It’s 2 feet wide and 14 inches high. I’ll have a look at it but I doubt that I’ll buy it. People more into 40K than I am might jump on it though.

GW Fortress of Redemption

Fortress of Redemption; Legions of The Eye Launched, New Advance Orders | Friday, 23 October | What’s New Today | Games Workshop.

I ordered it by mail even though I live near 3 GW Stores. At the price of $180CDN, it qualified for free shipping anyway. Why would I, a terrain God (*Cough*), buy such a massively expensive set? So I can do an article of course. I also throught it was a good deal. The set contains the Fortified Manor, The Church, The Tower and three sets of walls and fences (not 3 fences… 3 SETS of fences).

Read More on our sister site: Terrain Monster  

Recently, I received an email from a company in England asking for a link exchange. Ever the curious soul, I checked it out. I was greeted with a very good looking “hobbit hole”. I’m a HUGE LoTR fan and have way more models than my wife thinks any normal (or abnormal) person should have. I checked out the site: Fantascene and emailed the owner (Geoff) back.

Link exchanges are easy enough and our site allows registered users to submit links o­n their own but I thought that this needed special treatment. In corresponding with Geoff we struck up a rapport, I created a banner ad (you did know we create graphics for people didn’t you?) and gave him a rotating banner ad. Geoff shipped me off a Hobbit Hole and a sample of their resin terrain for review. I’m saving the resin stuff for a separate article.

Over the web, it was very hard to judge scale and quality. Shipping from England took a week and arrived intact. Whenever I get a package of any sort, all 3 of my kids have to crowd in and get their faces in the way of the box cutter (Sigh). I dug the Hole out of the packing material and held it up. The oldest wanted to keep it for herself (a big LoTR and Harry Potter fan) and the 10 y.o. Declared that it was “really pretty”. The 5 y.o. Wanted to play with it right then and there.

My first impression as I lifted it was that it was a lot heavier than I expected. It had a good solid feel to it. It felt very playable. It looked as impressive as it felt. The detailing, painting and overall design didn’t disappoint in anyway that I could see. I had to see how it scaled to the GW style LoTR minis as I know that scale can be rather… ummm… creative?!?

Digging out Aragorn and some Ring Wraiths I positioned them around and o­n the Hole. The sizing is just about perfect and the figures do not look out of place in any way. A couple of these with some added terrain features like trees, etc. and you’d have an awesome gaming table.

I asked Geoff about his processes.

The Hobbit Holes are cast with a 2 part, dense urethane. The mold is made from a silicone mold supported by a fiberglass shell. The fiberglass is needed so that the expanding urethane doesn’t expand the mold out of shape. It is based o­n a smooth board with holes in it. The holes allow air and excess urethane to escape. The molds are cast upside down and the urethane expands to fill the mold and pick up the detailing.

Most manufactures would use a low density urethane (biscuit foam). Fantascene uses J7059 urethane which is far more dense than most and picks up a lot more detail. Durability is a huge factor but it comes at a price. It’s far more expensive so not suited for mass production. I think that, when looking at the finished product, it’s a fair trade and guarantees that it’ll be a more unique piece of terrain than a factory produced bit.

Remember, these are finished pieces. The cast urethane is primed, sprayed black and then painted with acrylics. The grass is static grass and the bushes are flocked. The fancy o­nes have trees and flowers glued to the foam.

In my view, the Hobbit Holes are required terrain bits for LoTR fans. Especially if you’re going to be Scouring The Shire. How do they compare to the GW o­nes made in the LoTR Expansion? More to scale I think. The round doors o­n the GW Holes are man sized so look too big in comparison.

The Pros:

Quality design and workmanship.
Good feel and weight.
Finished Product, no painting or assembly

The Cons:

Paint is a little glossy for my taste but a quick spray of Dull Coat fixes that.
Front porch is a little cramped for the more “heroic” poses of GW minis. Some of the bushes encroach o­n the flat space and 1” mini bases don’t sit flat in those places. Minor issues no matter how you slice it.

More pics are in the Hobbit Hole Gallery

Check out Fantascene and tell Geoff I sent you.

I wasn’t worried as the terrain is a single piece cast along the lines of the Hobbit Hole reviewed on Dungeon Crawlers recently.

Besides, I stole it back when she fell asleep.

It’s a perfect compliment to my LoTR games and since it doesn’t really have a scale, it’s more than usable for other games even at larger scale.

Fantascene sells terrain both finished and unfinished. I think Geoff’s skills at finishing make the ready to play stuff well worth it (besides… I’m pretty lazy)

WRONG

So what to do?

Have you ever thought of paper models?

Now don’t scoff at the notion of it. Have you ever seen Ebbles Miniatures?

That’s right, Ebbles Miniatures. They have a line of Mechs, Battle Suits, Vehicles, and Sci-Fi scenery that is PERFECT for wargaming.

I personally own several and will testify to the sturdy natures of these models.

For the cost of $2.99 per color or $9.56 for all 8 color schemes, this PzKpfR-62 Ausf G Wiking Battlesuit can be yours. Just think of it, you could field hundreds of them! The o­nly thing you would need to do is pick up some 110lbs card stock and some glue. But would an army of just these be enough? If not then maybe some fast attack vehicles are required. The M7 Fast Attack Vehicle is just the thing to have for additional support. Also available for the same price and in these 8 color schemes

You can see the Battle Suit to the Right in color #7 Factory Grey.

I’m a personal fan of the Type 18 myself and have put several of these bad boys together!

Tanks, APC, Mechs are also available for download. These models all come in Adobe portable document files and if you are clever and have photo editing software you make them two or three times the size as others have done in the past (granted it is a lot of work).

But vehicles and robots is not all that Ebbles Miniatures has to offer. They have a huge section of terrain. Can you say city fight?

I’m sure most of you can just imagine the battles that could rage through these streets. Light weight, easy to travle with. How could you possibly go wrong? This is not all, they offer Multi level extensions or cat walks, and several different objective rooms!

One of my personal favorites for scenery is the Firebase. I can not figure out if I want the challenge of attacking the firebase or defending it? Price is right $9.99

Now I go o­n to the next generation of Ebbles Miniature models and scenery. The UCM3. This next description is right from Ebbles Miniatures web site o­n the UCM3

What is it?
In a nutshell, UCM is a new file format for cardstock models which allows the customer to change the colors of UCM-formatted cardstock models in a simple point and click interface. UCM stands for “User Customizable Model”.

UCM3 is the newest fork in the User Customizable Model development path. The original UCM format was ideal for low-pagecount models with complex color schemes, while UCM3 is designed to handle much larger models such as scenery sets and accessory packs. UCM3 models also have a maximum of 255 user editable color regions, where the original had o­nly 8. UCM3 models also use less memory and load from disk more quickly.

UCMViewer 3 is a lightweight, freeware viewer and color editor for UCM3-formatted models. It currently runs under Windows 98SE/ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Home/Professional Editions.

Hey don’t take his word for it. Go download the UCM3 Viewer and check it out!

I asked the owner of Ebbles Miniatures a few simple questions for this article

1. What started you in designing paper miniatures?

I’ve been doing that since I was a kid. When I was around 5 or 6 years old, I built a really stupid looking, life-sized robot out of wrapping paper tubes and various sizes of cardboard boxes.

I’ve also made Halloween costumes out of cardboard, cardstock, and other things twice. o­ne of them was a transforming Optimus Prime costume, and the o­nly part of it I didn’t build was the head, since I already had o­ne of those cheesy plastic Halloween masks from a vinyl-like Optimus Prime kiddie costume. To transform, all I had to do was rotate the chest box and each leg 180 degrees, and then sit down backwards with my head and arms tucked into the chest box. Looked just like a cardboard truck, and it was a hit at school. Of course, it was so clunky I could barely move around in it…

I also turned my parents’ basement into some sort of spy hideout, when I was 11 or so, by converting a bunch of appliance boxes into life-sized computer banks and vehicles. Nothing fancy, it was mostly cut-to-fit with box cutters and tape, and detailed with black Magic Marker and spray paint. But it was a lot of fun.

After that, I scaled down to building scenery and accessories for action figures…then scratchbuilding gaming scenery from paper and cardstock in the late 1990s. It wasn’t until early 2003 that I decided to make a go of it commercially o­n RPGNow, just to see if there was a market for downloadable 3D models.

2. What direction is Ebbles Miniatures headded?

Well, there are a lot of things that I haven’t tried yet. I’d like to diversify a little and experiment with other ideas and concepts that could be represented well in cardstock. So, over the next few years, I think I’m going to be expanding the product line into new directions and taking a chance o­n things that would be too risky for a conventional publisher to undertake.

3. What is your favorite model you have designed so far?

It’s a toss-up…I’m partial to the MQ-3A Murphy because it was my first commercial model, but I’m also partial to the Wiking battlesuit. If there’s anything that illustrates your capabilities as a model designer, I think a 40mm tall battlesuit does a fine job of it. I call things like the battlesuit “because I can” projects, since their actual gaming utility is just a little o­n the impractical side, but the novelty factor has made it o­ne of my most popular models to date.

I have to agree with him! I have made several battlesuits and I’m working o­n a custom of it that is 200% the original size with custom weaponry taken from some of the other Ebbles Miniatures.

If you have any fears about “paper” then stop it right now! They are designed to be sturdy. I even let my 3 year old daughter and my 8 year old son play with them. Nothing wrong with them yet (the 7 month old and 2 year old is another story).

And if you are still worried you can support the inside with strips of cardstock, craft sticks, or foam core.

The last thing I really need to stress is the customer service. It is WONDERFUL, rarely do I see such thoughtful, kind, helping, and attention in an internet store.

I recommend Ebbles Miniatures to everyone that reads this article.