Prospective Giant

I found this ogre from Reaper Miniatures he is 40mm tall I think by removing the bone at back and the teeth necklace he would make a great Storm Giant.

Khurasan Miniatures Lord of Werewolves

I purchased Khurasan's Sauron figure called "Lord of Werewolves" on their site to lead my evil army. In the above picture he is next to the Eureka 18mm wizard for height comparison he's nice and big like in the LOTR movies. He's not even dwarfed by the huge Khurasan trolls.

 This figure comes with two weapon arms and two heads the crowned helmet...

And this werewolf head.

I really like this flaming sword but I've decided to go for the more traditional weapon.

Sauron the Dark Lord of Middle Earth.

The Order Arrives!

My Khurasan Miniatures order has arrived and I'm eager to get stuck in but can't seem to find the time.

Here you can seem my order in all it's glory, 4 infantry units of orcs, 1 unit of armored trolls, 3 orc heroes and Sauron himself.

Here are the 15mm orc warriors on the far left followed by the orc general next to the Eureka wizard. I love the fact that the orc general is so much larger than his troops but still shorter than the wizard. The armored trolls are significantly larger than I expected but they are beautiful if a troll can be called that. They will be mounted one per base so that will be three trolls per unit.

The Werewolf being a monster is based with the 20mm base side forward, the troll who is classed as infantry will be based on the 40mm side. This troll looks like he can ride the Werewolf doesn't he?

Sorry for the Intermission

Sorry guys I've been having a lot of work craziness the past two weeks and haven been able to post on here. My large Khursan Miniatures order arrived last week save for the Warg Riders which are still on back order from the caster. So my order consisted of 4 regiments of orc infantry, 1 regiment of armor trolls, 2 orc heroes and Khursan's fantastic The Dark Lord Sauron figure. The Dark Lord towers over his orcs, hes twice their height but not a bulky as the trolls he's bad ass! So with the wolves & Werewolf I have a 1,000 pt army for Sauron. I hope to have some pics of the unpainted figures up this week.

McBride Orcs

When I said some companies where making McBride style figures I was referring to his distinctive orcs. Khurasan miniatures Khurasan Miniatures makes them those figures are the main reason why I'm trying to emulate the McBriade style I place a large order ($60) worth and was told it would take a few weeks to fill. Khurasan is a part time one man operation so ladies and gentlemen please stand by regularly scheduled 15mm evilness will resume in a week or so. If you need something to look at you can check out my other blog here.

Were oh were has my werewolf gone...

 Ral Partha 15mm wolf Ral partha 25mm wolf

Sauron had a completely different title in the first age than his "Dark Lord" title the one he holds in the 2nd & 3rd ages the first age title was "Lord of Werewolves". So I felt I couldn't properly represent Sauron's first army without including one of his signature monsters, but how could they be represented in the game? Well in the stories werewolves a depicted as giant intelligent wolves so I dug around in the lead pile and came up with this wonderfully characterful OOP Ral Parha 25mm wolf from one of their 1990s RPG lines. So with this beastie and the giant I have all the gigantic monsters I would need for Sauron's army.

Eureka 18mm wizard, Ral Parha 15mm wolves, Ral Partha 25mm wolf

Go forth and get the boot in...

Tune in next Sunday for another update.

On the Workbench 2 Some Forces of Sauron

Here are some of the forces of Sauron I'm working on. As you can see they consist of wolves and a giant.

These are the wargs that come with the GW BOFA boxed set they are supposedly 10mm but here you see them next to Eureka's 18mm wizard figure. They look just the right size to me here I'm comparing them with a Ral Partha 15mm wolf. They look the same size to me.

The Ral Parha wolf is a much nicer figure but it like all of Ral Partha's old 15mm stuff is now OOP and expensive when they turn up on ebay. I have 2 of them from out of a "hounds" pack these 2 figures were obviously wolves not hounds. They have great detail so I'll use the Ral Partha figures as wolf chieftain command figures. I've dug out of the bins 4 full units (3 stands each) of the GW BOFA wolves so that will put me at 4 units and a command so Sauron's wolf cavarly is well underway. When the Khurasan Miniatures wolf riders I ordered arrive I'll compare them to these figures in a future post.

The last figure is a hill giant from Eureka Miniatures 18mm fantasy line. The picture on their website is not if this figure but of a figure waving a club over his head this one is a variant. You can never really tell with Eureka which variant you're going to get but I like this one. He is wild and elemental without going for that stupid rock monster look used in The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey film.

As you can see with the Eureka 18mm wizard from the same line he is smaller than I'd expect a giant to be but if he stood to his full height he would be 3 times the height of the wizard not 2 times. I plan to use him anyway how can you say no to a face like his?

A Quick Update

Here is a quick update on where my 18/15mm Age project is right now. Truth be told 18/15mm is a brand new scale for me and I have very few figures in that scale a present. But I've just ordered armored trolls, pitwolf riders, orcs and Sauron from Khurasan Miniature's Great Enemy line their McBride style Lord of the Rings line of Sauron's forces. You can see the whole current line through this link. I'll be posting up comparisons with the Eureka 18mm figures I have next week.

The Last Great Kingdom of the Noldor

 Queen Galadriel painting by Angus McBride

The Noldor where the elves who followed Finwe on the long march to Valinor the Undying Lands they are also call the Deep Elves because they where the wisest in smith craft and lore. Feanor the creator of the Silmarils was of the Noldor and when Meklor stole the Silmarils the Noldor traveled to middle Earth to wage war upon him.  At the beginning of the second age after the fall of Beleriand the elven survivors traveled east to a far land know in the LOTR as Eregion on the western side of the Misty Mountains. There they established Ost-in-Edhil the last great city of the Noldor near Khazad-dum (the Mines of Moria) the great dwarven city. The gate Gandalf opens in the Fellowship of the Ring was the gateway elves used to enter Moria as the Noldor and the dwarves of Moria had a great friendship between them. Many of the great elf lords named in the Lord of the Rings lived in Eregion during this time. Queen Galaderiel and her consort Celeborn founded and ruled the kingdom of Eregion, Elrond dwelt there as did Thrunduil father of Legolas.

 Celebrimbor forging the three rings for the elves painting by Angus McBride

Sauron came to Eregion in a fair disguise calling himself Annatar Lord of Gifts. Galaderiel would not see him she had a foreboding about him but Celebrimbor would. Celebrimbor was the greatest elven smith after Feanor and he lead the Gwaith-i-Mirdain the guild of smiths. Sauron convinced him that he should rule Eregion not Galaderiel and he lead a bloodless coup against her. She seeing a glimpse of the future abdicated her throne peacefully and passed through the dwarf road under the mountain into Lothlorien. Then Sauron and Celebrimbor together forged the Rings of Power. For you see in order to forge the Rings of Power they had to teach each other secret lore that only they knew so that together their collective knowledge was equal to the task. Sauron then returned to Mordor to forge the One Ring alone. When Sauron left Celebrimbor forged the three rings for the elves. When Sauron put the One Ring on his finger both of them discovered they had been deceived thus the War of the Elves and Sauron began.

Who is Sauron?

Painting by Angus McBride

Sauron is a spirit a Maiar one of the lesser spirits that followed the fourteen Valar to Arda (the world) after it was created to give it order and combat the evils of Melkor. The Maiar where also call "the people of" as each of the fourteen Valar had a host of lesser spirits "their people" through which to work their will. Though these creatures were spirits many of them had the ability to take a physical form or had a permeate physical form.

  Painting by Angus McBride

Sauron was the mightiest of the people of Aule the Smith, the Valar of rock and metal who was also the creator of the Dwarves. Melkor did not have a host of spirits who followed him so he recruited followers from the peoples of the other Valar. Sauron became Melkor's greatest follower and chief lieutenant greater even than Gothmog Lord of Balrogs cheif of Melkor's bodyguard. Sauron as the mightiest of the Maiar had the ability to change his shape the shapes he took in the stories were of the forms of a great serpent, a werewolf, a vampire during his titanic battle with Huan the hound of Valinor in the First Age and a fair seeming elf to fool the elves of Eregion during the Second Age. In the Third Age he had lost  his ability to change forms due to the power he lost when he lost the One Ring. The only shape he could muster was that of a great lidless eye. That is the  shape he has during the War of the Ring. As greatest of the people of Aule he had the ability to make things of great power like the Rings of Power and the mighty fortress of Barad-dûr. As the greatest of the followers of Melkor he had the ability fashion creatures of evil he created or improved upon many of the evil creatures that appear in the LOTR trilogy such as, werewolves, half-trolls, Olog-hai, Uruk-hai and the Nazgul. 

Finding the right figure to represent him may seem at first to be a difficult task but he still has his shape shifting ability during the Second Age and his most common shape was that of a "Dark Wizard" so a suitable 15mm figure shouldn't be impossible. Who knows I might even get several different Sauron figures for this game just for the Hell of it.

The Dark Years

Painting by Angus McBride

The 2nd Age was also know as the Dark Years because this is the Age when Sauron extended his rule over nearly all of Middle Earth. Many nations of men became corrupted and began to worship Sauron as a god. Like the men of the mountain who where cursed for oath breakers for failing to fight for Isuldur as promised. Before they swore friendship with the Numenorians they worshiped Sauron. 

 

 Painting by Angus McBride

 He raised Barad-dur in Mordor, forged the one ring, subjugated the south lands,

  Painting by Angus McBride

destroyed the garden of the Ent Wives and overran the kingdom of Eregion. 

 During this time men began to refer to him as "The Dark Lord of Mordor". So this then is the time period I wish to game with my 18mm armies, more specifically the War of the Elves and Sauron where Sauron tries to wipe out the elves for making the 3 elf rings in secret there by marring his master plan to rule all of Middle Earth.

Next week I'll start detailing the various creatures and peoples who are involved in this war.

Making Things Diffcult

Yes dear readers I fully intend to make things difficult for myself (I'm always doing that!) I don't just want to fight the great battles of the Second Age in 15/18mm I want to create Middle Earth through the marvelous artistic vision of the late great Angus McBride.

The wraiths amongst us may recall a role playing company called I.C.E. who at the dawn of time put out a role playing game called MERP (Middle Earth Role Play) this children was how the ancients got their LOTR gaming fix. An unknown but talented artist developed the graphic look of this game which had remained for many the "look" of Middle Earth until the Lord of the Rings movies. I have discovered through research that a few companies have McBride style figures in 15mm so I'm going to go for it! Yes this does mean that I will put aside the Eureka movie style figures I bought.

The Hobbit : Desolation of Smaug Chronicles Art & Design

Sorry I don't have any progress on the 18mm figures today someone gifted me a copy of this Weta art & design book for the 2nd Hobbit movie. Now when the first Hobbit movie came out I was very disappointed with the movie's designs especially of goblin town and its inhabitants. But I'm happy to say that Weta had kicked the designs up a notch for the 2nd movie.

If you are a wood elf fan the concept art of the wood elf warriors and especially the halls of the elf king are a must have for you. They would make good painting guides for 28mm figures too. Now I'll have to find fantastic 18mm wood elf figures.

18mm 2nd Age WIP

Here are a few quick photos of the Eureka 18mm figures I'm using for this project. They are Warg Riders, Man-Orcs and Orcs. I'm not that fond of the plain Jane Eureka Orcs they just aren't sexy enough for me. I do love the Man-Orcs and Warg Riders so I'll be ordering a bunch of them soon. They are all mounted on standard 20x40mm warmaster sized bases. The bases themselves are Rendra 40mm bases cut in half. You can find these figures here or if you are in the US here.

Man-Orcs

Orcs

 Warg Riders