Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Here is an image of the WIP Easterling Chariot (pardon the crappy render - the surface reflectivity is too high).

I need to set up a new shader network and material to get a decent render of the Chariot.

No horses for it yet (as I have only one 3D model of a horse, and I am not going to re-create the Cataphract Horses for the model).

Pretty much the only things I need to add to it are the harness supports and the quivers in the Chariot Body to hold the huge number of arrows for the Two to Three Archers it will carry.

The total crew will be:

2 - 3 Archers
1 - 2 Polearm armed warriors.
1 Driver

To get an idea of the scale, the sides of the chariot will come up to about the sternum of a person inside it.

I think maybe some snake heads or Other chimeric animal heads on the tips of the harness poles might be a decent addition as well.

If anyone has any suggested changes, now would be the time to speak up.


MB

Looking good! It does look a wee bit small from that picture though... Though i'm sure you have measured it correctly! How many horses do you plan to have pulling it then? Don't really have much to add on the general design, as it looks nice so far.

I agree with the snakes idea, though i would make it a motif that carries all the way through, as it represents their devious nature and also is seen in their iconography (well in Jackson's eyes anyway...)

 Captain Galenus wrote:
Looking good! It does look a wee bit small from that picture though... Though i'm sure you have measured it correctly! How many horses do you plan to have pulling it then? Don't really have much to add on the general design, as it looks nice so far.

I agree with the snakes idea, though i would make it a motif that carries all the way through, as it represents their devious nature and also is seen in their iconography (well in Jackson's eyes anyway...)

As I said above, the size is actually quite large.

Most people, when they think of chariots, tend to think Celtic, where the sides only stood about 2 - 3 feet high.

Yet the sides on this chariot are 4 - 4.5 feet high (from the floor), which would come to a person's chest.

So... If you imagine the Easterling's standing with just their chest and shoulders above the railings, it becomes easier to see how you could get five to six men on board.

Once I get this into Mudbox, I can add some engraved runes that run around the railings, and square blazons INTHE middle of each "shield" as the Easterling Soldiers had on their own shields.

I also need to figure out how to create polearm crew with no shields (or with stowed shields).

Also, in Mudbox, I can do the snake heads on the ends of the harness and the tip of the harness pole.

Oh.... And this is a four-horse chariot.

I plan to do a two-horse chariot for scouting.

MB

Ah cool beans, look forward to seeing progress. Are you going to create your own crew or use existing GW models?

 Captain Galenus wrote:
Ah cool beans, look forward to seeing progress. Are you going to create your own crew or use existing GW models?

Both.

Most of the archers will work as crew, but I will need to alter their backs as the chariot will include two double-sized quivers, as well as two quivers of javelins.

And I need to do a conversion for the polearm armed crew, so that they will not have shields, and hold the pole axes with both hands.

I am going to do a driver that is unarmored, based off the early concept art for the Easterlings, where they did not have the crazy helmets.

MB

Sounds good, good luck with the conversions: there is a lot of potential here! That driver sounds good too, looking forward to seeing what you come up with to represent him. But an Easterling WITHOUT a wacky helmet? I... Uh... That's incomprehensible for me...

Surely it's not a chariot, it's a wain?

 Riquende wrote:
Surely it's not a chariot, it's a wain?

"Wains" are actual wagons with 4-wheels, and Tolkien makes the distinction that the Wainriders had both great Wains and that their nobles rode in great Chariots.

And....

The "Wainriders" of the 19th and 20th centuries Third Age are not at all the "Easterlings of Rhûn" ruled over by the Nazgûl Khamûl.

The Wainriders were a nomadic people's, while the "Easterlings of Rhûn" hold a static Empire that stretches from the Eastern shores of the Sea of Rhûn into the Far East.

Neither are the Wainriders the Balchoth.... Which are a bit more of a mysterious people (and I have not had time to do the appropriate dissection of their name beyond the "Balch" and "Hoth" which is basically just "Evil hoard").

But Tolkien was never so shallow as to have the initial translation be all there was to a name.

I would need to dig into Sanskrit, Gothic, and Rus languages to determine if anything leapt out.

But.... Back to the subject of this chariot and the Wains, and Wainriders.

This Chariot dates from approximately 2500 Third Age to the War of the Ring, and is a purely "Easterling" Chariot.

I have different designs for the Wainriders, and the Balchoth had no Chariots (they were rejects, who were a bit poor, which is why they invaded Calenardhon to begin with).

And... I have designs for the Wains and the great houses upon them that the Wainriders pulled (based upon early Bulgarians, who did the same thing, and upon Huns and Mongols, who often out yurts on wagons).

But I have yet to move those designs from 2D to 3D.

MB