Making Middle Earth in 1/72: The Elves of Mirkwood

After much consideration, I've decided to use Miniart's Late Roman Infantry as the core models for my Mirkwood Elves. the figures are sculpted wearing a tunic over trousers, with some in scale or mail armor. A simple conversion with putty cloaks and hoods over the heads should do the trick in making them look more "woodsy." (Figure scan above is from PSR)

I like the fact that the armor has a very "dark age" feel and that not all the figures wore any, perfect for depicting the lightly armed & mixed warriors of Mirkwood. Some of the figures are armed with the Dark Age Roman Spatha, a longer sword popular in this period, as well as a variety of spears and javelins. Each set has 8 archers (short bowmen -- perfect for Mirkwood since it was the Lorien elves who used longbows) in two poses which would again just require a putty cloak with a hood over the head. The set has a mixture of shields, both of medium size and of large, oblong ones.

During the war against Melkor, the elves of Oropher were lightly armed with only weapons of the chase and hunt. During the first assault on Mordor, Oropher rashly led a reckless charge in which he was slain along with two-thirds of his troops. Rule of the Silvan Elves and field command of their remaining strength passed to Oropher's son Thranduil, the father of Legolas.

" The ruling class of the Elves of Mirkwood were descended from the Sindarin branch of the Teleri, rather than the Silvan Elves."

This mingling of Silvan & Sindar could have led to the adoption of standing armies modeled on those of their Sindar & Noldor cousins such as the army of Doriath which they would have seen during the events of the Silmarillion. By the time of the War of the Ring, the Elves of Mirkwood would have been more aggressive and knowledgeable in the art of war. During the Battle of Five Armies, the elves had many spearmen & swordsmen, with the Mirkwood elves already veterans of battles against enemies such as orc tribes, evil giant spiders and the other monsters of Sauron let loose in Mirkwood. the scant decriptions of their tactics also show a strong delineation between the roles played by the missile troops and the spear and sword armed elves. MiniArt's set produces a good mix of figures that can represent these armored elven warriors, unarmored or lightly armed rangers and bowmen.