Tag Archives: Gondolin

Pillar of Ivory

A pillar made of ivory would be awfully difficult to make

A pillar made of ivory would be awfully difficult to make

These guys are the Pillar of Ivory, which Penlod has command over, also the Tower of Snow or something. So Penlod is the shaggy-headed guy in front with a double shield. I hollowed out a helmet for him. I put too much green stuff on his head for his hair. His face is the Silver Helm unhelmeted head; I had a spare, and that face is the most handsome that I have. The shields are all decals done in Photoshop and printed on decal paper, with a bit of Dad’s help. The banner, though, was painted by hand.

I also put hair on all the other guys, as well. Hopefully it looks better than all those scraggly Minas Tirith warriors in the movie. I always thought the Warhammer High Elf Spearmen looked like dressed up apes, but I managed to paint them to downsize this aspect – unlike their professional ‘Eavy Metal team, which painted it professional style, which made them uglier.

I’ll just point out that Penlod died in the story. Darn.

I really like this unit. I’ll have to get another for the Tower of Snow guys now.

Ecthelion

The Steel and Silver of Gondolin

The Steel and Silver of Gondolin

This is Ecthelion, the Captain of the Silver Fountains of Gondolin or something like that. Whatever his real title, Ecthelion represents all of the above, as well as unparallelled bravery and unflinching self-sacrifice. (cheers) This armour is perhaps toned down a little, since I wasn’t good at ‘character design’, but it has his signature jewelled spike on the top of it and his shield has its “thousands of ‘stars'”. I want to paint a really good Warhammer figure based on this. I cropped the shield and put it up beside him, as it was wasting space. I think he actually looks quite determined, even if his hands are too small and funny looking.

Ecthelion is one of the great heroes and characters of Middle Earth, although he is mainly remembered for killing Gothmog chief of Balrogs, he is the one who greeted Tuor and let him into Gondolin when Tuor showed up, and also is remembered fondly by Eärendil for playing on his silver flute.

I like the character type of ‘nice guy, friendly with kids, very kind’ who turns into ‘noble sword-wielding anxious-about-others hero’ when need arises. Probably also unconsciously poses a lot without realizing it. Yes, I said the same thing twice in two different ways.