So I’ll be honest; I never had any intentions of playing the LotR SBG. However my best friend got back into wargaming and had always been a massive fan. He managed to persuade me (read: asked me once) to start and go to a tournament with him in November. I needed 300pts. I now have over 1500pts (mostly donated by another friend) and am still expanding.

The army is currently themed around the Rivendell Guard, and based on the art in the 'Hobbit Chronicles: Art & Design' book (below). I feel that that age has the most scope/potential, although I do really like the alternate timelines proposed in the Battle for Middle Earth 2 video game and what would have happened should Sauron have regained the One Ring.



Due to the sheer volume of models I needed to have painted in a short space of time I only went for a tabletop standard on these guys. That being said I’m quite satisfied with how they came out and they look good on the table. Whereas the metal heroes are lovely figures to paint, the plastics are less so. They definitely show their age; lacking a lot of detail and definition. The spearmen are old generation Finecast and absolutely terrible models; easily the worst material that I’ve ever worked with.

Gil-Galad, King of the Elves



Elrond, Master of Rivendell



Glorfindel, Lord of the West



Erestor, Chief Councilor of Elrond, Captain of Rivendell



Arwen Undómiel



Legolad, Captain of the Rivendell Scouts (Legolas’ more loutish identical twin, says ‘bro’ a lot, loves to get smashed on mead)



I wont post all the models to save on repetition. In total there are two Captains, two banners, 8 swordsmen, 8 spearmen and 8 archers. This totals two full warbands with some flexibility.

Captain



Banner Bearer



Spearman



Swordsman



Archer



Rivendell Knight Captain 1



Rivendell Knight Captain 2



Rivendell Knight Banner 1



Rivendell Knight Banner 2



Rivendell Knights





I’m already working to expand this army out:

- The Rivendell Guard will be receiving some reinforcements in the form of Elladan & Elrohir (classic sculpts), Estel (young Aragorn), Cirdan, a mounted Glorfindel (based on one of the armoured twins on horseback) and eight regular guys to act as dismounts for the Knights. Bilbo is also featured in the Throne of Skulls 2017 Rivendell army list, so I’m doing him as I feel I should paint at least one hobbit.

- As I already have most of the members I’m finishing off the White Council with Saruman the Wise, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown (based on the Sharky model), Galadriel and Celeborn.

- With Radagast and Bilbo opening up the option for a Radgast’s Alliance/Wanderers in the Wild contingent there will be a pair of Great Eagles making an appearance.

- After the awesome weekend at W.A.R. of the Ring 2017 in Reading my best friend and I are looking to do a lot more tournaments. Top of the list is Throne of Skulls 2018. I’ve already picked up some themed dice, counters and objective markers and am looking at a display board that will double up for Armies on Parade 2018 too.

- I’m currently working on some basic terrain pieces to make our games more thematic. The Ruins of Osgiliath set from GW is fantastic value and very versatile.

Very nice!

It is always nice to see someone's vision for an army come together. I must say I do think you've done a rather lovely job too. I look forward to seeing your Lindon regiment.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Very nice! I'm also doing a Rivendell army as my first foray into Middle-Earth. Haven't started painting them yet ... but they're there!

Thanks for the kind words fellas! Considering I never thought that I'd be playing LoTR SBG I've ended up far more committed to this than I ever thought I would!



Hobby progress has been a little slow over Christmas as you’d expect, however I’m getting there. I’m currently a little further than the above picture shows; silver has been put down, as has the flesh and blue base coats. Current plan is to paint the Rivendell contingent first before moving onto the wizards and finally the Lothlorien element of the White Council. I’m yet to get the Eagles or remaining mounts, but I’ve got enough to keep me busy in the interim.

Apart from the above I’ve managed to get the Osgiliath ruins cleaned, built and undercoated. I’m waiting on an opportunity to get around the In-Laws to play with some powertools to get the bases sorted. I ended up buying a load of trees and found some cork place mats that are destined to be hills. The whole terrain project ended up far more elaborate than intended!

Speaking of far more elaborate than intended; I’ve started to sketch out ideas for a display board. With this being my first proper army since returning to wargaming I’d like to enter them into Armies on Parade come November. My best friend and I are also hoping to get to the LotR Throne of Skulls later in the year too, and with the themed dice/tokens/objective markers I got for Christmas I’d like to see see the project ‘complete’. Below is my first concept sketch for the board; I’m somewhat unsure what to do with the 6″ of free space on the right. First thought was for a waterfall/river but this is probably going to be skill/cost prohibitive.

Excellent minis and cool project! I look forward to seeing your Armies on Parade entry come together!

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Respectfully,
Jonathan

Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly

Battle Companies

I haven't been on here in ages! That's not to say I haven't been working though...

So last Sunday I sat down with the extended LotR trilogy for the first time in probably 12 years and had a marathon painting session whilst my girlfriend was off being a hippy. 10.5 hours later I hadn’t finished the films but had the models almost done. A couple of days later I sat down and finished the movies and the models off. This sees the Rivendell Guard portion of my army finished.



Glorfindel, on Asfaloth - I got one of the mounted twins for cheap as the horse was missing a leg. My friend donated me a Rohan steed and, some pinning and a bit of green stuff later, he was as good as new. The only other adjustment was to shorten the sword hilt. If I were to do it again I’d definitely chop up the original one for the helmet/sword as the face sculpt leaves a lot to be desired.



Elladan, Twin son of Elrond - He remains one of my favourite models through pose and simplicity. Lovely to paint.



Elrohir, Twin son of Elrond - Complete opposite to his brother. At least his sword hasn’t broken… yet.



Celebrían, Wife of Elrond, Mother of Arwen and the twins - Based on the original Galadriel model; rules wise I’ll run her as Lindir. She neatly completes the family unit woth regards to fluff and rounds out my hero selection. I’ll be honest in that I was just looking for an excuse to paint her!



Cirdan, Master Shipwright - This chap is possibly my favourite miniature I’ve painted for LotR so far. Absolutely gorgeous sculpt. Points wise I can neatly swap him out for Arwen.



Estel, the Elfstone (Aragorn) - Given how Aragorn was raised in Rivendell and was besties with the Twins it was only apt that he feature. Plus I had the model lying around.



Bilbo Baggins - What’s LotR without a hobbit? This model is TINY but good fun to paint. I wanted him to look younger than he does in the Fellowship with the idea being he has realised the error of his ways and has the elves helping him destroy the Ring. He featured in last year’s Throne Of Skulls Rivendell army list too, and gives me access to Eagles via Wanderers in the Wild.



Rivendell Knights (Dismounted) - Nothing exciting model wise but essential in letting me run the Knights. Broken lances used on the bases to differentiate them from normal infantry.

More cool stuff! My only nitpick is that Celebrian means "Silver queen" in Sindarin apparently, so most people assume she was a platinum blonde. I guess that technically doesn't have to be the case, she was queenly but maybe just wore a lot of silver like your Rivendell guard does I do like the idea of running her as Lindir though. I had the idea of doing a conversion for her and calling her a stormcaller.

That's an awesome color scheme, nice work!

Excellent work, thanks for sharing...

The faces on Celebrian and Cirdan are particularly impressive....

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T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair..
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her..

Wow they look great. Love your colour scheme.

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Lamh Laidir in Uachtar

Trade viewtopic.php?f=38&p=378479#p378479

Thank you for the kind words guys; I appreciate it and it's keeping me motivated to keep this momentum going!

@metalface13 - Ah that's frustrating! I wanted to stay away from blonde in order to avoid any confusion with Galadriel. I was going to paint her with the same silver/grey hair as Cirdan but decided to stick with the same brown as the rest of the family. The idea for her to be Celebrían came after I painted her unfortunately and, having done some more research, there's very little chance she'd be a brunette with Celeborn and Galadriel as parents!

The last two days have been pretty good hobby wise:

- My girlfriend got me a 4' UrbanMatz Badlands mat for Valentine's Day (I got her jewellery, so it's a fair exchange!). This will allow for some larger games and a bit more scene setting.

- 30 cheap scale pine trees have been sealed twice with a mixture of water/pva to prevent the loss of flock. I need to spray the trunks to get rid of the plastic sheen and possibly dust the trees themselves to mute the colour.

- All the terrain bases have been cut out, beveled, sealed and the underside painted black.

- Floor tiles and 'grout' put down for ruins.

- Ruins basecoated and dry brushed. I need to gloss varnish and wash these, as well as do the wood. They've come out fairly well.

Overall it's all coming together nicely, especially for my first crack at terrain. I get paid tomorrow so can get the last few bits I need. Hopefully around late shifts and four days off I could have this all done by next weekend, possibly the one after.

I can then move on to the reinforcements...

Yeah, if you'd painted her blonde she would definitely look too much like Galadriel, considering it is a Galadriel model and all. Still, it's a really fantastic paint job.

Just lovely work all around. I am especially impressed with the faces.

galadrie's and aragorn's faces really stand out. Well done

Wow, there's been some amazing work put up on this forum recently! I really need to get through and give props to a lot of people...

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while guys; I've actually been super busy on various mini-man related projects but just not had the opportunity to get pictures.

Firstly is the start of my ‘Ruins of Arnor’ table. This is my first terrain project. Not gone mad on detail but I'm pretty happy with it. The LukeAPS tutorials were invaluable.

















Unfortunately the colours are a bit off and it's nowhere near as vibrant in person; it all blends in quite nicely with the new GameMat.eu my partner got me for Valentine's Day. I've still got a few more pieces to do which should hopefully be this month.

My best mate and I are heading back up to W.A.R. of the Ring* in Reading come November. They're running a 'bring your own table' competition which I'm tempted to enter with this stuff. It's not going to win but would anyone be interested on playing on this board?

Besides the terrain I’m almost finished with the White Council; I should have them photographed before the weekend. I’ve also just got mounted Saruman and some Eagles that need doing. I’m hoping to have this project done and dusted by the end of the moth, but I’ve said that before...

*It's a Good vs Evil format, so I've got a second army in the works, but more on that in a few months...

The floor really adds something to the ruins, and the wood sections look great too!

Great looking board! I live in the US, so unfortunately I will not be attending an event in Reading, however if I did, I would totally play on that board. The pics do make the flock and the trees stand out a little on the mat, but that's small potatoes.

Alongside the (recently posted) terrain that I was working on I’ve been dabbling with the White Council to ad some much needed magic to the force.

This is part 1:

Gandalf the Grey



Radagast the Brown



Galadriel, Lady of Lothlorien



Celeborn, Lord of Lothlorien



Elrond, Lord of Rivendell



Overall I’m quite happy with how they’ve come out, especially the wizards. I’ve posted Elrond before but I decided to make the trim on his robes white; I’m am now much happier with him. The Testors Dullcote didn’t dry as matte as it normally does, which is a bit of a shame but not all that noticeable.

I’ve still got good ol’ Saruman to finish off but I’m painting him alongside his mounted counterpart (who’s just been primed). I am only missing the classic Thranduil sculpt, but unless I can find him cheap I’m inclined to omit him.

I’ve not been pushing myself technically with this project; going for a basic table-top standard originally and then tying the reinforcements in with that, but I definitely feel it’s helped me improve. My techniques haven’t changed from the first models I did last year but I feel the speed and quality is better now regardless.

Man, the faces are really stunning, very well done

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The board is set, the pieces are moving...
My WIP: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=33504