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I recognize that, it's why I said I get the appeal. While I've not been in since the 70s or whatever but I did start in the late 80s with the basic box D&D and by my teenage years I was calculating THAC0. I just prefer more flourish than they tend to use. I grew up with the AD&D Monster Manual. In fact it was a huge inspiration in my interest in art growing up.

Which is why the Frostgrave designs are so much more appealing to me (trying to steer it back.. honestly ).. I think a lot of people's reservations for the kit will be assuaged when some veteran builders/painters get hands on with the kit. The poses looking too rigid might just be lack of skill with posing miniatures. I've seen 40k Orks that are assembled and look utterly rigid and I've seen them assembled where they look like they are living breathing heathens of the battlefield. Same for power armor.

At this point there would have to be something really really off about the sprue pictures to turn me off from the gnolls.

Considering how goof the Soldier and Cultist sprues are, I can't really see them screwing up the Gnolls.

When I run D&D games I always make a point the the largest and strongest Gnolls are Actully the woman leading the smaller men, like Real life hyenas. I always felt that gave them a interest flavour that separated them from stuff like orcs and Hobogoblins when it came to player interactions beyond the normal combat stuff.

I hope the Reaper Gnoll Champs will be larger then frost grave's plastics, that way it's abit easier to represent this in miniature form.

The Reaper Gnolls are pretty tall. I think you may get your wish.

That's a cool idea BTW, consider it stolen .

 Lockark wrote:
When I run D&D games I always make a point the the largest and strongest Gnolls are Actully the woman leading the smaller men, like Real life hyenas. I always felt that gave them a interest flavour that separated them from stuff like orcs and Hobogoblins when it came to player interactions beyond the normal combat stuff.

I hope the Reaper Gnoll Champs will be larger then frost grave's plastics, that way it's abit easier to represent this in miniature form.

The D&D Temple of Elemental Evil board game gnolls are even bigger than the Reaper ones.

 adamsouza wrote:
The Reaper Gnolls are pretty tall. I think you may get your wish.

That's a cool idea BTW, consider it stolen .

Yah that's what I'm thinking, but I'm not 100% sure. Got to wait till we see scale shots and not just 3ups lol.

 MLaw wrote:

 Lockark wrote:
When I run D&D games I always make a point the the largest and strongest Gnolls are Actully the woman leading the smaller men, like Real life hyenas. I always felt that gave them a interest flavour that separated them from stuff like orcs and Hobogoblins when it came to player interactions beyond the normal combat stuff.

I hope the Reaper Gnoll Champs will be larger then frost grave's plastics, that way it's abit easier to represent this in miniature form.

The D&D Temple of Elemental Evil board game gnolls are even bigger than the Reaper ones.

Thanks for the tip! I will look into that. The mini's from thows board games and range alot in sculpting qualitiy so will need to see if I can find some good images of the gnolls from that game.

edit:
It looks like they are human legged gnolls, not digigrade gnolls. would be to much of a pet-peev for me to use them with these new plastics who are digigrade. That's to bad, because size wise they are prety beefy mini's, and the detail looks prety decent.

 Lockark wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:
The Reaper Gnolls are pretty tall. I think you may get your wish.

That's a cool idea BTW, consider it stolen .

Yah that's what I'm thinking, but I'm not 100% sure. Got to wait till we see scale shots and not just 3ups lol.

 MLaw wrote:

 Lockark wrote:
When I run D&D games I always make a point the the largest and strongest Gnolls are Actully the woman leading the smaller men, like Real life hyenas. I always felt that gave them a interest flavour that separated them from stuff like orcs and Hobogoblins when it came to player interactions beyond the normal combat stuff.

I hope the Reaper Gnoll Champs will be larger then frost grave's plastics, that way it's abit easier to represent this in miniature form.

The D&D Temple of Elemental Evil board game gnolls are even bigger than the Reaper ones.

Thanks for the tip! I will look into that. The mini's from thows board games and range alot in sculpting qualitiy so will need to see if I can find some good images of the gnolls from that game.

edit:
It looks like they are human legged gnolls, not digigrade gnolls. would be to much of a pet-peev for me to use them with these new plastics who are digigrade. That's to bad, because size wise they are prety beefy mini's, and the detail looks prety decent.

I didn't even notice until you pointed it out... In all honesty, ToEE is the only one of the modern D&D boardgames I've had spotty luck on model quality with. Some of the sculpts on the others are a bit doofy but the casts are typically crisp. ToEE has some extremely soft details and bendy plastic though.

I'm dying to see these sprues already.. lol the anticipation is killer

 cygnnus wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
The Otherworld Miniatures gnolls are my favorite gnolls on the market:

Problem with that gnoll (as cool as it looks overall) for me is that he lacks dogleg hind quarters.

It's a lovely sculpt with a lovely paintjob, but it's clearly a human actor in a rubber mask, gloves and booties. Like Star Trek Aliens.

Miniaturicum has announced a german translation for Frostgrave.

GENIAL ?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Azazelx wrote:
It's a lovely sculpt with a lovely paintjob, but it's clearly a human actor in a rubber mask, gloves and booties. Like Star Trek Aliens.

Now that you've said that, I can't unsee is

Looking a bit better Kinda goofy though

EDIT:
Huh, here's one of the faces painted.. not too bad..

Certainly a bit on the cartoony side, but the painted sample looks good.

Ten gnoll celebrities who look unrecognizably hideous without their makeup! Number 8 will surprise you.

Think these will look great as long as there's plenty of the closed mouth heads on the sprue.

It's the big fangs and tongue lolling out that makes them look like this:



In terms of anatomy, they look pretty good, they're what anthro hyenas would look like, need some side view shots to confirm though.

It is refreshing to see digitigrade legs done properly, the otherworld sculpt is an example of them done badly.

These should make perfect Hunters of the Wild for my KoW Nature army, with potential to use them for a Herd army too.

I disliked the Mickey Mouse ears at first but after looking at some pictures of hyenas.. I don't think they're that far off. In hand I expect they won't look as pronounced.

The teeth thing is for sure a turnoff on the open mouth but I think in person .. again.. maybe not as severe as it seems, especially if you remember we tend to view them from above..so the undercuts and whatnot won't really be seen until you are at eye level and probably really close at that.

I don't like how unfurry (new word!) the arms are but I have a CRAPLOAD of leftover beastmen arms that are furry... so I guess that works out.. and it's not like nobody is making Wulfen arms at the moment either :/

Can anyone who has existing plastics comment about whether or not there's an abundance of accessories and other bits on the sprues? I loved the old Mordheim stuff (I know a lot of it was actually WHFB stuff) with all the cool books and torches and lanterns and stuff. Hoping it's a similar story.

 MLaw wrote:


Can anyone who has existing plastics comment about whether or not there's an abundance of accessories and other bits on the sprues? I loved the old Mordheim stuff (I know a lot of it was actually WHFB stuff) with all the cool books and torches and lanterns and stuff. Hoping it's a similar story.

Frostgrave sprues are loaded with stuff, just as much as the old mordheim sprues, they are awesome.



Just noticed that the gnolls are wearing dog-tags.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Ten gnoll celebrities who look unrecognizably hideous without their makeup! Number 8 will surprise you.

Have an exalt! I about snarfed my coffee.

I am really kind of down on the gnoll sculpts. I really want them to have the hunched, heavy shoulders and necks of a hyena. That has always been one of the hallmarks of a good gnoll/werewolf sculpt for me, the neck that looks like it supports a powerful jaw for crushing and tearing. Compare to the reaper gnoll recently out:



Or this gorilla for that matter:



Both look like their heads are used for serious business, as opposed to just a box to hold their brains and eyes with a little largely useless jaw attached.

I could almost forgive the cartoony and soft features of the sculpt if the necks were more sturdy, but as is it looks like a guy in a mask, and not a very good mask.

Plus I think the snout is too flat and broad... but that might just be a taste thing.

Finally I'll have something to convert my Pathfinder character Daz Bangfang:

http://d.facdn.net/art/kingman/1351997001/1351997001.kingman_daz_bangfang_and_leadball.png

Tactical Small Tree Stump is...silly.

 Alpharius wrote:
Tactical Small Tree Stump is...silly.

At least he is wielding something sharp that could have cut that tree down and allowed him to pose like captain Morgan.

 Theophony wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Tactical Small Tree Stump is...silly.

At least he is wielding something sharp that could have cut that tree down and allowed him to pose like captain Morgan.

While silly it's till better than the old GW LotR horse approach of "sure, only need one thin leg joint in contact with the base".

In my eyes these are the small male hyenas. Reaper sells the big tuff female ones! Lol

Wehrkind: that gorilla is truly impressive and why sculpts that over exaggerate musculature and can't get basic anatomy right bother me. Most humans should look pretty slender at this scale and big slabs of muscle would indicate something pretty strong/nasty to face.

Anyhow, the mouth and nose are too broad and give it a more simian look that doesn't combine well with the exaggerated teeth, large ears, and crude fur.

Nonetheless, it still seems perfectly serviceable and is instantly recognizable as a gnoll. I do like that they aren't overly muscled like the Reaper and GW beastmen.

 Wehrkind wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Ten gnoll celebrities who look unrecognizably hideous without their makeup! Number 8 will surprise you.

Have an exalt! I about snarfed my coffee.

I am really kind of down on the gnoll sculpts. I really want them to have the hunched, heavy shoulders and necks of a hyena. That has always been one of the hallmarks of a good gnoll/werewolf sculpt for me, the neck that looks like it supports a powerful jaw for crushing and tearing. Compare to the reaper gnoll recently out:



Or this gorilla for that matter:



Both look like their heads are used for serious business, as opposed to just a box to hold their brains and eyes with a little largely useless jaw attached.

I could almost forgive the cartoony and soft features of the sculpt if the necks were more sturdy, but as is it looks like a guy in a mask, and not a very good mask.

Plus I think the snout is too flat and broad... but that might just be a taste thing.

I was going to say.. hey.. you could always order some gnoll heads from the boneyard but it looks like Reaper shut that down..

I'm wondering if they limited themselves by trying to maintain some arm/body compatibility with the cultist/adventurer kit?

 plastictrees wrote:
I'm wondering if they limited themselves by trying to maintain some arm/body compatibility with the cultist/adventurer kit?

The only compatibility would have to be arms.. the sprue shown above has the torso and legs as single pieces for existing kits.. I think it has to do more with the art direction for Frostgrave. They hit a lot of good notes on very common things but they're very middle of the road on style. This precludes them from having pronounced shoulders, long slender snouts, huge tufts of fur, etc. While otherworld is a little too human for my taste I think these are a bit on the not classic gnoll side... but.. not overly human either. I like them and I have a campaign that is based on the Menachturum Desert from Eberron/DDO so loads of Gnolls are what I need. I do understand why a lot of others feel the way they do. I'm not using them for an army of anything so much as some RP pieces so on these I am not as bothered by details as I would be on something like.. say.. a command squad for a tabletop army.

Terribad still. Paint polished the turd a little, but it still stinks.

Seriously, if you are gonna spend all that money to get the metal molds cut, why skimp on the sculptor? I'll never understand. I'll never waste money on this company either though, so...

The excuse given elsewhere is that these are three ups and of course they look not as good all blown up on our screens.

To which I submitted something like this:



3 up sculpts blown way up on my screen that are damn near identical to the final pieces. The finish is a bit rough, and does get smoothed out on the final product, true.

The finish on the Gnolls has never been the issue though. The sculpt proficiency and level of detail has. The first preview almost managed a canine mouth, but the second and third have gone full on "can't be arsed, here's some pointy teeth, good enough" goblin mouthed. They both seem to have hooves rather than paws. Both seem to be wearing torn up t-shirts and kilts, or perhaps long tunics, despite none of that being featured on the excellent box art (maybe the first one on the left, but I can't find a good enough picture to tell). The forearms on the second one appear to be as long as his thigh. Lastly for me the poses are straight up laughable. I realize that being multi part limits that last a bit, but come on...

Examples of miles better sculpts in a far inferior material:




I know I'm wasting my breath here. The wargame customer crowd has a long tradition of accepting whatever companies will put out. Which is why we can't have nice things, but that is a digression for another time.

TL: DR -If you like them, great, but don't act like they don't have issues and couldn't be better. I think they suck.

Thanks for sticking around for the nickel rant

~Eric

Yeah, but these aren't Red Box Games gnolls, and Tre Manor certainly isn't sculpting them, so you gotta cut Northstar a *little* slack.

(Except I'm pretty sure Bobby Jackson sculpted the one with the weird little shield.)

Tre's Gnolls have (un)fortunately set a pretty high standard.

Those are actually three-ups for the plastic gnolls? Ugh. This went from a must buy (likely several boxes - I love the concept of gnolls) to total pass. Shame.

 Cruentus wrote:
Those are actually three-ups for the plastic gnolls? Ugh. This went from a must buy (likely several boxes - I love the concept of gnolls) to total pass. Shame.

He's assuming those are 3ups. Why would they paint a 3up? I don't think I've ever seen a company do that..