Creating Cardolan soldiers

This is a suprise project I've jumped on after watching a YouTube piece about the war in Arnor against the Witch king. 

I was quite taken with the doomed struggle against the forces of Angmar around weather top and surrounding hills. I instantly started thinking up ideas for conversions using different figure manufacturers. I ordered some Fireforge Northmen as a start and saw that lots of gamers have had the same idea.

I thought a great place to start with these tough warriors was the Oathmark heavy infantry box. The torsos are really nice and have loads of character. Having made up my five bodies I had, I searched my spares box for other torsos that could be used with the left over arms on the sprue.

A while ago I had bought a set of late Roman heads for my Saxon project. These were now used to add some dark age flare to the figures. The heads are really nice and are from Victrix. They produce the exact look and feel I was after with these warriors.

A early Saxon was pulled into service too. He was finished off with a sword swop, this bigger weapon fits in better with the others.

This is my favourite figure and the first I made. Unlike my rabble from Lake town, these men actually look like they have come dressed for war.
 

A tough old Dunedain veteran with one eye.

A leader looking figure with an added horsetail plume for rank. The body is Oathmark with the Vitrix head added.

This shield is from the Heavy dwarf warrior box and goes well with the figure.

As well as the armoured warriors, there are a few with poorer quality equipment too.

Being Cardolan, there has to be a few ranger types scattered in. I plan to make actual units of rangers too, they should come in handy for missile support.

Dunedain rangers, deadly with bow or blade.

A Fireforge Russian warrior with Oathmark bits added. The bearded head is from the Oathmark sprue rather than from Victrix.

Light armoured warriors with large shields to make up for their missing chainmail.

Oathmark heavy infantry come with lots of nice weapons and poses. This is a Fireforge Russian with Oathmark arms and sword. I will give him a cloak to cover the joins.

"For Arnor!"

The Oathmark armour is very good and should look fantastic with mud splashed up it.

I have some Arnor resin shields coming from eBay, these will hopefully finish off the Cardolan look. I plan to have units that mix both Arthedain and Cardolan together.

My idea is that I have big armies of orcs and trolls already, why not use them for another theatre of war. The Witch king striking into Arnor from Angband just seems like a good idea.

 Most of the work is already done. My Lake town units can be used as Arnor militia too. A couple of units of warriors and rangers should give me a nice Cardolan force.

This is a force of tough Dunedain fighters and I think these chaps look the part.

Cardolan troops from a computer game.

UPDATE ; A day on and the extra Fireforge Northmen have arrived and been made up. They are nice figures and very large for 28mm... perfect for a force of tall Dunedain warriors.

I had another good idea after struggling to find a scabbard for this guy. A flattened and shaped brush bristle is perfect for the job. Once painted it'll look perfect. 

I'm pleased with myself on this one, as lots of warriors are carrying swords but have no scabbards, this will solve that. You can also use a scalpel to add details onto the plastic too. The idea came to me while creating more belt knives to adorn the belts.

It's almost like getting knives and swords for free, it certainly feels like that.

These brush bristle knives fill in empty spaces on the belts nicely.

This warrior sports a brush bristle bow to help with his ranger look. A bow on the back looks great for a ranger.

I kept the bristle quite fat, rather than squeeze it into a blade, this extra thickness is a better size for a  scabbard. 

I watched a good film on YouTube about painting leather and I'm looking forward to trying it on these new scabbards.

UPDATE:

 Here are some shots of a nice Reaper figure that just arrived. He is massive, even compared to the large Fireforge Northmen.

 However, for once, this is a good thing as most true Dunedain were very tall. He even has a star on a crown which again is perfect.

His stature with the crown is great for portraying a king or high prince of Cardolan.

He is more likely to be king Argeleb I of Arthedain. This king was responsible for pulling Cardolan back into the fold and taking the fight to the Witch king. He was to die defending Weather top, opon which his son Arveleg took the throne. Depending on what time period I'm playing, this figure would work for either of them.

Argeleb I lies dying on Weather top.

He certainly has Dunedain blood in him that's for sure. These two show off their long swords together.

Here is a scale pic of a Vitrix Saxon, Oathmark Heavy infantry and Fireforge Northmen together.

One of the true kings of old.

I actually stuck another layer of base onto this figure to boost his height, after reading how tall the Dunedain were. I might do this to a few others too to mark them out as true bloods. The shorter figures can represent the 'Low men', the lesser blood lines as the Dunedain mixed with other peoples.

The Reaper miniatures is sold as a 'Human fighter' I believe. 

 Reaper miniatures are great for these hero type figures, my Bard character I use for Lake town, is sold as one 'Cardolan ranger'...the irony.

UPDATE: A few hours later and I've pushed this scabbard idea a bit further. The odd off cut can be joined to a brush bristle to make a new sword.

It's not long before every man with a sword has a matching scabbard to go with it. It's important to measure it against the weapon, just to make sure the sword will actually fit inside it.

This old ranger gets a Arnor long sword.

Happy customers on their way to war, at least their swords won't rust in the damp Cardolan hills and dells now.

As these scabbards are made from tough plastic, you can have sticking out from the figure in a realistic look. I wouldn't advise this with the ones that come with the figures. These figures have yet to get their green stuff extras, a process which involves a lot of handling. The amount of sprue axes and swords on belts that I have broken while doing this sculpting runs pretty high. 

The worst brittle plastic for breakages must go to the Wargames Factory orcs, now produced by Warlord games. I try to keep any of the scabbards/ axes etc from that set flush with the torsos to stop them snapping off.

Here are some printed Arnor/Gondor shields from eBay. The first is an Elvish shield but the star design should be good for Arnor too. This is a good one as it's nice and large.

The other two are nice designs but obviously designed to go with the GW LOTR figures. As those figures are true 28mm, they are maybe slightly small on some of these large plastic ranges...looking at you Fireforge. However, shields come in all shapes and sizes so should still be useable.

There is another shield on its way which should be perfect...I hope. It's the prequel shield from the films. It's like the Roman styled one but with a kite shield bottom. This makes it taller which should work better scale wise with the larger figures.