Boromir - Son of Gondor - "Anti-Hero" bonus theme round - Painting Challenge

The final Bonus theme round of the Painting Challenge was entitled "Anti-Hero" and was the theme of this years event.

I wanted to keep to my overall LOTR theme for the year and at first had in my mind to do Gollum... but he struck me more of being a plain old villain really, and after a brief chat with Curt, about what an Anti-hero would really be... it was decided that Boromir's character would make for a good entry...

An Anti-Hero is basically a Hero, but perhaps is not the most, shall we say, 'ethically minded' in how he gets the job done...?

In this case, since Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, having no doubt succumbed in some way to its malign influence, even though he was never a 'ring-bearer' himself,... and albeit with overall good intentions - to save Gondor from the threat of Mordor, by using it himself, or gifting it to his father... he fails perhaps to see the bigger picture and the real threat, that is the Ring itself...

He of course, pays ultimately with his life in the end, regaining his honour somewhat in defence of the weakest members of the Fellowship, when the party become scattered at Amon Hen during the attack of the Uruks of Isengard...

Aragorn's final "Be at Peace, Son of Gondor" is always a very moving moment...

I have painted this model once before as part of my own collection, some years ago now, so this example will be gifted to Curt, as my "Curtgeld" fee for participation on this years Challenge. Hopefully it will find a welcome place in Curts growing collection!

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Riders of Rohan... and the 'Gallop' to the Challenge finish...

As the Painting Challenge draws to a close, there is a frantic rush to get models completed, that have undergone work over the last couple of months...

As has been previously posted, a 'Turkish Invasion' has scuppered some of my originally planned painting output for the challenge... but when a hiccup occurred in the arrival of Turkish reinforcements... it allowed a few days where I could get back to 'my own stuff', and I am happy to have found the time to complete 12 more Riders of Rohan, to add to my growing planned all mounted Rohan force...

I have always liked these models, and they are looking even better en-masse... I usually go with white socks or stockings as they are known for the horses lower legs as this gives a good contrast to the brown... but this time I decided to use much darker tones for a change (dark grey over a black base), as I have seen many horses with darker socks and stockings too... so these will add a bit variety over my overall force...

So that brings my mounted Rohan force up to 24 Riders of Rohan and 6 Royal Guard. But I only have Eomer and Theodred mounted to lead them all, so I am going to have to get a mounted captain done too...

My local Painting Challenge compatriot; Ste, has been getting a load of orcs and uruks done too, as part of his Painting Challenge entries, so we are going to have to have a post Challenge battle and get these forces in the game!

Expect more shoot and scoot tactics from these mobile troops, and once the enemy is at a manageable size, ride in to finish them off... just need to be cautious of any sneaky 'dismounting' spells and abilities...

Back to the Challenge, and these 12 Riders netted me 120 points to add to my total.

The end of the Challenge is in sight and the race to the finish has begun... The Turkish reinforcements finally showed up so I'll need to get these guys done in time to earn a few more challenge points...

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Beorn!

Beorn is a skin changer , a man of great stature, capable of transforming himself at will into a bear form (rather than being forced to by full moons like a werewolf). He is a somewhat aloof character, looking after himself, and not necessarily being on anyone's 'side', much as the Ents started off in LOTR... but he hates orcs so that at least has him leaning towards the good side! 

His pose here is as he is confronted by Gandalf and Bilbo as they leave his house, having over stayed there for the night, seeking shelter from a large black bear-like beast, Beorn himself!

If you haven't managed to see the Ext Ed of The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug, try and do so , as this is a charming scene that pays credit rather nicely to the novel.

He is quite literally a great bear of a man, and must stand about seven or eight feet tall...

As we find later in the story, Beorn and his skin changer brethren have been hunted down, captured and tortured by Azog and his orcs, in the past, and Beorn bears the scars to show this. The model itself has vivid scars on his rear upper torso, and bears a manacle upon his wrist...

Just to get an idea of scale, Beorn is scaled at 28mm like the rest of GW LOTR/Hobbit range and is mounted on a standard 25mm round base. But when put adjacent a regular orc, you can see how tall he really is!

In the movie he is played by Mikael Persbrandt, a Scandanavian actor, who is a big man which matches the height requirements for the part, and his accent is an excellent touch I think, giving him that 'other worldly feel' in the Middle Earth setting. The additional scenes in the Ext Ed of Hobbit DOS I greatly enjoyed, and found the "Making of" info on the additional disks, very interesting. 

Mikael Persbrandt, as Beorn.

On to the model of Beorn as a Great Bear!

The model, is again, a multi-piece resin model, but went together rather well, with minimal trim required. I think I am getting used to these resin models!

Painting was fairly easy, but I really wanted to try and get the hair tone to match the dark brown, but with high light streaks of grey and blond... I hope I have done him justice.

Back to the Bear, and this was clearly CGI, but various sources were used as inspiration, including looking at prehistoric bears for the shape and bulk... The model itself was an easy job. It was in several pieces that required gluing together and joint filling with greenstuff. 

Then a simple black paint job, drybrushed with dark grey then washed black again. Its produced very subtle contrast which sadly doesn't photograph too well... The claws and facial features were then added, and after varnish, base decoration effected. Oh, that base is a 60mm round, so its quite a big model, towering over a regular man-sized 28mm figure.

He's 28mm scale but about 60mm tall. For all that, the painting was easy.

In the game, he is brute strength nastiness, but at a substantial points costs. I look forward to trying him out and tearing orcs limb from limb...

And to further give an idea of scale, here's Beorn with a rather unlucky orc, who's likely to become lunch very shortly...

These models have been part of my submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and they must appear there before I can show them on my own blog, hence the delay in them showing here.

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