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The above quote is one of the very in the Lord of the Rings which refers to the mysterious Blue Wizards.  Beside the three more well known wizard in Third Age Middle Earth; Saruman, Gandalf and to some degree Radagast, there were two more at large: Alatar and Pallando. Of Pallando I will write more elsewhere, but what is common between the two Ithryn Luin, is that Tolkien never intended for them to have any direct influence on the stories in the western lands which lead up to the War of the Ring. They are in fact  one of the best examples of how the author uses enigmas to add a sense of vastness and feel of historical reality to his stories. Tolkien wrote in a letter in October 1958:

'...I really do not know anything clearly about the other two - since they do not concern the history of the N.W. I think they went as emissaries to distant regions, the East and South, far out of Numenorian range: missionaries to 'enemy occupied' lands, as it were. What success they had I do not know ; but I fear they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.'

J.R.R.T, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 211 'To Rhonda Beare'

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However, as with many things in his books, Tolkien did not leave it at that. In various notes and probably under pressure from a curious public, he added a few things about the Blue Wizards. Their names appeared in a draft to an essay describing how the Valar came to chose the five wizards who later went as their emissaries to Middle Earth (J.R.R.T, Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth, Part Four, II The Istari). In this  essay we learn that one of the two first to be chosen was Alatar,  a maia in the service of Orome. It is also tells us that he chose his friend Pallando as a companion on his travel. In other essay it is indicated that they as they arrived in Middle-Earth ventured together with Saruman into the East but only Saruman returned to the West. The colors, which is so significant to the other three wizards, are also in this essay revealed to be blue. 

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The idea of this diorama came from looking at the poses of LR4 and M311 from the 'Heroines of Middle-Earth' series.  The latter is a Easterling sorceress.  I though Alatar gate crashing one of her black sabbaths of Sauron worship would be an appropriate scene. The East of Middle-Earth, at least the area between Mirkwood and Rhun seems to have been rolling plain, inhabited by nomads. Chris Tubb at Mithril has taken a lot of inspiration fro his Easterlings from our ancient plains people of the east, especially the Scyths.

 Since Mr. Tubb has, all in all, consistently based his Easterlings on the same Scythian theme, it was not too difficult to put together at least a small congregation of worshippers of the Dark Lord. I used M17 and M18 from The Races of Middle-Earth (2), a conversion of M241 and M242 from The Black Sword (Turin Part 2), M193 from Fangorn Forest, and one of the miniatures from the MS280 The Acclamation of Wulf at Edoras set.

The scene is entirely of my own innovation and represents an ancient burial ground, now used by the corrupted Easterlings as a site for human sacrifice.   

To create some interest and dynamic in the scene I put a trophy pile atop of the burials. On ornate tent poles, banner poles and spears are skulls of vanquished enemies. Conquered banners flutter in the wind  and enemy weapons rust where they hang on branches and nooks. The tortured bodies of men and elves hang limply or decaying where strapped to the rotting heap. The victims are various bodies from my scrap box, most notably a skelletons (M173 and M62), a corpse in the gallows (M250) and a human sacrifice (M99).

 The colors for Alatar is to some degree self evident, he is a Blue Wizard after all. But given his   background, I think you have a reason to ask yourself: what kind of blue? Given his background as a maia who was part of the following of the vala Orome, the great hunter and lord of the Forrest, I thought the choice of a greenish blue would be most appropriate, the kind of blue you see in the haze over large forests and rolling fields. I made sure there was enough blue in his hat and cloak to match his nombe de guerre, but tried to emphasize the green tints in his caftan and in the lining of his cloak.

In this diorama Alatar is accompanied by a great horse and two hounds. I felt it was appropriate since Alatar was once a maia of Orome host and must have been a part of the Great Hunt. the horse is probably a mearas like Shadowfax, the steed Gandalf rode. He is therefore  painted in whites. The hounds are also painted in off-white to link the animals together and make them stand out against the green and the colorful Easterlings.

1) The people at Mithril have marketed this one as 'Blue Wizard of the East'. My guess is that they could not use the name 'Alatar' since it was revealed in the collection of books called 'The History of Middle Earth'. Mithril Miniature receives their license from Tolkien Enterprises, which only has the rights to  'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'. The estate of JRR Tolkien still retains the rights to all other texts by Tolkien and seems to be  fiercely protective about them.