Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

by

7

Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

Tre’ Manor’s Half-Orc Rogue

Something a bit different from the norm again today. A few years ago now there was a time before Zombicide and Borderlands 2 when my gaming group spent quite a few evenings playing through those D&D Boargames. I’ve shown off the odd critter from Ravenloft and Ashardalon here before, but this guy is from the other side. A model purchased to represent one of the player characters. I actually created a huge list of (mostly) Reaper Miniatures to better represent the player characters as I was never particularly enamoured of the PC models that came in the boxes. One such character was the Half-Orc Thief. Needing one of those, I browsed the Reaper online catalogue and saw this guy, a lovely Tre’ Manor sculpt. Shortly afterwards, he was mine.

Since I’m no fan of broccoli bases, I had to base him on something plastic and round. A Proxie models 40mm round base was the best and most appropriate thing I had, if a little large, but with his stature and wide-legged stance, this was the smallest thing I could fit him on.

Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

Cloak of slightly-harder-to-see-me deployed!

The most important thing was to work out a palette that worked for a rogue, was somewhat realistic (for a fantasy trope) and wasn’t completely boring. That means an all-black outfit was out. It might be the “obvious” go-to for a rogue or thief in some ways, but I also thought it’s the sort of thing that’s very likely to attract lots of attention if he were to be walking down a street or sitting in a tavern. Kinda like a sign saying “YES I AM A THIEF”, or a guy in a ninja outfit sitting in your local Starbucks. So I wanted to use some colours. Secondly, this guy is a Half-Orc, not a weedy Elf, so I wanted to go for muted, natural colours instead of rich, opulent colours.

The result was dark grey leggings, a brown leather padded jerkin, and for a spot colour, red-brown gloves and boots. Pouches in dark grey again, and a natural woodland green for his cloak. The sort of thing that would be dark and dull enough to provide some camouflage in a town or out in the bush. His dual-wielded daggers are painted in the Vallejo colour called “Metal Black” (Or Black Metal!) – which is a really dark, true gunmetal colour. No shine, no highlight, no picking out the pommel or crossguard in bronze, or painting the little skulls on them in bone or gold or whatever. They’re bloody rogue’s daggers!

Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

He wants YOU!

Anyway, this guy – like so many other figures – sat half-painted and mostly forgotten for a couple of years before I chose him a couple of weeks ago to get done and dusted. Within a day, he was finished. Since we’re not playing the D&D games at the moment and haven’t played Pathfinder in a year or more, now he goes into a glass cabinet until needed at some point in the future. At least he’s done, though!

Citadel LotR Black Númenórean Warriors

by

13

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

Today we have something that’s somewhat recent and still available. Six Black Númenórean Warriors from Citadel’s Lord of the Rings range. I don’t recall when these were released exactly, but the slotta says 07 so it would have been either 2007 or 2008 most likely. These models are exceptions to the “no starting anything new” rule I’ve got in place, as the “stuff I can paint 90% of at work” rules overrides the former rule.

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

As I’ve noted before, a limited palette and a simple job to do (usually highlighting black cloth or painting bone) works well for me at work, and keeps me interested in the hobby when I’d otherwise be tired and (more) burnt out.

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

I wanted to paint these in a slightly more interesting (to me) manner than the usual, which is essentially dirtied-up steel with black robes, but still retain the proper feel of these Morgul troops. I’ve seen some really nice looking Morgul Knights (these guys on horses, basically) painted with deep sea green robes, but I wanted to maintain stronger visual ties through their palette being in tune with both the Ringwraiths and also (and more importantly) The Mouth of Sauron figure.

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

I kept the dark robes, highlighted via blending rather than drybrushing which I’ve used in the past for similar models. Sadly the highlighting seems to be a bit washed out in these pictures, but something I absolutely wanted to avoid was over-highlighting the robes to light grey or white, which seems to be a common solution for many painters – because the robes are black. I used my usual black palette, of blends between Army Painter Black and VMC – Black Grey and Basalt Grey. Basalt Grey is plenty light enough for these guys.

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

For the metal areas, I tried a new technique. First I painted the armour and shields with Vallejo Chainmail undercoat with a little bit of VMA Bright Brass mixed in. Two glazes of Citadel Seaphim Sepia Shade, and then an edge highlight of VMA Gold. Sword blades were done with Army Painter Plate Mail, washed with AP Dark Tone, and then edge highlighted with Plate Mail again.

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

Faces were done with VMC Sand, shaded with a paint wash of Fire Dragon Crimson, which is a very old Citadel paint that’s actually a purple shade and then touched up with sand. A bit of black around their mouths and teeth picked out with VGC Elfic Flesh. Leather on the sword handles and shield straps were done with AP Chaotic Red (which is more of a deep red-brown) and washed with AP Strongtone. Done!

The reason I’ve documented exactly how I painted them here is because I’ve found that I have literally a dozen more of these guys, as well as a single pair of Castellans of Dol Guldur, who may well get the same paint scheme, given how similar they are in look and feel, and to add more variety to the scant three poses that the Black Númenóreans have.

Citadel LotR Lord of the Rings Black Númenórean Warriors, Black Numenorians

As you can see, I attempted some minor conversion with these initial six when I got them years ago. I clipped some shoulder spikes from one of the models, and turned one of those spikes into a “rear” headspike on one of the other models. Without going into Chaos Warrior-style spikiness, I’m not sure how I can easily add any differentiation to the dozen others I have of these three sculpts. I’m not willing to go so far as to resculpt parts, and these models aren’t exactly conducive to headswaps, so there’s probably not a lot going to happen here.

The eventual Army of Mordor will find a home both in the various LotR games, as well as Kings of War. Plenty more to paint before I worry too much about that, though… Perhaps these guys will find their way onto the table alongside Marouda’s Undead army as Allied troops.