a few more painted

I managed to complete these over the weekend , all Mithril figures

First up is from left to right a  Orc Chief from M281 which is a multiple pack also featuring Strider(see below),  then we have M102 Bralg the Insane a merp character and a Orc form M283 which also features Boromir. 

Here we have 3 fairly early Orc figures, from left to right the first two figures are M98 Orc Soldiers and  then we have M22 Goblin Scout.

Lastly we have Strider and two Silvan Elves. Strider in the middle is the other half of M281 mentioned above,  to the left is M70 Silvan Bowman and to his right is M71 Silvan Swordsman. These two silvan elves may be used as the half elven twins Elladan and Elrohir, sons of Elrond who aided Strider and the Dunedain in protecting the north .

Current painted miniatures part two

Here is the balance of where I am at the moment in painting , it will start with various undead which I shall post my thoughts on there role in Middle Earth at a future date, many of these below are directly related to MERP

Mithril M169 Wight of the Tughaib (merp) and M172 Lesser Ghost of the Underdeeps

Mithril M251 Undead Warrior and M173 Skeleton f the Under-deeps

Mithril M167 Walking Dead each side of M250 Corpse Candle

Mithril M254 Mewlip and M253 Swamp Star (merp)

Mithril M80 Lesinas (merp) each side of M168 Ghoul

Mantic Ghouls from the Frostgrave Undead encounters set, I painted the skin the same as the Mithril ones for a small group should I need it, likely to be used in Rangers of the Shadow Deep

A few bits n pieces, some rings to sue as markers in games, there were on one of the GW scenery sprues, I have 12 giant rats by Reaper Bones for use in RotSD , some plastic flies bough cheap off ebay for the same game, Rapier Miniatures Foxes, Badgers and Rabbits to accompany Radagast, a White Stag from Oakbound Studios really for my Celtic Myth games but may see some use in Middle Earth and lastly some plastic giant bees and wasps to represent Dumdledors and Hummerhorns from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, massively too big but I couldnt find anything smaller, really wanted them to be  about the size of a mans head in scale

Finally my painted GW , most of this was painted in the early 2000s , the fellowship set I got a bit fed up painting and stopped but I finished them off with the Cave Trolls last year. Also included is a comparison between  the three makes of Dwarves , Harlequin, metal GW, Mithril, plastic GW

Current painted miniatures part 1

This is where I have got to so far. Most have been painted in the last 12 months, the exceptions are the GW goblins and dwarves painted a decade or more ago. With some of these there will be more info on in future posts as I develop some back storys for them.

These are my three starting adventurers. These are Mithril M112 Northman Bard , M111 Dwarvish Scout and M135 Laketown Adventurer. I particularly enjoyed painting the dwarf and the bard.

Here we have two version of  Mithril  Bards  M235 and M132 , my intention is to use these as laketown archers as the era of my games is when Bard is already King of Dale. The second picture shows M131 Master of Laketown and M133 Laketown Guardsman , the Master will represent the new Master of Laketown after the events of the Hobbit story.

This is Mithril M377 Faramir and M202 Ioreth the healer. I was thinking I may use these as a ranger and as a civilian in Rangers of the Shadow Deep, I painted the Harlequin Faramir at the same time using the same colours(see below)

Mithril M203 Townsfolk. Depicting a peddler and a academic from Gondor, will be useful for civilian figures

Mithril M38 Smuggler and M15 Northman Scout

Mithril M204 Gondorian Nobleman and M34 Silmarien the Mage . Silmarien is a MERP creation , I will possibly use these two as man and wife in scenarios , they are possibly both grasping there divorce papers however. I was a bit concerned before I started on Silmarien, its a early miniature and it looked a bit ropey but I am pleased how she came out. The nobleman took a  bit of time to rescue, the fine details on the jacket were obscured somewhat, firstly by Mithrils annoying undercoat and second by a possible heavy coat of base paint, best I can say is it works ok from a distance.

Mithril M218 Outlaw of Teiglin , M91 Woodmen Elder , M192 Hundin the Bandit Chief. Hundin is a MERP character , apparently Chris Tubb  sculpted Hundin to look like a friend, I think it looks like John Treadaway who is well known in wargaming circles and edited the Tengwar the early Mithril Fellowship newsletter, but I am just speculating.

Mithril M37 Curpurse , M305 Hithaeglir Northman Adventurer and M128 Boromir. Boromir is the only Mithril miniature that I painted in the ate 90's that I did not strip back. He is ok from a  distance and will be a general character, there is another Mithril Boromir I far prefer should I want a mini to represent him.

Finally for this post , here we have a  Harlequin  Gimli and a Harlequin Faramir, painted for Rangers of the Shadow Deep . I really like the Gimli , unfortunately he does not scale well with the Mithrils in build although he is actually a bit shorter.

I shall do a second post shortly to finish my current painted miniatures 

Introduction

This little corner of the net is for me to record my interests in Professor JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth, in particular table top gaming the world. Other fantasy and historical  interests may also be occasionally posted such as Arthurian and British myths as well as other fantasy worlds.

I fell in love with middle earth over 40 years ago and although I drifted away for a few years my enthusiasm has returned with a vengeance.
I have been collecting Tolkien related material since the 1980's , my main focus has always been the licensed miniatures ranges produced by several companies over the years but also other forms of gaming the world such as RPGs and  board games.

Following the formation of a facebook group on wargaming Middle Earth my interest rekindled and I have decided to blog my activities as it will keep a record of progress
I hope to run a campaign using various rule sets , this will be predominantly be solo games unless I find a kindred spirit. I will discuss rule sets at a later date but Song of Blades and Heroes is where I will start, simple skirmish rules with few miniatures required . Afterwards I plan to use a variety of rule sets leading up to larger games as I get more miniatures painted , however I paint slowly and have a habit  , like many others in this hobby , of  jumping  about on projects.
I am going to set the games between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , that's not to say I may not play a occasional game from outside this period but the focus will be during this these times.There are several reasons for the time setting , first of all it will not clash with canon material in the books, secondly the role playing games from Cubicle 7 are set here and that could provide some good resources and inspiration , thirdly is that some of the major characters from the books are alive at this point and they could make a occasional appearance we also know the general politics of the time of the major realms. Lastly Amazon are making a television serial of middle earth and apparently the first series at least will be about a young Aragorn and therefore in my time period, I am sure there will be much discussion on this as there was about the films, more from me at a later date but I am not anti to the films , ok maybe The Hobbit a bit ....actually I only saw them once and really disliked them but I intend to watch them again with a open mind , I did enjoy PJs Lord of the Rings even with the changes. But  more about the films at a later date.[Edit , when the Amazon series is set was a bit of a red herring]

Over the last 12 months I have been thinking about how my campaign will run and currently have this as a idea,  the main campaign will be a group of adventures starting off from Dale and heading towards Eriador , sort of The Hobbit in reverse , I have been working up some back stories for the characters . I have also decided to add in a few other settings to provide a change from the main campaign , firstly I hope to set a few games around Dunedin rangers protecting the north of Eriador from threats of orcs , trolls and wolves etc , the other setting will be in Gondar and in particular some skirmishes involving forces from the region of Anfalas , early stages in my thinking on both of these.

As far as possible I will stay true to the books, my basis of information for use in the games are as follows and in order of preference - obviously the works by JRRT , Lord of the Rings (LOTR) , The Hobbit (The H) , Silmarillion (Silm.) Unfinished Tales (UT) and to a lesser extent The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (AoTB) and the series of books edited by Christopher Tolkien called History of Middle Earth (HoME) , to be honest I have only dipped into these even though I bought them as they came out as they seem to be mainly about the various drafts  JRRT wrote before final publication of his novels , however there are snippets in them and providing it does not go against what was published in the authors life time I will consider it canon . To this I will add information gleaned from role playing games . I only have a few pdfs of the current output from cubicle 7 but do intend when funds are available to buy hard copies , I do however have most of the old Middle Earth Role Playing (merp) modules from Iron Crown Enteprises (ICE) and will use these when I feel it is suitable , also a major part of my collection is from Mithril Miniatures who produced figures to match merp.
I may come back and occasionally edit this intro when I feel it's relevant .
Till next time..   Namarie