Painters Review of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings Release:

Balin and the Kazad Guard.

  By Steve Crofts.  

Foreword

  Although I am predominantly a historical wargamer I do like a change when painting, and a chance to paint a few fantasy figures does give me that chance.

When I first started collecting miniatures they were in fact fantasy and I've always loved painting them since.

The Box

  Well what can I say, a typical Games Workshop box, highly colourful and full of pictures of the miniatures in their painted state, and including the information about them.

Glad to say the figures were metal, I don't like those plastic things they have released, a real abomination as far as I'm concerned and a waste of good money, but thats another subject!, on with the review.  

First Thoughts

  Looking at the figures in there bare state I was taken aback by the amount of flash on them, a lot more than what I'm used to put it that way.

It is here that I feel I must warn you, when removing the flash use extreme care especially around the axe heads, these are quite brittle and will break easily if you don't take the care required, glueing them back on can be very labourious and difficult, luckily for me this only happened once.

I found that I was getting a little frustrated at times removing the flash, mostly when it was in difficult to get at places, but time and patience eventually prevails!

All that said, the figures are very highly detailed and both poses and movement are excellent.

After my usual clean and dry I then sprayed them with primer, this really showed off the detail, and incidentally small bits of flash that I hadn't noticed, so more cleaning up had to be done and another quick spray of primer.

( I wasn't impressed to say the least!).  

Painting

  Painting the figures was I must say to my relief, was a real pleasure, plenty of detail to work with and a good selection of poses, ( again I feel that I must mention that, no two of the figures are alike as far as there pose was concerned).

The detail can be really worked with on these figures and you can put as much or as little highlight on them, It's all a matter of personal taste and the effect you want.  

Final Thoughts

  A nice set of figures that will appeal to most and can stand alone or used together in a vignette or for gaming.

The only real problem I had with these figures was the amount of flash on them and the cleaning off time this required before the commencement of painting.

As for the price well I must say that as far as this is concerned I do feel the price ticket on them is well on the high side, and for what is paid for nine I could have got 21 others for the same amount maybe more depending on the manufacturer.

If the reason for the high price tag is the box and it's artwork etc... well I'd be glad to receive the set in a blister or even a plastic bag, after all, all you do with the packaging is throw it away!

I feel that if the manufacturer lowered the price by say half then this would be reasonable and they would ,I feel sell more in the long run.

All that said a very nice set of figures, that are a real joy to paint

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