Forest Rangers

These guys are part of my secret project and fit my needs perfectly. They are Lord of the Rings Rangers of Middle-Earth and are really quite good. The fact that they are one-piece plastics is a bit of a bonus, and cost about £1 per model.

I stuck them onto square plastic bases, kindly donated by Bull, and added an obligatory penny underneath for weight. I wanted to try something a bit different for these woodland dwellers, so started by adding a bit of green stuff around the base for texture.

Rather than adding my traditional sand mix to the base, I stepped out of my comfort zone with a purchase of red Oxide Paste. Sand is great for most things, but for 28mm figures it represents rather large stones so looks a bit out of place. The paste is lightly textured so works perfectly (hopefully) in representing less difficult pathways and ground.

It went on easily enough with an old paintbrush – any mistakes where I caught the model only enhances the idea that these guys are running around forest, river and bog land getting covered in all sorts of muck.

I also purchased the LotR The Three Hunters set in order to get hold of this rather fetching Aragorn model, to lead my rangers. Needless to say he didn't cost £1, and is made from the infamous Finecast material with the accompanying bubbles (you may be able to spot them on the top of his outstretched arm). I wouldn't normally have been so extravagant but the sculpt did match my vision and I couldn't find anything close elsewhere.

These are ready now to be undercoated, and with the Saxon hovel I built last week have somewhere to live! There are more models waiting for some oxide paste before they can join this band but that's for another day.

Last weekend we went to Hothfield heathlands near Ashford to get some inspiration for this little project – I need to resurrect my gaming board – and here are some of the things we saw…