We Will Die For Saruman

Without armour, shields, cavalry or bows? Yes. Yes they will die for Saruman.

These are the Wildmen of Dunland (or Dunlendings) for my Army of the White Hand in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and they represent the final bulk unit required for the first scenario in the War in Rohan campaign.

They are metal models, therefore they are single pose, and there are only four sculpts available. Given that they are meant to represent a ragged horde, there was a risk of them looking too uniform.

Rather than engage with the faff of converting metal models and making a mess of them, I decided to vary the painting within a fairly limited range of colours to create an illusion of variety.

Although this has meant that they look much brighter than in the film (where they were in very dark browns and blacks), it does remove some of the uniformity. I've given them all black sashes, as I thought this might form some form of impromptu uniform, telling the Uruk-Hai which of the 'whiteskins' they shouldn't kill, yet.

I've done a lot of washing with Nuln Oil to give a grubby look, used Typhus Corrosion to dirty up the weapons and kept their hair largely dark to distinguish them from the Rohirrim, whom the Dunlendings call 'strawheads'.

The leader is a viking berserker miniature I recieved for free at Vapnartak one year, who will be standing in for Gorulf Ironhide - a character made up by GW to sell expensive Forge World models.

However, price isn't the reason I'm not buying the official model. It's actually because, not only do I not like the Dunlending range (beyond the Wildmen) because the dont fit my vision of them in the books, but also Gorulf Ironhide just doesn't even look like he belongs in Middle Earth (he's the one at the front).

I'm not saying it's not a good model, but those rippling muscles are more suited to leading Chaos Marauders across the sea from Norsca. Basically, he's just too Warhammer for my tastes.

My berserker has issues too, but he fits better with the Wildmen, which are the only Dunlendings I'll be buying, and has the added bonus of being free - for which I can forgive a lot.

I now only have a couple of Rohan Captains paint and I'll have all the miniatures I need for the first scenario. Along with these, I need another four buildings, and to repaint two I already own.

What is good is that my MESBG painting can now focus on much smaller groups of models. Also, 33 more models painted means I'm back in positive figures:

Acquired: 184

Painted: 186