The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

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Thursday, 16 February 2023

From FrederickC - Forth Eorlingas! (110 points)

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

This week's submission is a force of Rohan riders and mounted commanders consisting of a box of 6 plastic Riders of Rohan, two metal Rohan Royal Guard, King Théoden in full armour on Snowmane, and the mounted version of the Captain and Banner from the Rohan Mounted Commander set, all from the Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line of miniatures. I had hoped to get them done for last Wednesday, but there were too many other calls on my time.

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

All the figures were cleaned up, the horses assembled and mounted on their bases, and some sand was glued on with PVA. They were then primed black with an airbrush since it is still too cold to go outside to use a rattle can. As with the Rohan warriors I did two weeks ago, I left the shields off until all the painting was complete. I even left the plastic riders on the sprue to paint them.

I started with the horses, and used craft paints almost exclusively on them. The riders were painted with primarily Vallejo acrylics, along with an occasional craft paint. I used the same selection of browns (Chocolate Brown, Leather Brown, Beige Brown, Cavalry Brown) and greens (Camouflage Olive Green, Camouflage Luftwaffe Green, German Feldgrau) that I used on the Warriors of Rohan. Once all the basic colours were applied, the figures were mounted on their horses and the shields attached. They then got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade.

The easiest to paint were the plastic Riders of Rohan, followed by the captain and the banner. The hardest were the Royal Guard, and Théoden due to their armour that is covered with horse-related iconography. Plus my gold paint didn't want to flow well when I was doing Théoden's armour. I am a little concerned about the durability of the plastic horses that came with two Royal guard, the captain, and especially the banner. That's a lot of weight to be supported by a single plastic horse's leg. We will see how long they go before a leg breaks. At least Théoden is sitting on a solid metal mount.

King Théoden flanked by two Rohan Royal Guard

Captain and Banner

Six Riders of Rohan

These will conclude my Rohirrim muster, other than a few duplicate figures. But where to next? Gondor? The Elven Kingdoms? The Kingdom of Rhûn? Or back in time to the War of the Last Alliance?


Ride now, ride now! Ride to !

The points being claimed are as follows:

11 x 28mm mounted figures @ 10 points each = 110 points

Thanks for reading. Next stop - ?????

Minion Miles: I really like these - but I have to ask - where was Gondor when Rohan called?

Greetings, Minion Miles. How familiar are you with the Lord of the Rings story? I don't know if you have read the books, only seen the movies, or just seen the meme of Théoden asking 'Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?'. So here's my answer to your question. When the Westfold fell, Théoden was still under the sway of Saruman, before the arrival of Gandalf and Aragorn at Edoras. Where was Gondor? Defending the passes of Anduin the Great at Cair Andros and Osgiliath. Rohan never called for help. ;^)