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)
