Donnerstag, 21. März 2013

Watchful Peace

When Ebob released his new Norman warriors, I immediately had to think of John Howe's famous painting  "Watchful Peace". In my opinion this might be the best depiction of the proud descendants of the Sea Kings around. Unfortunately Weta didn't stay too close to his design.
Although I like the catchy style of Weta's design for the warriors of Minas Tirith, it never felt consistent to the books. Plate armour is never mentioned in the books (with the exception of vambraces) and it always comes to my mind again, when I see GW's tin-can Gondorians of the 3rd age...  In this respect, Ebob's Norman infantry is much closer to the books and in terms of gameplay, the hauberks should suffice as heavy armour as well.



In order to make the Normans fit for warriors of Gondor or even as Citadel Guard, I  had to convert them a bit first... Their chainmail armour and the "high helmets" are already perfect, the Kite shields came in handy as well, when I tried to give them their signature heraldry, but they still lacked helmet wings and some black cloaks. Without further ado, I added those, using some Green Stuff. I tried to avoid too much uniformity here, since I wanted to conserve some of the Dark-Ages-feeling. This is something I consider very important about recreating Middle-earth. There's a multitude of influences that gave distinction to Tolkien's Middle-earth, but the Hastings-period has undoubtely been the most important one for the description of the Kingdoms of Men. (This might be the reason why so many people praise Weta's depiction of the Rohirrim so high.)




Although they only replace GW's Numenorians in my Last Alliance at the moment, I plan to extend my Ebob collection to some larger 3rd Age Gondor warband for SAGA. Ebob has already posted some WIP pics of Norman cavalry that will follow at some point and I really hope for some archers and axemen as well. The cavalry should make some perfect mounted messengers (those with the red arrow...) or Swan Knights of Dol Amroth. Ebob even has some fitting helmets for those in his components section, which I might try.





8 Kommentare:

  1. I agree, plate armoured minas tirith seems a bit odd to my mind, these look excellent for them though!

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  2. These are absolutely stunning! The best men of Gondor I have seen.

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  3. Fantastic! As Tolkien was a medievalist who focused on the early Middle Ages I find it liklier he envisioned the men of Middle Earth in this way.

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  4. This is beautiful.

    I've often considered the idea of one or other of the Dunedain kingdoms represented with something like a stylised Norman army. They have the cool nasal helmets, mail shirts and awesome shields.

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  5. Sehr hübsch!

    eBob (Miniatures)

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  6. Great work! I used some Perry Crusaders for my Rohan collection

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