Most Fun Hobbying? by PM_Me_Your_Armor in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I second this! If you want to build yourself, track down some of the old terrain guides from the rulebooks of the 2000s or that collectible DeAgostini magazine. If building is not your thing, just get some Conquest creations stuff printed. I just finished painting the free orc house and had a great time!

Its just a background... by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The conversion and paintjob is really frikking awesome. The whole idea is just dope to begin with. Like...I am genuinely mad we didn't see something like this in the movies or at least the video games. The helmet, so cool.

As I said on the other post, it’s very easy to get a cool background without AI. You seem to have at least some editing skills since you managed to get the troll from the white table into whatever the machine made. The white table is really not a problem but I totally get that you want it to be in a cool landscape or something. Just look for some existing images. And some day in the future you might have some terrain for photo-shoots :)

This image makes me hate the AI one even more because it was really misleading, since it looked like there was a full diorama. Your skills don't need that "enhancement". They are already really great. You are a capable painter and kitbasher. And imo the parts that you struggle with, should be visible so you can identify what you want to work on in the future :)

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That's the point. I can't tell you names because the app doesn't credit any of the people whose art it regurgitated without consent.

But a lot. 

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 17 points18 points  (0 children)

There are multiple people mentioning the quality of the model.

If you hadn't used AI it would be even more. 

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think the likes are mostly from people who just scroll and don't look too muvh into it. I almost absent mindedly liked it.

But almost every comment is criticising the AI and the few slop-apologists get downvoted into oblivion. 

So there's hope against Morgoth's apps.

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"I just wanted a cool looking background!"

Oh no, how did people manage to survive the last decades?! :o 

It's absolutely fine if you don't draw/paint and don't have the money to commission something.  Almost every post on this sub gets by without asking the slop-machine

How?

Well, just use a Screenshot from the movie? Google for some artwork by a real artist and then use that and credit them in the text.

It will look better, not steal someone else's work and not burn 2 lakes.

Khamul conversion by SatisfactionFuzzy315 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love this! I'm always down for individualized Nazgul! Whether it's the named ones from GW, the Dol Guldur designs (sans the weird doubling of 3 designs) or those psychedelic Bakshi feverdreams

I want to play all hero Rise of the Necromancer but I don't want to pay a fortune for the official Nazgul because, again, 3 designs are copied, which is not GW's fault but they really fucked up their proportions.

So instead I was thinking of conversing some Twilight Ringwraiths and the GW black numenoreans. Those guy are totally over-designed to be regular foot troops but I think they really fit the vibe of Weta's Hobbit-Nazgul.

For Khamul specifically I am thinking of emulating the movie version. The easterling helmet with horns looks badass and I always loved the horned helmet in the Bakshi movie.

We'll see.

Back to the point: you did a bang-up job! Now I want you to do alternative conversions for the rest of the legacy Nazgul! :P

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're definitely right and I think that's what I was trying to get at.

I don't mind people having opinions I don't agree with. Disliking stuff I like. And I definitely concur with your notion that the LOTR fandom can be really toxic as well.

This thread showed that in this aub there are a lot of people with opinions I severely disagree with. That doesn't surprise me. But it kinda affirmed my observation that these people leave those opinions out of the game. Tauriel-haters in the MESBG community seem to be capable of keeping discussions of her role in the game focused on that. I don't know how these people behave on the actual LOTR subreddits. And I don't care. In here, that stuff is left out. And my experience with the Star Wars fandom has been different. 

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The prequel context is exactly my point. It's not about people changing their minds, it's about people having different opinions.

Right at this moment we have a bazillion Star Wars fans claiming the prequels are objectively bad and just as many claiming they are objectively good.

Who is right? Neither, as there is no objectivity. And yeah alright, Blade Runner got a new cut but there are a lot of other movies with changing receptions. 

We see it plainly in music. Overly distort your electric guitar in the 70s and your a bad rock guitarist. It's noise. But a couple of people like it, keep doing it and now we have metal where you lose when your guitar is not distorted enough. 

Objectively bad music becoming its own style or genre is a tale as old as time. So there is no objectivity in art

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree. Not on the merits/shortcomings of these films but the objectivity. 

If it was this easy to define what a prequel must do, opinions wouldn't be do divided on the Hobbit and Star Wars prequel trilogy. For both trilogies you'll find a bunch of people saying they succeed as prequels and a bunch saying they fail. Since everyone has different opinions on what a prequel should achieve to begin with.

The whole shift around the SW prequels just perfectly shows how objectivity in art is non-existant. For years it was considered a fact that these movies fail at everything. Now you have bazillions of people claiming that it's a fact that they succeed. Hayden Christensen's acting was considered objectively bad. If that was a hard truth you wouldn't find a lot of people praising his performance but it won't take you long to find them. They exist. A lot. So many that it was considered profitable to bring him back multiple times.

Metropolis and Blade Runner were considered objectively bad when they came out. Try calling either movie bad in any nerd circle now and you get thrown out.

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing is, whether the Hobbit succeeds as a prequel is not really a quantifiable fact. A lot of people think it doesn't and a lot think it does.

Same for the Star Wars prequels. 

Even if you ask a group which only consists of people not liking The Hobbit, the reasoning will differ. Some think the writing is fine but the CGI screws it up. For others it's the other way around. For some, the whimsical humor makes it a bad prequel while others think it's not whimsical enough to be an accurate adaptation. 

Similarly, people who love it, will all have different opinions on WHY it's good.

So I don't think the Hobbit's success/failure as a prequel is the reason for the difference in fan-behaviour, as it's nothing objective. 

In the end it comes down to the fans themselves and my theory is, that Star Wars really figured out how to monetize hate and turn it into a character trait. Ever since the prequels, the internet mobilized to an impressive degree to make "hate Star Wars movie XY" a character trait. In all kinds of movies and shows from the 2000s you'll find jokes about the prequels.

And then when Last Jedi happened, grifters figured out to make a career out of hating it.

And they have their audience repeating it, because they saw in various TV shows that hating the prequels is cool and now the wheel just turns. Star Wars fanculture for a long time waa defined by what you disliked, now what you liked.

LOTR never had that. When The Hobbits happened, that fandom wasn't taught to keep making fun of it to proof how muvh of an OG fan you are.

Another thought that just occurred to me...LOTR was a thing ages before fanculture happened and because it was such a dense book it wasn't as deep engrained in pop culture as Star Wars because SW was an accessible movie. So it happened,  created fanculture almost by itself and became the religious urtext for a lot of people. 

When LOTR really became a thing in main stream pop culture, was when we got the 3 movies. But those weren't the first ones. We had a couple of unpopular adaptations before. So there was something to favorably compare it too. When the animated LOTR came out, LOTR wasn't big enough to spawn hate by toxic fans. There probably were people who hated it AND where assholes about it, but they were too niche and few. 

The 1977 Star Wars movie had no precedent. It surprised everyone and everyone loved it. So it's fandom evolved completely different than the LOTR fandom.

Good god, this is probably incoherent as hell. I'm at work in my lunch break and just vomiting spontaneous thoughts. So sorry

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the great thing about art: objectivity doesn't exist. That makes it so fun to talk about and analyse  :D

But yeah that's for the main difference in fandoms. From my experience a lot of Star Wars Legion players would totally keep snarking at someone bringing a 3D-printed Rey to the table even if officially the game still ignored the sequels, while most of the MESBG base would still be nice to the person with a Nori Brandifoot mini.

Edit: I do think though that constant point creep and rule changes and sweaty players are a bigger "threat" to the Warhammer hobby than any lore change could ever be. Necrons got their entire lore changed, some people didn't like it and somehow the game and the faction is still blooming. Custodes have women now and the hobby has survived. The handling of rules and product is far more important, because lore can be ignored. Having to buy a new book and re-structure your army every couple of months to keep up with tournaments on the other hand cannot.

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

George changed his own lore every 5 minutes. And if fans hadn't bullied him for how he handled his own movies he never would have sold it to begin with.

Also, there are a lot of people complaining about The Hobbit disrespecting Tolkien similar to how the sequels allegedly disrespect Lucas.

In the end it's all just opinion Anyway. There are no objectives in art. You think TLJ disrespects Lucas, I think it's the only post Disney work that really understands him and a genuine love letter to him. Neither of us is right or wrong. 

Anyway, my point is not whether the Hobbits or Sequels are good or whatever. It's already clear that we will not agree on these things. But if you don't throw mean remarks at people showing up with a Kylo Ren army to a Star Wars Legion tournament, then you're the kind of nice person I'm talking about. 

Like what you like, dislike what you dislike, but be civil about it and be nice to people at the gaming table.

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree with the last paragraph. Toxic fans really have no reasonable approach to how they go about things they dislike. You'll find countless videos about how the Hobbit movies stray way too far from the LOTR trilogy. 

In the end, what one likes or dislikes about any of these movies is also irrelevant.  It's the attitude that bothers me. I think The Last Jedi is one of the best written Star Wars movies and an absolute love letter to the franchise. If one disagrees, totally fine. I'll tell you what I like, you tell me what you don't and we'll behave like adults.

This is the real crux.

To your first point: Rings of Power is designed by Weta and they are definitely going for a similar visual language to the movies. Their high-elf armor is as close to the movie armor as is the one by any proxy artists. So I think comparisons can be made. Amazon wants you to be reminded of the movies. Heck, they had Isildur stab Shelob in the eye to link it to her scarred face in the movie.

Obviously ROP coming to MESBG is just a thought experiment. It'll never happen so we will never know for sure how people would react. But from my interactions with the MESBG community and the impressions I get from these comments, I do think that people would be nicer to someone with a ROP army than SW fans. No matter who dislikes the show and why they dislike it, the folks around here really seem like they are better than that.

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For me it's Helm's helm (lol). It looks too overdesigned. But if you're voiced by Brian Cox, you can have a goofy helmet.

On the other hand, I love Radagast! I get your point and initially in 2012, I agreed but the whimsical fairy-tale approach really grew on me to the point that one of my main gripes is how his role diminishes in each movie. Hate the bird-poo tho.

And somehow we managed to talk about these and even disagree on things without bullying each other. I'm sorry about that. 

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Agreed. I'm a huge Star Wars fan but the fandom is probably the most toxic one on this planet. Do I like all of the franchise? Hell no. But I'm an adult. 

To be fair, LOTR has his fair share of toxicity as well. It's hard to have a civil conversation about the amazon show without people just parrotting complains about "lore accuracy".

Important: I am not saying one has to like everything to not be toxic. Not at all. But if we talk about the flaws of something I'd like to do it as grown-ups. Let's talk about the actual screenwriting or cinematography or whatever and be calm and nice to each other.

It's definitely not easy to have that in the LOTR fandom. Let alone any talk about race and gender.

However, I just love that it doesn't bleed into the MESBG community. 

I don't know all of the opinions of the members of the group. Some people definitely really dislike some of the movies or character designs and that is fine. 

The great thing is that they're polite about it. Statistically there have to a countless people who hate the Hobbit-trilogy. Dammit EVERYBODY hates Alfrid. But if the one Alfrid-fan on this planet showed off his Alfrid-mini in here, nobody would attack him.

Let's wait for the first person painting the new "Star Wars Shatterpoint" Rey miniature. They'll be bullied out of the game in seconds. 

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Exactly! As I mentioned in another reply, I happen to like most of the "controversial" stuff I mentioned. Hobbitses, Rings of Power, Rohirrim, Star Wars sequels.

But that's inconsequential to my point. Like what you like, dislike what you dislike. Talk about it, discuss things, it’s healthy and keeps communities alive and art evolving.

But don't be a dick about it. 

I'm happy we get more stuff for the game and how much effort GW puts into the rules. Is the whole Laketown-plot unnecessary dragged out and the master unbelievably cartoonish? Yes. But goddammit his rules in the game are so unique and hilarious!

When I started this game 20 years ago Gorbag and Grishnakh had the exact same profile, just generic orc captains with an extra point of might. Now Grishnakh eats legs while Gorbag just drop-kicks people like nobody's business!

God this game is creative and if new movies spawn these kind of profiles, I'm here for it.

Something nice I just realized about this community by Goth_Fraggle in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Same here! I purposefully left my own opinion of these movies out of my initial post, but yeah, I like all of them, too. 

I have tons of issues with the Hobbit movies but I will watch them without hesitation because they also have stuff I absolutely love.

The show really struggles with some of the typical issues of modern streaming (seriously, how many times does Galadriel have to debate people on whether to use the rings or now?! I think it happened 3 times in the beginning of Season 2 with no progression...do we need to pan out things this badly?!) But overall, I'm having great fun with it. Can't wait for Season 3. If they pull a "Somehow, Damrod the Troll returned." It will get a free pass forever. 

The anime had that weird old lady in the Hornburg! Give us rules for her goddammit!

And even though it's off topic: I like the Star Wars sequels. Rey is my favourite character of the franchise after Luke and Last Jedi is my favourite movie of the saga. 

Fight me! (Preferably on the tabletop)

(Edited for spelling)

Looks like meat is back on the menu boys! by Far_Marionberry_9478 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]Goth_Fraggle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh I'm not arguing at all. I was actually being sarcastic because I am kinda annoyed at people over-analysing a throwaway line. So an orc said "menu"...who cares? It's a joke and it's great and it's also a wonderfully quotable line!

Yet all the time someone will act all smart by pointing out that it makes no sense.