Arise! Arise! Sons of Eorl!

It appears I am building a force of Rohirrim now. I hadn't really meant to this year, but serendipity or kismet or whatever. They had always been on my radar, but in a "someday" sort of way. The Riders of Rohan are, I think, the most popular Middle Earth army. Always liked them. Theoden gets some great lines and the charge of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields in the movie is one of the best cavalry charges in cinema.

But someday.

Later.

Then Pasha Dan brought me a box of the Gripping Beast plastic Gothic cavalry from Fall In. Nice allies or enemies for my Middle Empire Romans. This made me look at the big pile of Wargames Factory sprues that Pete had picked up as free samples at a Historicon for me waaay back when they were new and historical plastics were the hot new thing. We're talking before the Perry's released their first ACW infantry plastic set. So that's how far back? 12? 15 years? Longer? Wargames Factory went bust several years ago and Warlord bought them up. I was thinking maybe turn them into a big host of Germans or Goths to fight my Romans.

The other night, too tired to paint, so started gluing things together. The Gripping Beast Goth cavalry go together wonderfully and it was easy to get some dynamic poses.

The Wargames Factory Germans are a pain to assemble (separate arms and weapons) and the poses are hard to make not awkward looking. The arms are always sticking out akimbo and the figures are unbalanced. Most of the figures are barechested and I would have to use the hexagonal shields  (which wouldn't look very Gothic). After 3 figures I gave up in disgust.

You can see the first attempts leaning against the tea mug

But next day I had the idea to trim the arms more to keep them tighter to the body for more natural, and better balanced, poses. I would stick to only tunic wearing bodies and round shields. This way I could build some 2 dozen levy foot spearmen without losing my mind.

2 dozen more of these guys. Bit boring but what do you expect from levy foot? At least they stand up. 

 I still have the suspicion that the designer has an optimal combination in mind, so why not save us the hassle and just have the bodies cast in one piece? Of course the sample set of Wargames Factory Celts in the pile have separate legs, torsos,  arms, heads, weapons and shields! But I managed to get 5 figures out of it with a bit of puzzling.

The Celt figures. Guys with shields up had shield arms molded that way. They'll be in the front of the shield wall I guess. The captain is the Celt chieftain body, German head, Gripping Beast helmet plume and a RAFM shield.  

This reminds me when the Games Workshop Rohirrim were first released and some one on The Miniatures Page asked if they could be used as Goths. Russ from Old Glory answered in exasperation "why not use our Goths as Goths? And maybe support one of the smaller companies?" Good point.

So only this pile to work through. I'm going to attempt a few more with shield up to make a proper shield wall.

"Arise! Arise! Riders of Theoden!

Spears shall be shaken,

Shields shall be splintered!

A sword day, a red day,

Ere the sun rises!

Ride for ruin and the world's ending!

...

Forth Eorlingas!"