"Small scale LoTR-esque?" Topic

Hi Gents,

I typically post on the Napoleonics boards, but having been a long-time fan of LoTR, and recently bitten by the trailer of The Hobbit, I was curious to know if there were any small scale LoTR figures out there? Say 10mm 1/200 scale or even a bit smaller?

I don't see anything on GW's site. Though I loved the movies, I'm not wholly saddened as I'm not all-in for their interpretation of the books (I personally prefer a bit less Hollywood flare, more 'historically accurate' style).

That said, is there anything from stopping a manufacturer from creating a 'Tolkien-inspired' line of 10mm or 6mm figures? I've always loved the illustrations by Angus McBride's MERP covers and would love to see some lead-based interpretations.

Thank you for any thoughts.

Cheers,
Bob

GW's Battle of the Five Armies:
link

There is GW's Battle of the Five armies box set and blisters if you can find them (10mm).

Thanks,

John

Copplestone made nice 10mm models compatible with BoFA as well.

w.

Wow, thank you very much for the fast reply fellows..

I was thinking along the lines of something a little better looking, less game-piece looking, if you know what I mean…? I've seen some nice stuff by Cobblestone (with Rohan-type figures amusingly referred to as 'Horse Tribe' figures), but it's sadly lacking in other nations – is there anything else out there along those lines?

Thank you again,
Bob

There are also some nice 6mm fantasy figs out there, and a host of historicals that can be of use.

Doug

This is what you might call "my thing."

I'll echo the Battle of Five Armies boxed set suggestion, as well as Copplestone's excellent line.
Slightly larger (more like 12mm than 10mm) are the Pendraken/Kallistra lines, which include both fantasy elements and medieval/ancients that will fit right in as well.
Magister Militum and Eureka also make some nice 10mm lines: I have Eureka's "Wood Trolls" in place of Ents (and they are very Entish indeed).
Don't forget that a lot of the look of LotR can easily be created by using historical figs; you don't have to stay married to the films' depictions, and Tolkien himself is suitably vague. Some historical figs are also nicely unusual to Western eyes and can make up the more "exotic" races and factions in Tolkien (I'm considering Late Sassanid Persia for the Haradrim).

In 6mm, Irregular offers a fantasy line, though I've never been impressed with the sculpting that I see on their website. Baccus, on the other hand, is the king of 6mm. His fantasy stuff is limited (and some elements are intentionally silly— like his elvish "The King" figure (Elvish/Elvis. Get it?)— but you could also use some of his historical lines instead.

If you want to go really, really small, Irregular has a 2mm line (yes, 2mm) designed to represent blocks of troops. Don't expect any detail at all, but it's potentially a way to create big sweeping "eagle's eye-view" battles on the über-cheap.

I'll throw in a vote for the Copplestone 10mm range, lovely stuff. And as Parzival has stated, plenty of historical minis to fill the gaps.

If you are interested in "historically accurate" Tolkien I would suggest 15mm. There are a number of ranges for Elf, Orc, Hobbit, and Dwarf (Splinered Light comes to mind) as well as many historical figs you could use for the humans. Personally, I see Gondor as Byzantine, Rohan as Romano-Brits with a Norse flair, Dunlendings as various Celtic/Germanic tribes, Haradrim as N. African/Middle East armies, and Easterlings as Huns.

If you decide to go with 10 mm hop over to my site for a free 10 mm card model castle, and free shield appliques designed specifically for the excellent Copplestone 10 mm fantasy figures.

link

Thank you again, gents, for the input.

I'd agree with the parallels to historical armies. I was just hoping to utilize the smaller scales to represent a mass of filthy orcs. But I'm wondering if perhaps this is why there aren't too many 10mm offerings out there besides Copplestone? Simply because most folks can get by using historical figures as you gentleman point out?

Toshach, beautiful stuff, thank you!

There have been a few discussions about 10mm LOTR, here's a fairly recent one:

TMP link

Yes, you're right basically, historical proxies get us by. The orcs and other nastiness is really what the above manufacturers will invest their time in, understandably. But Mark Copplestone's human factions are really good in my opinion, just a shame he didn't dabble with Harad & Easterlings, I'm sure they'd have been special.

Anyway, keep us up-to-date with how you get on!

Regards, TC.

In 6mm, Irregular offers a fantasy line, though I've never been impressed with the sculpting that I see on their website. Baccus, on the other hand, is the king of 6mm.

Agreed, though I would add that there are the occasional gems in the Irregular line. I highly recommend getting some samples.

Doug

If you want a mass of filthy orcs on the cheaper side, Kallistra isn't a bad way to go. Suitably ugly, you can paint 'em however you want, and the size really doesn't matter that much (how big is an orc anyway?).

But I think the Bo5A goblins are nice figures; they paint up great, and, though perhaps on the small end of 10mm, again, how big is a goblin?

Copplestone makes both half-orcs (Uruk-hai) and regular orcs, and they're very well done.

Other manufacturers also make suitable orcs.
The Under the Mountain blog offers a lot of great comparison shots that can help you look: link

As to historical substitutes for orcs, Tolkien is considered to have based his orcs loosely on the ancient descriptions of the Huns. Won't help you produce warg riders, though.

You could try 6mm. There are a number of manufacturers now including irregular, Baccus microworld games and majic miniatures. Irregular have the widest range and the sculpting on their orcs, dwarves and elves is very good. I cannot comment on Baccus first hand but microworldgames figures are excellent. Majic miniatures produce flocks of bats and werewolf figues that are very good also. Hopes this helps