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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Conversions for Dwarf Rangers for Lord of the Rings

Last week I had the chance to play Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle for the first time in... well many years.  When you have to stop and do calculations, it's been a long time. I really enjoyed that game, and still think it's GW's best 28mm wargame. Plus I'm a Tolkien junky, so its hard to go wrong.

Digging out my dwarf rangers I decided they needed a captain and a banner to be a viable little theme force.

A lot of the Lord of the Rings plastics are of questionable quality, but in general I like the rangers, a good deal more than the plastic dwarf warriors, and I always liked the idea of a dwarf patrol.

First up, a Captain. Just adding a shield should suffice, since it'd good gear for a Captain and none of the rangers have shields, so he'd stand out as unique just from that.
I used a shield from a Chaos Marauder, trimming and rounding the spike to make it look more like a Saxon or Viking shield. The fact that it has torn leather makes him look even more 'rangery' and like he's been in some recent scraps in the wilds.

The banner would be more challenging.  First, I didn't like the idea of an actual banner.  This isn't a warhost, it's a patrolling force, to scout ahead or defend the borders.  They aren't likely to be waving a flag around.  
So a hunting horn would serve the same purpose and seem much more appropriate I think. 

1. Take one of the rangers with 2 axes and saw his left arm off.   
2. Trim the axe handle down and smooth it to be the horn mouthpiece
3. Cut the axe head off and cut the axe handle down to a bit smaller than you want the horn length to be, before it starts to curve up.
4. Cut the arm at the elbow at a 45 degree angle. 
5. Drill into the body and sink a paperclip into it to be the basis of the upper arm. 
6. Glue the arm to the paper clip and horn to the mouth
7. Use Green Stuff to sculpt a simple horn

8. Use Green Stuff to sculpt the upper arm: it's very easy.

Still to do: smooth the horn and widen the hole and paint them up!
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5 comments:

  1. Michael AwdryOctober 5, 2011 at 2:16 PM

    Now that's seriously impressive, love it.

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  2. shintokamikazeOctober 5, 2011 at 5:22 PM

    looking good, im wondering when the hobbit movie comes out will the fluff the GW used on their LOTR dwarfs match up

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  3. StuartOctober 6, 2011 at 1:52 AM

    I've generally found their LotR plastics to be pretty good. The proportions, for example, are very realistic. When you see them on the table next to, for example, their Warhammer stuff, it really stands out.

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  4. The Angry LurkerOctober 6, 2011 at 2:07 AM

    That's bloody well done, good work.

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  5. Laughing FerretOctober 6, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    Thanks guys! I'm a big fan of conversions.. even a small one can make a big difference.

    Stuart: I agree for the most part: some of the plastics are great and you're right about the proportions: much more realistic than warhammer.. dwarves have femurs, hands aren't the size of heads and weapons aren't the size of people. Just look at this dwarf's axe: realistic instead of an axe blade as big as his torso. And I love the horses.. some great realistic sculpting there that can't find an equal to in warhammer fantasy. I am a big fan of the Rohan plastics.

    However, since they're almost all single-piece casts, you get some bad fill with some of them, and some wonky poses where an attempt at a dynamic pose didn't really work out. And the detail is more shallow than the better stuff plastic is doing now. But none are as bad as plastic 7th ed warhammer dwarves from the box set.

    Shinto: judging from the pictures released of the dwarves from The Hobbit movie, it's looking consistent. Although one of them, fili or kili, I forget which, looks more like a half-elf than a dwarf.. I suppose it's a concession to have some appeal to a teen girl audience... they couldn't all look like Ren Faire veterans ;)

    ReplyDelete