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I wasn't sure if I should post this or not, but I've been watching this guy on deviantArt that makes models. He has a website, and recently finished one that's relevant to this thread: http://www.geenemodels.com/dragon-kit/



I can't really tell how big it is, and there aren't any dimensions listed that I can see, but it's three pounds worth of resin if that means anything. He has a "dragon" bust that's apparently 21 inches long, and there's a picture in his deviantArt gallery of the model painted and posed with the bust in the same pic.

http://galileon.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-painted-2-477584160

http://galileon.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-Bust-483183935

It's hard to say for certain without seeing more pics of the GW kit, but I personally think this dragon kit is a lot larger than GW's, and the cost is slightly more reasonable. Personally though I think I'd be way more interested in that 4-foot-long velociraptor if I had the money.

Nice find! That's a nice looking dragon

I thought so too, but at the time I thought $389 was a little crazy. Compared to GW's offering, however, it's starting to look slightly better.

If I had to guess I'd say it's at least 8-9 inches tall, about 30 inches long, with no idea about the wingspan but it would have to be pretty wide.

DOES THAT SAY $580 au?!

 the shrouded lord wrote:
DOES THAT SAY $580 au?!

Does what say AU$580?

If you mean GW's "Smaug the Underwhelming", then I think it's actually AU$550.

If you mean the above huge dragon, then USD$389 works out to about AU$462 (at time of writing.)

Nice find Sid...personally would go for this over GWs offering any day.

 Padre wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:


GW spent over ten years making LOTR the best miniatures line ever made, from 2001 to the end of 2012, and no one will be able to top that, not even themselves.

Judge, not sure if you're being sarcastic here, but do you really feel that the GW LOTR line was really that good, to warrant that praise?

Because I (and I suspect a lot of other people) must respectfully disagree....

Personally, I always found the quality, sculpts, and poses to be very average (admittedly, maybe because of the scale).

I can't speak for Judge, but personally I agree with his sentiments entirely! I would call LotR (not so much the Hobbit) the best, most complete line GW have ever produced. Better proportions and good sculpts are one thing, but when you consider those sculpts actually have to represent real actors and specific props/designs at 28mm truescale, and most of the time succeed, then it's pretty amazing what was achieved. No, they don't have the options of other GW kits, or some of the variety, but honestly, they don't need that.

As for that other dragon, I think it's much better than the GW one (saw it a few days ago before Smaug leaked) and is larger/cheaper. Unless you want to pay £60ish more for a scared Bilbo and scenic base, the choice is clear.

 Paradigm wrote:
I would call LotR (not so much the Hobbit) the best, most complete line GW have ever produced. Better proportions and good sculpts are one thing, but when you consider those sculpts actually have to represent real actors and specific props/designs at 28mm truescale, and most of the time succeed, then it's pretty amazing what was achieved.

As for that other dragon, I think it's much better than the GW one (saw it a few days ago before Smaug leaked) and is larger/cheaper. Unless you want to pay £60ish more for a scared Bilbo and scenic base, the choice is clear.

That's a fair point - think we'll just have to chalk any disagreement up to personal taste in models, but I do note that other posters have mentioned hobbyist collectors of the LOTR GW minis.

Agree completely re the dragons.

Agree with some of the above sentiments, the LoTR (well, perhaps 'Middle Earth line would be more appropriate) are some of the best miniatures GW have ever done. What's also important is that they presented a different sculpting style and aesthetic to people who wanted to buy GW stuff, away from the 'everything turned up to 11' approach of current 40k/WFB stuff.

They were also very reasonably priced for a time, certainly when the first LoTR box sets came out, I think they probably got a lot of younger gamers on board for that reason (and it piggy-backed perfectly off the back of the movie releases).

The problem is now that the range will become a self-fulfilling prophecy - they are too expensive, the new movies haven't caused the earthquake that LoTR brought, no advertaising campaigns, and so they haven't sold well. So, the range is reduced, prices go up, less people play .. and sales go down, range is reduced etc. etc.

 Padre wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:


GW spent over ten years making LOTR the best miniatures line ever made, from 2001 to the end of 2012, and no one will be able to top that, not even themselves.

Judge, not sure if you're being sarcastic here, but do you really feel that the GW LOTR line was really that good, to warrant that praise?

Because I (and I suspect a lot of other people) must respectfully disagree....

Personally, I always found the quality, sculpts, and poses to be very average (admittedly, maybe because of the scale).

I do not know of a range that has consistently such good quality, or such a high percentage of sculpts that are top-tier. Not sure what figures you have, but I've got absolutely massive Gondor, Harad, and Isengard armies (thousands of figures).
I am also a fan of realistic sculpting; I know many people do not like Perry-style sculpts such as LOTR because they are more proportionally sculpted.

They made a $500 model! For LOTR!

 Sidstyler wrote:
I wasn't sure if I should post this or not, but I've been watching this guy on deviantArt that makes models. He has a website, and recently finished one that's relevant to this thread: http://www.geenemodels.com/dragon-kit/

Spoiler:

I can't really tell how big it is, and there aren't any dimensions listed that I can see, but it's three pounds worth of resin if that means anything. He has a "dragon" bust that's apparently 21 inches long, and there's a picture in his deviantArt gallery of the model painted and posed with the bust in the same pic.

Now that is a lovely dragon! It is a pricey model, but to me that seems to be much closer to value for dollar than the GW model.

 Bronzefists42 wrote:
They made a $500 model! For LOTR!

You forgot to add:

 judgedoug wrote:

 Padre wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:


GW spent over ten years making LOTR the best miniatures line ever made, from 2001 to the end of 2012, and no one will be able to top that, not even themselves.

Judge, not sure if you're being sarcastic here, but do you really feel that the GW LOTR line was really that good, to warrant that praise?

Because I (and I suspect a lot of other people) must respectfully disagree....

Personally, I always found the quality, sculpts, and poses to be very average (admittedly, maybe because of the scale).

I do not know of a range that has consistently such good quality, or such a high percentage of sculpts that are top-tier. Not sure what figures you have, but I've got absolutely massive Gondor, Harad, and Isengard armies (thousands of figures).
I am also a fan of realistic sculpting; I know many people do not like Perry-style sculpts such as LOTR because they are more proportionally sculpted.

As someone who never bought a single LOTR model I agree. If Mantic, or any other company, had a fantasy range with the breadth, depth and consistent quality of the LOTR range then they would be dominating that market.
While I can appreciate that it represented a huge number of additional SKUs for GW, smothering it to death with price hikes is a short sighted move.

 plastictrees wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:

 Padre wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:


GW spent over ten years making LOTR the best miniatures line ever made, from 2001 to the end of 2012, and no one will be able to top that, not even themselves.

Judge, not sure if you're being sarcastic here, but do you really feel that the GW LOTR line was really that good, to warrant that praise?

Because I (and I suspect a lot of other people) must respectfully disagree....

Personally, I always found the quality, sculpts, and poses to be very average (admittedly, maybe because of the scale).

I do not know of a range that has consistently such good quality, or such a high percentage of sculpts that are top-tier. Not sure what figures you have, but I've got absolutely massive Gondor, Harad, and Isengard armies (thousands of figures).
I am also a fan of realistic sculpting; I know many people do not like Perry-style sculpts such as LOTR because they are more proportionally sculpted.

As someone who never bought a single LOTR model I agree. If Mantic, or any other company, had a fantasy range with the breadth, depth and consistent quality of the LOTR range then they would be dominating that market.
While I can appreciate that it represented a huge number of additional SKUs for GW, smothering it to death with price hikes is a short sighted move.

I also think the switch from metal to Finecast helped kill it for the collectors market. Given the prices I've seen rare metal versions for stuff that then became available in Finecast, it wasn't just price that drove people away.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Padre wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:


GW spent over ten years making LOTR the best miniatures line ever made, from 2001 to the end of 2012, and no one will be able to top that, not even themselves.

Judge, not sure if you're being sarcastic here, but do you really feel that the GW LOTR line was really that good, to warrant that praise?

Because I (and I suspect a lot of other people) must respectfully disagree....

Personally, I always found the quality, sculpts, and poses to be very average (admittedly, maybe because of the scale).

I do not know of a range that has consistently such good quality, or such a high percentage of sculpts that are top-tier. Not sure what figures you have, but I've got absolutely massive Gondor, Harad, and Isengard armies (thousands of figures).
I am also a fan of realistic sculpting; I know many people do not like Perry-style sculpts such as LOTR because they are more proportionally sculpted.

Wow, sounds like you really do have a high opinion (and awesome collection) of the LOTR stuff. Funny, isn't it? - they have never attracted me in the slightest (except I did like the Balrog, I must confess.) My personal tastes range more towards RT era and 2nd edition 40K, and anything from Armorcast, Mike Biasi, or any of the older 40K resin model makers.

Aww, man.

I've been a giant LOTR nerd since I was a little kid, like lots of us on here. The Hobbit is one of my most treasured novels of all time because it introduced me to fantasy adventure, which has been a massive source of enjoyment to me for decades. I have always wanted to own Thorin's Company, Bilbo, and Smaug in miniature, as well as enough models to fight the Battle of Five Armies.

I love the LOTR range, and have a pretty large Evil force. LOTR Elves are the only ones I am particularly interested in owning.

I should be exactly the target demographic for this release, but instead I look at the price tag and see the guts of a holiday with my girlfriend. It just isn't worth that much. Smaug didn't have to be the BIGGEST DRAGON EVAR, he could have been a beefier, more characterful version of the LOTR dragon and I would have been really happy with it. Now I won't buy it, because there's no way I can justify that price to myself. Shame! This sort of pricing has screwed GW out of a bunch of purchases. There are barely any plastic kits they've released for the Hobbit that I don't at minimum think are pretty good, and many of them are great. But the prices, man, the prices.

A couple more pics (didn't see them posted yet, apologies if they were)

Don't think they've been posted yet but thanks! Looks like a Warhammer Visions pic. French White Dwarf pic

Looks much better. Still, won't be buying it but he does look better from that angle.

It does look awesome, and huge. But the price is just prohibitive.

Price and questionable material (is it finecast or 'proper' resin) make this an easy no thanks. Looks pretty cool though.

well, like the other posters, this picture makes it look a lot better. But not $490 better.

Is it just me or does that neck look like its covered in fabric? And didnt the original pic have it in a different pose?
Yep, different pose... Posable Smaug? <.<

I think it's just image artifacts. If they can't make a 28m human posable in finecast, I don't think they'll do it for a dragon. Maybe there's a bit of leeway in the neck and tail, but the arms will be fixed as they'll be taking a lot of the weight.

Arms, yeah, but compare the latest pic with the first ones. Thats not a different angle. Its definitely a different neck pose.

Yeah the neck looks further in on that one, I think. It could be a bit of trickery though, as I can't imagine they'd paint 2 different ones the same for the WD.

Maybe there's a section missing from the 2nd model.

The new pics do look better... but the head/face doesn't look very expressive. Smaug in the movie looked really expressive... this model just looks kind of... boring. They should have given him a scowl or a grimace or a roar or a smile or a look of intent or anything really.

I don't think it's a different pose, just a different angle of the photo making it seem like the neck is in a different position.

Did some google translating on the text. Italicized my thoughts on untranslated words.

Yeah the wound was caused by a black arrow. That's the chink in his armour in the book from what I remember?

 ImAGeek wrote:
Yeah the wound was caused by a black arrow. That's the chink in his armour in the book from what I remember?

Yeah. That's where Bard ends up shooting him, but I don't remember if it was also caused by a previous wound from one of Bard's ancestors or if it's just missing the layer of jewels and gold. Need to go back and read the book again, still picking up lots of little things even after reading it like 10 times. Need to finish Nagash first though.

 Whumbachumba wrote:

 ImAGeek wrote:
Yeah the wound was caused by a black arrow. That's the chink in his armour in the book from what I remember?

Yeah. That's where Bard ends up shooting him, but I don't remember if it was also caused by a previous wound from one of Bard's ancestors or if it's just missing the layer of jewels and gold. Need to go back and read the book again, still picking up lots of little things even after reading it like 10 times. Need to finish Nagash first though.

Book: It's just where the treasure hasn't stuck to him.
Film: Girion glances a hit on him with a Black Arrow from a Wind Lance before Smaug kills him