mahalmar
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2023
- Messages
- 48
I have just over a year ago found my way back to the wonderful yet cursed pastime of collecting and painting (and redoing) miniatures. The redoing part is my most recent fancy, and I started with some light kit-bashing this summer. And it quite rapidly turned into an obsession of sorts.
Many years ago, together with a very good friend of mine I began collecting MESBG miniatures. I believe my starting armies were the box from Gondor and the Last Alliance, because I really liked how the Elves of Peter Jacksons trilogy looked. This initials collection was extended by a contingent of simple Wood Elves from Lothlorien. After a while interest in it died and for some Ages they slept a sleep of dormancy nit unlike the creations of Yavanna, until again, a little over one year ago, I got back into it.
I was always quite the lover of the Galadhrim warrior from the trilogy. Thus naturally the next box was the (new plastic) Galadhrim warriors. And I be honest, I was very disappointed. They didn't feel as great nor did the look as amazing as the old metal ones. So I spent some considerable time and nerves on getting those. And in the end I was rewarded an I am no the proud owner of a little collection of those good old metal Galadhrim warriors (I think back in the day they were called Haldir's elves?).
Obviously and despite their great visual appeal to me, those Elves were quite far from how Tolkien envisioned the Elves himself. And I was fighting a long and in the end quite indecisive battle with myself on what to do. In the meantime I had also begun collecting Age of Sigmar miniatures and after seeing some great kit-bashes on the Internet decided to try it myself. So by the time I had reached a watchful peace between the two sides arguing for and against a tolkinian interpretation of MESBG miniatures, I decided to rework those prized metal miniatures.
While I had been working on them my focus had also shifted, from wanting to collect and paint a Galadhrim army for MESBG, to creating and mainly collecting (I am not that much into the actual play anymore) hosts of the Eldar. It is indeed in my mind quite an ambitious project, and I honestly don't know if it ever will see completion. It also ist only in a very rough, conceptual state still, as I don't know what exactly I want to create/collect and if it is even possible.
Turning my back on MESBG and the Third Age more or less I ventured across Eriador and over the passes of the Erde Luin, and by some unbelievable magic, not only traversed space, but also time, and upon descending the slopes of the Blue Mountains entered the dark, yet star-lit forests of far and fair Beleriand, ere sun or moon were brought, as the lay goes. And the Galadhrim of erstwhile turned into the host of the Noldor, returning to Middle-Earth as banners flew and beacons burned, and trumpets blew. And suddenly in my mind there rose this magnificent vision of a collection of the hosts of the Eldar of Beleriand, being assembled and represented by tabletop miniatures.
I have to admit, that I was kinda inspired to this by some awesome work already done, turning miniatures into armies of the First Age. Yet obviously I had my own visions and ideas and designs.
So I got to work, labouring chiefly on the Galadhrim so far. I am uncertain as to what extend this project might or might grow, but as a general outline I want to assemble at least one host for the Noldor and one for the Sindar under king Thingol.
The Noldor
Now as most around here might be familiar with, the designs of Peter Jacksons movies deviates quite far from what Tolkien himself envisioned. During the early stages of the work (June-July 2023) I was mainly concerned with collecting all the references to elven armour and weaponry I could find and think of. I didn't select or discern between early and later conceptions, although obviously the later information was given more consideration. I might do something with all the informations I gather at some point (maybe write an essay or such), or a least provide it here for reference, if anyone is interested.
Anyways, long story short, in summary a tolkinian elf is wearing silver mail and white fabric. The colour blue also plays an important role, although not as part of the garments fabric as it seems.
Any references to different coloured or wrought armour is basically non existent or just circumstantial. That of course was in stark contrast to how the Elves, and the Galadhrim warrior in particular are portrayed in the movie trilogy.
Galadhrim warriors as shown in the movies and sold by GW with respective colour scheme.
Only now as I was devoting some proper time into researching I realised that the Galadhrim armour from the movies was (excluding the mantle and the sort of tunic) of 5 different parts of armour, of which one was leather. We have firstly the coat of mail, which is indeed in line with how Tolkien describes the Eldar armoured. It can be seen on the part around the neck and on the legs, reaching down until the ankles (more or less). The comes a sort of chest plate, yet not made of one single plate (or two parts for that matter), but rather of at least 4 independent, smaller plates of metal. The plate armour on the legs follows the design. Next comes, which was for me quite peculiar, and honestly I hadn't payed much attention to it before, a sort of hard leather stomach armour, protecting the abdomen area between the chest and leg plate armours. And lastly a helmet, although considering how small in terms of actual metal and how larch its holes are, it can hardly be called a real helmet.
Side by side the armour of the Noldor and the Galadhrim from Jakobs trilogy.
The Jackson armour design had definitely too much plate in them. And the hardened leather part was pretty weird in my opinion, considering there is a coat of mail underneath (which actually wasn't for the set costumes, but those don't concern us). I guess the reason for an "open" abdomen (as in not protected by the plates) can be explained by a desire for more movement in this area?, although I'm not an expert in armour, so I can't really explain it. Definitely tho, there was way too much plate to consider this armour as tolkinian.
Now what could be done? Hide the entirety of the Galadhrim armour under a coat of mail? Conceived and done. A poor plastic Galadhrim had to serve as prototype. The result was alright, but also not something very exciting or good looking in my opinion.
I couldn't imagine that it would have looked any better with the old metal miniatures, thus I decided to abandon that idea.
As you can see from the picture I already tried out the two main colours I couldn't make up my mind about: gold(ish) and silver(ish). Which brings me to my main point for consideration at this stage of the work: do I follow Tolkien in his colour scheme or do I deviate from it, and develop my own, yet based in his world, and with reason?
To find out (because already in my mind, I couldn't quite be convinced that silver and white work very well together) if the tolkinian colour scheme could and would and should work, some Middle-Earth inspired miniatures had to serve as prototypes again.
As can be seen in the process of painting them, I deviated a bit from my original plan to stick solely with silver and white, since a little bit of gold and blue found their way into my colour scheme. Although it wouldn't necessarily say it is gold, but rather copper.
I had to admit that these two fellas turned out quite nicely and I was in part convinced that Tolkiens color scheme could work.
A prominent example for the use of his armour design and color scheme is John Howe's painting of the battle between Morgoth and Fingolfin and I tried to base the colours and painting of my miniatures loosely on his painting.
The battle between Morgoth and Fingolfin by John Howe
I will end the narration of my journey in search of the hosts of the Eldar at this point, and continue it at a later date, showing you more of my progress and give some insights in my thought and working process.
Many years ago, together with a very good friend of mine I began collecting MESBG miniatures. I believe my starting armies were the box from Gondor and the Last Alliance, because I really liked how the Elves of Peter Jacksons trilogy looked. This initials collection was extended by a contingent of simple Wood Elves from Lothlorien. After a while interest in it died and for some Ages they slept a sleep of dormancy nit unlike the creations of Yavanna, until again, a little over one year ago, I got back into it.
I was always quite the lover of the Galadhrim warrior from the trilogy. Thus naturally the next box was the (new plastic) Galadhrim warriors. And I be honest, I was very disappointed. They didn't feel as great nor did the look as amazing as the old metal ones. So I spent some considerable time and nerves on getting those. And in the end I was rewarded an I am no the proud owner of a little collection of those good old metal Galadhrim warriors (I think back in the day they were called Haldir's elves?).
Obviously and despite their great visual appeal to me, those Elves were quite far from how Tolkien envisioned the Elves himself. And I was fighting a long and in the end quite indecisive battle with myself on what to do. In the meantime I had also begun collecting Age of Sigmar miniatures and after seeing some great kit-bashes on the Internet decided to try it myself. So by the time I had reached a watchful peace between the two sides arguing for and against a tolkinian interpretation of MESBG miniatures, I decided to rework those prized metal miniatures.
While I had been working on them my focus had also shifted, from wanting to collect and paint a Galadhrim army for MESBG, to creating and mainly collecting (I am not that much into the actual play anymore) hosts of the Eldar. It is indeed in my mind quite an ambitious project, and I honestly don't know if it ever will see completion. It also ist only in a very rough, conceptual state still, as I don't know what exactly I want to create/collect and if it is even possible.
Turning my back on MESBG and the Third Age more or less I ventured across Eriador and over the passes of the Erde Luin, and by some unbelievable magic, not only traversed space, but also time, and upon descending the slopes of the Blue Mountains entered the dark, yet star-lit forests of far and fair Beleriand, ere sun or moon were brought, as the lay goes. And the Galadhrim of erstwhile turned into the host of the Noldor, returning to Middle-Earth as banners flew and beacons burned, and trumpets blew. And suddenly in my mind there rose this magnificent vision of a collection of the hosts of the Eldar of Beleriand, being assembled and represented by tabletop miniatures.
I have to admit, that I was kinda inspired to this by some awesome work already done, turning miniatures into armies of the First Age. Yet obviously I had my own visions and ideas and designs.
So I got to work, labouring chiefly on the Galadhrim so far. I am uncertain as to what extend this project might or might grow, but as a general outline I want to assemble at least one host for the Noldor and one for the Sindar under king Thingol.
The Noldor
Now as most around here might be familiar with, the designs of Peter Jacksons movies deviates quite far from what Tolkien himself envisioned. During the early stages of the work (June-July 2023) I was mainly concerned with collecting all the references to elven armour and weaponry I could find and think of. I didn't select or discern between early and later conceptions, although obviously the later information was given more consideration. I might do something with all the informations I gather at some point (maybe write an essay or such), or a least provide it here for reference, if anyone is interested.
Anyways, long story short, in summary a tolkinian elf is wearing silver mail and white fabric. The colour blue also plays an important role, although not as part of the garments fabric as it seems.
Any references to different coloured or wrought armour is basically non existent or just circumstantial. That of course was in stark contrast to how the Elves, and the Galadhrim warrior in particular are portrayed in the movie trilogy.
Galadhrim warriors as shown in the movies and sold by GW with respective colour scheme.
Only now as I was devoting some proper time into researching I realised that the Galadhrim armour from the movies was (excluding the mantle and the sort of tunic) of 5 different parts of armour, of which one was leather. We have firstly the coat of mail, which is indeed in line with how Tolkien describes the Eldar armoured. It can be seen on the part around the neck and on the legs, reaching down until the ankles (more or less). The comes a sort of chest plate, yet not made of one single plate (or two parts for that matter), but rather of at least 4 independent, smaller plates of metal. The plate armour on the legs follows the design. Next comes, which was for me quite peculiar, and honestly I hadn't payed much attention to it before, a sort of hard leather stomach armour, protecting the abdomen area between the chest and leg plate armours. And lastly a helmet, although considering how small in terms of actual metal and how larch its holes are, it can hardly be called a real helmet.
Side by side the armour of the Noldor and the Galadhrim from Jakobs trilogy.
The Jackson armour design had definitely too much plate in them. And the hardened leather part was pretty weird in my opinion, considering there is a coat of mail underneath (which actually wasn't for the set costumes, but those don't concern us). I guess the reason for an "open" abdomen (as in not protected by the plates) can be explained by a desire for more movement in this area?, although I'm not an expert in armour, so I can't really explain it. Definitely tho, there was way too much plate to consider this armour as tolkinian.
Now what could be done? Hide the entirety of the Galadhrim armour under a coat of mail? Conceived and done. A poor plastic Galadhrim had to serve as prototype. The result was alright, but also not something very exciting or good looking in my opinion.
I couldn't imagine that it would have looked any better with the old metal miniatures, thus I decided to abandon that idea.
As you can see from the picture I already tried out the two main colours I couldn't make up my mind about: gold(ish) and silver(ish). Which brings me to my main point for consideration at this stage of the work: do I follow Tolkien in his colour scheme or do I deviate from it, and develop my own, yet based in his world, and with reason?
To find out (because already in my mind, I couldn't quite be convinced that silver and white work very well together) if the tolkinian colour scheme could and would and should work, some Middle-Earth inspired miniatures had to serve as prototypes again.
As can be seen in the process of painting them, I deviated a bit from my original plan to stick solely with silver and white, since a little bit of gold and blue found their way into my colour scheme. Although it wouldn't necessarily say it is gold, but rather copper.
I had to admit that these two fellas turned out quite nicely and I was in part convinced that Tolkiens color scheme could work.
A prominent example for the use of his armour design and color scheme is John Howe's painting of the battle between Morgoth and Fingolfin and I tried to base the colours and painting of my miniatures loosely on his painting.
The battle between Morgoth and Fingolfin by John Howe
I will end the narration of my journey in search of the hosts of the Eldar at this point, and continue it at a later date, showing you more of my progress and give some insights in my thought and working process.
