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Back on topic?

Hmm really wanted to see Smaug, Beorn (Bear Form) and the Necromancer. Maybe they'll do it for the Dol Guldur/Laketown/Battle of 5 Armies?

 Mastiff wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
...For that matter, the Legolas linked above is blown up in size an absolutely ridiculous amount. Anything is going to suffer badly with that much zoom.

I'm a bit baffled by the lengths people will go to to protect GW's honour. The purpose of painting the models is to sell them. And if the staff painters can't make them look decent, why would anyone choose to buy the models? It's incredibly poor marketing for a company that claims to "make the best model soldiers in the world".

Yeah, I'm a fething Games Workshop White Knight. The Whitest! Actually, I just try to be reasonable in my opinions. Which means I'm unhappy or disappointed with them most of the time, but for reasons that are valid.

 Mastiff wrote:

The only real explanation is that GW has lowered its standards for this product line; sales are driven by the movie and the licensing, not the appearance or quality of the models, so it's not worth the time to do better.

Or, the pictures are just zoomed REALLY BIG.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

I'm just calling it how I see it. When you take something that is 4mm across and painted to look good when 4mm across and then zoom in so it appears on your screen as 40mm across (like the zoomed in face pictures), of course it's going to look terrible.

Lets take some of those images and rescale them to the actual model size (using my own monitor and a few LOTR models as references, I'm on a 23" 1920x1080 monitor, so I think that's a pretty common DPI, and I have an old Fellowship of the Ring set and some Rohan that I'm using to roughly scale the images).

Resizing some of those earlier pictures to a realistic scale, this is what they look like...





I don't know why GW insist on zooming in to unrealistic levels on their LOTR/Hobbit models, because it makes them look terrible when really they aren't bad at all.

Thanks for doing that. GW really aren't doing themselves any favours with the over-the-top zoom on these photos.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

griffen127 wrote:
I have to disagree with you on the painting quality allseek. The new book is full of terrible paint jobs. I a,m not a world class painter. However, I paint better than 90% of the armies in the new book. It's sad to see gw put suck low quality stuff in the next new book.

Oh! I always love these kinds of posts. Pic comparisons or it didn't happen/you're full of it!

I think this horse is long since dead, and now resides in a bottle of glue, or perhaps in a delicious Frikandel?

Either way - time to move on, and get back on topic.

Thanks!

Since no one has posted these, the Hobbit releases for January:
Gandalf

Bard:

Master of Laketown:

Alfrid:

Laketown Captain:

Laketown Swordsmen:

Laketown Bowmen:

Laketown Spearmen:

Gandalf is nice, but do we really need more Gandalfs a this point ?I think there were around 5 versions in LOTR, and this is the 4th for the Hobbit (iirc). 9 options is plenty, and I'd rather see the time and effort spent on something new.

Bard is nice and dynamic, but the model itself is a little bland. Nice overall, though.

I'm not a fan of the Master or Alfrid, the faces aren't that good. The paint-scheme on all the laketown stuff is not great, that blue is way too bright.

The Laketown guard are just horribly overpriced, and finecast, so I can't see them selling. £80 for a warband is just mad. Also, you could probably get away with painting the plastic men of Dale blue to get the same unit. The aesthetic is virtually the same.

A giant chunk of the last alliance/one ring forums had planned to get a warband(or army) of dale.WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A SWARM ARMY IN FAILCOST!?Seriously its got low points cost and it FINECAST?And we thought metal hobbit swarm was stupid...

I love the new Gandalf, Bard looks great, but Laketown Guard can jog a mile.

Love the Master of Laketown. Very characterful.

I really like the master

I'd be looking at doing my Laketown in plastic with some historicals, I reckon.

Can't wait until we get the utterly unnecessary boxes of 10 plastic Lake Town guard.

i've not had any interest in the hobbit miniatures so far, mainly because of cost but also because the movies are pretty meh. But i seriously want that master model... Just in case stephen fry pops round for tea.

Ooh goodie. Another Gandalf miniature!

Bard doesn't really look like the fella who portrayed him in the movie (I forget his name). I know it is hard to get that kind of detail so small but just look at some of the LotR models and it is obvious that it can be done.

Really like the Laketown guard and the Master. Very good sculpts indeed.

Of course the price tags and finecast put me off completely. $25 for each model filled with bubbles and miscasts? I don't think so GW.


It is also obvious GW has given up with the Hobbit almost entirely. We went from around 10 (11 counting Goblin Town) plastic kits in the first movie to two in the second.

The reason why LotR was so popular years ago was (in my opinion) the fact that you could quickly build a huge army for less than half the price of 40K of WFB due to the 24 man plastic sets. With that incentive gone and next to no promotion of the game itself it is no wonder that it is making no money. Perhaps the final movie and some actual battle scenes will mean GW may actually make some more plastic goodness as a pose to a few overpriced finecast models.

I seriously doubt it. Almost every time I go into my FLGS or GW Dusseldorf I pick up a box of the hunter orcs on wargs, admire the sculpts, check the price, sigh and put them back.

I mean, I can afford them, but I just bought forty really nice Gripping Beast Dark Ages warriors for 24 euro. Comparing that to the six cavalry there, it is no contest which is giving me better bang for my buck. I got 15 Norman Cavalry for a similar price.

I refuse to support that level of pricing. Sadly, I assume that means the line will eventually fail if enough people take my attitude as I doubt GW will ever reduce prices. But we shouldn't be encouraging that sort of pricing.

You guys aren't considering the fan who wants to collect the entire fellowship of the ring... and replace them all with different Gandalf minis.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Can't wait until we get the utterly unnecessary boxes of 10 plastic Lake Town guard.

Who do you think you are kidding? I bet you'd be the first to secretly pre-order 10 boxes

Anyway, back OT.

The master is, in my humble view, one of GW's best sculpts in recent years. That IS Stephen Fry in a nutshell, so fair play to GW. See, I can give credit where it's due.

Agree with the views on Gandalf - 9 versions is too many.

BTW there IS a Warriors of Dale plastic box, released one year ago, just not exactly the guards (but better looking).

 Commander Cain wrote:



It is also obvious GW has given up with the Hobbit almost entirely. We went from around 10 (11 counting Goblin Town) plastic kits in the first movie to two in the second.

Bear in mind though that considering these designs were probably planned for a two-Hobbit movie event rather than a trilogy, last months Wood Elves would have been the final releases for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rather than the first releases for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

alphaecho wrote:

 Commander Cain wrote:


It is also obvious GW has given up with the Hobbit almost entirely. We went from around 10 (11 counting Goblin Town) plastic kits in the first movie to two in the second.

Bear in mind though that considering these designs were probably planned for a two-Hobbit movie event rather than a trilogy, last months Wood Elves would have been the final releases for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rather than the first releases for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

An excellent point, I hadn't considered that!

alphaecho wrote:

 Commander Cain wrote:



It is also obvious GW has given up with the Hobbit almost entirely. We went from around 10 (11 counting Goblin Town) plastic kits in the first movie to two in the second.

Bear in mind though that considering these designs were probably planned for a two-Hobbit movie event rather than a trilogy, last months Wood Elves would have been the final releases for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rather than the first releases for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Not only that but consider that Yazneg was in the "Desolation of Smaug" book...despite having died in Unexpected Journey.

Then we have things like Bolg, the option for Legolas to have a horse, Thranduil with armor, etc.

Incidentally, Thranduil with armor? There was a few shots of him in armor on Peter Jackson's "Desolation of Smaug" behind the scenes videos. It looked amazing.

Actually really like those Laketown guys, they look nicely sculpted and the design is very characterful! Also, Alfrid looks mildly like a moustached Keith Allen

 Pacific wrote:
Actually really like those Laketown guys, they look nicely sculpted and the design is very characterful! Also, Alfrid looks mildly like a moustached Keith Allen

I remember seeing Keith Allen at a music festival years ago looking more drugged up than an East German weight lifter! But that's another story.

Anyway, back OT. Does anybody else think the laketown guys look like the guards from the first Conan film (the one with Arnie in it)

They look suspiciously familiar.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Can't wait until we get the utterly unnecessary boxes of 10 plastic Lake Town guard.

yeah not like plenty of people wanted them...oh wait they did.They would have wanted them more if they were 24 models for 26 euro though..

 Kanluwen wrote:

alphaecho wrote:

 Commander Cain wrote:



It is also obvious GW has given up with the Hobbit almost entirely. We went from around 10 (11 counting Goblin Town) plastic kits in the first movie to two in the second.

Bear in mind though that considering these designs were probably planned for a two-Hobbit movie event rather than a trilogy, last months Wood Elves would have been the final releases for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rather than the first releases for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Not only that but consider that Yazneg was in the "Desolation of Smaug" book...despite having died in Unexpected Journey.

Then we have things like Bolg, the option for Legolas to have a horse, Thranduil with armor, etc.

Incidentally, Thranduil with armor? There was a few shots of him in armor on Peter Jackson's "Desolation of Smaug" behind the scenes videos. It looked amazing.

Was this what he looked like?

That is indeed Thranduil in armor.

A much more understated crown, the same fine cloth for the leather underneath the armor plates, and of course the long flowing hair.

The most exciting thing about these releases was that Stephen Fry tweeted a pic of his model.

Oh, and, for some reason GW have actually released the rules for last years models for FREE to download. This does not compute, can someone please explain?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/articleCategory.jsp?communityArticleCatId=8000001a&articleCatId=8000001a&catId=cat970001a§ion=

Have GW issued Stephen Fry with a C&D letter yet then?

(Sorry.. couldn't let that pass.. )

 Compel wrote:
The most exciting thing about these releases was that Stephen Fry tweeted a pic of his model.

Oh, and, for some reason GW have actually released the rules for last years models for FREE to download. This does not compute, can someone please explain?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/articleCategory.jsp?communityArticleCatId=8000001a&articleCatId=8000001a&catId=cat970001a§ion=

Sales are that low that its incentive to buy efgt and more models like hunter orcs.Its hard to convince people to buy a 60 euro book for a few profiles and scenarios.Stephen fry has in one tweet done more advertising then GW has done for the hobbit.

 Alpharius wrote:
Was this what he looked like?

There must be so much of these films that we haven't seen yet.

Kanluwen wrote:That is indeed Thranduil in armor.

A much more understated crown, the same fine cloth for the leather underneath the armor plates, and of course the long flowing hair.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Was this what he looked like?

There must be so much of these films that we haven't seen yet.

No kidding!

Kan - did the piece you saw say what that scene was from?