easier to work with. Just an idea, but if you are committed to sculpting the heraldry I give you a ton of kudos. Keep it up I'm really fascinated to see where this is going.
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Offline Faeluchu

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2015, 09:57:39 AM »
Cavalier, I've noticed that you're the kindly spirit of the Projects Blog - hovering here and there, always welcoming various efforts with encouragement ;)

Also at this point I would like to thank over 150 people who took the effort to click on this thread (and no, that wasn't only me checking up whether someone has replied ;) )

Anyway, this particular project will go on a bit of hiatus since I'll be going on holidays, but fret not - it shall not be abandoned. Today I've managed to half paint all the Knights, so after the 23rd I'll finish them up, do their horses and probably spend some time adoring my first finished unit ;)

Here are the photos of what I did so far:


The blue and the metal on the shields are done, so basically what's left is to touch up a bit the wood on the back (but I won't fret over it too much, since most will be obscured by the model once they're glued) and do the anchor - I still can't decide whether I want my army to be the traditional blue-and-white or blue-and-gold; maybe I'll be able to decide after I return


And the Knights themselves; I generally like the way they're turning out so far, especially the armour (one of these days I'll post a comparison picture of how I paint silver armour now and how I used to ~10 years ago when I did my first Gondorians); just like with the shields, I still need to finish up some areas, most notably all the wood and leather and their sigils. And let's not forget about the most fun part, their faces - I hate painting eyes, but it needs to be done ;)

And yeah, I've thought about painting all the symbols freehand, but (1) I am afraid they'll turn out even worse, and (2) I really want to work on my sculpting skills, so that seems like a reasonable start.

I already ordered the Kingdoms of Men rulebook, so hopefully by the time I next write here I'll already know of all the potential equipment my Prince can take and show you how I converted the model - it definitely won't be painted yet, but I hope to be at least done with sculpting ;)

Namárië! (I need to find an Adunaic phrase for "farewell" ;-) )
"Tylko jeśli szybowałeś przez niebo na skrzydłach z ognia możesz zrozumieć Jastrzębia"

BYB is too close to BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze) which is how I started gaming anyways. The proper way.

Offline Cavalier

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2015, 07:07:01 AM »
Yeah I really like to encourage people on the project logs. I took almost the whole span of 5th edition 40k off to complete my army and the people on the boards really kept me inspired so I want to return the favor to anyone who comes on to the boards.

Anyway the paint jobs are coming out really nice. Really like the use of enchanted blue, gives a real classic look to these guys. Keep it up this army is gonna look righteous!
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Offline vonny

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Re: [LotR] Dol Amroth goes to war!
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2015, 08:20:42 AM »
the blue is a really good spot color here. I think this whole paint scheme should work wonders as an army!
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