The Battle Companies Community Creator Project- Clearing the Backlog (March/April '22)

 Hey all

A slightly different spin on the monthly update as I had to hold back for this unveiling, I spent a lot of March and April's hobby time preparing this challenge, organised by Dewi Evans.

The Challenge

We were entered into a pool of 18 participants, each of whom would offer up two colours, whatever combo they choose. I offered up purple and white myself. And we would then get a randomly selected Battle Company from all the options available.

The draw was presented to us as follows. What company did I get? Excellent!

What colours did I get?

Shit...

My approach

I quickly decided that a great theme to go around for this would be the final stand of Balin's Expedition. So a good display board to do would be one based around Balin's tomb, which it just so happened, I had from a MTO from 1yr~ ago. First I had to name, build and paint my company.

The Name

I was toying with something basic such as 'The Last Stand in the Tomb' but then thought if there was a way I could include the colours that had been chosen. Maybe 'the Yellow Brigade' or 'the Purple Ravens'. But then it came to me, many people that I have played will be familiar with my standard luck on the battlefield, with very much unexpected deaths or mass routes upon breaking that cost me a game that was, more or less, in the bag (see Tom Hawker). It was for this reason that I settled upon:

The Yellow Bellies and Purple Hearts

'Flee or die'

The Company

The Leader- Dharin (pron. Dar-in)

Those who have been in the GBHL and have a good memory may recognise this model, as I converted him 4yrs~ back for my Dale/Erebor company. He was built from a plastic Gimli from the Mines of Moria set that was broken, had his arms transplanted from a Dwalin, Champion of Erebor and then was given a Concealing Cloak of green stuff. The only change that I made to his old version, was gluing a shield of Erebor onto his back.

To make him stand out, I painted a little pattern across the bottom of his cloak so that it would display, subtly, a mark of seniority. I also mixed together a thinned down red contrast paint with my blue glaze to give the armour a purple tint, which I repeated across most of the other members.

Dharin, son of Druin (pron. Drew-in), was a low level captain of the Iron Hills as he fought at the Battle of the Five Armies. After which, he steadily gained promotion, until Balin prepared for his expedition, whereupon, Dharin offered to sign up, alongside many other volunteers.

Rori (pron. Roh-Ri)

For Rori, I didn't want to make any alterations to the Captain model as I thought it was a great pose. The only difference seen is that, on the far side of the front of his shield, there was a deformity. I painted this to show the paint of the shield smashed away in a prior fight, showing wear and tear. You'll be able to see this at the end.

Rori, son of Dharin, was still reaching maturity as his father fought for Dain at the Battle of the Five Armies. However, when the time came for Balin's Expedition, he was an up and coming young dwarf warrior, eager to prove himself and so went along with his father.

The Brothers, Brerin (pron. Br-air-in) and Nerin (pron.N-air-in)

I had two of the same posed, old metal dwarf warriors, who had both been sat in the pile of shame for years now. This seemed like a perfect chance to get them done, when there was no plans for them prior. However, leaving them both the same and non distinguishable from the rest of a dwarf army wouldn't do.

For Brerin, I decided that no dwarf force would go without SOMEONE bringing a keg of Dwarven Ale. And he seemed perfect for the job. So I cut his arms off, replacing them with those of a Grim hammer that were spare and green stuffed a tankard into his hand as well as the keg at his feet, knocked over as he knocks back one last gulp before facing his foes, as they storm the tomb.

In Nerin's case, I wanted something more simple and easter-eggy in feel. I had a spare Kili floating about so head swapped them over and built him a beard from green stuff to hide the join. Then I got the idea. Gimli gets his two handed axe in that tomb, what if I gave a name to it's past owner? So I ordered an old metal Gimli and took his axe head for Nerin.

Once they were finally built, I was able to get round to painting them up.

The brothers Brerin and Nerin, were in Dharin's regiment in the Battle of the Five Armies alongside their eldest brother, Brevin (pron. Br-air-vin), who fell outside the gates of Erebor wielding their family heirloom axe. This axe was retrieved after the battle and then wielded by the second brother, Brerin. Nerin, after the recapture of Erebor, found the old weapons of the Grim Hammers to be his preferred choice and had his own made. He also developed a fondness of ale and was often seen being loud and drunk but still friendly. They were still serving under Dharin, when he pledged his troops to Balin's cause.

Kimur (pron. Key-mur)

I was stumped for a while on how to go about doing the archers for a while. My first inspiration was to use the now damaged Gimli, so I did a simple headswap onto a dwarf warrior and then added a coil of rope onto his back out of green stuff.

Kimur was headhunted by Balin as a revered dwarf of the wilds. He had an exceptional shot with his bow and impressive survival skills that could be passed on to others in the expedition to keep themselves fed, once they had a foothold in Khazad-Dum. 

Ori (You know how it's pronounced)

For the last dwarf, I had a facepalm realisation that there was already a named character, who was in this exact scenario, Ori! For him, I took the body of the Gimli and the head of the dwarf warrior and did the exact opposite of Kimur. 

I decided that since he would, in my mind at least, be filthy rich post expedition that he should therefore have more opulent looking equipment. So he has multiple axes, some fancy trim on his cloak and a gold trimmed quiver which says 'AMMO' in dwarven runes, this quiver was simply green stuff with some paperclip pieces as the arrowshafts. 

I also decided that as Ori matured, he would develop his ranged ability from a slingshot to a bow (also made of green stuff) and therefore would be a good second archer. I was also initially going to have my final touch to him be an arrow loading into his bow. When I realised, his skeleton is found with the Book of Mazarbul, as found by the Fellowship, years later. So that should be in his other hand, and brace yourselves, it was made from green stuff! 

After the bittersweet success of the company, Ori settled into a happy and comfortable life for several decades. He grew into adulthood and filled out his beard much more impressively, as is the dwarven way. But with time, the tales of his youth weren't enough, he desired to once again be a part of a big, world changing part in history. So when Balin announced his intentions to reclaim Khazad-Dum for their kin as they had reclaimed Erebor many years earlier, Ori was one of the first to join.

The Display Board

As stated above, the obvious display was to do the final stand of the dwarves in Balin's tomb. My girlfriend's nan had a small photoframe (6"x8")~ that was no longer needed and would be perfect for it.

The first thing that I did was wrap the glass in some newspaper.

I then sprayed it black and covered the upside with sand. Before painting it Mechanicus Standard Grey and drybrushing with Dawnstone then washing it with Nuln Oil. It then went back into the frame.

I then built the four pillars, two trapdoors, well and sarcophagus (without dead dwarves including Ori). I painted these up in the same manner as the base of the display, just painting the trapdoors' wood with Rhinox Hide and Mournfang Brown. The metal was painted Warplock Bronze then Leadbelcher before washing it and the wood with Agrax Earthshade.

I present to you, the completed company. 

The Yellow Bellies and Purple Hearts

Others involved with the project

We had another 17 guys, who all took part in this project, including CJ and James from this blog. The links to the video/blog sites of others are below: 

Dewi Evans - Guardians of Wiltshire - https://youtube.com/c/GuardiansofWiltshire

Steve Crowe - Top Table Gaming - https://www.youtube.com/c/TopTableWargaming

Rob Conroy-Máigheóc - Over the Edge of the Wild - https://edgeofthewildsbg.blogspot.com

Cameron Cochrane - PaintsOnA4Up - https://www.youtube.com/c/PaintsOnA4Up

Dan Slobodian/Steve Thorley/Colm Browne/David Cooper/Dan Stuart - Drawn Combat - https://drawncombat.blogspot.com 

Dene Palmer - Dene Paints Things - 

https://youtube.com/c/Denepaintsthings 

https://www.instagram.com/denepaintsthings/

Damian O'Byrne- Battle Streams in Middle-Earth  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDeTFeeH7jOuwXxmU3aT-_Q

Alex Temple- Battle Camper https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleCamperHome

Ben Bowles- Benji's Hobbies https://www.youtube.com/c/Benji%E2%80%99sHobbies

Harry Parkhill- Battle Games in Middle Earth  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPrQSaLP6TIR1jz4TfIZw1A

Entmoot https://soundcloud.com/entmootpodcast

Some of them have already posted and the rest will come soon(ish).

Helm Hammerhand

The only other project that I completed in this time was the legendary King of Rohan.

I wanted to make him really stand out so I painted all his armour with Ironbreaker, then glazed it with the now discontinued (to my knowledge) Waywatcher Green and finally washed with Agrax Earthshade. I didn't know what to expect with the wash but it came out better than I could have hoped!

For the rest of the month, I did some highlights and corrections onto old models for Seven Stones on the Bank Holiday weekend (Mounted Legolas/Gamling/Royal Guard).