when painting my wood-elves, i encountered a problem...

in the books, nandor/silvan/wood-elves are described as usually portraying dark hair, buut in the films, they all have silver and gold hair...

what would everyone else do??

follow your heart...


just kidding, thats lame. you could do a mix of both. i did my galadhrim blonde, but my wood elves all have different colour hair.

try both options and see which you like best. personally i think black hair is boring to paint, but you might like it.

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Hello.

I think I'll do Galadriel, Celeborn, Legolas and Thranduil blond-like, and the rest a mixture, because Sindar were blond... thanks for ur suggestion.

I would say films for the simple reason that if you want to show it to people
who hasnt read the book (or dont remember that passage)
The models will look more real...

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Eru was the one who on Arda is called Ilúvatar

-The silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien, first line-

well i dont get your problem maybe but in the movie there were also elven with dark hair like elrond or arwen...

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Can't touch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uztj3vp-RI

elrond and arwen were noldorin(so was Galadriel but she was 1 of 3 blonde noldorin elves EVER) Legolas+Thranduil+Celeborn were Sindar, and the elves of mirkwood were nandor(with a few sindar)

as you can see, it is very complicated

@Farmer Giles of Ham

good point, but I'm a perfectionist and an orthodox Tolkienite. It needs to be 100% correct for me to be content.

If you are 100% Tolkien, then you must use the books as reference for your minis.

agreed

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"I will take it. I will take the Ring to Mordor...though I do not know the way."
—Frodo, at the Council of Elrond

I agree with Geezer and Queen.

But don't forget to do with you think is best.
If someone wants to paint pink orcs or white uruks, who cares..
As long as you like it.

I'm going to follow the books, but my own ideas will influence it...


What ways could you distinguish the leader of a group of figures?

I care. Or I would care if I collected Mordor.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Place him standing on a rock, pointing his weapon towards the enemy, add some ornate details to his armour/clothing either through sculpting or painting, add a fallen victim to his base etc...

There are lots of ideas out there. Take a look through the Galleries/WIPs for some more ideas, or take some inspiration from the GW command models. Just be careful not to overload one model with too many ideas.

I hope this helps.

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TO9G - 2010 Isengard

For leaders, I like to add a little more detail and the basing is always more unique. It helps set them apart.

thanks guys, I'm
starting to paint my figures in a few weeks...

Well I think that anyone who would join a LOTR SBG forum would be considered a geek. So pretty much every one is gonna say the books.

With the film its easy to get colors and imagery, and the models are based on the film anyway. So the film is the easy option and pretty much gareneteed to look good and be totally accepted.
But if your a geek then 'good' and 'accepted' and never going to be enough.

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It's all fun and games untill someone gets hurt.
Then it's a sport.

Well, that depends on YOU (points at you in a cool way)

If you want people who have'nt read Lotr to recognize characters it's so much eaier to make them blonde, 'cause people will reconize them and say: Hey, that's elves.

Because the blond hair symbolise elves, not just in lord of the rings but in other fantasy worlds and games and so on!

Hope it helped

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My WIP

The books are the source, and the films are one interpretation of the source (some things are outright changed instead of interpreted). I myself prefer to look at primary source, even though it is good to look at different interpretations from time to time.

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/Linkan
http://lotr.bandysidan.nu

Well I am complete Tolkien geek, and if I showed my minis to peeps at school I would get teased until I die... only my family and any wargamers would see them, and as ManofKent said: Nearly everyone here is a geek, and having lectured my family repeatedly on this subject, I am going to go with the books, which are the primary source, as Linkan said... I am going to have a few elves blonde.

They could all be ginger...

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings