The third tray holds the Uglúk’s Scouts Battlehost, with Uglúk’s raiders (3 companies), Grishnákh’s trackers (2 companies), Mauhúr’s Marauders (3 companies, including banner + drummer), and two Uruk scout warband formations (3 companies each, with one having a shaman). There are also three additional trolls on the tray. There are some minor conversions here, too – mostly additional shields, but I did remove the severed orc head from Uglúk’s hand (and replaced it with a shield). I somehow dislike special details tied to a certain specific event or location – imagine Aragorn seeing Uglúk at Amon Hen and wondering why that Uruk carries a severed orc head around. The same thing applies for the dead Rohan guy on the rock base of the wild warg chieftain (I keep thinking how the Fellowship members wonder near Moria as to why a Rohan warrior was so far from home), the dead Rohans on the Mûmak base (looking very out-of-place in Ithilien), or the dead dwarves under the Watcher-out-of-the-water (again, resulting in a puzzled Fellowship).
The fourth tray has the Warg Riders of Isengard Battlehost, with Sharku’s hunters (3 companies with shields), and two six-company strong warg rider formations (one with shields, one with bows). Three more trolls on this tray as well. You’ll be seeing the already-painted wargs in the upcoming “Hounds of Sauron” scenario soon.
The final tray includes the Uruk-hai Siege Warriors Battlehost, with Vrashkû’s talons (3 companies), Sappers (1 company), berserkers (1 company), two siege assault ballistas (the special resin movement trays are from Total System Scenic), a battering ram, and a formation of Uruk warriors (3 companies, with a captain, a banner bearer and a shaman). One final troll can be seen, and there are also four one-company formations of leftover Uruks, bringing the number of common formations to ten (and allowing for ten rare trolls).
All told, this is about 500 models, with a bit shy of 6,000 points worth. The basecoating will be done with black spray, followed by drybrushed metals and dark flesh / brown / leather details, wash + highlights. Most of the models are not attached to slottabases; I will simultaneously spray paint a suitable amount of slottabases with dark yellow, followed by dipping the top surface in glue and dark yellow scatter material. Similar procedure will make painting & finishing the movement trays a relatively fast process.
Now, on the Rohan side, the models (including Haldir’s elves legendary formation) fit on four transport trays. There will be several battlehosts on Rohan’s side, too, including Théoden’s Guard, Warriors of the Westfold, Riders of the Westfold and Éomer’s Knights. Here’s a pic of the model pile while they are still in boxes and blisters:
Here is a picture of the currently ongoing assembly / cleaning process (a stage which could be called “horse factory”).
I’ve still plenty to do in terms of assembly & cleaning of plastic figures; all the metal figures are already cleaned and ready for basecoating. The four plastic horse poses are quite repetitive (and the metal banner bearers on plastic horses are very top-heavy), so I’m thinking of ordering a few metal horses from Mirliton for heroes, captains and banner bearers.
Most of the boxes and blisters are collected over the past four years or so, and I’m cracking them open only now as you can see. It has been an interesting experience, not always problem-free… my Eorl the Young lacked the separate horse legs (one plastic horse donated his), one of the Rohan captains missed his shield, and, most annoyingly, the Finecast Rohan commanders set came with two captains and without the King’s huntsman. Since the company I bought the set from has disappeared (Maelstrom Games), I’ve emailed GW customer service directly about this (but haven’t received any reply so far). Even if I did get the missing sprue, I could use two huntsman figures. My plans are to convert the Finecast banner bearer into a substitute huntsman (along with a surplus Hama figure if GW ignores my plea). Alas, I did like the specific miniature sculpt, and do sorely miss it. I had been less sorry if the duplicated figure had been a hornblower – the captain in the set has, again, the annoying special detail (a dead orc). A fine figure on its own, but I keep picturing him on the Deeping Wall saying “oh, this lone, wandering Mordor orc? I’ve no idea where he came from, but I killed him nevertheless”. Oh well, even if I had got two hornblowers, that would not have been enough – in fact, the planned conversions for the Rohan force include mostly hornblowers (both on foot and mounted). The captain with dead orc might appear in the battle report for the Pelennor Fields eventually. The extra copy I will probably trade.
The Rohan painting procedure consists of black and green undercoat (sprayed outdoors), and various undercoat colours for the horses (there was a great guide in May 2013 White Dwarf). Slottabases and movement trays will get a similar dark yellow treatment as the Isengard forces’ bases.
Once I get both armies basecoated, I will paint the alternate Fellowship members. Then I think it is high time I start working on the Helm’s Deep itself (since the last update, I’ve only done some floor tile scribing and sawing of lumber for the shale understructure). I still have a goal of getting the fortress and as many figures as possible done before the first of March, 2014 (the day of the local model show). I promise to have more frequent updates in this thread; the next post is most likely about the basecoating of the Isengard army. Stay tuned!
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It is finally cool enough to work outside here