Russian around Mordor

Having recently croosed swords on the battlefield with 2 of m fellow bloggers, I was soon bent upon taking up work on my 2 companies once more.

My Cirith Ungol force being mainly composed of orcs and Morder Uruk-Hai, I was intent on differentiating the one filthy breed from the other, yet without clashing (pardon the pun) the styles. Another factor to take into account: a gauntelet thrown down by the Frog in the form of a box of plastic Isengard Uruk scouts with a "here, I think you'll be able to do something decent with them".

First on the agenda would be to replace the swords, shields and helmets of the White Hand with something a bit more rabble-like. I therefore set out on a search for nasty-looking weapons and shields. It was at that point that I came accross an army of medieval Russians... and WHAM! Lighting struck!

The orcs of Mordor are often represented with crescent-shaped shields which, as a humble neophyte, I would term as "a bit Turco-Persian"... After all, as anyone who's ever seen 300 will tell you (not the least Ahmadinejad), the Persians were basically represented as orcs.
"Now this is all fine and dandy", I hear you say, "but what's it got to do with Uruks and Russia?" This is where a scandinavian people of the VIIth-IXth centuries, known as the "Volga Vinkingr" or "Rus' " comes, both figuratively and literally, into play.

These ferocious warriors came from the North and occupied the lands around the Volga river, right down to modern day Iraq. Having besieged Constantinople in 860A.D., they then returned to the city in the XIth century to form the Varangian Guard, the elite force of the Byzantine army [Grant, R.G. (2007) Grandes Batailles: Les Plus Grands Combats de l'Antiquité à Nos Jours. Ed: France Loisirs]. So you've got XIth century Russian vikingr fighting along side bythantine troops against Muslim nations.

This may be stretching it a bit, granted, but it was sufficient to persuade me of the style I wanted to adopt for my Uruks; early-medieval Russian weapons, helmets and shields (perfect for fighting opposite my Saxon-style Rohirrim) , draped in plenty of scandinavian fur!

The order was soon put in with Gripping Beast: packs of Russian Medieval Weapons and Saxon bucklers (with nice pointy bosses). I took the opportunity to order a pack of Roman Gladius, too finish my converted mounted Rohan Royal Guards (I still haven't got the hang of scuplting swords from Green Stuff).

Some nice vicious weapons!

Un drawing of my vision of their helmets, conical, with spiky points and possible a bit of fur around the crest.

The type of shield I was looking for...

...and found!

Joe the Barbarian, glad to have found a new barbarian force to field!