LotR in 10mm. So many questions. So many orcs to paint

Started by lowlylowlycook, 08 October 2017, 06:31:32 PM

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lowlylowlycook

So having enjoyed doing my 10mm Kings of War, travel sized, LotR inspired project, I'm thinking of doing some full sized LotR armies.  As I start to think about Pelennor  Field, BotFA, Helm's Deep and the Last Alliance let alone any first and second age battles, it's quickly becoming a lot of armies.  Hopefully putting all this down to pixels and getting feedback will help focus things a bit.

I have some thoughts and questions  about rules (I'm thinking Sword and Shield but maybe something else for multi player battles) and basing (maybe 50mm squares paired to make units?) but putting together the list and pics of the minis I'm eyeing has taken longer than I thought it would so I'll leave those questions for another day and another post and just get to listing what mini I'd need.

Obviously we need to start with the

Copplestone 10mm fantasy ranges. 

From the KoW project I'm familiar with the bad guys and the dwarves
Orcs/Uruks/Trolls




Dwarves


Copplestone also makes Rohirrim (mounted and infantry) and Gondorian soldiers just infantry

Rhohirim




Gondor


Finally their 15mm Picts might make for some OK cave trolls


These all look excellent and I love the style but I'll need some other stuff that Copplestone doesn't make.  Let us turn to an obscure company called

Pentraken


We are going to need elves.  High Elves and Wood Elves
Even though Pendraken's fantasy stuff is on the big side that should be OK since elves should be tall and I'm not planning on putting a lot on each base.





I have an idea that these cuirassiers could donate some heads to the elven cavalry to make some nobles or heavier cav


We might need some Gondorian knights and/or some knights of Dol Amroth

I'm considering these for Knights of Dol Amroth.  I didn't have much luck in finding good pics of Pendraken's other knights.


Isengard will need some Dunlending allies and I think that the Picts would be brilliant for them


Speaking of Isengard, these guys might be useful as hurons.


I really wish that these hill dwarf archers in cloaks were still available.


Finally the Army of the Dead could either be built from some skeletons or maybe some fleshed out soldiers.  In any case they would be painted in pale ghostly colors.
I'm considering using the Late Imperial Romans


We also need some creatures and monsters so enter
Eureka

A mumakil


Eagles


Ents



Their elves are probably far too small to fit with Pendraken's but I think the guys on the left guys might make some nice Lossarach axe men.  While the spearmen should be useful for something


Magister Militum

I think their Normans could fill in the gaps for Gondor's troops.  For instance these knights


OPEN QUESTIONS:
Corsairs? (Ottomans?)
Harradrim? (Arabs? or Indians? Persians? Mongols?)

I think MM, Pendraken and maybe Old Glory could donate some historical models for these.  Any opinions on how they might fit together scale wise?

CONCLUSION:

Well this should keep me busy for a while...



fred.

The copplestone ranges are very nice - but as you note don't have great coverage.

These heavily armoued knights I think would look odd with the rest of the figures - perhaps try EMM1




I'd probably go for Pendraken Norman cavalry over MM, as the MM cavalry tends to be very small horse wise. MM infantry fits fine with Pendraken.

The Eureka elves will be tiny against the Pendraken ones - they are small against GW elves. The Eureka Mumakil is huge, and is a great model. As for Eagles you might want to look on eBay for the Warmaster High Elf ones, they are fairly common.

Kallistra also have some very large treemen if you want a very large Ent.

Using the Late Romans for the army of the dead is a great idea - they are very nice figures, and painted white, washed with green should look suitably ghostly.
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lowlylowlycook

Any opinion on how the Eureka elves would fit in with, say, Pendraken historical infantry?

fred.

Quote from: lowlylowlycook on 12 October 2017, 02:30:24 AM
Any opinion on how the Eureka elves would fit in with, say, Pendraken historical infantry?
Probably fine - don't have any to hand to directly compare, but from what I recall they should be good height wise, might be a bit chunkier, but they are in cloaks.
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Ithoriel

If you can pick up the Eaglemoss LotR chess set Mumakil they are ideal (IMHO) but need to be crewed.

I picked my two up from EvilBay for less than a tenner each.

They are languishing in the farther reaches of my painting queue awaiting my decision on crew to use. Currently fancy the Islamic crossbowmen from TB Line for that job.

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FierceKitty

I use those Copplestone horsemen (and mounted archers in the second rank) as Alan mercenaries in my Byzantine army. Also some spearmen with kite shields as German crusaders. I wish they'd make more figures, and in more useful ranges.
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FierceKitty

12 October 2017, 11:29:14 AM #6 Last Edit: 12 October 2017, 11:32:20 AM by FierceKitty
Elves too small? Remember that a mainstay of their economy is repairing shoes, and the things are usually shown as larger than the elves repairing them.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

FierceKitty

I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

lowlylowlycook

Quote from: FierceKitty on 12 October 2017, 11:26:47 AM
I use those Copplestone horsemen (and mounted archers in the second rank) as Alan mercenaries in my Byzantine army. Also some spearmen with kite shields as German crusaders. I wish they'd make more figures, and in more useful ranges.

Yes, I agree that Copplestone should really make some elves.  And dwarves with bows.

Quote from: Ithoriel on 12 October 2017, 10:36:11 AM
If you can pick up the Eaglemoss LotR chess set Mumakil they are ideal (IMHO) but need to be crewed.

I picked my two up from EvilBay for less than a tenner each.

They are languishing in the farther reaches of my painting queue awaiting my decision on crew to use. Currently fancy the Islamic crossbowmen from TB Line for that job.

[img-]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/61kAAOSwjvJZUBgB/$_1.JPG[/img]

I was just eyeing the TB Islamic figs.  Somehow I had skipped over your recommendation or just got a subliminal hint because I just noticed you had the same idea.

GrumpyOldMan

Hi

Don't forget the TB Line Elephant is on the way and it is a bigly yuge creature and could be modified with extra tusks, etc. Also if you're handy the elephant out of those cheap bags of animals can be modified as well.





One thing to bear in mind is that there are disparities in the sizes of 10mm figures.

Pendraken fantasy, Copplestone, TB line and GW Warmaster figures are markedly larger than Pendraken historical, Magister Militum and Eureka, especially noticeable in cavalry. A picture of Magister Militum and Copplestone below:-



Pendraken historical, Copplestone and Pendraken fantasy



More comparison pics at http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,15601.0.html

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

lowlylowlycook

Good news:  Leon says that getting those hooded dwarf archers won't be a problem.

Bad news:  Photobucket losing their minds makes it pretty hard to browse through these forums looking for basing ideas.

lowlylowlycook

Put in some orders to Pendraken and Copplestone.   

I was slightly worried about how quickly the total was rising until I remembered that I was getting several full armies and several allied contingents.

As I said, this will keep me busy for a while.


Techno

Look forward to seeing the progress.  :)

Cheers - Phil

lowlylowlycook

Just got some packages.

Maybe you live long enough to get your wish Phil.   ;D

lowlylowlycook

03 November 2017, 11:12:18 PM #14 Last Edit: 03 November 2017, 11:14:18 PM by lowlylowlycook
I've not been able to resist getting started on cleaning up minis and testing the basing schemes that are possible for each army.  Originally I was torn as to whether I should do full Warband 100mmX50mm bases, go with the 100X40mm bases that scaling down the larger KoW horde bases would give.  Also I was debating whether to split the bases in two for added flexibility.  Having messed with the Warband bases, I think that I will just go with them,  splitting the units in two would make for awkward placement of command elements especially for armies that come on strips.  I don't really have a clear idea on what size or shape I should use for Generals, leaders, heroes, etc.

Anyway here is how I might do the High Elves, basically thin lines with organized looking archers using volley fire.   The sword elves I'm imagining in a very loose order to give themselves room for slicing and dicing.  I'm not sure what would be a good theme for the scenic bases themselves.  Any ideas?
 


Also worked my way through the Rohirrim.  Slighly beefier lines with the cavalry charging in wedges.  Do people like the hollow wedge or the filled in wedges?  The more scattered cavalry are the horse archers.  I think the only way to the Rohirrim bases is to get a static grass applicator and just go crazy with it.  Maybe put the infantry on top of a gentle crest.





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So far for rules I've been thinking of


  • Sword and Spear Fantasy  -- I've played these a couple times and like how the activation system keeps things interesting even after the lines have met.  Also they are very low fantasy so, in my opinion, they are a good fit for LotR.
  • Warband -- I've seen a set of LotR army lists for this but even they seem a bit high fantasy compared to my ideal.
  • Hail Caesar -- Warlord's rules are pretty popular so maybe at a convention it would be easier to get going with HC than with S&S?
  • Kings of War -- These are a fast and easy set of rules to play.  I'd need to do a whole set of army lists to do LotR though and to handle the single units size for all units.  Probably starting with KoW Historical.

Anyone have thoughts or rules that would fit?

Any awesome ideas for High Elf scenic bases?