An Awesome Look At The Mighty Smaug For The Hobbit!
December 4, 2014 by brennon
As well as all the Blood Angels coming this week there's also the small fact of that massive Dragon called Smaug for The Hobbit. We saw a blurry picture of him earlier in the week but now there are some full on sneaky peeks from Games Workshop's White Dwarf for us to enjoy...
As you can see he really is indeed a massive sculpt and while the scale isn't quite on it's still a massive undertaking by Games Workshop. As a few people have pointed out, Smaug isn't actually cast in Finecast but instead high quality resin meaning that maybe Games Workshop had a bit of help from Forge World on this one?
The detail is quite impressive across the board from his teeth and scars on his face all the way to his armour plating and scales on his underside. It might carry a hefty price tag but could it be worth it? As you can see in the detail photos above even the base has loads of little trinkets to spot like the Arkenstone itself. The individual texture of scales seems to have been modeled too.
You can't have Smaug without Bard and it looks as if we're going to get him (alongside loads of Laketown Guards) with his Windlance that stood atop Esgaroth's tower in the middle of town. I really do hope that we see Bard firing this at Smaug and missing the shot only to have to grab his bow and arrow proper and shoot that spot on Smaug's breast. Wouldn't be right otherwise!
Are you a fan of this Smaug sculpt?
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This is first time dragon made by GW has impressed me. That Smaug looks really good but considering that it’s most likely Finecast it’s not really worth it’s price tag.
I can’t see how a mini like that could be made using spincasting (which is what Finecast was). It has to be hand-poured resin.
If it is resin … and $500.00 … I could care less than less.
If they had made this in plastic and kept the pricetag less than $150.00. Hell I’d have bought 4 and done conversions. I can’t stand how fragile and fiddly resin is for any miniature I’m going to be PLAYING a game with. I have never and will never understand why resin became so popular (other than it is cheap as hell for the manufacturer).
If only this model had been plastic 🙁
I don’t think this has been made with the intention of gaming. GW have gone down the collectors route with The Hobbit range since the first movie.
? rich collectors you mean.
That tends to be where the collectors route goes.
I think that is slightly unfair. There are several enthusiasts of premium products all over the world from fine wines, to clothing and porches, and to coins and everything in between. Several of these are even arguably inferior to even the lowest price brand on offering (Bottle water, anyone?), but that doesn’t stop people from working hard or saving up for them. One does not have to be rich to stretch every once in a while if one has the desire to do so, or if one is enthusiastic enough about something. GW is a premium model company (in their… Read more »
No argument here. I don’t have an issue at all with the either price or someone paying it.
they did have a nice dragon lead /white metal back in the 80s.
The chicken ? Well… I for one am glad we’re past the eighties…
I’ll let you get that chicken in an oven then? LOL
great spined dragon ?
To reiterate what I said on the first news story, if the $500 is true, then I think it’s worth it.
Big.
But pretty meh as far as dragons go. For that pricetag i would rather get the dragon from CMON.
It’s nice, but it’s not Cang… And certainly not worth 500 of anything.
@elromanzo it might be worth 500 Zimbabwean dollars not US though 😉
truly you are magnificent, oh Smaug the Extortionate!
he he
I think that wins comment of the week 😉
Warren.
Please could you award yourself a corrective karma point.
Derpy here hit the wrong thumb 🙁
Lol! 😀
don’t forget he is gold platted at one point. the will add up the price?
Beautiful Model
Really was only ever going to be possible in hand cast resin.
Price is fair in my opinion too
So the dragon was downgraded to a Wyvern? I stayed away from Hobbit because I was sure I would not enjoy it and seen this now is a bit shocking to me.
The pricetag less shocking really, it does not surprise me with GW label behind it, sad as it may be.
I think for an advanced model, of that size, from the premium price category company of the industry, the price is fair. Anyone looking to pick up something like that is not the kind of person who was going to slap a quick coat of finger paint on it, and put it on the table. While I disagree with GW’s collector driven philosophy, there’s no question this is a shelf piece and meant to be the center of any room’s attention.
Still on my wishlist for x-mas.
It looks really nice, just wondering when we are going to see the size comparison against anything other than Bilbo ?
It’s a beautiful mini if you can call it a mini lol – dread to think what the price tag is
It is a pity such a good rendering of the film designs have not been consistent across The Hobbit range. Can’t help feeling that it has been a wasted opportunity.
Am trying to think of where I could put Smaug and struggling, and no I am NOT going to attempt to shove him there, would not be fair on the old fellow.
He deserves far better cave.
The sculpt (what can be seen of it) looks fine. I would only undertake such a beastie if I had a secure glass cabinet to display it in as there is nothing worse than dusty minis.
Well there is but you get the idea. Pay mad price for vast dragon, spend days building and painting it, let dust fall on it – no.
I need a bigger house 🙂
I reckon he looks nicer than Cang, he’s a really imposing and handsome model but the pricetag for both of said models is offputting anyway as I personally just couldn’t justify paying that much for what would be a display unit to myself. (I don’t play any games that would need a model of that size)
Peach of a model, imo.
I agree, I actually don’t like Cang at all. Smaug us better, but still not brilliant. However, it’s the design I don’t like, so I can’t blame GW for Peter Jackson’s decisions.
at $550 dollars in Australia I will be pre-ordering this on Saturday. I just hope my painting can do it justice.
I’m really enjoying getting back to lotr lately and while the hobbit minis are pretty pricy the lotr ones are pretty cheap even at full retail.
I like it but not getting one.
I’d rather burn the 500 on something from the WETA workshop merchandise store instead!
I.E this for the dwarf fans out there:
https://www.wetanz.com/king-thror-on-throne/
You have a good point if I had the money I would get this version of Smaug.
https://www.wetanz.com/smaug-the-terrible/
I did see this one and it looks like they might be about the same size at 52cm long.
Only 200 dollars more… and probably ten times the quality. Still too expensive, but even so, not bad !
I don’t see where you’re getting 10 times the quality @elromanozo . The Weta one is a complete rip off if you ask me. The pose lacks any kind of power or dynamism, there is no sense of scale, the treasure has no discernible detail. In short, Weta’s Smaug looks more like a lizard sitting on a mound of gold sand.
The GW version actually looks like it’s been sculpted by somebody who understands scale and movement.
Very nice…..but I’ll pass all the same.
I like this one better. Better sculpt although probably not to scale:
http://www.geenemodels.com/dragon-kit/
that one is nice as well.
This is a marvelous mode. Price seems fair enough. Gaming piece this ain’t!
Well, I’m glad, if not joyous, he isn’t in Finecast and he does look incredible. Pity I can’t use the gold on his base to pay for him but I’ve never really bought minis unless they had a practical gaming value. I think the price is fair but I’d still rather get into a game and have change left for a few Christmas pints and a mince pie or two 🙂 The odd thing is if he were a Forgeworld mini and not a GW one I wouldn’t have been so sceptical about the use of “resin” – that’s what… Read more »
Ya bizarre isn’t it, they could have saved themselves so much speculation if they just said right out of the gate “made from the same gaming grade resin our friend’s at FW use, blah blah”.
Anyways, the 360 view is up on GW, as is the preview video, and I think he looks spectacular. Given how he wraps around the base, I think he may fit on a table slightly better than I thought he would initially … but that doesn’t stop him from being big .. and heavy… 5lbs model, holy cow.