'Historical' Rohirrim and Updates

First of all, I must apologise for the unintended hiatus that has befallen this blog. A number of factors have caused this: moving to Oxford, a distinct lack of a schedule, and a lack of enthusiasm, not so much for painting but for showing it off (this may also be because of a general dissatisfaction with what I have painted). Hopefully, I will get into something resembling a schedule and then can pick up with regular posts.

So what have I been working on?

I have been mostly working on low fantasy inspired humans. For all intents and purposes, these are Rohirrim, but using more 'historical' equivalents from Tolkien's legendarium and Lee/Howe's classic artwork. 

Using the Footsore miniatures Goths, Early Saxons, and Romano British cavalry I have put together a force of Eorlingas. So far I have split them along the lines of Royal Guard (using the most cloaked and fancy figures), Warriors (who have armour and helmets) and finally basic Riders (who have no armour and not all wear helmets). The biggest dilemma I have faced has been in regards to horse archers. The Rohirrim DO have horse archers, the problems arise in terms of aesthetics and miniatures. Footsore miniatures (which I would use to match the scale of the other horsemen) do not do Germanic horse archers, only Late Roman. These would be fine with some small conversions (head swaps mostly). It mostly comes down to whether I want them and do the fit the theme I'm going for? as of now, I am still undecided and as such this requires a little more research.

A WIP photograph of my Royal Guard, Banner Bearer, and Leader.

For the infantry, I shall be using the Saxon Miniatures Royal Anglians for dismounted Royal Guard and Footsore heroes/command for their namesakes. The basic warriors are to be made from Gripping Beast's Dark Age Warriors but using a mixture of West Wind dark age heads (for the helmets).

Anyway that's pretty much my update, I shall hopefully post another tomorrow with my recent trip and purchases from Spiel in Essen!