Galinor of Pelargir (Joins the Glaurung)

For the second time in as many weeks, Breged has overruled Mandracoth to accept a volunteer to join the crew of the Glaurung. At just nineteen, Galinor becomes by far the youngest member of the crew. For the past two years he has served in the coastal guard for his home city of Pelargir, and in that time has won laurels in both of the city’s Guard Tournaments for his skill in swordplay. 

Handsome, charismatic, and perhaps just a bit arrogant, Galinor is one of the city’s most popular sons. When news of Galinor’s acceptance reached the city, the Lord Castellan of Pelargir held a feast and presented Galinor with an ancient treasure from the city armoury, the Dragon Shield of Alenôth.

Although Madracoth eventually relented in his arguments with Breged, he declared that no good would come from this decision.

***

Galinor is the first of the heroes of the Glaurung not to be represented by a Lord of the Rings figure. This resin figure is from MierceMiniatures and was apparently part of their recent kickstarter. It was given to me by a friend who had no use for it. Originally, I hadn’t intended to include a character like Galinor in the crew, but one must accept the unexpected on such long quests.

There aren’t that many miniature lines that fit well with the Games Workshp's Lord of the Rings range. Most figures are far too large and bulky, but this guy seem to fit right in well enough. The only thing I didn’t like about the figure was his sword, which was disproportionately huge. So, I cut it off and replaced it with the blade with Wargames Factory plastic orc sword. Thankfully, it glued on perfectly. Careful examination of the figure shows that Galinor’s sword no longer matches his sheath, but I can live with that.

I actually found the figure extremely difficult to paint as I just couldn’t see the detail in a lot of places. They just seemed to disappear under the spray primer. Still, I’m happy enough with the paint job. Happy enough to have him join the crew.

Bonebreaker

A little less than three months after I came off my bike, breaking my left arm and wrist, I got back on. I probably could have managed it a couple of weeks ago, but the weather in Oxford has been so miserable, there haven’t been many decent opportunities. I just went for a quick, 3-mile spin around the neighbourhood, avoiding the spot of my last crash. I was a little jittery, and my wrist ached a bit from the bumps and gripping the handlebars, but generally, it felt great.

In light of my recent crash, as well as my crash a couple years ago which snapped my shoulder, I have named my bike ‘Bonebreaker’.  I’m going to see if I can get a sticker or decal of the name, and a maybe three little bone stickers that I can put on the frame.

Also, as I suited up to ride, I was surprised to discover that my reflective jacket had completely torn open down length of the zipper. I suppose it happened during the crash, but it's one of those things that you really don't notice at the time.

Yo Joe!

I just heard that G. I. Joe is turning 50 this year.

To my mind, the G. I. Joe: Real American Hero line that came out in the 1980s is the greatest set of action figures ever produced. They set a new standard for possibility that made Star Wars figures look pretty sad by comparison. Also unlike Star Wars figures (and many other lines), they could actually hold onto their guns. Most action figures produced these days are, by comparison, poorly sculpted and made of cheaper materials.

That's worth a salute!

Astropath

I took a short break from my work on my Lord of the Rings figures to paint up this, rather cadaverous looking, Astropath for the forces of the Black Moab. When I started painting the figure, I had visions of doing all kinds of free hand designs on his robes. I painted on a few, but decided that they were actually detracting from the figure rather than adding to it. So I painted over them and went with a very basic design instead. It is so unusual these days for Games Workshop to put out an understated 40K figure, it is nice to just go with it.

This figure is part of one of the best packs of GW figures never to see general release. I already painted the other two figures in the pack, the Imperial Navy Officer and the Communications Specialist. Once again, this is a metal pack, and considering its limited release, it is doubtful GW will keep it around once the metal stocks are gone, so if you want one, don't wait long.

The Orphic Argonautica

Jason Colavito’s book The Orphic Argonautica: An English Translation represents everything that is good about amateur scholarship and really is a must have for anyone with an interest in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Not only does it provide a good, readable translation of the titular poem, but it also includes a couple of antique essays on the poem and several other fragments of ancient and medieval writings covering the tale of the Argonauts that would be difficult for most people to find on their own.

I received my copy as a Christmas gift from my father and have just finished slowly reading through it. Although the poem is certainly a secondary source for the story, and probably not a great work poetry, it is still surprising to me that it has never before been published in a full English translation. For most of its short length, the poem follows the tale as put forward by Apollonius in his famous Argonautica, though with a greatly enhanced role for Orpheus, the supposed narrator. However, the poem does vary dramatically in the route of the Argo's homeward voyage, actually having the ship somehow sail up into the North Sea, down past Ireland, and back into the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar.

Colavito accompanies his translation with just enough notes for the casual fan of Greek mythology to have a clear understanding of some of the more obscure references, and briefly covers the interesting history of the poem and the scholarly debate that has surrounded it.

Considering the overall quality of the work, it is actually surprising that the work is self-published. 

Recommended. 

The Shadow: Dead Man’s Chest

Dead Man’s Chest was one of the last (322^nd of 325) of the original Shadow pulp novels, and unfortunately, it is not one of the best. Although it has all the classic elements that make the series great, they are laid atop a confusing, weakly constructed mystery. The mystery mostly hangs on two, nearly identical, scenes in the first third of the novel, where the central character, in his search for lost gold, receives unnecessarily confusing clues from someone who is murdered during the interview.

In fact, pretty much the only redeeming point of the novel, is a great action sequence in the New York City Maritime Museum, during which The Shadow swings off a chandelier to tackle some thugs on a balcony, then turns around and leaps back onto the chandelier on its back-swing to go after some others. It does also have a great cover from George Rozen, who painted most of the great covers.

In the Shipyards of Dol Amroth

As Breged and Mandracoth have been recruiting heroes to join their quest, the royal shipwrights of Dol Amorth have been busily working on the Glaurung....

I put a lot of thought and internet time into imagining the Glaurung and how to represent it on a table.  I knew from the start that I wanted an actual wargaming piece, something that could be played with, not a model full of intricate detail. Perhaps the most practical solution would have been to make something myself, but I didn't think my modelling skills were up to the challenge, and, frankly, I would rather spend the time painting more miniatures. So, I had to look at ships that were commercially available.

At this point, it was also important to decide what the ship might actually look like. Tolkien doesn’t give much detail about any of the ships of Middle-Earth, so I felt pretty free to make up my own mind. I spent a lot of internet time looking at supposed ships of Middle-Earth, but I kept coming back to one image, a painting by the late, great Angus McBride, which appeared on the old Middle-Earth Role-Playing supplement, Thieves of Tharbad. Great cover.

Of course, the ship pictured here is obviously a merchant vessel of some sort, whereas my Glaurung would be a warship. Generally, warships are longer and narrower than merchant vessels. It seemed to me that a longer, narrower version of the McBride ship would look something like a large Viking longship. Lucky for me, the longship is probably the easiest naval vessel to find for 28mm miniatures.

I looked at a lot of different manufacturers, but none of them seem to have everything I wanted. I wanted a flat bottom, so it could rest on the table. I wanted as few pieces as possible. I wanted the deck to be generally flat and open so that miniatures could easily stand. Finally, I wanted it to be large enough to be impressive and have plenty of room for a lot of figures. I didn’t really expect the ship to hold all thirty of the Glaurung's crew, but I at least wanted enough room for the ten heroes.

After several weeks of searching, I had almost given up. Then I saw the newest issue of Miniature Wargames magazine, which had a really nice article on playing the Viking Wars. This included lots of pictures, including a couple of a longships I had not previously seen, manufactured by Gripping Beast. I’ve ordered figures from Gripping Beast before, but had not thought to check if they had a Viking ship, and strangely it had never come up in any of my searches.

Anyway, yesterday being payday, I ordered one. Amazingly, the ship arrived today, carefully packed. Most of the ship is one single piece of resin. The dragonhead and tail, and a few other details come in metal (as does a dozen or so rowers, which are of no particular use to me at the moment). It’s an impressive piece.

There’s some work to do. First I’ll need to file down some of the extra resin, but this looks pretty minor. I need to decide what to do about the dragon head. I’m not that keen with the one it came with, it looks a little too much like a dog, but I don’t have a specific alternative at the moment. I probably won’t attach most of the detailing, as I don’t want to worry about knocking it off. I'm still pondering what to do about the mast. I'm not sure if I want to just stick in a down to represented it, or make a full sail. The sail would look cooler, but might get in the way of gaming. Also, I'm thinking about adding a small covered room at the back, like the tent on the McBride ship. Again, I don't know if my modelling is really up to it.

So, the shipwrights still have a lot of work to do, but Breged, Mandracoth, Valetha, and a few of the Guards of the Tower have come to see how it’s going.