The Seat of Seeing

One of the reasons I really wanted to play through the Quest of the Ringbearer campaign was it would encourage me to collect and build the characters and locations from Middle Earth at a measured pace.

Having reached Lothlorien in the campaign, I know that the next stop is Amon Hen, the Seat of Seeing, in the Emyn Muil where the Fellowship is ambushed by the Uruk-Hai.

It's from one of my favourite scenes in the movies, when Aragorn sends Frodo away walks round the seat to face a veritable horde of Uruks with a look on his face that says, "you boys are in so much trouble."

Despite only being in the background of one set piece, the Seat of Seeing is, for me, one of the more iconic locations in the trilogy, and one that is small enough that I don't need a house extension to store it.

This piece is 3d printed (for those that care, the main body is FDM, whilst the statues are resin) and bought off and Etsy seller, REZ3DPrinting, who I'd heartily recommend - really fast delivery, well packaged, etc.

There was a little bit of cleaning to do on the statues, and the top platform was separate from the column and steps, but the whole thing went together really quickly.

There are some visible layer lines in the columns, but when it comes to stone, that's not really an issue. Additionally, there is a very slight warp on the top platform that means that it's not quite flush at the back of the model. This is not particularly noticeable as I only spotted it when I was gluing the thing together.

The use of resin to pint the statues offers much more detail on the parts of the model that draw the eye, adding to the whole piece.

I've kept the eagles separate so that I can potentially use the main structure in other circumstances, without it clearly being from Lord of the Rings as it has a generic temple/altar feel without them.

The broken sphinx statues will also be quite versatile in pulp or fantasy games. All of which makes this a piece that I'll probably get to use more than I have Weathertop.

When it came to painting, there's nothing to report. A dark grey base with a heavy dry brush of light grey. Job done.

Yes, there are ways of making it look more like real stone, but it's going to have orcs with plastic bases struck to their feet moving round it, so I'll cope with a bit of lacking realism.

I'm really pleased with how the whole piece has come out and I'm looking forward to the next scenarios (there's actually a choice of doing three linked battles, or one big one).

Before I get there, I do need to paint some of the Fellowship in their Elven Cloaks. I do own suitable models of Legolas and Gimli, but I need to track down an Aragorn. I might not bother with Boromir, as it would only be used in this battle, whereas barring a brief costume change at Helm's Deep, they'll be wearing the cloaks pretty much until the end of the campaign.

For tally fans, I'm counting this as one model, as I only counted it as one when it arrived, and it took less effort than a single miniature to do the whole thing.

Acquired: -69
Painted: 324
Lead Mountain: 660