Hello fellow Ringbearers,
Commissariat here with my first ever Hobby Blog!
A little about me:
I took my step into a larger world 10 years ago with a little 4-man box of Chaos Warriors that looked like Boba Fetts. Within a year I had Imperial Guard and Ork Boyz stomping across my workshop, albeit in very small numbers. Fast forward through Orky conversions/sculpts/kitbashes to today. Today I am a Dungeon Master, Game Consultant, Developer, League Organizer, and a big-huge-nerd. So nothing's changed really. I take more enjoyment out of creating and customizing than painting or playing, however I do not shy away from any of the elements. I play Dungeons & Dragons, make Paintings, read, and the like because breathing life into worlds makes me wiggle my toes in delight.
About my experience:
I am easily still a novice. I have done a decent amount of sculpting with Green Stuff. My sculpting repertoire goes so far as to re-sculpt Muscles, Wires, Elbows, Bandanas, and Commissar Caps for my Catachan and Ork models. Not the best by a large amount but I've taken pride in my modest workings.
Inspiration for this Project:
I am an avid "Battle Companies: Warbands of Middle-Earth" player, pretty obvious considering I am narrative-driven. However, being more preoccupied with growing the system and developing it has gotten me used to simply using models from my various armies. Conveniently this is becoming less common practice while I am slowly selling my unused collection and quickly creating a need to do what I love. Thus putting this all together alongside an extreme love for the Shire and her children has made me wish to make my first personalized Battle Company. The Shire Confederacy!
The name and motto comes from a jest that one of my players made about a Shire Battle Company designed around the opposite effects of the Scouring of the Shire. Basically, what if the Shire Folk became organized but corrupted after the fall of Sharkey? What if Sharkey turned the Hobbits in the end? I am unsure if the paint-scheme will completely be based off of the American Confederacy of the 1800s, but it is an entertaining idea nonetheless.
About this Project:
What I will be attempting and doing my best to share is a mass conversion of an entire Hobbit Army. I shall have 24 Hobbit Models, 1 Dunedain, and 2 Rangers of Arnor to round out potential Battle Company endeavors. I shall not be using any standard hobbit models for my entire force will be converted from several sprues and groups of assembled Mines of Moria Box Set hobbits that I ordered off of eBay. This means that I will be cutting, carving, and resculpting two dozen hobbits in different poses and wargear with a minimal number of cloaks left on the models.
Please forgive my photography skills!
Chapter One: Merry Christmas!
So the first model I decided to pick up was Merry. I figured that starting in the middle as far as difficulty, Frodo being the easiest and Samwise being the hardest, would be the best way to dive in.
I took a Dremel, Pin Vice, Knife, and No Small Amount of Courage with me as I began to cut and carve away at the cloak. I have shaved the cloak down, following the rough geography and lines of his jacket underneath, to begin my process. I also cut him at the shins so that I can pin him to his feet later on as all Rider of Rohan modelers could attest to!
My plan is to get the rough shape of his jacket finished before I go in with my handy Green Stuff and resculpt the lines of his belts and so forth. I plan to garb this ordinary Hobbit with a scarf and swap his hands with another of the hobbits to help mask his identity.
As for battlefield wargear, my battle company need some clubs to even the odds, some mallets to dismount cavalry, and some axes to finish the job. I suspect that this hobbit will be armed with an Axe, hopefully with the axe-head cradled in his hand that is currently holding a rock.
This is not done, as any painter could attest, but I wanted to show my progress so far before I have forgotten. Just in case anyone found inspiration and wanted a rough idea of how I did it.
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I do not have any closing statement, but this is the start of probably the hardest project that I have dived into that I plan to follow all the way through. (Poor Mono-Wheel Nob Bikers.) What I can say is that this project is about to be tackled by the most unlikely of creatures.
I welcome all support, constructive critique, and suggestions!
(All Linked Images are not mine but found on Google, or eBay, to give you a better illustration of what I am talking about.)
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