Fallen Realms Skin Tones Query

[Souleater]

Hello,

As I'm looking to start the FR guys I have been looking at the figures.

Their armour and beasties seem to be based on African, arabic, and Eastern cultures from the real world. So I was going to paint them in darker skin tones.

I notice however that the GW painted figures seem to be caucasian.

So are the FR guys generally of darker skins tones?

Cheers.

[Nu Fenix]

I think the main reason they are painted Caucasion is because that is the tone they have the most experience with, and it is the tone the bulk of their customers are.

I agree that painting them with darker tones would look better, and help them stand out against Rohan and Gondor flesh tones.

[Dr Death]

Yes, to be 'book accurate' those from the fallen realms should be darker toned than the Gondorians, but then GW's basic skintone is pretty tanned anyway.

Tolkien does not really use the term 'black' to refer to human skintone, it is invariably 'swarthy' or 'sallow' so dont think that just because someone's not caucasian they're automatically Negroid. Only the men of Far Harad i envision as being distinctively african. The men of Harad would be perhaps egyptian or middle-eastern in skintone while the corsairs strike me as being a bit more 'olivey' like Italians or Greeks. As for the Easterlings, i dont think they were intended as Oriental but rather more slavic/mongolid.

To be honest i dont think that the differences in skintone are really 'definate' enough for painting with any but the most subtle of definition. 'Eavy metal use a Dwarf Flesh basetone for most of their skintones on Good men, elves and dwarves, while bronzed flesh seems to be reserved for the Haradrim and the like, but bronzed flesh is equally used for caucasians so it's a matter of the benchmark of your usual skintones.

Dr Death

[DarkMatter2]

Honestly, I would go with a Middle Eastern/Arabic skin tone.

[Suicide Messiah]

The eavy metal team are just going by the movies. The guy Faramir shoots down was pretty pale really.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I view the Easterlings to be the equivalent of the ancient Persians. As the great evil force from the east against the Greeks. So I would paint them with an Eastern/Arabian style.

[Darthvegeta800]

The Easterlings for me are quite Byzantine. At least in the movie/tabletop variant. The movie also shows the skintone of the Easterlings with the gate scene (where those pesky hobbit heroes take a fall and hide under their magical blankie )
So I'd opt for 'Greek' / 'Byzantine'/ with a hint of Sassanid/Persian culturewise.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

They can look however you want them to, and I'd say there's a fair justification of whatever you settle on, really. In the movies, they are largely of light-toned skin with darker hair, based on the glimpse of the Easterlings we get in The Two Towers and the guy that Faramir shoots down from the Mumak. The Mahoud chieftans controlling the Mumak in the movie look like caucasians to me. So the movies (which the game's aesthetic is based on, after all) depict them to be of only slightly darker skin tones.

Conversely, in the books I do get the impression that they were somewhat darker toned, with Haradrim close to middle easterners and Easterling more along the lines of the Mongolians. If you plan on getting any, I would probably paint the Mahud warriors with much darker skin-tones, since they look more like tribal Africans to me.