2020 Advent Calendar: Day 10

Good morning! Though we approach Christmas, we'll find no rest, no peaceful sight on this new day of the Advent Calendar...

For day 10, another threat comes to us: Uruk-hai Command

All Fantasy fans will probably see that these figures are inspired by the Uruk-hai, the half Orcs of Saruman, as we can see them in the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. Big creatures wearing black armors with the symbol of the White Hand on their banners. Threatening, no doubt. But something I found strange when I saw the movie for the first time was their ability to march as if they were regular, drilled soldiers.

I must say that the Uruk-hai I imagined were inspired by this:

Do you remember them ? Yes, the oldest among you might know... this picture is taken from the animated movie 'Lord of the Rings' made in 1978 by Ralph Bakshi. Very different, and certainly not like drilled soldiers :)

My new recruits arrive just in time to command the next move of my small warband.

You can see more about their troops here.

Always more violence, will it ever end ? A more peaceful scene would be great for Advent time.. what do you think ?

Hope you like these fierce mini-monsters anyway :D

See you tomorrow.

Galadhrim

A few months ago, I had the chance to get some Fantasy minis by Caesar, a reference rarely seen on the web and apparently only sold by the manufacturer himself. These minis looked very promising, as they represented elvish and human warriors inspired by the Lord of the Ring trilogy. They were Elves and men from Gondor in the second Age, and Galadhrim from the third age. These Galadhrim composed the troops sent by Galadriel to help the men of Rohan during the siege of Helm's Deep - please note that they only appear in the movie but not in Tolkien's book.

I was very excited at the idea of painting one of the archers, since their battledress is rather impressive - and the version made by Games Workshop used an interesting color scheme.

This is what I could achieve - I just finished him half an hour ago :)

This mini perfectly fits its opponents - in this case, Uruk-Hai by Dark Alliance. The Galadhrim is defending the garden of Lothlorien against the orcs of the White Hand.

Tell me if you find this color scheme convincing - I have a few others to paint !

Uruk Hai - comparison

Hi! In one of the forums were I post pictures, I was asked if my Dark Alliance Uruk Hai were compatible with GW's ones.
I happen to have bought second hand minis from GW's Lord of the Rings range, so I took pictures this morning to compare the two ranges. After posting the answer in the forum, I thought this comparison might be interesting for some of you too.

Here you are the result:

Left: Dark Alliance / Right: Games Workshop

Left: Dark Alliance / Right: Games Workshop

The sizes are not so different between the two manufacturers, I must say that I was a bit surprised, but:
- the 1/72 minis are thinner
- the 1/72 minis look a bit taller than they actually are because they have their own base and I didn't remove it
- the pike of the Dark Alliance mini is much smaller - you can hardly call it a pike, but it is ok for fantasy gaming in my opinion

One picture to illustrate this:

Left: Games Workshop / Right: Dark Alliance

By the way, please note that the Games Workshop Uruk Hai were painted as they appear on the pictures when I bought them, it's not my job :)

Hope you find this post useful. Please let me know if you are interested in more minis comparisons or reviews - since PSR does not  review Fantasy minis, there may be something to do.

Uruk Haï

Hi! A few pictures of some of my Uruk-Haï soldiers.
Figures by Dark Alliance: pikemen, warriors and berseker.