July 2021 1st Round Vote is CLOSED

[Michael O'Brien]

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas, yet again. The vote has begun and you have a week to take part. The 2nd vote will be next Friday and will have the top two or three ideas going forward.
Now unfortunately not all ideas did make it through the screening by Chris. He gives his reasoning here.
"I have rejected the two suggestions of the Rohirrim horse and the Mouth of Sauron horse. I like to make horse and rider at the same time. It always makes for a more convincing vignette. So I suggest that these should be for a mounted figure month. Also the Goblin and Dwarf prisoner as this is two figures."
So these ideas are not blocked from resubmission for months with a different mandate. Patience is a virtue, as they say.

Don't forget to comment and support your favourite idea or ideas. One vote per member however.

[olivier]

Beorn's animals



This month, I propose again a rather unusual miniature: Beorn's animals but which could also be associated with Radagast or even Tom Bombadil. This is a deer with a squirrel on his back, a little bird on his head and a rabbit at his feet.

Nothing heroic or historical (no reference to a character named in a book) but a subject that seems to me perfectly in the spirit of Tolkien.

This proposal may seem too detailed for a single figure, but it would certainly be too simple for a mounted figure. If Chris considers it complex for a single figure, he can always simplify and remove the rabbit or the squirrel?

[barliman]

Old man seated before the Paths of the Dead

(Right, I'm reverting to my old and previously surprisingly successful policy: suggesting the same figure repeatedly until you all get bored enough to vote for it. So...)

Tolkien's description of this ancient being provides all the information Chris will need to beautifully realise the anonymous and doubtless ragged hillman who watched over the Door leading to the dreaded Paths of the Dead - presumably the final living descendant of the Hillmen whom Isildur had cursed:

"...when the Eorlingas came out of the North and passed at length up the Snowbourn, seeking strong places of refuge in time of need, Brego and his son Baldor climbed the Stair of the Hold and so came before the Door. On the threshold sat an old man, aged beyond guess of years; tall and kingly he had been, but now he was withered as an old stone. Indeed for stone they took him, for he moved not, and he said no word, until they sought to pass him by and enter. And then a voice came out of him, as it were out of the ground, and to their amaze it spoke in the western tongue: The way is shut.

'Then they halted and looked at him and saw that he lived still; but he did not look at them. The way is shut, his voice said again, It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.

'And when will that time be? said Baldor. But no answer did he ever get. For the old man died in that hour and fell upon his face; and no other tidings of the ancient dwellers in the mountains have our folk ever learned.'

—J.R.R.Tolkien, The Return of the King chapter 3 "The Muster of Rohan".

[Axel]

Well, then lets threat that path...

A standing Rohirrim horse



A horse, and just the horse, that can and hopefully will be completed some month in the future, in a month, a year, or three, by a mounted Rohirrim blowing a horn - so the mount will be standing, depicting the moment were the host announces its presence to friend and foe alike, just seconds before they start their charge upon the hordes of Mordor. It will be a bit agited, yet standing (not walking, trotting, galloping or rearing).

IF the powers that be decide that a suitable horse already exists and just needs recasting (there are several incidences of early different codes sharing the same horse) then the suggestion will swap to the mounted Rider blowing his horn.

[Halbarad II.]

The barrel escape – Dwarf crawling out of barrel


The Hobbit
Chapter X
A warm welcome

...
First of all a barrel was cut loose by Bilbo and pushed to the shore and opened.
Groans came from inside, and out crept a most unhappy dwarf.
Wet straw was in his draggled beard; he was so sore and stiff, so bruised and buffeted
he could hardly stand or stumble through the shallow water to lie groaning on the shore.
He had a famished and a savage look like a dog that has been chained
and forgotten in a kennel for a week.
...
"Well, are you alive or are you dead?" asked Bilbo quite crossly...
"Are you still in prison, or are you free?"
...

Suggestion is to have a (laying) barrel with open lid,
and out of the barrel a exhausted dwarf is crawling or creeping, his upper body, arms and head visible.
Which one of the 13 Dwarves – if it's necessary to name him – I whould leave to Chris Tubb to decide.

In the book it was Thorin Oakenshield who first came out,
Dwalin and Balin were two of the most unhappy,
Bifur and Bofur were less knocked about and drier, but very exhausted,
Kili and Fili however who were young (for dwarves) came out more or less smiling
and they both helped Bilbo and Thorin to search and free the others:
Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin and Gloin were waterlogged and seemed only half alive,
and poor fat Bombur was asleep or senseless.

[ddaines]

Denethor’s Servant

Suggestion for this month is for one of the six faithful servants of Lord Denethor who, at his Lord’s bidding, brings kindling to place on Faramir’s pyre.

I envisage the figure in a knee-length hauberk of mail with an over-garment bearing the Stewards token of office, bareheaded and no cloak, but with a sword in its scabbard. The servant is carrying a large bundle of kindling ready to place it about Faramir’s body as he lays upon the marble table.

“Here we will wait”, he said, “But send not for the embalmers. Bring us wood to burn and lay it all about us, and beneath; and pour oil upon it” 

So ordered Denethor as he lay beside Faramir (The Siege of Gondor)

[Thingol]

Arathorn II father of Aragorn - Holding his baby Aragorn in his hands before tragical hunt - Last goodby

....in 2933, Arathorn went hunting orcs with Elladan and Elrohir, but was shot through the eye and killed. Gilraen took their son to Rivendell to be fostered by Elrond....etc....

[maxtarna]

Mouth of Sauron HORSE only

“...if a horse it was”

“... mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame”.

This idea was originally suggested last May by master ddaines; I’d like to purpose it again, all the credit to him, in case it wins.

[khador]

A Goblin of the Grey Montains taking prisoner a dwarf (who Chris want to scultpt) of the fellowship of Erebor

[Axel]

@khador - you mean only the Goblin? If you go for both, your suggestion will be likely be rejected this single-month.

[khador]

Jul 6, 2021 13:59:25 GMT Axel said:

@khador - you mean only the Goblin? If you go for both, your suggestion will be likely be rejected this single-month.

In fact, I thought (maybe I'm wrong) that a "single month" is a month for a medium / great size character (Elves, men, trolls, orcs) or for two small size characters (goblins, dwarves, hobbits...).

I let Michael be judge for my suggestion (and I hope that it won't be rejected...)

[Gerold]

I would like to resuggest this character:

Gamling's grandson at Helm's Deep

I don't think his name is mentioned, but Gamling himself was in charge of the forces defending Helm's Dike, and his own grandson was one of the defenders. Gamling's words were: "Maybe we have a thousand fit to fight on foot, but most of them have seen too many winters, as I have, or too few, as my son's son here."

So it should be a young guy, maybe in a mailcoat a bit too long for him.

[gilgaladtolkien]

Eowyn with the head of the fell beast

[twrich]

I like the idea of Gamling's Grandson. He could be fitted in gear a little too big for him.

[Axel]

Jul 6, 2021 15:41:02 GMT khador said:

I let Michael be judge for my suggestion (and I hope that it won't be rejected...)

I hope this is so. Hate to see any suggestion getting lost :-)

[Axel]

> I like to make horse and rider at the same time

With suggestions for mounted minis coming once every two years I am, lets say, disappointed over that decision. Especially as the yearly chance to use the December/Januar double vote for a paired team or mount is not used.

I will rephrase my suggestion next month.