Hi all,
I have been looking some time for accessoires fitting in scale to the Mithril line. Primarily I have been looking for normal animals (cows, pigs, goats, sheep etc.) to include in – future – dioramas (in this context more “normal” people like farmers, servants, maids etc. from Mithril would be very helpful, but the trend is clearly against it). Now I have found some sources for these.
My main question now is whether anyone has noticed (or perhaps even already tried) to use caoutchouc (natural rubber) figurines from the german company Schleich for Middle-earth dioramas and Mithril minis? The Schleich animals are not all of the same scale, so you can’t use many of them. Most of the normal farm and wildlife animals are much too big, but a few are acceptable, even if a bit bigger than in the real world. This is not a a big problem, since Tolkien himself alludes to some of the animals being bigger than today (the Mûmaks being the prime example).
I found that the elephants and the Rhinoceros could be very useful as well as some dinosaurs – the latter if you’re looking for a “lost world” diorama. Others could be used for a bit oversized but acceptable animals as well.
In the case of the elephants, these could make excellent pieces, especially since Mithril’s own Mûmak is so diminutive.
Cheers
Tolwen