Gondor Pt1

So I know I said I was going to finish up the Goblin King and company, but for some reason tonight I got a bug up my ass to start cranking out some Gondorian footmen that have been collecting dust on my shelf for far too long (over a year at the very least).

 

Anyone with any sort of hobby experience can see they're in pretty bad shape.  I bought 2 lots of them for dirt cheap off of ebay a few months before the new warband books came out.  I think total with shipping, I paid around $10 for over 70 of them.  Considering now they're 12 for over $25 with tax, I'd say I got a good bargain.  Granted, it looks like the wreckage of some 12 year olds hobby gone terribly wrong.  I know a few of them in there were sprayed/painted with some kind of stuff that looks like it was oil based Testor's stuff or something.  No matter how long I left them in simple green or how hard I scrubbed them, I just couldn't get that crap off.  I'm tempted to go buy some turpentine and see if that'll do the trick, but the layer is pretty thin and I think with a coat of thin primer we'll be able to cover it up nicely without obscuring too much detail.  Regardless, I'm going to keep a close eye on them and maybe let those sit for a little bit before I slap some paint on them.

As you can also see from the picture, I started ripping them off the bases either with force enough to crack the glue without ripping they're feet from they're bodies, or cutting off the slotta part at the bottom of the foot.  I'm big for salvaging bases (and sprue for that fact).  I have a plan though.....

  

These two are actually my first attempts at sculpting bases.  I've always been a little intimidated of doing any sculpting work outside of extremely minor conversions like weapon swap touch ups and gap filling.  My plan as it stands right now is to do 6 more similar (yet different) than these, then cast a mold for them and use these as the bases for the entire army minus warband leaders and special characters (going to go a bit more elaborate for those).  I want the Gondor army to have a "city in ruin" feel to them.  The one on the left is going to get a little sand/rubble on the one side, kind of like the cobblestone has eroded or a big warhammer smashed part of the masonry work.  We'll see what my creativity yields this weekend.