Lissanne's High Elven House of the Mole/White Lions

While everyone knows JRR Tolkien, few know this is the 100 year anniversary of the start of his writing the tales of Middle-earth, which he began in 1917 with the tale of the Fall of Gondolin.  Within that story, there are 12 houses of Elven warriors- this month, a unit based on the House of the Mole.

'The House of the Mole was one of the main Houses of the Gondothlim, lead by Maeglin. They bore black armor, without any emblem or design, but their round caps of steel were covered with moleskin. Most of its folk were quarrymen and ore delvers. In battle they wielded two-handed axes with double blades'
 "And Sable was their harness, and they bore no sign or emblem, but their round caps of steel were covered with moleskin, and they fought with axes two-headed like mattocks"... "many warriors of dark countenance and lowering gaze...and a ruddy glow shone upon their faces and gleamed about the polished surfaces of their accoutrements"

OK!  1-2-3-BLACK DIP!  Well, not really... I really wasn't going to be totally bound by an author (let alone one who was likely color blind to some degree) but wanted to get the flavor of the unit, more like what they would look like in a movie, especially that ruddy light.  For the banner I found a heraldic mole, and kept it simple, black and copper.  The musician is a conversion from Ral Partha (he got a white lion pelt) and a hunter's horn for the Lion's fluff, but is fish shaped for the Gondolin protector Ulmo, lord of the sea.

In general, I do some basic work on each model in the unit everyday I can, but finish off individual figs as I go, so in this way they are all a little different.  The champion will need to be Maeglin, so I want to hunt for an appropriate figure sometime later.

The Tower of Snow sample fig is a Swordsman of Hoeth..  more on them in a later blog- but they have gotten a champion (so +48 pts for me!)

Next month- Swallow legion crossbows! (200 pts)

House of the Mole
11 White Lions + shields includes musician and banner bearer   17pts each 187 pts
Tower of Snow
1 Swordsman of Hoeth + shield 17pts
Total 204pts