Village growing

The Village of the Black Tarn begins to take shape on the table. Let me take you on a short walk through this young and upstriving settlement.

The palisades that will protect the village from the darker denizens of the Mirkwood are still in the process of being erected. They may be low, but they are thick and sturdy.

The typical houses are called Halls, as they house a whole family plus their livestock. Most have a roof made of reeds, but some are covered with straw.

The carved beams are typical for buildings in the north, providing a stable support for the roof.

The Great Hall is the heart of the village, the place where folk gathers to decide on important matters - or to feast.

The watchtower can withstand the onslaught of even a troll, with a fundament of stone and a roof made from hard wooden tiles.

In times of war, the village elects a war-leader. Being a veteran of many battles, Viglaf fills this role perfectly.

And then, there are allies - Radagast, the wizard may call upon the help from the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains in times of dire need.

Painting...

I've been busy painting some new armies over the last weeks. While finishing my High Elves, I've got some Easterlings as a birthday present - so I had to build an army of them, too.

 My High Elves, lead by Glorfindel. They've already proved their worth against the hordes of Angmar.

The Easterlings have still to enter their first battle. The thought of an all-human evil army holds some interest for me.

But with the Easterlings came the idea of another army, one that's not even in the army lists - Woodmen. So I bought myself some Jomsvikings to act as Woodmen of Mirkwood - to be added to Radagast's Alliance. I'm still painting them up, but I've finished two other warriors.

I wanted my Great Eagles to look more like Golden Eagles, with the different colours of different age found in the birds of prey.

Building a Woodman village

The ancient kingdom of Rhovanion spun across all that is known in the Third Age as Wilderland. When the Shadow came to Dol Guldur, the kingdom slowly fell into ruin and finally collapsed into tribal villages, a lot of them disappearing over time.

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit is not only a bad rendering of the book, it also has some of the worst design choices. Lake-Town and Dale are especially bad, showing the lack of research into the cultures of Wilderland.
Tolkien based his vision of Lake-Town on a (later proven to be wrong) assumption of a Iron Age stake-village at the Lake Geneve. It was certainly not meant to look like a wooden Venice!
The people living there were descendants of the kingdom of Rhovanion - as are the Rohirrim. Why should they look like ragtag Italians or Turks?

As GW has to follow the designs of the movies, there`s not much to look for when it comes to miniatures of these parts. So, I decided to build an army of Woodmen (those folk that live right under the eaves of western Mirkwood) - and build a village for them.

You've already seen the first houses for them, but the center of every Woodmen village (following the Dark Ages theme) is a Meadhall, or Great Hall. It is used for gatherings of the village elders and the warriors in times of strife, for festivities and funerals.

As you can see, it is build upon a solid foundation of stone, with a roof over the entrance to the antechamber. Two wooden obelisks flank the entrance, carved with runes and pictures of revered (or feared) forces of nature.

The roof is detachable in this build, so the hall itself can be used for fighting (or retreating). There are four pillars holding the roof, the wooden throne of the village elder and the great fireplace.

The next phase of this build is a low hill, where the hall will stand, raised above the rest of the village.