Ruins of Dol Guldur kit

[Chief Lackey Rich]

So this thing's finally on pre-order from GW, probably on sale next week:



Supposed to be modular so you can stick the bits together in different ways, and of course they're hoping you'll buy a dozen sets to make their marketing department happy.  At $65 retail that isn't likely to happen, but it doesn't look like a bad kit for the size if you can find a decent discount.  Can't compete with home-printed or trash-bashed terrain for cost, but nothing really can, can it?  Similar stuff cast in resin would be pretty close in cost while also being heavier, although probably better detailed.



The skulls are thankfully separate bits you can add where you want, or just leave off altogether.  The, um, stuff on the stonework is cast on though, which is mildly annoying.  Took a hard pass on the Hobbit movies so I'm not clear what the hell Jackson was trying for there - is that junk supposed to be rusted metal or something?  You do get a dead tree, some equally dead-ish creepers for dressing up walls or cliff faces and a generic creepy statue as well, which is kind of nice.





Looks like one of each sprue to me, but maybe there's two of the "all stonework" one in the second image.  Everything is Lord of the Rings scale, so more 25mm-ish than whatever GW thinks their other stuff is these days - 32mm?  That's a plus for use with actual Frostgrave figs, although it might look out of place with chunkier 28mm sculpts or bloated 30mm+ stuff.

Be interested to see how many people add a "Hill of Sorcery" neighborhood to their Felstad with this thing, or if the cost and scale makes it a flop outside of the GW diehard community.

[SotF]

If you want more on them, Zorpazorp seems to have managed to get some early and is using them in a Dol Guldur board.

[fred]

It’s an interesting looking building  - but what are all the brown strap things? They really make it look odd.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

If you want more on them, Zorpazorp seems to have managed to get some early and is using them in a Dol Guldur board.

Well, that's pretty ambitious.  Probably make a mint selling that to some collector eventually, especially if he didn't have to pay for the...$780 at retail???  Yeah, $780 worth of plastic kits.  Yeesh.  Still, you can also see how much scratchbuilding went into it, and how fundamentally easy (albeit time-consuming) it is to get good-looking effects out of much cheaper materials, so kudos to him for that.

Kits themselves look pretty good, more promising on the modularity end of things than I'd have expected from the frame shots.

what are all the brown strap things? They really make it look odd.

Like I said, I think they're supposed to be heavily rusted metal that's been clamped or bolted to the stonework, but I'm not sure.  There's some civic architecture near me that has a sort of similar thing going on, I think the metal parts there are holding crumbling stone facings together so the slow rain of debris doesn't kill people walking by.  Me, I always cross the street to avoid the place.

Regardless, blame Jackson for the look.  Tolkein's probably spinning in his grave over the Hobbit flicks.

[fred]

If its from the Hobbit movies then who knows!! They were unwatchable shit.

I’ve seen metal crosses / strapping on old buildings to secure old masonry but only 1 or 2 on a wall. Not the whole wall covered in them…

[Chief Lackey Rich]

If its from the Hobbit movies then who knows!! They were unwatchable shit.

Preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned.  The three or four minutes of clips I've seen still give me a headache.

I’ve seen metal crosses / strapping on old buildings to secure old masonry but only 1 or 2 on a wall. Not the whole wall covered in them…

In the real world, yeah.  Felstad and Middle Earth both pretty fantastic though, and apparently the Dol Guldur in the flick (flicks?  Was it in more than one?  Jackson stretched the book to three full length movies somehow) is such a falling-down ruin it might need all the help it can get to stay even partially upright.

For Felstad use, maybe they're some kind of arcane architectural addition that keeps incorporeal spirits from passing through the walls, or block teleportation-style magic, or they carry a bunch of warding glyphs that keep spells like Crumble from, well, crumbling the building they're on?  You could paint them rusty (the city's been under a glacier for a thousand years) or do something else.  What color is orichalcum or witch iron or truesteel? 

[Grumpy Gnome]

Mrs. GG are unsure about these. At first I really liked them but the longer I looked at them the more the metal bands put me off. And the price is not helping.

However, Rich you make a good suggestion with anti-ethereal defenses for Frostgrave.

It always amazes me how much Mrs. GG and I enjoy Jackson’s LOTR (even though it diverges from Tolkien) and how much we do not enjoy his Hobbit.

[Bloggard]

other way 'round for me: found LoTR unpleasant and (towards the end) laughable due to the things Jackson emphasised and mis-represented (and failed to include in the standard 'cut'), in terms of the books' depiction of things imo.
Apalling irresponsible bollox with the real world as it is ... while oddly sat through the Hobbit films without too much bother.

... and ... underwhelmed by the kit. Might be a dodgy paint-job but the overeall impression is of an enthusiastic 'amateur' let loose on the blue / pink foam (although I couldn't get close to be fair, no matter how much enthusiasm might be mustered).

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I'm very hit-or-miss on the kit as Felstad fodder myself, but I'd mentioned it on an older thread here when they first showed a teaser image and there was some interest then, so I thought it'd be polite to give a heads up now that its imminently available.  Maybe I should have just stuck it in general fantasy, but I don't feel like helping GW advertise quite that much. 

If I do get a set or two it'll be at the best discount I can find, but I may just skip altogether.

That youtube vid table setup's impressive but impractical, to put to mildly.  Have to admit it doesn't look like a bad space to Frostgrave in, albeit a little too open for my tastes - but of course its an homage to the films and teh GW game doesn't work anything like FG does.

[Emir of Askaristan]

If its from the Hobbit movies then who knows!! They were unwatchable shit.

 

I’ve seen metal crosses / strapping on old buildings to secure old masonry but only 1 or 2 on a wall. Not the whole wall covered in them…

That made me smile thanks!

[Grumpy Gnome]

The zorpazorpa video is indeed impressive but that project is well beyond my current project list. And as you say Rich, more in tune with the movie than FG and MESBG playability.

[Psychopomp]

Meh.  A Sunday afternoon with dollar store foamcore, a craft knife, a ballpoint pen, and a ruler, and you'd have assembled three times the scenery for less than one-tenth the cost, and be at the same point in the process as you would after clipping and plastic-gluing the kit together.

And it'd be more appropriate for Frostgrave and wouldn't have the ugly orc repair banding all over it, to boot.

[carlos marighela]

It’s an interesting looking building  - but what are all the brown strap things? They really make it look odd.

Trellises. The original pitch for this kit was ‘ The Conservatory of of Dol Guldur’. 

[Khusru2]

I prefer some colour in the Frostgrave games. They were wizards and likely ensorcelled their buildings to keep them pristine. Maybe. 'Make Frostgrave Colourful!'

[Karadek]

It always amazes me how much Mrs. GG and I enjoy Jackson’s LOTR (even though it diverges from Tolkien) and how much we do not enjoy his Hobbit.

Isn't that the damn truth? Love the LotR movies, can hardly watch the Hobbit ones. The first one is (questionably) okay, but it takes a steep downhill turn after that.