Option for supporting Mithril
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Hi guys (and gals),
I had already once mentioned this to our Master Elf. As some may have noticed, I am responsible for managing an online magazine related to Tolkien gaming and scholarly stuff (see my signature). Since minis (and Mithril in particular) always were a part of the Roleplaying experience, I would welcome contributions with this focus.
It may be almsot anything you can imagine. I have listed a few below, but these should be only examples – let your imagination run free!
– Description of Mithril in general
– Description of a specific range (perhaps with images)
– Description of painting a specific mini/diorama (perhaps with description of the scene)
– Making a small story, NPC description or scene and illustrating it with pictures of painted minis/dioramas
– Using the many excellent images (your own of course or using with permission) as the hook for a short description/story
– … whatever else you might think of!It may be in ny length you prefer, from a simple one-page description with minis/diorama to any length you’d like.
Just contact me for details if you might think you have something in store that could bring a favorable impression of Mithril to a greater audience
Cheers
TolwenP.S.: I miss the
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tag in BBCode here. Could that be activated?
Hi guys (and gals),
I had already once mentioned this to our Master Elf. As some may have noticed, I am responsible for managing an online magazine related to Tolkien gaming and scholarly stuff (see my signature). Since minis (and Mithril in particular) always were a part of the Roleplaying experience, I would welcome contributions with this focus.
It may be almsot anything you can imagine. I have listed a few below, but these should be only examples – let your imagination run free!
– Description of Mithril in general
– Description of a specific range (perhaps with images)
– Description of painting a specific mini/diorama (perhaps with description of the scene)
– Making a small story, NPC description or scene and illustrating it with pictures of painted minis/dioramas
– Using the many excellent images (your own of course or using with permission) as the hook for a short description/story
– … whatever else you might think of!It may be in ny length you prefer, from a simple one-page description with minis/diorama to any length you’d like.
Just contact me for details if you might think you have something in store that could bring a favorable impression of Mithril to a greater audience
Cheers
TolwenP.S.: I miss the
-
tag in BBCode here. Could that be activated?
twrich wrote:Hello Thomas, Thank you very much for encouraging us to contribute Mithril based articles to Other Minds. I think it would be great if the members of both of our communities helped support each other where ever common interests lay. As you know, many of us came to Mithril originally through role-playing (it was indeed a fortunate meeting over 20 years ago between Chriss Tubb and Pete Fenlon). Perhaps some here who came to Mithril by other means might find your publication/website of interest, or even take up role-playing as a result of exposure to your website. I believe some have even contributed to OM (or Other Hands) in the past.Thanks for your kind words. Indeed I would be glad to broaden the spectrum of OM’s contributions. By now we are quite focused on Tolkien scholarly stuff with RPG-related stuff coming second. Since we are trying hard not to be system-, publisher- or manufacturer-focused everything related to Tolkien gaming (in the very broad sense – which includes miniature collecting for sure!) is welcome. Personally I was quite frustrated by fan-efforts that were very game system-focused rather than Tolkien-content-wise and that was among the reasons for me to have a magazine with Tolkien as the focus and not a game system or specific company (e.g. as a system-support magazine)
In our view, it is the Tolkien-content that counts and should bind us in a great community – regardless what game system or manufacturer we personally prefer
Therefore I plan to also have contributions from the Tabletop community from Germany (not GW itself – there are limits) as future contributions as well to show that aspect of current Tolkien gaming as well.
I think there should – and is – enough room for all of us, especially as we have different foci within the Tolkien gaming/scholarly/collectors community.Cheers
Tolwen/ThomasI will see if I can write you some ‘how I did it’ articles on some of the dioramas and scenes that I have made. i will see if I have anything that survived my C Drive delete mistake :o. If not, I’ll start from ‘scratch’
David
ddaines wrote:I will see if I can write you some ‘how I did it’ articles on some of the dioramas and scenes that I have made. i will see if I have anything that survived my C Drive delete mistake :o. If not, I’ll start from ‘scratch’That sounds really good. Hopefully this will spark more contributions about Mithril. Perhaps there are a few gamers here, who might have their PC’s (or other characters) as Mithril minis and could give a short character description with a photo of the mini as the icing on the cake. That would be the perfect symbiosis of the RPG and miniature world
Let’s see with which ideas people come up I haven’t thought of!
Cheers
Thomasddaines wrote:A good one to start with may be the Unexpected Party which nears completion at last
Indeed. If you have any questions concerning formats, length or anything else editorial – you know whom to ask
Tolwen wrote:ddaines wrote:A good one to start with may be the Unexpected Party which nears completion at lastIndeed. If you have any questions concerning formats, length or anything else editorial – you know whom to ask
As the ‘An Unexpected Party’ is now complete please let me know what guidelines are in place Tolwen and I will see what I can do
ddaines wrote:As the ‘An Unexpected Party’ is now complete please let me know what guidelines are in place Tolwen and I will see what I can doWell, the guidelines are fairly easy. The text must be originally yours (or you have to have permission from the author) which holds true for any artwork (or photographs) as well. Usually we publish under the CC license (attribution_non-commercial_share-alike), so that it both gives us freedom of distribution and you as author still have control over it concerning commercial use.
As for content, there are no specific guidelines. You may write what you like as long as it is decent (OK, that normally goes without saying) and of sufficient “quality”. I do not doubt the least that all this will be no real challenge for youI guess a few photos of high quality and size would be good to illustrate your points.
This is all I can think of, so please ask me if you had something special in mind that I have not thought of.
Cheers
ThomasP.S.: And of course every contribution should be finished yesterday
Arthadan wrote:I’ve always had a problem with Mithril when it comes to be true to Tolkien. Mainly issues are:
[snip]I agree that Mithril (as every miniature producing company) has taken liberties with with the original work. In some cases more so, in some less. Some issues are more irritating than others, but in the end we’re of course not forced to buy anything we personally do not like.
For a contribution such as an essay detailing the issues with Mithril *might* be correct from an objective POV, but will certainly fail to provide a positive impression of Mithril among those who still don’t know it – and will continue to buy GW (which is worse – overall, but not always [see below]).*If* you want to do a critic of Tolkien/Middle-earth minis, a better approach would be to take both a GW and Mithril version of a given character (or several characters) and compare them to the source and highlight both versions’s strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I’d see such an approach as being better rather than just one bashing a company or praise it beyond a doubt. The latter way, you are quickly seen either as being opposed on principle or an uncompromising fan unable to see flaws in his favorite company/design strategy.
Personally I see some long-standing weaknesses (again – for me!) in Mithril’s designs, but as already said, the ones in GW are more numerous and annoying for me personally. That does not mean I prefer one company by default – there are some GW designs (which is basically movie design) which I deem better in capturing the spirit of the books than its Mithril counterparts. This is only for a few though – for the majority it’s the other way round. And sometimes it’s the question whose issues are less severe, both being not wholly satisfactory for me
Tolwen
Gildor Inglorion wrote:you should have read some of Tengwar magazines Arthadan, you have to remember Mithril was linked to ICE MERP lines of products which created many things which were not, at that time, revealed from Tolkien worksI do, Master Gildor. I was a member of the old Fellowship with my Celebrimbor miniature. I understand that they were backing the role-play system, but what I cannot understand is why they still produce flawed designs.
Quote:some heraldry for example…. besides, some of Tolkien Heraldry fall under NO licence because they are not from LoTR…
Tolkien’s OWN special designs CAN’T be reproduced in ANY form, they are not among the licence provided by TE and could result in a trial by Tolkien ESTATE… Only those that were revealed with the LoTR could… besides I seem to remember that Theoden had a “star” shield in one version… don’t remember which one…It’s the LT6 – Theoden, King of the Mark. And in my opinion that’s the way to go, more accurate designs! I didn’t knew about the heraldry copyright, but since Peter Jackson used Gil Galad’s I guess the Tolkien State is not so overprotective about them.
Quote:as for werewolves and vampires, these are from MERP extrapolation…. Many designs and pictures used by Mithril and Chris Tubb back in time come from artwork by Angus McBride…The only Mithril vampire figure was produced some years after the MERP died. And that’s my point, why continue with all the inaccuracies now?
Quote:having miniatures match precisely the books is sometimes not possible technically… besides the freedom of the artist is something that can be respected…In my humble opinion, artistic creativity should be limited by Tolkien’s descriptions. The sculptor cannot know better than Tolkien himself how Tolkien’s characters should look like. It’s like John Howe and his paintings. The man is an artist, but he likes to paint heavy armours everywhere and they are as out of place as machine guns.
Quote:I honestly think that Peter Jackson and Games Workshop took FAR MORE liberties to adapt and change material than Mithril has ever done…Yes, they did. Don’t take me wrong, I don’t support GW/PJ vision. The Elven oriental blades, the uruk crossbows, the Gondorian heavy armour… but Sauron looks kind of cool
Tolwen wrote:*If* you want to do a critic of Tolkien/Middle-earth minis, a better approach would be to take both a GW and Mithril version of a given character (or several characters) and compare them to the source and highlight both versions’s strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I’d see such an approach as being better rather than just one bashing a company or praise it beyond a doubt. The latter way, you are quickly seen either as being opposed on principle or an uncompromising fan unable to see flaws in his favorite company/design strategy.I’d go further. Why should we limit to the ‘official’ options? There is a full Haradrim army build of historical miniatures which is one of the finest I ever seen. What about Tom Meier (Thunderbolt Mountain) Elves?
The list is endless and sometimes is easier to find a Tolkien accurate miniature if you search outside Mithril and GW. As little example, here you can see my personal favourites Great Eagles (ok, the one in the middle as a strange pose, but the other two are great) and the finest Elves I’ve ever seen.
…. This post can be considered as constructive criticism
in some points I’m agree with Master Arthadan…. in some not…
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