A very belated thank you very much, I suppose that's what happens when distracted by all kinds of other projects.
Hobbits will of course be continued in the Shire plog, but plenty of other random things to keep one occupied.
First, to answer that question: the fence is indeed made form skewers with florists wire woven in between. Haven't continued it yet, I'll have to purchase or construct some bigger clasps first (to fix the skewers in place). In bigger pieces, they can of course be glued in the hill where they will be placed, but that's not a possibility for seperate pieces.
Now then, for the new random stuff: Iron Hills dwarves! Or one, really, but more are to follow at some point hopefully somewhere next year. Don't care what weird stuff is shown in the movies, my dwarves should be wearing a nice chainmail coat and, even more importantly, arrive on foot!
The Hobbit wrote:
Dain had come. He had hurried on through the night, and so had come upon them sooner than they had expected. Each one of his folk was clad in a hauberk of steel mail that hung to his knees, and his legs were covered with hose of a fine and flexible metal mesh, the secret of whose making was possessed by Dain's people.
The dwarves are exceedingly strong for their height, but most of these were strong even for dwarves. In battle they wielded heavy two-handed mattocks; but each of them had also a short broad sword at his side and a round shield slung at his back. Their beards were forked and plaited and thrust into their belts. Their caps were of iron and they were shod with iron, and their faces were grim.
Among the best and most thorough descriptions of any guys anywhere by Tolkien, and it happens to sound pretty realistic and rather awesome to boot.
Followed it entirely aside from the beard, although others will include that as well. Will convert a small group of them, some 6 guys that I won't be using much otherwise anyway (only include warriors with shield or bow in my normal lists). These will then probably count as Khazad Guard: strong (S4) solid armour (D7) and a nice bodyguard to either Dáin (for BotFA and beyond) or his father Náin (at Azanulbizar).
(Added advantage: these remind me of Sami axemen from Medieval II Total War, among my favourite units)
And then something completly different, a very early WIP Morgul Knight (more of those will follow as well). Some small alterations: 'crown' on mask was removed, which I'll only keep for the Marshal to help differentiate him more. Shield had the metal plates on the surface removed, so that it's just a flat piece with a rim. Much more realistic/practical. Early draft of the Minas Morgul emblem:
Return of the King wrote:
Two liveries Sam noticed, one marked by the Red Eye, the other by a Moon disfigured with a ghastly face of death; but he did not stop to look more closely.
Painted are just the teeth, eyes and tongue of the horse, as well as the cloth barding. Tried two dark green tones there on the two layers, but will either make those a bit lighter, or come up with a suitably light-yet-dark colour for the rider. While I like to follow the writings reasonably well, an entire army clad in nothing but black is a bit too boring to paint to my tastes!