Gamling the Old - Mithril LT5 (2002)

This is a nice little miniature, which has only one fault: it lacks a shield. The rest is both beautiful and fun to paint. Chris Tubb deserves a good praise for this 2002 sculpt.

Gamling is an interesting character in LotR: he is an old man, leader of the warriors Erkenbrand left as a garrison of Helm's Deep. He seems to be a veteran of considerable age, but if his body is weakened by senility, his mind and heart are still strong, as he shows in many occasions when he leads the defenders against the forces of Isengard. He survives the battle and nothing is said about his again, so we must assume he dies of old age. He is a minor character, but one of those memorable enough to deserve remembering.

Not many depictions exists of him. By far the best I know is from Angus McBride:

"If they come to bargain for our goods at Helm's Gate, they will pay a high price,"

Bakshi's animated movie ignores him as a character, and PJ's movies have him as a generic warrior guy:

"I'm actually fourty-five."

I liked the idea of Gamling being a sort of Castellan of Helm's Deep, a vicecomes to Erkenbrand, so he would have a nice uniform even though he would not be heavily armed. I painted him in green and red, with a black leather jerkin and a white cloak. Incidentally his cloak came out really nice, and it might well be the second coat I paint that I don't hate. Good stuff.

I think my Rohan force is coming up well. I might even be able to play a mini-skirmish sometimes.

"Forth, Helmingas!"