The Ultimate Middle-Earth SBG Thread

Definitely, hence why I said the only things you'd need to scrounge other kits for are heads and swords/axes/clubs.

Round bases are probably the easiest thing to get nowadays, from GW and plenty of other retailers, for highly affordable prices. Even getting quantities of said bases would still put the total price as being lower than GW's Finecast Militia set.

Not to mention the fact that anyone who's still collecting for their Warhammer Fantasy armies, like myself, most likely has a huge collection of round bases from all the models bought in the AoS era that have been based on squares

 

I have a rules question which I could not find explicitly in the rules manual or armies books.

• Warrior model can be equiped with a banner. The rules for banners state that the model suffers a -1 on his Duel roll, because of the weight of the banner and he is carrying with both hands.

• Easterling warriors have the phalanx special rule: they can back up two models and make way two models if a Duel is lost. In addition they can carry a warpike and a shield. Whereas Uruk-hai can not carry shields whilst carrying a warpike.

Question: can Easterling warriors carry a banner and a shield?



Grrr, Imrahil

 

For some other note. I really love me some MESBG content on YouTube and in special the channel of Zorpazorp.
(from which I got the templates for the Gondorian buildings I made)

Recently he finished building a majestic board of a piece (tiny fraction) of Minas Tirith. There has been played a couple of games on it as well:





Grrr, Imrahil

 

I'm surprised those halberds the Easterlings wield count as pikes in the new rules, they look a lot shorter than the weapons carried by the Uruk-Hai, which are clearly pikes. Certainly in the pre-2012 rules Easterlings can only use spears which makes more sense, but given their weapons look very much like halberds they could easily be allowed to choose whether to use them as spears or two-handed weapons. However, they certainly don't look long enough to be pikes. I smell GW trying to power-up Easterlings a tad unnecessarily there.

Anyway, regarding your question, in the Hobbit rulebook (which is the closest ruleset I have to the current ruleset and is probably almost exactly the same), banners lost all association with being two-handed weapons, meaning the rule that models with two-handed weapons (including pikes) can't gain the +1 Defence bonus from shields doesn't apply to them. I believe this is the case principally because the King's Champion comes with two Heralds that carry shields alongside their banners and use them to improve their defence value as normal.

So yes, your Easterlings can carry a banner and a shield and use both if they wish.

 

You are probably right, because if I read correctly nowhere is stated that the banner is a twohanded weapon anymore, just that the bearer suffers a -1 on Duel rolls (which is the same for twohanded weapons).
The only difference between the Dwarven Heralds and the Easterlings is that the Dwarfs have the shield build in to their wargear and for Easterlings it is an added option.

So it will still leave the Easterling banner bearer to have a -1 on the Duel roll, right? Whereas the normal pike carrying warrior does not have that penalty?

Grrr, Imrahil

 

Yep I looked at my pre-2012 Lord of the Rings Rulebook and that rule that treated all banners as two-handed weapons (without the +1 bonus to fight value) was there, but upon looking at my Hobbit rulebook that part of the rule had disappeared, simply replacing it with a banner bearer suffering a -1 penalty to Duel rolls (as per two-handed weapon wielders, but with no other two-handed weapon rules). I believe this was because actual two-handed weapons were also given Special Strikes at this time and quite understandably the writers didn't want a banner-wielding model trying to bash someone's head in with their oversized flag.

Yes, the banner bearer will still suffer a -1 penalty to his duel roll due to the weight of his banner, while models with pikes don't suffer any such penalty because their weapon is not as heavy as a banner.

 

And once again I believe it's high time for another conversion discussion - today, it's High Elf Warriors:


High Elves are in a weird spot - on one hand they have some OK plastics, but they're bundled in with some Numenoreans as part of the Last Alliance set - if you're interested in collecting them too and building an allied force, then great, buy a couple of boxes and augment the High Elf contingent with the set of Finecast ones shown above and the Numenoreans with the metal spearmen and bowmen. However, if you just want a Rivendell army, or are intending to ally them with someone else, then you're not going to be getting as much value for money as you could be (in particular given the expensive cost of the four Finecast ones with shields).

But what to do about alternatives? On one hand, there are 3rd party sources that 3D-Print LOTR High Elves, definitely, but again while these are affordable in small numbers, building an army of them gets expensive. A far more cost-effective alternative lies in the High Elves' woodland cousins, the newer plastic Galadhrim Warriors:

These chaps are incredibly similar to High Elves - similar-looking armour, almost identical-looking shields and helmets that aren't all that different. Indeed even GW themselves acknowledge their similarity - certainly in the post-2012 pre-Middle Earth Lord of the Rings Free Peoples sourcebook, the only thing that differs between the two units is a point of Defence (and curiously it's the High Elves that have the higher Defence, despite the Galadhrim clearly wearing more armour). Thus these plastic models make excellent conversion fodder for High Elves. If you have little to no ability to model with Green Stuff, you could easily just purchase some 3D-Printed High Elf heads (I definitely know somebody makes these, though I can't tell you who off the top of my head), decapitate the Galadhrim and give them the alternative heads, or if you're willing to have a stab with modelling putty, just snip off the Galadhrim 'horn' crests and model the ornate High Elf crests on the crowns of the helmets. I don't think many gamers would bat an eyelid at either approach, in particular if it's just a fun, casual game, and the second method could also allow you to play at GW events to boot (as all you're doing is greenstuffing a GW model).

However, if you really want to make sure they look like High Elves and not upset any die-hard LoTR fans, then it's a simple matter of also greenstuffing over the plate mail skirts to look like cloth, and if you're really brave (and patient), try sculpting the High Elf 'ribbed' armour over the Galadhrim breastplates (perhaps filing or clipping off the ridges of the breastplates beforehand to stop the 'ribs' from bulging out too much).

I myself certainly plan to have a go at this method one day to make some High Elf infantry to join my Rivendell Knights, once the latter are built. I got some greenstuff for Christmas and I'm at a loss for knowing what to do with it first!

 

Ah, lets see here. I myself am a collector of the Noldor Elves of Rivendell (and technically the Grey Havens).
I am not that upset by the cost of the finecast spearmen, but I am upset about the lack of poses the plastic models come in (and the combined set with the Numenorean warriors)

I would not be against someone using the Mirkwood Elves as Rivendell Elves, but for my own army I simply can't stand it (although I do not consider myself a die-hard LoTR fan ). Your proposed method of greenstuffing garments and helm crests seems a bit time consuming to me. Though I am interested in the result of this operation.

For my own army I took another approach: In addition to a load of plastic warriors (they are sold almost with every lot of models on the second-hand market) I have bought a box of Rivendell Knights. The knights come with six horses and eight spear arms (from which 2 with banner) and an extra shield. With an easy operation a Rivendell warrior with bow can be changed into a Warrior with spear and shield.
Also to break up the mono-posed warriors I have cut and shaped some arms to alter the pose of normal warriors.




Grrr, Imrahil

 

That's fair given you've already got some Rivendell infantry, I imagine the different models wouldn't match so well together, but this is from the point of view of someone who has the Knights box but none of the infantry.

I'm still planning to have a go, as certainly greenstuffing over the mail and sculpting alternative crests shouldn't be too hard and will act as a good intro into greenstuff modelling, and the ribbed armour is something I can have a go at when I'm feeling a little more ambitious and have more time on my hands (as sculpting and fitting all those individual ribs is going to be the most time-consuming part).

That is a good point regarding the Knights having a couple of spares, but you'd still have to use existing High Elf Warriors and swap their weapons - fine if you have a surplus, but my method is aimed toward those who don't have any to begin with and are looking to start in the most cost-effective way possible. The commonality of the current plastics on the second-hand market is something to bear in mind, that's good to know, but given the Galadhrim warriors are newer and better models in more varied poses, I'm certainly still going to try my luck with them.

I have gained some experience in hand-swapping and even individual arm-reshaping for plastic models (mainly with my Warlord Celts and Romans), but I'd love to know how you managed to alter the pose of two arms holding the same weapon without breaking the weapon, as you did for the chap on the left. Did you just cut the two-arms off at the base, file down the stumps at a different angle and glue the arms to the stumps at that new angle?

 

Oh hello guys. I'll take a photo of my immediate collection in the morning. There is plenty more in storage. Both 3D prints and GW plastic.

 

Fantastic! Which armies do you collect?

 

As @Lord-Marcus seems to have missed my valid question, I have thought it's high time for another conversion discussion! Today, it's a big candidate with all the recent releases Middle-Earth has received as part of the Rohan campaign, the Dunlendings:



These chaps are entirely Finecast/metal/Forge World, so going entirely by the GW route will be costly and yields very little poseability or uniqueness, but this subfaction is fortunately one of the easiest Middle-Earth ranges of them all to convert, given they're based on everyone's favourite longship-crewing raiders, the Vikings. Historical Vikings can easily be used to proxy Warriors and Huscarls - Gripping Beast's Viking Hirdmen are some affordable models that certainly look the part and come with plenty of Hand Weapon and Shield options, plus some double-handed Dane Axes to bring some muscle to the field:



The boxed set will give you 44 models, which may be too many if you're only looking to include one or two warbands in your army, but remember that these can be used to represent both Warriors and Huscarls (Huscarls can apparently use their weapons as both spears and two-handed weapons, so you could probably get away with modelling some of them with the spears in the kit to make up for the shortage of two-handed axes), meaning one box of these will get you a long way toward completing your force (and as an alternative individual sprues from the set are very cheap to buy). The set even contains some command figures which can be used to represent Dunlending Chieftains:

Dunlending Warriors can also take bows, which aren't included in this set but Gripping Beast also sell metal hands holding bows to allow a converter to easily model some archers:


The Wildmen are a bit more difficult given they look scruffier and wield different weapons to the standard Viking Bondsman, but here North Star comes to our rescue with the Frostgrave Barbarians box:


This set contains 20 figures, with options enough to build potentially all of them with Hand Weapons and up to a maximum of 8 with 2-Handed Weapons, perfect for raising a warband or two of these savage maniacs in an Isengard force. In addition the models fit the part perfectly, with a range of scruffy bearded heads matching both the Gripping Beast Vikings and the GW models, and the fur clothing resembling the scraggy rags worn by the film Dunlendings. The icing on the cake is that Frostgrave and Oathmark models scale rather well with Gripping Beast models, so there won't be any mocking from your opponent at the sight of ordinary Dunlendings standing a head taller than their superiors.

Additionally unlike their real-world counterparts the Dunlendings are not afraid to ride horses - the best fit for Horsemen would be one or a box of Gripping Beast Goth Noble Cavalry sprues, with spare heads borrowed from the Hirdmen box to preserve the Viking theme:



Alternatively, Victrix make an all-in-1 Viking set that contains 60 armoured and unarmoured figures, with enough to make 24 Wildmen and 24 Warriors or Huscarls all at once, and 12 command figures that can be used to make Chieftains, banner bearers and additional Warriors/Huscarls:


This could definitely be a more affordable way of building up your army (if you're not into Horsemen), but a word of warning - Victrix models are closer to Warhammer models in scale, so if you don't want your Dunlendings to tower over even the Uruk-Hai, I would recommend the Gripping Beast/Frostgrave option.

Once your rank-and-file models have been bought and painted at a tremendous saving, the prospect of buying Thrydan from GW and the other named characters from Forge World doesn't look nearly so daunting.

 

Wow these are a really good fit... I almost want to start this army immediately
I am going to constrain myself, but this is very useful for when I am to start such a army.

Grrr, Imrahil

 

Friends,
I am updating the webstore with New models from both February and March. I will be making multiple announcements over the next week.
I am happy to announce Medbury miniatures has a new wood elf range that has been added to the store, as well as a doomed dwarf expedition group.

https://mcdougalldesigns3d.com/search?q=wood+elves+medbury&options[prefix]=last
https://mcdougalldesigns3d.com/prod...en-expedition?_pos=1&_psq=doomed&_ss=e&_v=1.0

 

Gondor, in the main. I have a smattering of various other things I've painted for my webstore.

 

Good choice!

Grrr, Imrahil

 

These look great, If I were collecting Mirkwood elves I would be very attracted to those elves.

Grrr, Imrahil

 

what do you collect?

 

My two main forces are Gondor and Rivendell, but I am trying to start an Isengard army as well.
Besides that some models of this and some of that.

Grrr, Imrahil