I am very, much a Tolkien purist and I did enjoy the Desolation of Smaug. There were however one or two moments I felt were pointless additions. The biggest disappointment however was the decision to use a CGI Bolg at the last minute when they had already filmed Conan Stevens as a live action Bolg that looked far superior. I'm not saying Bolg didn't look good in the film. I thought he looked suitably creepy and evil as any son of Azog should. However I think he totally lacked the brutal and badass look that the scrapped live action Bolg had.
 |
| New and Old Bolg side by side |
Due to this change being last minute and a victim of the decision to change the Hobbit films from two movies to three, many manufacturers made Bolg products featuring this design including action figures, posters and of course miniatures. In tribute to a truly awesome orc design that never made the silver screen I give you my rendition of Bolg:
I really enjoyed painting this model and spent an afternoon working on him when I really should have been painting some Dark Elves. I strayed somewhat from the GW colour scheme in order to try and get as close to the pictures as possible. He was fun to paint with all the little details and various pieces that make up his armour; in fact I shouldn't mind getting another model of him and trying some conversions.
And here is a bonus picture of Bolg next to Azog who looks certainly looks less imposing than his son. This version of Bolg simply has more bulk to him as well as a bigger weapon which makes him far more menacing. Azog looks somewhat tame for an orc by comparison.
Previous plans of perhaps doing a full Hobbit army have proven ultimately to be unrealistic with the price of the models. Instead I am only going to get the models of characters I particularly liked while I focus upon my main armies. For WFB I am going to downscale my Warriors of Chaos and increase my Vampire Counts to 2000 points. For 40k I am going to trim a few units from my Dark Eldar and see about consolidating my Imperium armies if rumours of a new Imperial Guard codex prove to be true. I would also like to look into smaller skirmish games such as Infinity or Malifaux, more just to try out new styles of painting than anything else.
Also, if GW should ever make Smaug I might have to buy it. Even if it does mean selling a kidney...