Pikes & Pixels: Catching up!

Hello all and welcome to the first post of Pikes & Pixels! It's an attempt to chart the progress of my Lord of the Rings (LotR) collection and endeavours, relating to both the Strategy Battle Game (SBG) and War of the Ring (WotR) systems. (P.S. Please note that the toy dog and pink blanket in the pictures are my lovely girlfriend's :) She calls him Toto.)

To start with, it seems only fair to get up to date with my current progress.

First of all are my completed Easterling warriors, replete with pikes and shields. I have two more (still on sprue) to get done and am trying to get as many more of them as I possibly can. They are complete to gaming satisfaction for me, but I want to add sand to their bases and either leave it unpainted or paint it either Iyanden Darksun or Graveyard Earth (which is the colour of the bases and trays) or Graveyard Earth, drybrushed with Iyanden Darksun. Anyhow: one company so far, wanting to increase it to at least four! Trades will be necessary to do this ;)

Next up, we have my currently completed Easterling warriors with swords and shields. I have 5 more, but they are still on the sprue. Annoyingly, I have been wanting less of these than I do of the pikemen, but (as most of you likely already know) you get 8 in a box, but only 4 with pikes and I'm not prepared to pay the extensive amount necessary for the metals in blisters, which would give me the right numbers, but at a higher cost.

Last of the Easterlings that I have completed. 10 Easterlings with bows. Not the best archers in the world, but tough and resilient enough to make them worthwhile including (at least in WotR. I should note here that I've not played that much SBG, but am planning to try it out a bit more.) in the army list. These guys are most likely to have the first dozen end up in a Mumak, which I'll talk about in more detail later. Once more, I have 6 more on sprues still. I am undecided if I should base the ones to go in the howdah in the same style as those to be on the ground or if I should make some sort of wicker/balsa decking for them: thoughts are most welcome ;)

Lastly is the colour scheme: I undercoat the models with Chaos Black, then paint the neckerchief-style parts and tabards in Liche Purple, paint all of the armour/weapons/quivers in Burnished Gold, the skin is Dwarf Flesh, the silver on the shields is Chainmail, the wood is Kommando Khaki (the arrows are drybrushed), the bases are Graveyard Earth and, lastly, the blades and arrowheads get a wash of Chestnut Ink (no longer available at Games Workshop, but it can be bought from Coat d'Arms).

Future plans for the Easterlings: I plan to finish the 2 pikemen, 5 swordsmen and 6 archers, then base all of them with sand. I am desperately trying to trade for Khamul the Easterling and would also like Amdur, Lord of Blades. As to expanding the army, I will get some more companies of each, although I may try to trade off a large number of archers to get more desirable companies. I would also like to get some Kataphrakts, although I would like to convert them to be riding the Mahud Camel Riders' camels (giving a Kataphrakt horse to Khamul and, maybe later, a plastic Fell Beast as well), a Mumak to have some conversions and paintwork added to make it an Easterling-themed Oliphaunt, a Mordor Troll or Mordor Troll Chieftain (which I plan to convert to have a shield, a mask, the Eaterling "ears", a pike etc) to make a Rhunish troll and to get an oriental dragon (from a local pet shop) to add some armour plates and use as either a Cave Drake or Dragon of the Ancient Times. Those are just some of my ideas thus far ;)