Unboxing: Radagast the Brown on Sleigh

After seeing the pictures of this new release for the Hobbit range, I was very excited and decided to get this set, which in my opinion counts among the best miniatures that have been realeased for the Hobbit up to date. In this article, I'm going to get a closer look of the contents of this box and say a few words about the quality of the kit, which is as most will know in Finecast.

After opening the cardboard box, you'll find a plastic box (which is usual with these kind of sets) containing all the different pieces needed to assemble the miniature, aswell as a large base (more words on that later!).

The sprues contain various pieces of the sleigh, the rabbits, Radagast (who is also multi-part) and a few scenic elements to fill up the rather larger base: a large boulder which supports the sleigh, a branch/tree trunk and a raven flying off. So far I couldn't find any large issues, which is always good! No parts were missing and there weren't any deformations.

There was a lot of speculation about the base on the forums. On the official pictures it was impossible to see the real size of this base, and due to its shape, some assumed that Radagast's sleigh would come on the Mumakil base, which is extremely large. In fact, this base is the same size as the dragon's base (thanks River Zora over on one-ring.co.uk). I took a picture with a regular 25mm and a 40mm cavalry base as comparison. The ruler will give you the exact length/scale.  Even if it is smaller than the mumakil base, there is a lot of space for the eager hobbyist to create a nice scenic base (e.g. a forest base).

The pictures above show a more detailled view of some of the sprues contained in the box! In general the quality of the cast is good, I found a few issues (mostly airbubbles) on Radagast (especially the nose an the hat unfortunately) and the rabbits. This certainly can be repaired with some Liquid greenstuff or milliput juice, but it's still kinda annoying. Also there is general mould lines and flash, which can easily be removed with a sharp hobby knife and some small grain sandpaper. As stated above, there where no deformations or major faults. However, I find that the sculpt is not as good as it could have been...compared to Radagast and Sebastian released earlier this year, the sculpt lacks detail, especially in the face. While on the foot version the actor's facial features were greatly reproduced, on this version the face seems to lack detail in general. Some of the rabbits look like they were sculpted in a rush. Apart from this, this really is a good miniature, but it takes some skill, a lot of patience and a very sharp knife to assemble this kit. Due to the fragility of finecast, the different parts should be handled with care, because some parts ( the sleigh in particular) are very thin and therefore difficult to repair if anything should break of.

Despite the minor flaws and the rather complex assembly, this is a miniature I'm really looking forward to painting. I will publish further articles concerning assembly&painting!

I hope this review will be helpful for people who are not decided yet wether or not to get this miniature.

Marc

Unboxing: Warriors of Dale

I have finally managed to get some of the newly released Warriors of Dale. GW has been stingy with these. It seems as if most independent retailers as well as GW stores have only got some few copies... I don't think I'll ever understand this company...

 

This box has been a controversial issue in the forums since it contains not the standard number of 12 models but only 10 (for which we don't even have a ruleset in the official books). Many hobbyists have detected some hidden price increase here but actually I don't see how the two additional models should have been forced into this frame. There are 4 warriors with spear, 3 warriors with sword and 3 archers in the box. 7 of them have the option for a shield. The frame is loaded with miniature parts. Especially the cloaks are quite bulky, similar to those of the new Elven cavalry, and take a lot of space. Nevertheless they add a great touch to those models and give them a very dynamic appearance. I really like Weta's Eastern European design and it has been perfectly caught in these models.

Im pretty sure the models will look gorgeous as an addition to an Erebor army, although I would prefer to field some warband of these on their own. I really could imagine these in some scenarios, defending a trade caravan against some Easterlings or patroling Rhovanion for marauding orc bands. I hope they extend the Men of Dale as a playable army some day... Otherwise it will mean a lot of conversion work for me... At least some characters would be nice...

As I already mentioned, the Warriors of Dale have no entry in the rulebooks so far. It's a shame that GW seems to have planned the Hobbit releases in such a sloppy and insufficient way, especially since it degrades the value of the hardcover rulebook... Why should I prefer the hardcover rulebook to the cheap one in the EfGT box set if it not even contains all the new profiles? Not very smart... 

On the other hand, I like GW's solution to this shortcoming. They simply relased the rules with the miniatures. The cardboard stat card that comes with the box contains the profiles of the Warriors of Dale in 6 languages. There's not much on it but some crappy text about their background (which I can't bring into context with the books at all...) and the profiles for warriors and a captain. Actually that is all I needed. I didn't expect some fancy artwork or some new special rules. All I wanted was some regular, well balanced troops and it's a real pleasure that the rules reflect that. Unluckily they don't seem to have the options for horns or flags. I'm curious if this is only because someone in Nottingham has been sloppy again, or if they really are intended to get no flags at all. Since they are guardsmen, I really would have loved some alarm horns or bells sound off...

 

Fin