Boromir, Proud Son of Gondor

 

I’m pretty excited to show this one off. After a long delay on my Fellowship of the Ring progress, I have painted up my Boromir! It took me a long time to find a figure that came close enough to my personal vision of the character – most of which is based on the Angus McBride depiction from the cover the Middle-Earth Role-Play Rulebook.

The figure is a relatively old Reaper figure, sculpted by Sandra Garrity. Although Boromir is a great warrior, I wanted him dressed primarily in his travel clothes. I thought this figure fit the bill rather nicely and – bonus – he is wearing a horn. There were a few problems though. First off, I very much wanted my Boromir to have a shield. So, I cut and filed the off-hand dagger and replaced it with a shield. I also cut the figure off its integral base and mounted it on a GW base. 

I was a bit concerned that the figure was too baby-faced. When I got round to painting him, I tried giving him the long mustache, as in the McBride, but that just didn’t work. So, drawing on the film, I gave him the full goatee. In another nod to the film depiction, I gave him purple sleeves with gold highlights – although they are hardly noticeable. Most of the rest of the colour choices go back to the McBride painting.

By far the hardest part of the paint job was the shield. If Boromir is going to carry a shield, it is hard to imagine it not having the white tree on it. I’m no expert when it comes to free-hand painting, but I think I managed well enough, at least for tabletop distance!

Painting the figure was slightly bitter-sweet as on the day I was painting it, I had originally been scheduled to go to the Royal Albert Hall to see The Fellowship of the Ring accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. I’d had tickets for over a year and was greatly looking forward to it. But, like so many things this year, it has been 'postponed indefinitely'. 

Such is life at the moment. At least my little metal Fellowship continues. I’m now only missing Gimli and one Hobbit.