Now this is what I call a hefty project. YouTube channel Real Terrain Hobbies is known for creating incredibly beautiful war gaming boards and dioramas and one of his latest – and most ambitious – pieces is an insanely detailed and gorgeously realistic recreation of the infamous location The Shire from The Lord of the Rings series. The end result is kind of mind blowing, so I knew I had to talk about it.
Real Terrain Hobbies- otherwise known as Neil- shows exactly how he went about creating The Shire as a wargame board in the twenty five minute YouTube video (which was honestly the fastest twenty five minutes I have watched in a long time. I was so invested), including building the hilly base, modelling the individual Hobbit holes, setting up the light features that would go into the Hobbit holes themselves and the copious amounts of painting. There is just so much painting. It’s also interesting to see how these kinds of projects come about and how they are made. For example, I had no idea that a lot of the features are actually designed digitally and then made via a 3-D printer before they are hand painted. Neil wasn’t alone in his work as he enlisted the help of fellow YouTuber Zorpazorp who painted a little fewer than fifty mini figures in a very short space of time. I’ll include his video here too so you can check out his painting and assembling process.
What I really like about this video is that the whole process is shown, including the mistakes (such as when Neil accidentally cuts one of the wires, leaving the Hobbits in darkness) and the more difficult moments. I love that Neil doesn’t show the process to be an unrealistically easy one. If you want to embark on a project like this, it’s going to be a tough road ahead but the end result will be incredibly rewarding. Make sure to check out the sponsors of this Real Terrain Hobbies video Woodland Scenics as well as Neil on his social media linked below. You can also check out his upcoming Kickstarter at the link here. Patreon, Facebook, Instagram.
