Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Another idea for Aquilonia....Gondor?

I liked the depiction of Gondor in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. I'd like to see Aquilonian knights depicted similarly as in the films. I love the high crested helms but I'd make the armor a little less ornate, give it a plume and a surcoat with Aquilonian heraldry or black for the Black Dragons.







I think I could find some 15mm minis that would be converted with a small amount of fuss. If anybody has any ideas of minis that would fit the bill, I'm open to suggestions.

Cheers,

Chad

5 comments:

  1. How about the Men of Grandeur from Eureka Miniatures 18mm Fantasy Range? The cavalry looks late-ish medieval, but a mixture of plate and mail armour.

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  2. As a sidenote, I was extremely disappointed by the Gondoran armor as depicted in the movie -except for the marvelous helmets, of course. Why so?
    -Tolkien took inspiration, and wrote in the style of, *old* texts: the 'matters' of Britain and France (centered around Arthur and Charlemagne), Beowulf, the Volsunga saga, the Nibelungenlied...: no plate armor then;
    -Tolkien's work was an anti-modernist, anti-industrial pamphlet.
    Thus 'modern' plate armor fits for the 'bad guys' -their crude, mass-produced plate is specially fitting for the Uruk-Hai of Saruman, the most 'industrially-minded' / 'mechanical' of all 'evil' characters. But for the 'good guys' -'traditional' by definition- it would have be mail-scale only: at most for leading character, a breastplate, vambraces... as given to Theoden. But the Late-Medieval, by places almost Renaissance articulated plate armor of the Gondorans simply looks totally out of place (of time, rather). And to give plate armor to Elves was even more silly...

    Back to topic (at least!), Jackson's Gondorans as Aquilonian knights? Why not, but then I'd suggest to use them as knights of Poitain: the best, most feared and probably most heavily armored of all Hyborian knights; and with somehow a 'special' (slightly 'exotic'?) look of their own -in the final battle in 'The Scarlet Citadel' they are identified as such from a distance- reflecting the fact that, historically and culturally, Poitain is different from 'mainstream' Aquilonia (an idyllic version of Occitania, with a touch of Cote d'Azur without the sea, vs Northern France...). Then I suspect that the knights of Poitain should ride fully caparisoned warsteeds.

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  3. As alternate 15mm minis with a similar look, what about *Elves*? The 28mm ones I know are often depicted with a 'suppository shaped' helmet (concealing their pointed ears), and reinforced mail / scale: maybe some 15mm ones share this same 'look'?

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  4. I actually did some alterations to my gondorian miniatures quite a few years ago. I filed down the plate armor and gave them chainmail coats with black surcoats over the chain mail. It turned out pretty well.

    I like the helms a lot too. What I think I'll do is use some 15mm medievals and sculpt heads that somewhat resemble the gondorian helmets. Maybe using norman heads and then altering them.

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  5. The Warmaster Elves have the high crested helms, but they're 10mm. 15mm UK has some elves that might fit the bill, but they have the GW elongated elvish look to their faces.

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