Option for supporting Mithril

Just ignore the cry babies…. :rolleyes:
You know better! A lot of talk and no foundation….. (sticks and stones may hurt my bones. but words will never hurt me!)

though the discussion is interesting and many points are relevant… the title of this thread does not match a lot with its content you will admit…

judging on the design of the figurines is a “luxury” we could really afford, and that Chris could afford to hear too, if Mithril was widespread at least A BIT…

the main problem we face at the VERY moment is not AT ALL an artistic one…..

one thing at a time

Chris Tubb does not only work for Mithril…

and changing the way someone “creates” is the last thing I would try…

Still those changes could be submitted to CHRIS, but in no way to Mithril … Chris is the sole responsible of his artistic decisions, Mithril has absolutly nothing to say about such things… so your arguments are good ones, for the person that is Chris… but not for Mithril

or has sculpting worked…

I don’t know the names as he does not want to reveal them, but I have some pics…

he worked for Grenadier… he indeed works for the other PA ranges (Edman collection) and for his own brand Phaeton…

I wonder if he worked for Pegaso at one time… though I doubt so, but I have pictures of many 54mm he has done… his skill/art in 54mm is quite different than in 32mm…
still he has never worked a lit with texturing but modelling, thus all surfaces being smooth … and the “pelts” or “furs” or other textured aspects are not in his art…

it may be by choice, or by lack of skill… still he has done so for ALL his work, not only Mithril…

well I admit, I am in no mood for great discussion at the time I am not very objective … I have other things to attend, besides, I’ll wait for Lars answers to my email before taking any further step in mithril promotion…

I have spent enough time in this to carry on doing so without any reply from the other side… if nothing is done, well I’ll pass to other things and attend other more important matters at hand… I have neglected my own problems for too long…

Data point: the last MERP release was in 1997.

The vampire chick came out about five years before that.

Most plate armoured Mithril figures are high elves or Numenorean lords. Both are, in the MERP interpretation, using higher, better technology. You can quite easily argue that a second age army be better equipped than a third age one.

MERP had plate armour…probably because it never occurred to anyone that there would not be such a thing during the Third Age. The various secondary material – the Letters, the Unfinished Tales and so forth came into publication after MERP had been going for years. MERP had rules for plate and whatever else because Dungeons and Dragons did. Later authors did a lot of work to undo the early damage, and had MERP continued, I suspect we would have seen the creation of a far more “accurate” iteration of MERP. It would probably have looked a lot like the Decipher RPG, mind.

As for Master Tolwen, soon as I get out from under this avalanche of stuff to do – making a movie, setting up an art show, painting up figures for a D&D game and probably knocking out a few D&D commercial adventures, I am going to do something for Other Minds. It’s just that things are a bit…overwhelming…this year.

Though I’ll be painting Mithrils again come next week.

Gavin

I agree with you Arthadan on the fact all options for improving should be taken into consideration…

BUT, all things considered, I think Chris has done a LOT to help promote his own creations, and is trying the best to promote them himself, and to adapt to OUR desires, maybe not in terms of style but in terms of Ideas, which is as much important for me…
Now, what has MITHRIL, as a company, owned by Lars, not by Chris, well what has Mithril(tm) or better … Prince August done?

Ireland is in an economical crisis at the moment, this won’t help Mithril at all, but you can’t expect me to believe that a man, who can afford to run as much as four or five (maybe more) separate businesses under different companies… does not make benefits… I am not a manager, or financial expert, but you can’t diversify and create more and more companies if your current ones do not generate enough benefits to be injected into new projects….. unless mister Edman is a billionaire who spends his own personal money in dangerous projects without risk audit…

I know, it is SLIGHTLY off-topic but my point is… It’s time for MITHRIL to act, not for Chris, and as Chris said me, Mithril has absolutly no decision on anything reguarding design department of mithril, he is free to do as he sees fit, and that’s part of his contract… He can’t be said by Mithril (but he could, by us…) to change his design skills… and adapt

its my firm conviction, that, though you are true on very relevant points (mainly furs , feathers on eagles etc etc) it’s not the turn to ask things out of Chris… but out of Lars…

step by step, things can then evolve…

Getting to the point (it’s time, isn’t it?). From a pure role-player gamer perspective, what I find decissive to buy miniatures for my games are:

– They fit the characters playing the adventure. In this line, Mithril’s Middle-eart Characters serie it’s an obvious start point (save for that freaky half-elf/half-orc thing!). Now, people like their characters to stand out from normal rank and file soldiers, so tend to wear some kind of elaborated stuff and a backpack, at least two weapons, a shield… you know, you have to be prepared for the unexpected! Some iconic well-equipped adventurers would be nice to see. They need to be easily recognizable as belonging to one mayor culture/race (here comes my Rohir!) and with more equipment than simple soldiers. Detail and dramatic poses are usually the key to drag the attention of the players.

– Then we need generic foes, starting with most canonical common ones such Orcs, Trolls, Wights, Wraiths, Men of Darkness and Wargs, all of them in a variety of armours and weapons with some champions and leaders to represent the tougher types. In the recent Mirkwood release there are some (personally I dislike these last Trolls, Angmar’s ones were much better but that’s a personal opinion). In the Mithril range there are plenty of those, but in the current releases there aren’t. If Mithril is going to try to seduce the RPG market, a ‘classic’ range of bad guys should be made.

– Finally we need the final antagonist, which usually is something strectching the canon to its limits. Things like the Razarac, the Lesinas, the Orc Shaman… or the fearsome dragon. These tend to be quite adventure-specific, so miniatures need to be interesting themselves to have a wide market (i.e. everybody will buy a barrow-wight if Mithril offer as something new and if he fits exactly the description of the ‘final boss’ of the adventure because the emblem in his shield and the shape of his crown, all the better).

So, as conclusion, I’d begin with the current character series pointed out the accuracy and then moving to the Orc and Trolls in Mirkwood range and the Corsairs. To make it look even better, it could be presented with an adventure in both systems (MERP and CODA) using such miniatures. Working in that line, each new Mithril range could be presented with gaming background information, ready to use stats and some adventure to make it more attractive for the gaming community (as it was Mitril’s strategy back in the day, backing MERP modules with miniatures).

I personally think there is room for both. Tolkien didn’t describe his characters to the latest detail, so why not picking the details he gave and be creative with all the rest?

Don’t we already have a Gil-Galad in mail? (An LR series?)