Monday 5 October 2020

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.

9 comments:

  1. I'm loving these homemade LotR heroes. So damn cool.

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  2. Very nice figure!! I really like the shield! Well done.

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  3. Boromir: We should use the Ring!

    Me: *rolls eyes* How, Boromir? How exactly do you think we should use the Ring? Like, do you even know to to work it?

    Boromir: ...

    Me: You did not think this through before speaking, did you?

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  4. Nice figure, great conversion and a superb paint job. Top notch stuff!

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  5. If you would but loan me the ring...

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  6. That's smashing. I'm a huge fan of Angus McBride's historical and fantasy illustrations. He always invested his work for osprey with a sense of narrative; rather than just making them colour fashion-plates.

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    1. McBride is at least partially responsible for my long-term association with Osprey.

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  7. Joe, This is looks amazing! What kit did you get the shield from?

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    1. The shield is from the Frostgrave Knights sprue.

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