Lord of the Rings- Easterlings, Harad & Mordor

 The Easterlings were the first LotR figures to start the collection it is today, again purchased from various sources, mainly to fight against my pal's Rohan. As is normal with me it started with some badly painted ones from a bring and buy, which I stripped and repainted. The rest is, as they say, history.

The Harad's five Mumaks are impressive on the table

Different schemes for the Haradrim

Two units of Haradrim Raiders. £10 for both unmade boxes from a car boot sale. 

Half Troll, I have 4 of these.

An army worthy of Mordor, not quite yet. There are still more Orcsies on the workbench, which are now finished and further down post!

Grishnakh 

Last three Companies of my Mordor Orcsies, Completed in one day!

These six Morgul Knights were completed over two days.

Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship and Isengard

Lord of the Rings is known by almost everyone and not everyone like Peter Jackson's take on it. "The Hobbit was said to be a disaster by Tolkien fans, Well I have enjoyed reading it, and watching all six film. I have enjoyed The Rings of Power so far too. I enjoyed them because they are "ripping yarns"! Would Tolkien turn in his grave, probably not, He would be loving the fact that his books are being enjoyed still, and the movies just add to the mystique of Middle Earth. 

Here is my adventure into Middle Earth and I will say that not one of the figures on this post were purchased by me, at a GW Store. I have built these armies from Bring and Buys, Jumble Sales, Car Boot sales, Facebook contacts and Ebay. 

I will start appropriately with the Fellowship, all plastic set, donated by a good friend.

Gandalf the White on Shadowfax

 

 Isengard is Rising 

Saruman and Wormtongue

Isengard will be proud! 232 Figures. I started these and finished these in 7 days! A few were part painted, but I repainted them all!

 

Shagrat, Gorbat, Gothmog and a Shaman

Warg Riders

Siege Balista 

Lurtz and Friends

Next armies will be Kingdoms of Gondor & Rohan

Repairing (not pre-paring) Rohan for war

 My Rohan army like all my Lord of the Rings project was a slow grow, not the painting, the building of the force. I had collected from Car boots, Jumble sales, Bring and Buys, I had been given a few! 

The one thing they had in common was, "battle worn", these had seen many tabletop battles and the very large majority were broken, missing parts, bases etc. Why would a "renowned" game producer have a horse that mounts to a base by only one leg, is beyond me. Anyway this was why I managed to get these as cheap as I did I suppose.

Now I had my 80 or so figures, it was time to sort and repair, then paint. Super glue, plastic glue and hot glue gun at the ready, I was on a mission.

I repaired them in batches of ten, which allowed the glue to go off as some /most needed multiple repairsto both riders, broken weapons and the horses. 

      I

I would recommend gluing all the LotR Cavalry like this to reinforce the horses feet. 

I even managed to get full sprues which helped

Here are some of the repaired, converted and finished Rohan.

Attack the Baggage - War of the Ring

 

The forces of Evil are on route of march to attack the fortress of Five Roads, Held by the Men of Gondor. 

The Rohan have sent a force to intercept the column before this Happens. Used "War of the Ring" rules from GW, a lesser-known set, untouched by GW "Dabble Trolls" has all the armies, special rules, etcin one book. My type of rules. 

No points values in our game, just a good old scrap to get various units on table to see how the rules play. 

 A Little different from Lord of the Ring Skirmish rules, very bloody, but a very workable, fun set of rules. Bigger set piece battle next time. 

 The Column has spotted their foe and prepares its battle formation.  

Lurtz in command  

The first Rohan Scouts are awaiting the rest of their units to form battle Formations  

The mass shooting of the Rohan proved too much for the Haradrim Raiders  

A Rohan Charge was too much for the Easterling Archers

 

 The Column now looks vulnerable 

 Some reinforcements arrive for both sides

Mumakil and Harad foot head for the front of the column to protect it.

 

 The Mumak charged and killed five Rohan in its stomp attack

WWII 8th Army, in 20mm

I have decided I need to build a small 8th army force, having only the Axis, I need something for them to fight. So here is the start of another project. The infantry will be arriving soon from Plastic Soldier Company and then I will look at which force to build

 I was given these 1/76th scale Vickers MKVI's on Saturday, after our Tobruk game. Two required for Thursday game.

I made the  B variant. Started from kits yesterday, with stowage. I will see at a later date which unit to make, hence no decals. My Grants are sitting in the American car park and have never seen action in the 30 to 40 years I have had them, so maybe?

Undercoat of off white, then Skeleton Bone Contrast, Agrax Wash, heavy dry brush Humbrol Khaki Drill (72). Tracks Red Brown Tamiya 64, dry Brush Chain Mail, Dry Brush Earth and highlight Humbrol Khaki Drill (72).

Now onto the Infantry. I got a box of 8th Army from the Plastic Soldier Company and although not the greatest resin, they do the job. I decided to undercoat in bone white, paint the flesh, any brown and then a brown wash. Here is the result so far: 

First Battalion Completed, in just two days. a couple of figures reassigned to other duties!

How I painted them: Bone White/ off white primer, block paint flesh, packs, etc Khaki  Drill (Humbrol 72/ Coat D'Arms 537 Faded Khaki), Rifles, Boots Tamiya Flat Brown 10. Then wash with Agax earthshade/ Medium tone wash, Varnish and base.

3" Mortar. The one on the left has my test figures on it. Medic in front, just needs finishing off. I used the Walking Bren Gun Loader.

A brace of MMGs, I need another one! AT Rifle in front (converted a Bren gunner). 2" Mortar next to that. Two Bren Gun teams.

AOP Team

Four Infantry Companies.

Battalion HQ Stand and 2" Mortar on the move!