Reply To: First finished mithril in quite some time

Thanks guys, you’re far too kind . I’m afraid, Rita, that I don’t have the patience for dioramas, and tend to prefer working on the individual miniatures – I only have around 20 of the 600 or so painted, so if I have _any_ hope of painting them all before I die, I think I should focus on the Mithrils! Indeed, if I continue at a rate of a miniature every 2 years, I’ll need to live to the ripe old age of 1300 or so to finish ’em all! Fortunately, as I’m a human and not an Ent like Theobald, I should be a little quicker on my next mini, Farmer Maggot from the LR series.

In terms of colour scheme, I do have some more brightly painted figs, but it’s got to be appropriate. I tend to think of where each character fit’s into Tolkien’s world, and then ‘dress’ them accordingly. The ghost warrior, for instance, is in my mind a former Dunadan/Numenorean colonist noble (although not too noble!), hence the good kit and the purples in his clothing. Bright colours didn’t seem appropriate (especially as the clothes have been stuck on a rotting skeleton for a while) and my original intentions were to give it some kind of treatment for the fabric to make it seem worn and faded, but given I was so out of practice, thought I’d keep it simple rather than risk messing up half the paint job! On the by, has anyone tried doing anything special to paint old fabrics?

As for which Mithrils I paint, it tends to be in almost any order. Almost means there’s a bit of a bias towards Mithrils that aren’t still in their blister for one reason or another, and have little bits that can get lost, and I’m trying to mix up the painting so I’m not painting a few of the same (orcs, hobbits, Gondorians, Rohirrim) in a row. I’m still kinda getting back into it at the moment, so I’m not quite fully back on top of all the numbers and titles and the like (although I know I can (and will) look them up on Gildor’s most excellent database).

You make sure the rest of you keep posting here – and don’t be shy. Barli, if you’re not keen on close-ups, with a collection like yours you might be able to do a few nice pics of battle formations? If it’s not a pain in the rear, of course, and it won’t distract you from keeping an eye on Nob and the patrons.