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Yeah, that was all for Middle Earth.

I've honestly had that same gripe with a lot of the plastic ME characters. Dunno if it's just the paint style, but very few of the named characters have looked "right" to me, as far as faces go. Might just be that I'm more nostalgic for the older sculpts though.

The Perry twins are unparalleled in their sculpting skills, it is a very high bar!

Tree beard is a certain improvement on an already pretty decent model. The advantage of plastic over metal, if you ask me.

Tim the Biovore wrote:Yeah, that was all for Middle Earth.

Balls.

I've honestly had that same gripe with a lot of the plastic ME characters. Dunno if it's just the paint style, but very few of the named characters have looked "right" to me, as far as faces go. Might just be that I'm more nostalgic for the older sculpts though.

Agreed. None of the other plastic hobbits looks right either. Mines of Moria suffers mostly because it's an older kit. But the newer plastic Merry/Pippin don't look good either. Pippin has no nose, both have clumpy, lumpy hair (another failing of CAD).
But then you get sculpts like Eomer or the King of the Dead, which are just superb and don't suffer those problems.

Eiríkr wrote:The Perry twins are unparalleled in their sculpting skills, it is a very high bar!

That's a truth if ever there was one. The fact that one of them does it one handed, always boggles my mind.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Tree beard is a certain improvement on an already pretty decent model. The advantage of plastic over metal, if you ask me.

Oh Treebeard himself is very nice. A better model if only by dint of not being a honking great chunk of metal. It's just a shame the regular plastic ents aren't overly customizable.

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
I've honestly had that same gripe with a lot of the plastic ME characters. Dunno if it's just the paint style, but very few of the named characters have looked "right" to me, as far as faces go. Might just be that I'm more nostalgic for the older sculpts though.

Can't disagree with you there; Éomer's one of the few that on first inspection actually somewhat reminded me of the actor, and some of the others (Three Hunters Legolas...) are just outright bad even beyond likenesses. Plastic limitations perhaps, and sculptor's limitations too. Thankfully we have a dozen or so older metal sculpts available of most characters, quite a few of which can be found for reasonable prices second hand.

Tree beard looks cool. Will definitely be picking one up for sure... now to the guys at GW hq how about some more terrain.

 Coenus Scaldingus wrote:

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
I've honestly had that same gripe with a lot of the plastic ME characters. Dunno if it's just the paint style, but very few of the named characters have looked "right" to me, as far as faces go. Might just be that I'm more nostalgic for the older sculpts though.

Can't disagree with you there; Éomer's one of the few that on first inspection actually somewhat reminded me of the actor, and some of the others (Three Hunters Legolas...) are just outright bad even beyond likenesses. Plastic limitations perhaps, and sculptor's limitations too. Thankfully we have a dozen or so older metal sculpts available of most characters, quite a few of which can be found for reasonable prices second hand.

I think,the newest Gandalf really closely resembles Ian McKellen

The newest Gandalf looks extremely like McKellen. But to be honest, i don't really have an issue with the models not looking like the actors. They don't really need to look identical at this point.

Wait, what? Did the Perry brothers sculpt the new Treebeard?
I'm also happy it's plastic, not resin. FW would have charged at least 70 euros for that, if not a 100...

 CragHack wrote:
Wait, what? Did the Perry brothers sculpt the new Treebeard?
I'm also happy it's plastic, not resin. FW would have charged at least 70 euros for that, if not a 100...

No, at least not that I am aware of.
I was simply commenting on their skill in bringing an uncanny likeness to so many of the older models (almost all of them, I think!).

 CragHack wrote:
Wait, what? Did the Perry brothers sculpt the new Treebeard?
I'm also happy it's plastic, not resin. FW would have charged at least 70 euros for that, if not a 100...

We don’t know what GW will price it at yet...

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
Yeah, that was all for Middle Earth.

I've honestly had that same gripe with a lot of the plastic ME characters. Dunno if it's just the paint style, but very few of the named characters have looked "right" to me, as far as faces go. Might just be that I'm more nostalgic for the older sculpts though.

One thing with models based on real people, you need to see them bare without any paint on them, as the painting process for scale miniatures (exaggerating shadows and highlights) tends to make the "real" people look wonky. Your brain knows what these people are supposed to look like in real life, and at such a small scale it's near impossible to make it look right.

I remember getting some of the older Hobbits (metal ones) that looked completely awful in GW's images in books and online... but in the flesh and in the bare metal they looked really remarkable, they matched the actors incredibly well given how poorly they looked in GW's promotional materials. It almost prompted me to buy a bunch of the metal LOTR character models until I remembered I suck at painting too much to do them justice, lol.

I don't know what the more recent batches of plastics are like, I haven't bought any, but to judge them they need to be seen in bare plastic IMO.

It's just a real issue with models based on actual people rather than generic faces invented by the sculptor. It's made worse by the fact GW aficionados tend to be used to the larger scale Warhammer/40k models which for all their unrealistic proportions are actually much easier to paint the faces realistically.

Grabbed another metal Ent, surprised they're still available. I'm thinking i want a little variation to go with Treebeard when he comes out.

tneva82 wrote:
So much for last alliance stuff

The Last Alliance will involve entire range re-designs, new character releases (multiples) and at least a new book. That's a major investment for a Specialist Games sub-team at a time when GW are not firing on all cylinders.

Last Alliance will come. Be patient.

Bats next week:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/11/22/sunday-preview-big-army-boxes-for-christmas/

 Oppl wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
So much for last alliance stuff

The Last Alliance will involve entire range re-designs, new character releases (multiples) and at least a new book. That's a major investment for a Specialist Games sub-team at a time when GW are not firing on all cylinders.

Last Alliance will come. Be patient.

Yeah. But quite　a few predicted announcement was now. So much for that.


Still i don't expect more than book　and couple characters, maybe　2 as plastic. Gw hasn't shown interest on redoing troops. No reason to expect that to change

I went ahead and grabbed the mounted Legolas model. I was tempted to get the Ent as well, but I have no real desire to start a Fangorn force despite that awesome new Treebeard model that's been announced. A lot of the rest was already out of stock and none of it was anything I need, so I picked up a few assorted things for my existing LOTR armies to fill out my order.

Hmm. Order has already been dispatched. Excellent.


Odds on it rocks up the one day i'm working this week.

tneva82 wrote:

 Oppl wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
So much for last alliance stuff

The Last Alliance will involve entire range re-designs, new character releases (multiples) and at least a new book. That's a major investment for a Specialist Games sub-team at a time when GW are not firing on all cylinders.

Last Alliance will come. Be patient.

Yeah. But quite　a few predicted announcement was now. So much for that.


Still i don't expect more than book　and couple characters, maybe　2 as plastic. Gw hasn't shown interest on redoing troops. No reason to expect that to change

The Last Alliance is the oldest model range in the ME catalogue. There's a reason we aren't seeing it yet. The infantry will need to be remade. It will take a lot of resources and input, and GW clearly aren't in a position to commit to that right now. They churn out releases for fun in other game systems. Redoing a basic infantry box for Elves and Numenor is very feasible when they are back up on full capacity.

Again: they have shown zero interest so far doing redo's of existing troop models. As such　i have　zero expectation they will do. Nothing in la supplement requires plastic non-heroes. Ergo unlikely anything　comes.

Current plastics are sufficient. You can do la supplement with just plastic hero or two and rest of new models fw resin just like other　supplements were. Expecting more is just setting a way to dissapointment.

Well, I was right. Package came while I was at work. However they left this one on the doorstep, which is unusual as in the past, i've always had to sign for them and if missed, they go back to the post office.

Not that i'm complaining or anything...

tneva82 wrote:
Again: they have shown zero interest so far doing redo's of existing troop models. As such　i have　zero expectation they will do. Nothing in la supplement requires plastic non-heroes. Ergo unlikely anything　comes.

Current plastics are sufficient. You can do la supplement with just plastic hero or two and rest of new models fw resin just like other　supplements were. Expecting more is just setting a way to dissapointment.

I look forward to revisiting this thread in the future, then!

Had my order arrive yesterday ... checkEd all was fine before the wife took them away for Yule presents... Gimli looks cool and the battering ram will be fun to build.

I'm just cleaning up the ent, and I didn't realise he came with options! Two sets of arms and two heads.

Quite weighty too! Just shy of 120grams.

I was really hoping for Treebeard to be made available for Christmas, but it looks decidely late!

 Eiríkr wrote:
I was really hoping for Treebeard to be made available for Christmas, but it looks decidely late!

I mean, we are in December - it's not a noted time of year for trees (or Ents, I imagine) to be active...

 Dysartes wrote:

 Eiríkr wrote:
I was really hoping for Treebeard to be made available for Christmas, but it looks decidely late!

I mean, we are in December - it's not a noted time of year for trees (or Ents, I imagine) to be active...

Just whack some tinsel on him, and it couldn't be more perfect

Well now, more Ents anyone?

Oh, that's lovely news. Suppose the plastic ent is already based on Beechbone, so the full Fangorn roster is well and truly represented now.

2021 will be the 20th anniversary of the game. Yes 20 years of wargaming in Middle-Earth and 20 years we saw The Fellowship of the Ring in theaters...
Hope GW will celebrate this in same way.