Do you Paint your Models?

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April 5, 2009 at 11:37 pm #364
OriginalAragorn
Participant
So I’m wondering – do most of you paint your Mithril models or just collect them and keep them displayed? I for one intend to paint them all – because I love to paint when I have time. Ideally I’d even like to put some dioramas together.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on the topic..

Also, I suspect many of you own more Mithril figures than I do (zero until I get the Hobbit boxed set ). For those who don’t mind sharing, how large has your collection become? And how long have you been collecting?

I’m not trying to be nosy, but I’m just curious about this hobby and this community.

George
April 5, 2009 at 11:37 pm #4832
OriginalAragorn
Participant
So I’m wondering – do most of you paint your Mithril models or just collect them and keep them displayed? I for one intend to paint them all – because I love to paint when I have time. Ideally I’d even like to put some dioramas together.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on the topic..

Also, I suspect many of you own more Mithril figures than I do (zero until I get the Hobbit boxed set ). For those who don’t mind sharing, how large has your collection become? And how long have you been collecting?

I’m not trying to be nosy, but I’m just curious about this hobby and this community.

George
April 5, 2009 at 11:46 pm #4833
jdbrown55
Participant
I will start off. I have roughly about 60 something minis. I want to paint all of mine, but sometimes I just can’t get motivated to paint. I am in the process of painting some more and will post them when I am finished.
I remember when I was about 15 and I saw these nice looking figures behind the comic counter and asked the worker there if I could see some of them and then I was hooked. My very first figure was M52 Gandalf. Then when I saved up some I went back and got M28, M29, M30 and M31! These are some of my favorites! Duh! 😆
Like I have mentioned before somewhere, I had to sell off my collection and have been trying to get a lot of it back in the past 5 or 6 years.

Jason
April 6, 2009 at 3:37 am #4836
Gavin
Participant
Definitely.

I buy the things because they are nice to paint.

I paint them and base them and…

move onto the next one. Rarely get a chance to do anything else with them. And right now I keep looking longingly at my pile of in-progress figures. Then get back to house renovations or whatever grown up thing needs doing :p
April 6, 2009 at 6:34 am #4837
twrich
Participant
I became familiar with Mithrils beacause I am a MERP Role Player and GM, and they had the license to make the miniatures we RPG with in our adventures. I have also painted some and so have my friends who play with them. But now I am also a collector, and have acquired, over the last ten years, all of the 32mm figures that Mithril has made (still need to buy a couple of the recent ones). This was not my original intention, but the sculptor, Chris Tubb, is such an excellent artist and craftsman.
April 6, 2009 at 11:46 am #4840
Gildor
MMP Elder
Well I could add some info, but almost everything is said already in the “About the Author” Page of this site.

I discovered Mithril back in 1994 at the same time I discovered Tolkien books and Enya music, since that time all of these three elements have been linked for me, with Mithril being “the” representation of Tolkien characters. I began painting to give life to these characters, and over the years I have improved my techniques… Though I am not a professionnal I think I paint rather correctly but most importantly I paint them the way I imagine them…. Since I am of the collector kind (for a lot of things, not only mithril) I could not stand having reference holes in my collections so I focused on the referencing and on getting all of them.

I got the chance to find an original M16 for quite nothing and that gave me a boost to collecting… Though I collect in order to paint… and display in glasscase or roleplay (no wargaming for me nor diorama making) … I have painted only 400 or so figurines (let’s say 300 references if we consider some references have several figurines) and I have more than 300 left to paint (counting all sub-series, LO,LR,LT…)

First I collect then I paint, but sometimes I am in no mood for painting and I can’t manage to paint a single figurine in more than 6 months so at the time being it would be technically impossible for me to paint all my collection

So far I have achieved getting my hands on every 32mm released by Mithril OR unreleased (including several prototypes and unreleased armies) and I have all released 54mm Mithril along with some big rarities (Christmas 1988,1990,1992,1993, and other works by Chris Tubb beside Mithril that you can find either in the gallery or in the database section)

I’m still focusing on completing my collection since it will certainly never be complete if we consider all the unreleased prototypes or promotional figures which are scarce (most of them being 54mm, like ME2, Christmas 1991) but I don’t abandon hope…
April 6, 2009 at 9:12 pm #4847
Theobald
Participant
Well, I started collecting those Mithril-metal-pieces in the very early 90s. But I stopped to do so as I by then didn’t have the money to proceed. So I packed them in a box and put them somewhere downstairs. Many years ago I found that box again and started to collect again. By now that’s a long time ago.
I started to complete my collection of the early M-series buying those missing figures on Ebay … which took some years and coiny things. In between I bought those new releases (e.g. the LR- and LO- series) from Mithril directly. And I do so now, as in those days I suggested to Mithril having an “auto-shipment” for all new releases. Rhuoommm …. that took some time until it worked properly but by now I’m very much pleased to have it negotiated then. That helps a lot in case you don’t have the time to watch about new releases.
Anyway, by now my collection is a bit more than complete. I think there’s just one or two more Christmas-figures (Eowyn and those from 1989 and 88′) that I don’t have.
But I still keep all of those Mw347 Saruman’s Army, some Mw346 Dwarves, and some other rarities.
Then, a few years ago I switched to collecting variant-castings and conversions of Mithril figures as there were no other possibilities to go on with my hobby. By now this seems to have become endless ….

As for painting, of course, I do paint them. This is what can make me become patient again after another day has gone by … turning on the radio, concentrating on a metal figue, having all the colours I want to use available … forgetting the time.
Though there are some figures I would never paint as they’re too rare.
Well, to close this now, I just can tell that it took me about two years to be in that mood again painting a figure.
April 6, 2009 at 11:10 pm #4848
Turambar
Participant
o.k. let me also say something:
My first mithril acquaintance was in 1988 in fact, the year of its foundation!
Being a school-boy I visited a fantasy shop and hold this Hithaeglir Orc chief in my hand, the m20. I was deeply impressed by that typical weight,
this heaviness of that little thing.I am aware of that as it was yesterday. I put him beside ( imagine ! ) thinking: what a wonderful little thing that was . . .
TEN years later- finding myself in working-life- that funny colleague in front of me shows me his fellowship-box !
I recognized what it was about immediately: the typical heaviness, the gray colour.
It was Legolas which I took out of the box and I was spellbound of his face: this elven-wolvish-kind- face really impressed me a lot.
It was for me the start of collecting these miniatures. Unfortunately I was confrontated that the production went out these times and
there was the same fate for me as for MasterTheobald: the long and stony ebay-road. Very long and very stony. There were huge, cold and hart mexican rocks . . .
It was also the time for me learning to hate ebay, but it is the only way, still.
I don´t collect every single figure. Certainly not. For me there is an absulutely huge deviation of quality. The small wonderful details which
makes mithril miniatures so unique- they exist, but they are hard to find. You can´t say that all the lower hundreds have them (most of them do, actually),
there are also higher numbers owning them. Up to the current fellowship-range.
If you compare a Dol Guldur-Orc with an Angmar Orc ( as your m47 ) you see what I mean.
But that´s all subjective, of course.
I do paint the figures, of course and I build dioramas and put them inside.
Usually they are small dioramas, mostly for single figures, to do justice for the craft of the incredible Mr.Tubb, whom I admire.
Certainly there are also bigger ones with five or more figures, but few.
I use oil-colors. That was a wise decision because it gives me the possibility to put the figures beside and go ahead painting couple of hours later.
The oil is still wet. My wife is very thankful . . .
As Theobald said, painting is somekind of “autogenic training”. Forgetting time, go into the flow. But hard to find in these days are the corners of silence.
Absolutely necessary for that state of shock: a spanish red wine and goooood music . . .
Thank you for reading this without slumbering . . .
I must have a look at my pillow . . .
April 6, 2009 at 11:58 pm #4850
Kenakko
Participant
I started collecting Mithril in 1991 after seeing them in a gaiming store. I was a Tolkien fan well before that and I recognized that the Mithril were special (and proportioned and ‘realistic’ as fantasy figures go). By the mid to late ninties I was trading paint jobs with a couple of gents back East to fill out my collection of early M figures. I’m basically cheap and have been blessed by meeting people who keep things in perspective. I was able to avoid the eBay scene (thankfully) and I have actually been given some valuable figures by some of the fine members here! I have painted about 3/4 of the figures I have. I intend to paint them all with only a few rarer execptions. I don’t have all the recent releases (and nothing form the ‘Battle of Mirkwood’ series) and I only have a few of the 54 mm ones. My interest in Mithril hunting has led me to look for them everywhere I go and you’d be surprised at some of my finds. My passion has even led me to meet in person some of the key people that share this passion. I have met Jim Corless and other prominent collectors in the States and I painted some figures for Chris Seeman. I have even been to the factory and gotten a tour (and no, there weren’t any M 16 ‘s laying about). I have also met Lars, Dan Joe and Chris Tubb. The latter of whom gave me the 54 mm Saruman. My goal in collecting is to have enough figures to have some decent sized war gaming sessions. I infected one of my long time friends with this craze and he was albe to obtain an M16 for pennies in a batch off eBay (true!)
April 7, 2009 at 12:03 am #4851
OriginalAragorn
Participant
Wow – those are all very thoughtful replies! Thank you for being so generous with your time to share your interest in the hobby! It sounds like many people are passionate about this hobby, even putting things aside for a while or suffering setbacks or malaise – yet you continue to pick the hobby back up and rekindle the spark! I admire that.

By the way – I GOT THE HOBBIT BOXED SET TODAY!!!! My first Mithril figures – and they are STUNNING!! Simply beautiful – my breath was almost taken away when I pulled out Gandalf, Beorn, Thorin and the rest of the characters. They – just – look – so – much – better – than – the competition!! And the models arrived in my mail box in California only 5 days after placing the order – VERY prompt!

You know something, it’s funny. I got two “goodies” today:
1) War of the Ring rules manual by the “Other Company”
2) Hobbit boxed set

Yet I was actually more excited by the boxed set than this huge, lavishly illustrated rule book. I’m trying to split time between gaming (which I do really enjoy) and now my new hobby – Mithril.

I’ll be painting this weekend! I’ll share the results when I am done.
April 7, 2009 at 12:13 am #4852
jdbrown55
Participant
Awesome! Can’t wait to see your painted minis!
April 7, 2009 at 2:26 pm #4855
hsf62
Participant
I started around 1977 with collecting minis. Mainly from GW, but also Grenadier, Essex, Hobby Products and Rose whatever cought my eye. I had the whole set of the old LOTR miniatures from GW. Still got some…
I also painted minis whenever I had time. A few years down the track a lot of the GW minis started with lead rott and some of the Grenadier minis aswell. At that time Ebay was no option to replace minis out of production becoming dust. I was very very angry! I stopped painting any of the Gw minis, because the lead rott also affected painted minis. I started with making moulds of the affected minis I liked most. Well, I had a lot to learn and gave up trying to save the rotten things. Then I saw the M1 advertised in the Zauberer Zeit a Fantasy Magazin. I couldn’t wait until the lady Galadriel was available in the shop where I normally bought my minis. I started collecting Mithril. I came to M164. Time went on with a lot of other things to do. The minis where stored away. They showed up again when I moved to Australia 11 years ago, then they went back into storage for another 6 years. Room was needed and so I started selling most of the minis I had collected exept Mithril.
Then I decided to sell these aswell. I got so far to sell all the doubles I had before I discovered the old MMP website. That was it! I was hooked again with these little grey beauty’s. The only Mithril I have painted so far was the conversion of the M16 falconer. Spare time nowadays I rather spend with converting minis instead of painting them.
I also have to say that starting with the old MMP website and now going on with the new one, thanks to Master Gildor, I met very amazing people within this comunity and not everything is only based on collecting Mithril.
April 7, 2009 at 8:05 pm #4856
Invite
Participant
Hi! I’ve been collecting these (on and off) since 1978 and have a hundred Mithrils or so. My first minis ever was Mithril’s “Riddles in the Dark” which I painted for a fifth-grade book report asssignment that had to have a diorama. I loved how they came out, and have been hooked ever since. At age thirty-three, when my wife and I were unpacking boxes after a move, I came across Bilbo and Gollum exactly as they were when I had painted them at age eleven. They looked like Hell, so I was going off to put them in my shop for repainting when my wife had to literally take them away from me and put them in the case she was setting up. I protested that they looked terrible, and she said, “You have painted over 300 minis, and these are the first you ever did. DON’T TOUCH THEM!” I guess she’s right. I aim to paint all of mine as you do. I don’t have any of the really rare ones, but I wouldn’t be in a hurry to paint these if I had them, as the value goes down if you paint them. Of course, if you mean to keep them forever, this doesn’t matter, but I have no children and nobody to whom I could leave my collection (wife not that interested) so I want it to be worth some cash to her if she outlives me. I have painted about forty to fifty of my Mithrils so far, mostly orcs, ents, and the fellowship (twice so far) and a FEW of the rarish ones (i.e. Tolwen, Niniel). I am not a Mithril loyalist per se, and have supplemented my collection of LOTR figures with some from Games Workshop’s LOTR line, many of which I like a lot. Nothing personal, but I like GW’s Balrog MUCH better than Mithril’s. I have set up a few dioramas in my case at home, most notably of the Fellowship in Balin’s tomb in Moria. If I weren’t a lousy photographer I’d have pix of it up somewhere, but I am, so I don’t. I did Mithril’s Theoden/Merry/Eowyn/Witch-King diorama, and I’m pretty happy with it, but I don’t have a lot of the diorama sets; I prefer putting dioramas together myself. My next diorama will be a Moria one with dwarves, goblins/orcs and a Balrog, but I don’t expect that this year…or next. :rolleyes:

If YOU have any kids, remember that Mithrils contain lead and don’t leave your kids alone with them, as their health and your collection could suffer mightily! (end public safety announcement)
April 7, 2009 at 8:13 pm #4857
ddaines
Participant
My turn, lol.

I started back in 87/88 when I saw some grey primed figures in a little model shop in Portsmouth (England), which I ‘willed’ to be LotR figures and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were.

I have no interest whatsoever in wargaming, role-playing or collecting small scale figures other than Mithril (exceptions being some Thunderbolt Mountain figures and some Gamezone figures which would make some nice Gondorian calvary or Rohirrim) being in the main a large scale modeller of 1/6th, 1/4, 1/8 scale kits and i did break off for a number of years from collecting Mithril, but something caught me again and I restarted.

I guess with the odd exception I have all general released 32mm figures except the Dragons (exception being the last Smaug) plus the Warbands from Time Machine.

I prefer to use Mithril figures in dioramas or small scenes but do confess to getting bored rigid when faced with painting lots of 32mm figures, Dol Amroth being a prime example!lol.

I guess like a lot of collectors I will not live long enough to paint all the figures (as far as I am aware I have no Elvish blood in me to give me life unlimited .

I am a collector not a Collector and do not believe in paying some of the high prices of the rare or unique figures, but having said that I admire those who have done so because Mithril figures are by and large the most accurate interepretations of Tolkien’s world available.

My other great delight with Mithril’s is that the variety of some of the subjects allows me to use as characters that will perhaps never be produced, so if I want a Cardolinian Hir (spelling?!) to be Boromir or Faramir then so be it.

I would collect the 54mm but can’t afford it
April 7, 2009 at 8:14 pm #4858
Invite
Participant
Whoa, my mistake: I guess my first minis, the Bilbo and Gollum, couldn’t be from Mithril as they are older than Mithril (?) so they must be Ral Partha or Grenadier minis… Maybe I can find out if I look under their bases…
April 8, 2009 at 12:32 am #4859
Gavin
Participant
Well, there were three companies who produced Tolkien minis before Mithril. One of those was Grenadier. The other, funnily enough, was Games Workshop. I am not sure of the first (heritage, maybe?).

Prince August (Mithril’s sister company) made some highly Tolkien-esque miniatures before actually acquiring the official license.

Hence the confusion.
April 8, 2009 at 5:29 am #4861
hsf62
Participant
Ahem, by the way, welcome to MMP Master docwex!
April 8, 2009 at 8:12 am #4862
Gildor
MMP Elder
well hello docwex but it seems you did not create an account on the forum? Please make yourself at home
April 12, 2009 at 4:13 pm #4928
OriginalAragorn
Participant
Thank you everyone for the replies! So many interesting stories and people.

I’ve been collecting Mithril since 2009. With the exception of 500-odd figures I have collected them all..

Seriously, I love painting (though i can get painter’s block and not paint for a month – but not much longer than that). I also have a new-found love (over the past year) for playing LOTR SBG. In the past 10 months, I’ve probably painted 143 models from that company. That may sound like a lot, but many of them were your basic soldiers/troops – so I batch painted quite a few of them.

Unfortunately, my local gaming club only games on Friday nights and it seems like I always do family things on Friday nights – so I haven’t gamed in about 2 months.

I came across Mithril by accident a month ago – but they seem very cool and well made. Also, I like the idea that it’s all designed by one man – and it’s not a hulking behemoth of a company. I somehow feel better about individually collecting these figures and painting them or putting them in dioramas.

And Gildor – I don’t know all the history, but a huge thank you for maintaining and creating this site!! I admire that you put your own time and creativity into this.
April 12, 2009 at 4:45 pm #4929
Gildor
MMP Elder
well, thank you George
Actually to sum up..
the “Many Mithril Page” Community did exist years before I created this site/forum ….At first, it was a mailing list, then a website. The old site was an “angular stone” with a database of figurines, a trading module and a basic forum too and the community was strong.
By that time, I had the idea to make my own database with more search capabilities and more info on figs than the old MMP had. Then one day, the former owner of MMP , Marc “Mithrandir” mysteriously disappeared… and the old site ceased to exist (probably the web hoster removed the domain after a non-payment delay)… The community thus had no home to keep discussing and contacting each other. My database was almost finished, along with the main site and I decided to add a forum “amenity” on the site which is where you actually are so that the community could have a new home

And here we are (with some possibilities and functionnalities added that did not exist in the original one)
And after quite a lot of “filling” works, the database of figurines is complete (though it still lacks some personnal pictures) and cross over links between references… But I’ll end up doing that too one day

As far as I know, Mithril themselves (and Chris Tubb especially, with whom some of us are in contact) officially aknowledge this site as the reference site for all mithril references over the years and I have been given authorization to display official and copyrighted pictures of Mithril figurines thus making this database somewhat “canon”…
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