Dúnedain

"Survival" Story 

 

Okie Dokie. So, if you don't know I live in New Orleans, and if you don't live in a box you know we got hit by hurricane Isaac this past week. The city itself didn't suffer much in terms of flooding but because the storm was so slow we got pounded with high winds for 2 days. So like 90% of the parish lost power. Isaac since went on to do a lot of damage and levee bursting further north, which sucks. On top of that I only just got power back last night.... Now the funny thing about New Orleans is that its really F'ing hot in the summertime here. And no power means no A/C, which means sweaty, angry, depressed people. I literally sweated non-stop for almost 3 days unless I was in a cold shower. Not too fun. However I did get some good painting done!

History of the Dúnedain:

 

The Dúnedain (as I am presenting them) are the descendants of the original Numenorean exiles to Middle-Earth. The name is a compound word which in Sindarin means, "the men of westernesse". Adûn is a Westron word meaning Westerner, while Edain is the proper name of the elder race of men in Arda (whereas the elves are the Eldar, and the dwarves the Naugrim).  After The Voyage of Eärendil, wherein the mariner convinced the Valar to send aid to the elves of Middle Earth in defeating Morgoth Bauglir, the Men who aided the Valar were gifted with the land of Numenor. Eventually some of the Numenoreans got all angsty and broke some rules, so the Valar sank their continent (they have a habit of doing this when you piss them off). The faithful who survived settled in Middle-Earth under Elendil and became the Dúnedain. Elendil is the father of Isildur, who eventually strikes down Sauron and takes The One Ring from his severed fingers. Pretty epic stuff. If you want to know more check out: The One Wiki to Rule Them All or even better, read Tolkien's Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales. If you can make it past the Ainulindalë chapter its a goddamn awesome, epic book, if a bit flowery in the language department.

Anywho the kings of Gondor and Arnor (Numenoreans) slowly dwindled, and eventually Arnor collapsed all together. The distant and sundered descendants of the kings of Arnor took to the wilds and became the Rangers in the North, of whom Aragorn Elessar was the leader. They tasked themselves with guarding the northern borders of Eriador from the encroaching darkness of Angmar, and ultimately Sauron. This was mostly centered around protecting the nigh defenceless hobbits of the Shire, and the folk of Bree and the outlying areas. Which is why they feature in The Fellowship of the Ring at all. Now on to the models, with paint schemes to follow!

Bristles in the Dark

 

As I had no power starting last Tuesday afternoon I put on my trusty headlamp and banged these guys out over Tuesday and Wednesday. I think they look great for having been painted under LED light in a totally dark room.

So there you have it. I mixed the cloak and tunic colors to provide a bit of variation after all these guys are supposed to be fairly solitary, and don't have a uniform as such. Anyhow here's the schemes I used, all are over a black base coat:

Grey Cloaks/Tunics: Codex grey, badab black wash, codex grey drybrush

Green Cloaks/Tunics: MM Acryl Dark Green, Thraka Green wash, MM Acryl Interior Green Drybrush.

Leather Armor/Vambraces/Boots: Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown highlight.

Leather straps/pouches/etc: Vermin brown, Vomit Brown highlight.

Pants and quivers/arrows: Reaper Master Pure Black, Codex grey drybrush.

Spear and bow staves: Reaper Master Pure Black mixed with scorched brown, Scorched brown highlight.

Steel: Boltgun Metal, Leviathan Purple wash, Chainmail highlight, Mithril Silver Highlight

Gold: Tin Bitz, Leviathan Purple Wash, Shining Gold highlight, Burnished Gold highlight.

Skin: Tanned Flesh, Flesh Wash, Dwarf Flesh.

So what do you guys think? I think they could've looked a little more weathered, but either way they look pretty neat in my opinion. Notice I didn't paint eyes, and probably won't on a lot of these LOTR models, as their a bit smaller in scale than Warhammer and 40k, so its less essential typically. Plus I suck at painting eyes.

Lots of work ahead of me

 

So yesterday I also received that trade I mentioned. And boy is it awesome. Not only did it include everything I wanted, the guy threw in a bag of random goodies from blisters that had fallen apart. I got ALOT of awesome stuff. Here's a picture:

In that box you see:
3 Cave Trolls!
72 Warriors of Minas Tirith
18 Riders of Rohan
48 Mordor Orcs
20 Uruk-Hai
12 Warriors of Rohan
5 Knights of Minas Tirith
Ambush at Amon Hen
Attack at Weathertop
Heroes of the West
The Fellowship of the Ring

And lots and lots of awesome metal models too. Too many to list actually. But there were dwarves, elves,  lots of heroes, and some of the awesome OOP metal orcs. I've got a lot to paint, but my next big goal is to get the wargs and Moria Goblins I need to finish some scenarios. I also need quite a few more mounted Nazgul and some alternate sculpts for the foot guys.