'Reconnaissance' from GregB: Rohan Outriders

"Outriders" of Rohan - 28mm figures from GW. 

I love "The Lord of the Rings" (as, I suspect, do most, if not all, of my fellow Challengers) and the GW miniature game released around the times of the Peter Jackson films (back in 2001!) was both a superb accompaniment to the films and an excellent table top game on its own.  The line of figures, sculpted by the Perrys, was beautifully done, sweeping in scope and astonishingly comprehensive.  Many of my fellow gamers were avid collectors of the figures and we enjoyed many an LOTR game at the Fawcett Avenue gaming tables. 

Mounted Outrider, face buried beneath the cheek and nose guards of his helmet. 

The other fellows in the group had the whole thing covered well, so my collecting/painting of those figures was limited. I love the Kingdom of Rohan, and so I painted up a small force of riders and a few characters - probably circa 2002-03...well, fast-forward, like, 16 years, and while I was rummaging around my hobby treasure hoard last month, I came across two old GW blister packs of these figures - "Rohan Outriders".  I thought they would make fine entries for the "Reconnaissance" theme round. Here they are! 

That one plastic horse leg at the bottom of the photo is holding the whole thing together...yikes...

The "Outriders" seem to be intended as sort of scouts for the forces of the Kingdom of Rohan.  I couldn't tell you what the rules for them are, as I cannot find them, but in appearance they seem a little more rugged than the average warrior of Rohan, if not a as heavily equipped as the King's Royal Guardsmen.  They strike me as Rohan's answer to the "ranger" class seen in the other Kingdoms. 

I like the fellow with the bow, great animation in the pose. 

Drawing a bead on an Orc no doubt...

While I wanted the green cloak to stand out, otherwise they are painted in mostly muted browns and greens.  The armour was very tricky, as the Rohan armour seems to feature metal plates at base, with leather and other weaving somehow mounted/attached on top - it looks lovely, but having the bright metal at the base, rather than the highlight point, of the armour is a touch irritating and tough to pull of well (at least for me). 

Dismounted "Outriders" - again mostly focused on their bows, excellent sculpts. 

For whatever reason, I like my Warriors of Rohan to have a brighter green cloak...

Each blister pack contained one mounted and one dismounted figure. The sculpting is incredible, as always - and a bonus treat is that these figures are proper metal castings.  The proportions are so much more slim than the usual GW fare too...I had forgotten this about the LOTR miniature range.  The only downside is that the horses are plastic - and in each case, attached to the base by a single hoof.  These will be fine on the shelf, but equation of "plastic horse + single attachment point + metal rider" is ripe for problems on the gaming table, I fear...

Finding and painting old treasures in the hobby pile is always one of my favourite aspects of the Painting Challenge.  These are the first "Lord of The Rings" figures I have painted in more than 15 years!  It was a lot of fun to discover these - and I turned up some other hoarded bits as well (some old plastics Byron sold me, a few other goodies).  Hopefully they will find some time under my brushes this year as well.