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Len suilon Ninjabread readers. I’ve painted a set of Dúnedain Rangers in order to play some Fellowship of the Ring games set on the borders of the Shire.



Eleven Rangers – enough for a whole football team. Like Rangers F.C. I know football.

With the exception of Aragorn, Dúnedain Rangers don’t appear directly in Tolkein’s Fellowship of the Ring book, or the Peter Jackson film adaptation. They’re just noted as lurking in the background being mysterious.

“…in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree folk called them Rangers and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the language of beasts and birds. They roamed at will southwards and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now few and rarely seen.”
– The Lord of the Rings, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony



This is no mere Ranger. This is … oh wait, yes, it is a mere Ranger.

Six of the miniatures (all the ones with masked faces) are Citadel’s ME-25 Rangers of Ithilien, but I’ve repurposed them as their distant Dúnedain cousins, as Tolkein is sparse with descriptive details. Modern Games Workshop also produce a set of “Rangers of Middle-earth” that they recommend you use as any type of forest-lurking human group.



This is no mere Ranger. This is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. And you owe him your allegiance.

Attached to the group is the ME-12 version of Aragorn, in his Strider the Ranger persona. He’s a really strong sculpt, with a weathered nobility on his face. A nice detail is that his left hand is clutching a second sheathed sword – the pieces of Narsil that he carries as an heirloom of his family and to symbolise his birthright to the throne of Arnor.



This is no mere Ranger. This is Halbarad, son of Halbaron. And you owe him twenty Euro.

In command of the Rangers is my slaphead with an earring rendition of Halbarad. The sculpt’s expression of withering disdain is his main tool for keeping the group of strong-willed loners together. Thanks to Jesper Moberg over on the Oldhammer Community for identifying the figure as a C04 Thief.



Sing about the Rangers lads we`ll sing another song,
Sing it with the spirit that we’ll start the world along,
Sing it as we used to sing it 50,000 strong,
While we we’re marching to Ibrox

I’ve added some further variety to the group with a pair of Citadel’s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Thieves, and a wannabe Hobbit ranger to impress on players they’re not just anywhere in Middle-earth, but defending the borders of the Shire. I’m excited to see how they get on in games against the Nazgûl and other nasties.

More from Ninjabread’s version of Middle-earth soon! Novaer!

More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

Really enjoyed reading through your thread so far Curis! Some lovely old miniatures and your painting skills really do them justice!! Also props for the great photography throughout! Look forward to seeing more!!

Thanks zahnib! Plenty more where that came from.


Tzeentch has many Silver Towers floating through the Mortal Realms, but the one I am building is full of throwbacks to a time when metal miniatures reigned supreme. Welcome back to my Silver Tower of lead.



Metaaaaaaaal.

The initial spark that led me on a four-year quest to reconstruct the Silver Tower game with 1990s lead miniatures was two of the tiny familiar miniatures – instantly recognisable as reimaginings of Citadel classics from days of yore. I’ve painted a complete set of modern plastic versions, and a complete set composed of 1980s/1990s analogues.



1987 Lune (left) and 2016 Pug (right).

The CH5 Lune Familiar is an adorable moon-headed mook who was reborn in plastic complete with his original moon on a stick, tintinabulous jester shoes and scowling moonface.



1987 Walking Book (left) and 2016 Blot (right).

The CH5 Walking Book Familiar was a perennial favourite of Warhammer players, popping up as a wizard’s helper in Chaos and non-Chaos armies for years. I’ve not thought of anything high concept enough to paint freehand on the pages of the plastic version, so I’ve left them blank for now. Maybe I will leave it blank forever and claim it’s an unwritten journal.



1991 Tzeeenth Familiar (left) and 2016 Tweek (right).

The small Lord of Change (Lord of Small Change?) was probably originally sculpted as a 6mm Epic Greater Demon miniature, but rolled into the CH5 Chaos Familiar range for the 1991 Citadel Catalogue Section 2. I’ve painted mine in orange and turquoise to match my 28mm Greater Demon. The new plastic version takes the mini Greater Demon vibe even further, having been written up in the background as a mischievous sprite with the delusion he’s an actual Lord of Change.



1987 The Jaw (left) and 2016 Slop (right).

The fourth and final Silver Tower familiar, Slop, is a subtly different kettle of fish to the others – inspired not by a CH5 Chaos Familiar miniature but by Mordheim’s leitmotif of mutant fish artwork or old Ian Miller illustrations. I’ve painted the plastic Slop’s the tail with a Rainbow fade to match Blot.



Familars wreaking havoc in the Lead Tower.

That’s another adversary group ready for Silver Tower. You can see Brimstone Horrors here, Light Wizards here, Light Acolytes here. Tzaangor here and Deathrunners here. Time to start work on the next of the nineties nasties.

Ninjabread out!

More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

Who didn't love the old familiars. Not having seen much of silver tower I didn't realise it had updated familiars in - might have to scour eBay now.

Interesting that the be epic daemon became a familiar over time - missed that at the time.

Excellent work as always.

Great seeing old and new side by side - I hadn't realized they were all callbacks, though the book was immediately familiar. Tempted to track down Tweeky ...

I love all the little familiars, both old and new. it's hard to pick a favorite out of the two tiny lords of change, they both just look so adorably scheming.

Both sets of familiars are fantastic. I especially like the fade on Slop.

Those familiars are great!! As others have said I didn't realise they were callbacks until now! I do have fond memories of the 'walking book' though, such a great model. As always your painting is top-notch on these guys

Having paid almost no attention to Silver Tower, I completely missed these. Awesome move on GW's part, and awesome work on yours.

Beautiful work Curis.

Exalted.

Cheers,

CB

I am that exact type of person that plans annual holidays using the Ordance Survey maps of Ancient and Roman Britain. I spend days hiking through the remote countryside in the rain with a napsack full of boiled eggs to find the spaces prehistoric people once lived and thrived.



Me in the ruins of Brough Law Ringfort.

Fancying myself as Lord of the Ringforts, Mr. Crabb at Fogou Models offered me the very first castings of his latest terrain project in return for photos of them painted nicely. And paint them I did.



This is the basic ringfort, built from seven wall sections and one gate section. All the pieces have an interlocking brickwork design on the outer face to disguise the component joins. I don’t know how Mr. Crabb got it all to line up so flawlessly, but I suspect dark Cornish sorcery.





If that understated rectangular doorway with its stone lintel are too low key for you, there’s also a fantasy style gateway with a pair of towers flanking a bronze goblin-faced gate sculpted by the Kev Adams. Now you can have much larger things get in and out the fort – like trolls, ogres and my reference library on prehistoric and Dark Age structures.



Gandalf supervises the defence of a Dúnedain stronghold.

To accompany the ringfort, I also painted this pair of thatched buildings which can either go inside the fort as the defended structures, or act as standalone pieces. I’m going to pair the recentangular one with my Dark Age Church as a crofter’s dwelling.



But wait! There’s still more! There’s a nice pair of thatched stilted granaries, a pigsty, a well, firewood and pots that I’ve used to make a complete village.



I got a bit carried away painting freehand patterns onto some of the pots – I like to imagine them as vessels with histories of their own that come from the extensive trade networks. I also see them as a nice way of adding life to a scene, and they make for subtler representations of material wealth than the classic objective marker of a treasure chest full of gold coins.



There’s a desstroyed wall section you can use to represent a partially ruined fort, and even switch into your fort mid-game if you’re playing a siege.



Here’s a pile of Orcs pouring through it to fight the Fellowship of the Ring.



Stone buildings are pretty timeless, and with a bit of “set dressing” in the form of modern crates, here it is being used in the Napoleonic era.



95th Rifles, 2nd Battalion seizing supplies at a Portugese port.

Nicely, the doors are cross-compatible with the other Fogou offerings, so a quick switcheroo and this fort section is ready for science fiction wargames too. Thanks to everyone that’s pointed out the door looks like a Confederate flag.



Wolbane Commandos advance though ruins of Hexau Prime.

Finally, my cat (who is coincidentally named after a ringfort) has also found a great use for the piece.



So thanks to Mr. Crabb for letting me be the first to get one! If you’d like your own, they’re currently over on the Fogou Models site.

Ninjabread out!

More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

That really is impressive how seamless those joins are. A+ paint job on them too!

Thanks Gwyn!

Crocodile Games, the masters of mythical-themed wargames, created a limited edition miniature for their 2021 convention season. But as 2021 was a damp squib for conventions, they ran an online event to give them out. A painting contest, and a limited edition – the format could only pander to me more if there was free beer.



Who better to enter than this fantastic Demigoddess of Hecate, as the competition ended on midnight of Halloween, and Hecate is the goddess of gh-gh-gh-ghosts.




Yikes Scoob.

She’s a great Chris Fitzpatrick sculpt (I’ve frothed on about him before) with a striking and intricate silohuette. The miniature is an endless swirl of crisp details, swirling braids of hair and spiked diadem all echoing the crescent moon of her staff held aloft by the triplicate form of the goddess herself.



“The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right. White as a knuckle and terribly upset.”

This wasn’t a competition competition, where only the judges’ favourite gets a prize. Everyone that entered got a Priestess of Eris. I hope to show off mine soon, alongside some of Crocodile’s Trojans and Amazons!

Ninjabread out!


More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread