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Then, just as suddenly as they had began, the attacks ceased. The skirmish line had not yet met the Rangers nor had the Raiders been able to flank them. They had simply vanished into the woods.

Salkyre and the force of the Cobra had lost many men. The yet brave and steady captain ordered his army back to the march. His banner bearer signaled this order to the lieutenants, each in turn mustering their troops back to marching formation.

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Details

Snake

My Dad had a great idea about putting a cobra model onto the diorama, to help tie the whole theme together. He showed me how to do it and I made the one you see below. I started by bending a piece of a paper clip around a paintbrush.

I also took a small piece of green stuff and rolled it into a ball for the head. I flattened it just a tiny bit then grabbed the top of it with my fingernail and pulled it a tiny bit. I then stuck that on the end of the bent paperclip, making sure to keep my fingers really wet and shaped the green stuff until it looked like a part of the paperclip. You have to keep smoothing the green stuff along the surface of the paperclip so that it gradually forms the connecting bit from the head to the body. Keeping your fingers wet is a must!

I let the green stuff head dry for an entire day before priming it. After the primer was dried I set to work painting it. Many cobras have stripes around their body and a small design on the back of their head so I chose to paint it black with yellow stripes. A very simple paint job really, but I think it turned out rather effective.

The final snake, on the diorama.

Some examples of cobras:

Cobra on Drum

I was wanting to add more to the drum, so I searched for "cobras" on the Internet and found many pictures of them. I found one that I liked more than any other and that was a King Cobra rearing back getting ready to strike, but to put the whole picture on it would make it look as though there were a set of frog legs on it, so I decided just to put the head.

Painting the head was a really hard task, I had to paint the "fins", eye lids, chin, and teeth all red and leave the neck, eyes, and mouth black.

Flag Painting

It was hard to figure out what to paint onto the flag, I was going to paint a snake wrapped around a sword. After that I drew different things with snakes until I settled on one, it was a diamond with a bold stripe followed by a cobra "slithering" out from it.

Front of the banner

Rear of the banner

Finally, it all comes together

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Although he publicly bragged on his troops' courage and determination, Salkyre inwardly marked the event as a severe blow to the morale and strength of his army. He would have much work to do over the next days to build them back to the ferocity of the force with which he had marched from the sands of Harad. He would do so.

As darkness fell that night upon the Harad camp the drums pounded out the all-clear signal. Once more the Southrons would rest knowing that tomorrow may be their chance to fight and die for the Dark Lord and his vassal, Salkyre of the Harad.

Their opportunity was far closer than they could ever realize.

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I hope you enjoyed my idea of what a Harad command group would look like, and the story behind them.

Game on,

Salkyre

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