Naked Elven and Goblin Units for BoFA

Soooooo, I learned on Friday that I am going to have to have eye surgery on Monday and have to keep my face parallel to the ground for at least a week, 24 hours a day.  Yippee.  And even after that, I'm not sure how long until I get my sight back in the right eye ... again.  So it looks like I'm out of the game again for probably at least a month.


However, I did get some bases of the elves and goblins done for the units of the Battle of the Five Armies game I would like to do at some point, using the Normans/Saxons that I've already done for the Hastings game as the human units for the battle.  I at least got them constructed, no paint though.  Also I think I might end up putting ears on the elves (or paint them on I can't decide) and also the goblin units to give them a proper "horde" feel will be another base deep, so they will be at least 2 wide by 3 deep stand units.  Anyway, here they are.

Elves.  Long spearman/pikemen in front heavily armored with lighter armored bowmen in the rear.  I wanted to have some diversity for this unit in appearance while still maintaining the order and discipline of the elven units.


A second pic of them.

The goblins I decided to go with figures that mimicked as best I could some of the old paintings and drawings for the older Tolkien books and Middle Earth rpg books.  It has proven difficult over the years to do "bandy legged" figures as they are just too fiddly or too unstable.  So I went with a peg construction with a slightly slumped over look but nothing too severe.  More of "slightly" corrupted humans or elves in appearance.  Still have the big bat-like ears though, gotta go with those!

And from another angle.

Looking forward to painting them.  Hopefully I will recover quickly and regain my sight so that I can do that sooner rather than later.  I'm not getting any younger!

I'm baaaccckkkk ...

Okay, so my right eye is still not quite 100%, but I am getting binocular vision again so that means I can paint ... at least the wooden guys.  Regular figures are a bit more challenging but I am still starting to paint some of those again as well.


So I finished the unit of Norman archers that I had on my painting table now for a little more than 2 months, unable to work on them.  Felt great to paint them!  There is nothing new construction wise although I do notice that the more figures I do the more varied in terms of construction I start to make things like helmets, arm positions, and other minor details that add to the diversity of the appearance of the stand and figures, but really don't add anything to the "craft" of making these little fellows.  Anyway, here they are.

Although I am still invested in doing the Battle of Hastings game, it is a bit tiring to be doing Dark Ages figure after Dark Ages figure after Dark Ages figure, so I need a project that I can use these guys for, but will also serve as figures in another game.  Since my first love is fantasy gaming, not historical gaming, I decided to revisit a game that I've been wanting to do for a long time, well before the Hobbit movies came out.  I've always wanted to do the Battle of the Five Armies that is more in line with how Tolkien wrote about it, not how it was portrayed in the movie.  These Dark Ages Normans and Saxons will fit perfectly into this game as the human men of Dale and such.  And being able to do some units of elves, goblins/orcs, warg riders, and some hero bases thrown in for good measure will keep my motivation up for getting the Hastings project done as well. 


The inspiration comes from this old article and webpage that I just love.  I'm not using these rules, but I am using the map, more or less, and the units described in the write up.


http://larsen-family.us/~1066/5armies.html


Right now I'm doing a test base of goblins/orcs (general troops, not the special bodyguard ones) and a test base of elves.  I'll post pics when I finish!