Citadel Dark Elf Legion Leader with Mace (1988)

Dark Elves... look at those beauties!

I got this on eBay together with the Norsemen of the previous posts, but this is a proper vintage Old Citadel figure. It belongs to the issue of 1988, the first Dark Elves with slotta bases. The Catalogue of that year identifies this as 074252/29, "Mace".

Now, this is one of my favourites miniatures from that issue, and in general as well, just because it is so alive. Look at the guy, advancing and ducking at the same time, like it is under enemy fire, or maybe he just risks being spotted as he stealths forward; and at the same time, he glances back and gestures at others to move on. This is a fantasticly dynamic figure, I'll tell you. All thanks to Bob Naismith, iconic sculptor of Citadel/GW who is now still in business as a freelance.

I painted in a quite straightforward way: steel armour with golden/brass decorations and leather straps, toned down with heavy blackwash. Dark leather boots and gloves with lighter leather trims and decorations. Additional copper on weapons to create a variation on metal parts. Purple tights and crimson tunic. Finally, a bright red tail attached to the mace, just to break with the general gloomy feel.

Dark Elves figures are in general quite heavy with decoration and using bright colours risks to make them look like clowns. That's why I tried to stick to realistic, dark colours. To add on that, I used gravel on the base to represent some rocky terrain, a mountainside, the bed of a stram or a stony beach.

I've got a bunch of other Dark Elves, from later issues, that will match with this guy as an assault force. Look forward to paint them soon!

Generic fantasy Vikings (Alternative Armies Sidhe)

Got these two on eBay, together with a bunch of old Citadel miniatures. I didn't even notice these weren't Citadel, until I searched online (even though the Seller stated these were Alternative Armies Norse/Vikings).

"The Internet" tells me that these aren't actually supposed to be Vikings, but rather Sidhe, that is ancient Irish warriors opposing the monstrous Fomorians. But hey, they look enough like Vikings that somehow both me and the Seller on eBay got confused. I mean, not historical Viking, but Fantasy Viking can be a pretty broad category! Still, that explains the pointy ears of the red-haired one.

"The Internet" also tells me that these are sculpts of Bob Olley. He did quite a lot of sculpts with a very distinctive style back in the day, it seems, for many companies such as Citadel, Reaper and Ral Partha. Also, he's not the same Bob Olley who is as well a British sculptor, but working on bigger projects like lifesize statues of Stan Laurel (this one has a Wikipedia page).

The figures are from 1990, and at least one reports the author.

About these figures, I really like the detail, the bulkiness that is so typical of classic Warhammer style. And the best part are the cloaks.

I'm especially happy with the first one. The second, I was probably too lazy to finish properly. But still, it is nice.

I painted them to represent generic Fantasy Vikings, like for example Norseman mercenaries travelling to the Old World. They are handy characters both as allies and as enemies.

So I named them Olaf (after the PC of a friend) and Ivar (like the Engine Driver from the Who song).

 

Olaf Hrotkinson is the Viking every Old World's woman secretly wants. Blonde, muscular, confident and armed with a long moustaches and a thick, heavy sword. So lock your doors well, Nordlanders.

Ivar the Engine Driver had his nickname when he tried to steal a Dwarven Ironclad. From that moment on, he's always on the watch for the good chance to get rich at somebody else's expense. "A quick one, while he's away" is his motto, of course.

Large Warg (Mithril M25)

Warg!

...and he's coming at you!

Wait, what is a Warg, anyway?
Well... you know... that's a large wolf, I guess. Large fantasy wolf. Right?

Sounds about right!

There seems to be some confusion about wargs, for a number of reasons. To some, Wargs are large wolves; to other, they are super-wolves, related to common wolves in the same way a tiger is related to a wild cat. To other still, Wargs are supernatural wolves,endowed with special powers: in MERP, for example, True Wargs are essentially undead spirits. And then, there are werewolves, of course - are they even related to Wargs?

Let's look at what Tolkien tells us, starting with the Hobbit:

"All of a sudden they heard a howl away down hill, a long shuddering howl. It was answered by another away to the right and a good deal nearer to them; then by another not far away to the left. It was wolves howling at the moon, wolves gathering together!
     There were no wolves living near Mr. Baggins' hole at home, but he knew that noise. He had had it described to him often enough in tales. One of his elder cousins (on the Took side), who had been a great traveller, used to imitate it to frighten him. To hear it out in the forest under the moon was too much for Bilbo. Even magic rings are not much use against wolves-especially against the evil packs that lived under the shadow of the goblin-infested mountains, over the Edge of the Wild on the borders of the unknown. Wolves of that sort smell keener than goblins, and do not need to see you to catch you! [...]
"But even the wild Wargs (for so the evil wolves over the Edge of the Wild were named) cannot climb trees. [...]"
Hob

 Tolkien makes quite clear that Wargs are wolves. Not similar, mind me: they are a kind of wolf. What made them different to other kinds, then?

"The Wargs and the goblins often helped one another in wicked deeds. Goblins do not usually venture very far from their mountains, unless they are driven out and are looking for new homes, or are marching to war (which I am glad to say has not happened for a long while). But in those days they sometimes used to go on raids, especially to get food or slaves to work for them. Then they often got the Wargs to help and shared the plunder with them. Sometimes they rode on wolves like men do on horses."
Hob

Well, for a start, they developed an alliance with the Goblins and even let them ride them! Earlier on it is said in the book that the Wargs had a "dreadful language" of their own, which people could learn: at least some Orcs did, and so did Gandalf. Not that regular wolves didn't have their language: in the Hobbit, it seems a lot of beasts and birds have their own speech.

Wargs were probably well more intelligent and cunning than other wolves, considering they held meetings, planned raids on the woodmen and even stationed guards at the feet of trees where the Dwarves had climbed. We are also told that they ran "swifter than ponies", and that with an Orc on their back, so we can assume they were rather big and strong.
In fact is seems that the Wargs had developed their friendship with Orcs and Goblins so much that somebody even developed a proverb in Westron about that.

"[...] where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls.'
FotR

But there is another creature, similar to the Warg, that is first mentioned in the Fellowship of the Ring:

"[...] Not all his servants and chattels are wraiths! There are orcs and trolls, there are wargs and werewolves. [...]"
FotR

Now, this is unfortunate, in a way. Tolkien developed Wargs for the Hobbit, drawing from the word from Old English wearg, which meant "wolf". But earlier than that he had developed werewolves in the Silmarillion (see later), and the word werewolf is derived from the Old English werewulf, with wer- meaning "man, person". The two words are quite different, but they were translated in many other languages as exactly the same: in Italian, for example, they are Mannari; in French, Loups-garou.
We seem to meet werewolves when the Fellowship of the Rings travels from Rivendell to Moria.

"In the dead of the night many shining eyes were seen peering over the brow of the hill. Some advanced almost to the ring of stones. At a gap in the circle a great dark wolf-shape could be seen halted, gazing at them. A shuddering howl broke from him, as if he were a captain summoning his pack to the assault.
"Gandalf stood up and strode forward, holding his staff aloft. 'Listen, Hound of Sauron! ' he cried. `Gandalf is here. Fly, if you value your foul skin! I will shrivel you from tail to snout, if you come within this ring.'

"The wolf snarled and sprang towards them with a great leap. At that moment there was a sharp twang. Legolas had loosed his bow. There was a hideous yell, and the leaping shape thudded to the ground; the elvish arrow had pierced its throat. The watching eyes were suddenly extinguished. Gandalf and Aragorn strode forward, but the hill was deserted; the hunting packs had fled. All about them the darkness grew silent, and no cry came on the sighing wind.
"The night was old, and westward the waning moon was setting. gleaming fitfully through the breaking clouds. Suddenly Frodo started from sleep. Without warning a storm of howls broke out fierce and wild all about the camp. A great host of Wargs had gathered silently and was now attacking them from every side at once."
FotR

Apparently, these are regular Wargs, but something odd happens, after the wolves are routed again:

"When the full light of the morning came no signs of the wolves were to be found, and they looked in vain for the bodies of the dead. No trace of the fight remained but the charred trees and the arrows of Legolas lying on the hill-top. All were undamaged save one of which only the point was left.

"`It is as I feared,' said Gandalf. `These were no ordinary wolves hunting for food in the wilderness. Let us eat quickly and go!"
FotR

What were those things? Although more than one had been slain, they left no bodies. Were they incorporeal? Did the surviving Wargs carry away the bodies of the dead? Well, we don't know, but we may suppose these things were werewolves.
Regular Wargs were certainly not incorporeal: Beorn at least took pride in skinning them and nailing their hides to trees.

Don't need supernatural powers to scare anybody! Growl!

 In the Silmarillion, ironically, the word Warg is never used just because it had been written before the Hobbit. But the idea of regular wolves and supernatural werewolves is already quite clear:

"And ere long the evil creatures came even to Beleriand, over passes in the mountains, or up from the south through the dark forests. Wolves there were, or creatures that walked in wolf-shapes, and other fell beings of shadow [...]"
Sil

A definition of werewolves is offered at the beginning of the tale of Beren and Lúthien:

"[...] werewolves, fell beasts inhabited by dreadful spirits that he [Sauron] had imprisoned in their bodies."
Sil

Sauron was, apparently, the creator of werewolves, so much that he was called "Lord of Werewolves". He conquered the Minas Tirith, the fortress of Finrod Felagund built on an island on the upper Sirion, and turned it into Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of the Werewolves. We see there was a specific word in Sindarin, Gaur (pl. Gaurhoth), to describe the werewolf, well distinct from the regular wolf, Draug.
It is interesting to note that Drauglin, "a dread beast, old in evil lord and sire of the werewolves of Angband" is never described as a werewolf, even if he is "sire of werewolves". But when Beren using his wolf-hame masks himself, he "became in all things like a werewolf to look upon, save that in his eyes there shone a spirit grim indeed but clean". Sauron, too, when he shapeshifts, "took upon himself the form of a werewolf". It seems to me that the essence of a werewolf, a Gaur, was to be wolf in body but not in spirit.
So the wolves that attacked the Fellowship on the way to Moria were probably werewolves. What happened to them and their bodies? Well, what I think happened is that the bodies were killed, but the evil spirits were still there; by using their powers, the spirits carried their own butchered bodies away, like undead, so they were not left on the site.
No need to imagine ghost wolves, which by the way wouldn't even be able to hurt anybody, being ghosts and the like; and that at any rate would never be wounded by an arrow at all. From what we gather, wargs and werewolves were induistinguishable at first sight, the only difference being their spirit.
That, of course, means that this miniature can also represent a werewolf.

Care to test me, dear? I may yet surprise you.

Having drawn the line between Draug and Gaur and established that they look one and the same, let's have a look at how are these creatures are represented in other media, shall we?

The Hobbit animated movie, 1977. Could have been worse.

Pauline Baynes, Bilbo's Last Song, 1990. The Authority.

The Two Towers, 2002. That doesn't even look like a wolf.

The Hobbit: An Enexpected Jorney, 2012. Better, but weird.

 No, ok, I am partialy to Paline Baynes, but Tolkien was, too, right? I like the take of Mithril on Wargs. They look very realistic. Not terribly easy to paint, given the fur's texture is not very deep, but still pleasing.
These are the alternatives:

 

Easy and fun to paint, still weird and not very wolf-like, in my opinion.

Now, a look on proportions:

32mm: that is a BIG wolf, now!

15mm: another reason to hate that f***er Sauron.

As you can see, it works both ways, depending whether you want to play First or Third Age, Well, that's all to say. Have a nice day and, remember, don't talk to strangers in the woods!

Off to Grandma's House while you pick flowers. See you!

Thranduil in Autumn Attire (MC8 Elvenking) - Painting Manual

In this post I will try to describe, step by step, my approach to paint a miniature. It will probably be TL,DR, but hopefully someone can find some useful tips.

So, everything starts with a pack.

I got mine from a fellow Mithril lover who had put part of his collection for sale, and so, from Denmark, here's the Elvenking. This is a classic figure, one of those you saw on Mithril advertisements back in the 90s.

Now, how to paint this. You know I'm a Tolkien purist and I wanted to get this right, so I did some research in the sources. "The Hobbit" is the one:

"[...] at the head of a long line of feasters sat a woodland king with a crown of leaves upon his golden hair [...]"

Hob

and

"In a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone sat the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood. On his head was a crown of berries and red leaves, for the autumn was come again. In the spring he wore a crown of woodland flowers. In his hand he held a carven staff of oak."

Hob

There isn't actually much more. It is mentioned that he has green banners, and he loves emeralds (supposedly because they are green).

"To the Elvenking he gave the emeralds of Girion, such jewels as he most loved [...]"
Hob

So he likes green, we get it. But who is the Elvenking?

Looking at other sources, such as the Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales, we learn his name is Thranduil. Of Sindarin descent, he was the son of Oropher, who in the Second Age left Beleriand and became a king among the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great. Oropher died in the War of the Last Alliance, and Thranduil succeeded him as Elvenking. It was after a thousand years of his reign that a shadow came over Greenwood, and it started to be known as Mirkwood. Thranduil did not have the power to wage war against the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, and so he withdrew from the old palace in the Mountains of Mirkwood and has a new dwelling delved in the northern part of the Forest, which was what remained of his kingdom in the late Third Age. Thranduil was the father of Legolas, of the Fellowship of the Ring.

So we have a Sindarin king ruling over Silvan Elves and a dwindling kingdom. I expect him to be elegant and refined, but in a simple way. He probably has nice clothes of fine fabric, Elven-made or possibly imported (he imports his wine, after all).

Now, let's look at how the Elvenking has been depicted in other media, just to get some inspiration.

This is my favourite one: art by Pauline Baynes, Tolkien's own appointed illustrator. This is taken from "Bilbo's Last Journey". Here the Elvenking has the red crown of leaves and berries, a light green robe and a dark green cloak embroidered with red thread.

What else?

This is the Elvenking from the Hobbit Cartoon (1977). And that's a big nope.

This is the Comic Book by D. Wenzel (1989).

You all know this guy. Good god, do I hate his impression of an elf >:(

Srsly?

Okay, we have an idea, but very confused. Frankly, I only like Pauline Baynes' idea, so I start working on it.

It's not bad, but it's not good either... I think I could do something more. The colours are too many and too different. But I don't want a predominantly green pattern, this is not Spring anymore. I want an Elvenking in Autumn garments. I want him to look close to Nature, but a Nature that is striving against Shadow. He lives in caves, but his kingdom is covered by trees.

Then it hits me:

"In fact the subjects of the king mostly lived and hunted in the open woods, and had houses or huts on the ground and in the branches. The beeches were their favourite trees."
Hob

Beeches.

 

 

Do you see what I see? The pattern. Earthy greys. Deep yellows. That's my Elvenking.

Let's start painting!

We start from the browns: boots and undergarments.

Then we paint the grey undertunic, and the bright overtunic, orange with yellow dry-brush.

 

A lighter, brighter yellow for the cloak.

Ah, Thranduil's hair. If you're familiar with Tolkien fandom, you'll know about the Great Hair Colour Debate about Legolas. But the Hobbit says quite specifically that the Elvenking's hair were golden (take this, PJ!). I went for a dark ochre just because I prefer to keep a light yellow for the few Elves of the House of Finarfin, and I also find it goes better with the Autumn mood.

Next we do the belt and the scabbard with the same brown as the boots. It's leather brown mixed with a point of grey. Details are highlighted in yellow (flowers on the belt) and white (flower of the scabbard). We also add a metal colour to the scabbard's edges and the sword hilt.

And now here's the crown. A flat red will do the trick, as we'll work further on it later.

The first hand is now finished. We do a little retouch here and there, especially on the yellow parts since I didn't find any bright yellow that's really good either in Vallejo or Citadel ranges. Then we paint the base, in our case a neutral dark brown. When we are done with this, we start the shading.

Here's what a little Fleshtone Wash can do!

Not to mention a Sepia Wash for all Yellow parts, and a Black Wash for all others! It's highlight time now, and we add a bit of the original colours on top of the shaded parts, to let the outer bits of the miniature flash out.
We'll do this especially for the yellow cloak and the red crown, which have been dimmed down by the washes; I want them to be the most striking parts of the figure.

We're done, at last! The Elvenking's painted and finished. Imagine meeting this guy in a dark forest, standing among the trees out of nowhere.

"[They] were Wood-elves, of course. These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise."
Hob

But the work is not done completely. To do justice to the figure, we need to base it properly.

We'll start with a layer of fine sand, attached with vinilic glue.

And progress with some more coarse earth, to represent stones and rocks. Add a pinch of Noch marshland grass of the matching colour, and there you have it!
Ladies and gentlemen, the Elvenking in Autumn garments!