You're going to hear me Thror!

So, I have finished my first figure from The Hobbit: Thror, King of Erebor.  He is one of those ludicrously expensive Finecast pieces but at least I got him at Dark Sphere so got him at a discount.

Like some of Games Workshops Tolkein figures he is a bit of an amalgalm of looks from the film.  His distinctive beard jewellery comes from the scenes inside Erebor, particularly, in the extended version, from when he meets the elves.  Yet the model is in fighting mode but in the film the beard jewellery (beardellery?) isn't worn in his brief battle scene.  

Incidentally, most painted figures I have seen make the colour on his beardellery blue but the stills from the film show it as definitely black so I dug out mt little used Humbrol number 21 gloss black for this.

I had no issues with this Finecast figure other than the cost and a rather bendy sword which I couldn't get to straighten out however much I (carefully tried).  No holes or pits or any of the other things people moan about.  The only issue was the complication of cutting him from the sprue which has much chunkier connectors to the figure than a plastic figure and alittle more carving away of excess material is, therefore needed.

Some Erebor dwarves next!

The Desolation of Smaug supplement

The bear necessities

You don't have any posts on the blog for eight months and then two come along within a few days!  My renewed enthusiasm for all things Tolkien has been engendered by watching the extended version of The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey and listening to the new Howard Shore soundtrack for The Desolation of Smaug.

I went into Games Workshop in Oxford Street yesterday to pick up the warriors of Erebor, as I liked the Battle of Dimrill Dale in An Unexpected Journey between the dwarves and the orcs.  

I also picked up the supplement for The Desolation of Smaug which has five scenarios from the new film (including one for their £40 set of Thorin's company in barrels!) but also three built around the Battle of Dimrill Dale from the first film.  It also takes each of the scenarios for the first book and the second and puts them together to build one continuous campaign.  This, of course, is probably why we haven't seen any gaming articles in White Dwarf this year as there are scenarios in the book based on the film, plus some more generic ideas for battles in Mirkwood.  One of the scenarios, however, requires 18 mirkwood spiders.  These cost £22 for two so you will need to spend £198 on spiders for this one!

There are some pictures of a few figures which haven't been released yet, including Beorn in his bear form (top) and armoured orcs of Gundabad (above) which look like an imminent plastic box set.  I'm not sure about the design of these but at least they look quick to paint as they are quite uruk hai-like.  The Laketown guard look very silly, I'm afraid, but that isn't Games Workshop's fault!  What there isn't is any hint of Smaug so perhaps he will come for the final film.

So for me it will be dwarves versus orcs for a bit (although those Mirkwood rangers do look awfully nice!)

There are some painting guides and pictures of other people's armies to pad it out a bit and, of course, profiles for the new figures.

Starting a couple of Dwarves...

Despite the rubbish support for The Hobbit from Games Workshop I still like some of the figures and have started work on a couple this weekend.  I watched the extended version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this weekend in preparation for going to see the Desolation of Smaug over Christmas (I have to wait until my daughter returns from university!)  It was she who selected Bombur for me to work on.  I also wanted to have a go at a Finecast figure so pulled out my outrageously expensive King Thror to do.  I had hoped to paint him on Sunday but events conspired against me so I have only just started him.

Thror is a two part Finecast kit with an additional shield.  I couldn't find any faults on mine except for some slight damage to part of the shield rim which I have fixed with greenstuff.  The sword is very flimsy and is as bendy as an Airfix Ancient Britain!  I did need to use a bit of liquid Greenstuff to fill some slight gaps between the two halves when stuck together but it would have been the same for a metal kit too, I think.

I've got plenty of pictorial reference for both figures but they are very small so I think I may have to break out a new Windsor and Newton Series 7 for them!  I tried to do a bit on Thror last night but I have realised that I am going to need daylight to work on black undercoated figures.  I bought the new Howard Shore Hobbit soundtrack today but it seems, rather like An Unexpected Journey, to be lacking in strong melodies which certainly wasn't the case for his three Lord of the Rings scores.  Still, it's atmospheric stuff and means I now have 17 hours and 18 minutes of Howard Shore Lord of the Rings music to paint to, which should keep me in the right mood.

I also bid on a few metal LotR figures on eBay today as I notice that many of the LotR figures have disappeared from the Games Workshop catalogue and, eventually, I want to get them all!

Games Workshop not really supporting The Hobbit

I went into Games Workshop in Oxford Street today and fancied buying King Thror, as I have been enjoying painting some character figures for my new Roman army,  Not only did they not have one but the GW guy seemed very uncertain about the figures in the range. When I asked if they had the set of the Men of Dale he started looking in the (very limited) LotR boxes rather than the very distinctive The Hobbit sets.

This lack of stock (alright it is the week after the DVD came out but they should have allowed for that), his lack of knowledge of the range and the derisory treatment of the game in White Dwarf makes me wonder why on earth they spent so much money on the licence if they aren't going to support it.  Other than the launch issue there has been nothing in White Dwarf for months.  Even worse, until this month's issue, they have all been sealed in plastic so you don't find this out until after you have bought it.  

Maybe, especially given the prices, they really do believe, as Jervis Johnson was recently quoted as saying, that GW figures are now about collecting not gaming.

Frankly, I believe that the White Dwarf team are being lazy and unimaginative.  So, admittedly The Hobbit is not full of set piece battles but come on, make something up!

The Hobbit: Grim Hammers Dwarves Part 2

I finished the box of Grim Hammers at the weekend and they came out OK without being brilliant.  Apart from the fact that I seem to have lost my ability to paint at present the detail of the armour on these at the side of the figures (always a problem with plastics) was little blurred.  I was going to paint their lower armour plate be plate but the detail was not precise enough so I had to resort to dry brushing.  I decided to go for the mountain interior base colour like my LotR goblins and existing dwarves.  I can always repaint them if I decide to go for a traditional grassy base.

Here is the design for one of the dwarves from The Hobbit Chronicles book which contains a lot of useful costume shots for all the characters from the film.  I can't actually remember who they fought in the film so need to wait for the DVD which is due out next month.  The armour is darker than the Boltgun Metal paint I used so I might add a black wash in the future.

A few of Thorin's company next, I think.

The Hobbit v The Lord of the Rings dwarves: size comparison

I finished one of my new Grim Hammers dwarves today (they are going to take longer to paint than I imagined) and am posting this picture of him next to a LotR dwarf.  It's hard to tell, because of the heavy armour, but I reckon he is about half a head taller than the older figures.

Now I am very fussy about figures of different sizes but I wouldn't have any problem fielding them in the same force.  Things like their hands are exactly the same size, for example.  Games Workshop have previewed some more new Dwarves from The Hobbit today so I shall have to get some of them and maybe they will offer a better comparison.  The more dwarves the better!

My daughter wants me to get the new Thror figure but my head says that paying £12 for a dwarf is insane but I'm sure I'll get it anyway!

The Hobbit: Grim Hammers Dwarves Part 1

I was in Oxford Street last week and nipped into Games Workshop to pick up the new Grim Hammers dwarves from The Hobbit.  They cost £20 for 12 figures which is a not very impressive inversion of the prices for the plastic sets from The Lord of the Rings from a few years ago when you got 20 figures for £12.  The small number of figures is apparent as soon as you open the box as you get just one sprue.  Apparently, they have reduced the number of figures in their other sets too.  The last box of plastics I completed was the Uruk Hai Scouts which used to have twenty four figures in a box but now you get just one sprue of twelve figures.  Interestingly, the plastic set of twelve Uruk Hai now costs £15 as against the £20 for the twelve The Hobbit dwarves.  The difference being the cost of the new licence, perhaps, or maybe they are just trying it on.

The figures are very nice, however, and, unlike most plastic sets, you get twelve different bodies with the arms being (mostly) separate.  The weapons are very fine and quite delicate.  The figures are attached to the sprue by very chunky lumps of plastic.  You certainly can't just twist them off.  You'll need a pair of clippers and then a very sharp knife to clean them up.  

Cutting the bodies off the sprue and sticking them to the bases took twenty minutes.  I can see why some people don't like plastics because of the assembly time but, in contrast to metals there was no cleaning up to do as there was no flash and no discernible mould lines.

The dwarves completed as on the box

The next stage of assembly wasn't so quick, however.  There were no instructions in the box (I'm not sure if there are supposed to be or not) and so it was a puzzle trying to work out which bodies went with which arms.  It also wasn't clear whether any set of arms goes with any body.  Rather than risk it I followed the arm/body combinations on the box although this meant studying the components very closely and comparing them with the photographs on the back of the box.  Some arm combinations were numbered A and B so I assumed that these went together which seemed to be the case but it would have been nice if this had been made clear.  I'm not sure a ten year old would have managed it.  It took me over an hour to work out which arms went with which body and then stick them on which was also a fiddly process as you had often had to align two arms at the same time before the glue dried.

So next I have to fill the gaps on the bases, texture them with sand and undercoat them.  All my other Lord of the Rings dwarves have grey rocky bases to represent Moria. I'm not sure yet whether I will do the same for these or do my usual grassy bases (which is how Games Workshop have painted them).