A short break

Apologies for not getting around to posting on Friday last week - my eldest son had to be collected from university and the rest of the kids broke up from school/college at different times so I was running around all day doing this and didn't find the time to do anything hobby related.

However, a little bit of general surfing over the weekend turned up this picture. I think it sums up the might of the horse lords of Rohan nicely. I find the picture very inspiring and it makes me want to complete my Eorlingas quite soon so I can get them onto the tabletop and into a narrative scenario.

Picture taken from The One Ring - Oaths of the Riddernark rulebook - Copyright Cubicle 7 Entertainment

I will probably not be posting as regularly over the next week or so whilst the kids are off for their Easter break from school etc. I still have a few miniatures to sort out and get based up, but these figures are all non-standard: Shelob, cave trolls, unofficial Sons of Eorl on foot and a few sprues of Rohan (both Riders and warriors). I am slowly getting through the more difficult models but I am stuck on what to do with the Rohan miniatures.

I have a blister of Erkenbrand (foot and mounted) and also one of the Grimbold command group (Grimbold, banner and horn). I would like to make up a unit for both of these and give them different paint jobs to the Rohirrim I have already painted up to differentiate them from the rank and file Eorlingas. I would also like to start converting some miniatures to make these two units stand out even more.

To aid me in doing this, I asked a professional sculptor to make me some resin shields and moulds a few years back (when I was working and had hobby money to spare). These have languished in a bag until a couple of days ago when I had the unexpected pleasure of finding them again. There are 3 designs, and 20 of each shield (I think) have been cast. I will use these to differentiate Erkenbrand's Redshields and Grimbold's Helmingas, by using one design for each unit, from the standard Rohirrim. I will post pictures of the shields when I get the chance to as soon as I can.

My idea is to have a dozen Redshields, both on foot and mounted, with one design of shield, and a further dozen Helmingas, on foot only, converted to bearing only hand weapons (i.e. no archers). These will take a few days to complete, so I will post on my progress in a few days' time.