Dunland

Dunland lies north and west of the gap of Rohan. The Dunlendings and the Rohirrim have a long history of raiding and border clashes. Following an earlier defeat at the hands of their traditional rivals, the Dunlendings jumped at the chance for revenge by joining with Saruman in pillaging the Westfold of Rohan.

There are two types of figures available from Games Workshop for Lord of the Rings.

The first, released several years ago, are the Wild Men of Dunland. They are a slightly neater version of the Dunlendings that appeared in the Peter Jackson film. They are your run-of-the-mill Dunlending. Majority of colours should be "earthy" tones; mostly differing shades of browns and greens. Add the occasional colour for variety. I chose grey fur rather than brown to let it stand out from the brown tunics and cloaks.

The second, released in 2006, are the Dunlending Warriors. Very nice figures based on Vikings. Mine are assembled and undercoated but are still in the queue for the painting table. I will add some photos when they are done or someone else in the club has painted some.

For the Wild Men, when painting, try to make each one unique. However, do not overdo the colour variation otherwise they will look like a paint shop instead of one tribe.

You can speed up painting by using a colour for the tunic on one, then use the same colour for a cloak on another and so on.

Another trick to speed up painting and introduce variation is to paint a dark brown for the tunic on one or two figures. Then when you come to do the less dark highlight on these figures, also use this less dark colour as the base coat for the tunic on one or two other figures.

This speeds up painting because I find more time can be spent finding the paint colour, mixing it, washing the brush and putting the paint away than the time actually spent painting the figure.

Varying the hair colour can also add interest to a group of figures. Use light grey and white highlighting to give the impression of older men. Use lighter shades of the base hair colour to give the impression of a younger figure.

All figures on this page have been painted and photographed by John Shaw.