New Hobbit Releases (releases of 29th March with pics on page 10)

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**LuciusAR**

A big shame that once again GW seem to have made some very nifty plastic for the LOTR/Hobbit range and then priced them out of evreyones reach. £30 for 10 plastic elves, I ask you!

Shame as had they been priced more reasonably I could see them selling very well. Even to people who don't play the game.

**jonolikespie**

I know I'd be tempted to pick some up and try painting them up if they were cheap.
I stand by my opinion that the poses are off but if they were reasonably priced I might have gone for a box just cos I love wood elves and want to see some of the better poses painted up properly.

**H.B.M.C.**

Grimtuff wrote:
AFAIK this is the only model GW have produced of Smaug

Spoiler:

"Truly, the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, oh Smaug the stupendous." - Bilbo Baggins

**Breotan**

jonolikespie wrote:
I know I'd be tempted to pick some up and try painting them up if they were cheap.

So, I'm guessing you aren't buying any, then?

**jonolikespie**

Breotan wrote:
jonolikespie wrote:
I know I'd be tempted to pick some up and try painting them up if they were cheap.
So, I'm guessing you aren't buying any, then?

Nope.

**Kroothawk**

Preorders are up:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCatsLarge.jsp?catId=cat970003a&rootCatGameStyle=athletic

**Backfire**

For the most part, that is not actually bad looking stuff. Still won't be buying any, but it looks ok.
And there's some Finecast so whew, it's not extinct yet.

**Lorizael**

Book, Rangers and Legolas ordered!

**Kanluwen**

The Mirkwood Rangers are gorgeous. I love the hooded one with an arrow nocked.

**jonolikespie**

Well damn, three posts in a row that aren't negative. Time to fix that.

I personally think that aesthetics wise they are mostly ok. I really like the look of the Mirkwood rangers but once you start looking at the technical detail it's hard not to laugh at the claim of 'best miniatures in the world'.

Spoilering pics to avoid clutter.

Spoiler:

His toes seem to be almost entirely painted on, and his fingers are barely there too.

Spoiler:

There is something wrong with the lip of the barrel, no idea if it's intentional or not.
Also there is very, very little detail on the hair.

Spoiler:

Legolas doesn't seem to have a mouth and I don't know what's going on with his girlfriends but I really doubt her face is meant to be that flat.

Spoiler:

I have no idea what's going on with that eye, it might just be painted poorly but that hand still looks to me like he is dramatically letting his blade slip from his fingers.

And of course then there is these two:

(Though I'm sure that's just a bad paintjob, I felt it needed to be included

)

**Swastakowey**

I looked at these and thought, straight off the bat, "boy these dont look proffessional". If i saw models painted like this and someone was trying to sell them i would be hesitant. They all look old and and slightly deformed with cave men like expressions haha.

The hippo picture person bet me to it but when i looked at the OP i was very very anti impressed. A well painted model makes people want to buy it a lot more.

**Kanluwen**

I think the drop in paint jobs has coincided with the approach of "make things achievable".

Plus it looks like from production photos of "Smaug" that the Mirkwood Rangers and Palace Guard have whorls embedded in their metal/cloth bits to give an almost camouflage look. Something like that is always going to be hard to duplicate.

**McNinja**

Those do not look professional. I can't paint even close to that well, but then again I'm not getting pain to do it. I would expect a company such as Games Workshop to hire better painters, unless new line was so overbearing that they had their own people paint the miniatures (but I doubt that).

All of those models are decent. Not good, not exactly bad, just decent. The could've been a whole lot better.

**Swastakowey**

McNinja wrote:
Those do not look professional. I can't paint even close to that well, but then again I'm not getting pain to do it. I would expect a company such as Games Workshop to hire better painters, unless new line was so overbearing that they had their own people paint the miniatures (but I doubt that).

All of those models are decent. Not good, not exactly bad, just decent. The could've been a whole lot better.

That pretty much sums up what i was trying to say. Just looks lazily done without much love. The barrels look really nicely done though.

**H.B.M.C.**

Kanluwen wrote:
I think the drop in paint jobs has coincided with the approach of "make things achievable".

When has that ever been the case Kan?

Sometimes you jump though so many logical hoops to defend anything anyone criticises about GW that it almost looks like an obstacle course.

**Ghaz**

Kanluwen wrote:
Plus it looks like from production photos of "Smaug" that the Mirkwood Rangers and Palace Guard have whorls embedded in their metal/cloth bits to give an almost camouflage look. Something like that is always going to be hard to duplicate.

It's wood grain on the Palace Guard armour. What else would you expect from Wood Elves?

**fishy bob**

Like I said in the other GW December thread, the Mirkwood Rangers are lovely. I could use one or two of them for fantasy skirmish games, but I have no use for ten. So won't buy.

**silent25**

The low quality paint jobs likely correspond to GW minimizing labor spent on the figures. The game doesn't sell well, so why have your painters spend extra time. It's the equivalent of us going to a painting service and selecting a mid tier paint job over a top tier paint job because we don't want to spend the extra money.

The rangers are the best of the bunch I think. Shame they are $40 for 10.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Is it just me or is Thranduil's (?) right arm about 5 feet long?

**Ghaz**

Hmm, Bolg has been renamed as a 'Gundabad Orc General' in the online store:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat970015a&prodId=prod1830024a

**Brother SRM**

The rangers look like neat models, but everything else looks downright lousy. Paintjobs aren't helping either. Guess the A-team was busy painting Space Marines

**Thunderfrog**

Still, that hooded elf is boss. I don't know if its worth buying a box for him/her alone.

Do you think appropriately based it could serve as a character for Wood Elves?

**Ghaz**

Hobbit miniatures would probably look a bit small next to Warhammer miniatures.

**Pacific**

Actually think the rangers are really nice little sculpts, and I really like some of the dynamic posing. As Ghaz has said as well, important to realise that those miniatures are that much more delicate and minimalistic than their WFB counterparts - that head is probably half the volume of a WFB elf!

The pricing is probably 50% higher than it should be, although I realise that's part for the course these days!

**gianlucafiorentini123**

Really like the Mirkwood rangers and Tauriel, but prices are a bit excessive for minis I'd never use.
I wonder how many people will buy the barrels out of bond,£40 seems a bit much for models which seem to be scenic models.

**Sikamikanic0**

Those mirkwood rangers are REALLY NICE!! finally some REAL woodelves... remember their previus wood elves how pathetic they looked?

**dakkajet**

I like the spiders but do they need such a big base? The barrels are great! But most of the paint jobs aren't that good, not a lot f love put into them.
Looking foward to picking up White Dwarf with something called.. What is it again..... The hobbit.

**Rhelyk**

Sikamikanic0 wrote:
Those mirkwood rangers are REALLY NICE!! finally some REAL woodelves... remember their previus wood elves how pathetic they looked?

these are an order of magnitude better than those terrible things. The metal wood elves originally released were great, the plastic ones I have stared at many many times trying to see them as not-terrible (and always failing, those are bad bad sculpts).

Quite in love with these new rangers. The rest, not so much. Palace Guard just don't look like elves to me, and while Tauriel looks great, legolas is now a butter face. Oh well, I already have the awesome legolas from Two Towers, but this new one is just awesome except that round, puffy face. Oh well, the rangers are great. Almost great enough I may buy them despite the price tag and no use for em. Loving the fact that there are obvious male and female ones, both in the faces, the body types and the postures. Time to figure out a way to justify using them as counts-as warmachine figs or something. Maybe give them katanas for counts-as Nyss mercenaries.

**sing your life**

Bilbo on a barrel would have to be my favourite model.

**Agamemnon2**

Ghaz wrote:
Hmm, Bolg has been renamed as a 'Gundabad Orc General' in the online store:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat970015a&prodId=prod1830024a

The character was probably cut from the movie.