LOTR Accessories and Furniture release

[Michael O'Brien]

Note: This is NOT an official release statement. This is just to develop the idea further as certain members brought it up.

What kind of non-speciific furniture/ornaments/accessories would be good for a release?

Include sketches and photos too if possible.
Perhaps we vote later to see which would be the most popular and I can bring them to Chris and Lars attention.
I repeat this is just to discuss the IDEA. I want no complaints if it does not happen.
It has a possible chance of occuring as it could be used for any scene, not just LOTR or Mithri. The scale would likely be 32mm approx.

[Gildor]

First of all, would it be a MITHRIL flagged series... I know it could be used for all PA ranges (in 32mm) and that's really good with it but the purpose is also to promote MITHRIL as a brand...
though I can easily see that if it is a success for PA it also helps Mithril , but it does not help Mithril being more aknowledged....

this being said...

my first Ideas are about furnitures for housing and outside scenes, for and then furnitures for battlegrounds

(more details in next post)

[Gildor]

for housing first :
- tables (round, rectangular)
- chairs (simple wood, but also more ornate chairs or armchairs) in different style , for human size, or for Hobbit size, or Thrones for Kings)
- fireplaces
- Pillars (for royal halls, like in Edoras or in Gondor)
- chests for treasures
- Armor racks (like in M62)
- Weapon racks (like in M62)
- treasure piles (like in ... M62)
- plates, mugs, candelabras, books open and closed
- doorframes (like the door to chamber of Mazarbul)

for exteriors :
- ruined low walls in stone
- ruined statues (like the description of the crossroads king beheaded with his crown of flowers in the books)
- bridges
- small boats and rifts (like in the laketown series, but empty)

for battlegrounds :
- fallen orcs (corpses) without distinguished shields
- fallen common human/elves/dwarves fighters
- sets of BROKEN weapons
- sets of BROKEN shields (require licence)
- fallen horses / wargs
- static campment flags (no need to have the symbol sculpted it can be blank)


well these are ideas to begin with... and I may think of others later

[Gildor]

well the "townfolk" ideas we had discussed in other suggestions for ranges, but these are characters and should be, according to me, released as "townfolk sets" inside the regular M range... As it has been done several times in the past.

about animals you are right, these are small and could certainly be used in the furniture / accessories range.

in order for Mithril to release products without even needing TE licence for some of them, the "names" of the references should not include anything related to Tolkien vocabulary

thus Hobbit, Warg, Rohirim, Gondor should not be used , as much as possible, but in order to remain TRUE to tolkien, some references should be tolkien related and may need a licence
such as shields, or special statues.... not necessarily in the design, but in the "title of the reference"

My idea was to have either some "MFxxx" references inside the regular M range at one point or another (between sets, linked or not with the previous or next to be released set)
or to have a completly different range, beginning with "1" under the brand Mithril, or Prince August (like Fxxx, or PA-Fxxx)
MA (for Maccessories) could alas not be used because MA1... already exists... and that would be odd

[Milo]

Some other suggestions which can be considered as furnitures:

statues: the range is almost infinite: every place in ME has it's own examples with specific style.Imagine what you can have in Edoras, Minas-Tirith, Rivendell, Weather Top, Barad-Dur, even the Shire !....
tombs: one kind per race at least (elf, human, rohir, dwarf,...)
signs: I am thinking of a Prancing pony one as a start, but any arts and crafts would be good.

[Michael O'Brien]

Nov 26, 2010 9:59:07 GMT Milo said:

Some other suggestions which can be considered as furnitures:

statues: the range is almost infinite: every place in ME has it's own examples with specific style.Imagine what you can have in Edoras, Minas-Tirith, Rivendell, Weather Top, Barad-Dur, even the Shire !....
tombs: one kind per race at least (elf, human, rohir, dwarf,...)
signs: I am thinking of a Prancing pony one as a start, but any arts and crafts would be good.

Statues of licensed figures will require us to submit them to T.E. Just because they are a statue does not mean that the character avoids the license issue. Same with signs. A prancing pony sign would likely require us to pass it with T.E.
Not that either of these ideas should pose a problem as T.E should not have any issues with such obvious NON-wargaming LOTR products.

[aelfwine]

Things like tables and chairs would please everyone. Mithril has made them before, and they were nice, but some of them are now incredibly rare.

So paying lots of money for...well, a table...is not that attractive.

What I'd love to see are tables and chairs suitable for an inn, for a hobbit hole, for an Elven council hall and perhaps a Beorning or Rohirrim longhouse. That should cover most eventualities.

[Gildor]

now there is the problem of casting.... should it be in full metal.... or also in resin, for some parts?

[imisel]

Nov 29, 2010 20:41:37 GMT Gildor said:

now there is the problem of casting.... should it be in full metal.... or also in resin, for some parts?

I love resin too... But don't you think that Mithril can lost part of his "identity" if they start to make resin pieces? (it's only a personal idea, maybe a nonsense ... I just guess)

Regards,

Chema / Imisel

[Gildor]

I agree Imisel, but this is more a technical question (and financial one) that nobody except Mithril themselves can answer.... Casting lots of small pieces in metal can prove quite difficult and the result may suffer some lack of details? on the other hand, casting resin - If I remember well - is more expensive than casting metal? (for the moulds) so it is only a good solution for mass production?

master Holger could tell me more about that... but I think Dan Joe is the expert here and, IF a furniture range was to be created, I suppose the problem will not be in the sculpting but rather in the preparation of moulds, castings, and the quantity to be produced (and all in all, what price would it be)

if it is in metal, I'll be the first to be happy about it !!

After all, almost all of the suggestions mentionned above have already been sculpted and produced in a way or another in the past, by Mithril (MV, MS or MB material, and even M itself, with the Prancing Pony, back in 1989-1990...

I don't think it is a coincidence that the Table/chairs and furniture of the Prancing Pony (M122) ranges among the rarest Mithril Reference on ebay, not VERY expensive, but the average price for it is around 30€ and there is not even a character in this reference...

this clearly means there is a demand...

[Michael O'Brien]

Nov 30, 2010 8:50:39 GMT Gildor said:

I agree Imisel, but this is more a technical question (and financial one) that nobody except Mithril themselves can answer.... Casting lots of small pieces in metal can prove quite difficult and the result may suffer some lack of details? on the other hand, casting resin - If I remember well - is more expensive than casting metal? (for the moulds) so it is only a good solution for mass production?

master Holger could tell me more about that... but I think Dan Joe is the expert here and, IF a furniture range was to be created, I suppose the problem will not be in the sculpting but rather in the preparation of moulds, castings, and the quantity to be produced (and all in all, what price would it be)

if it is in metal, I'll be the first to be happy about it !!

After all, almost all of the suggestions mentionned above have already been sculpted and produced in a way or another in the past, by Mithril (MV, MS or MB material, and even M itself, with the Prancing Pony, back in 1989-1990...

I don't think it is a coincidence that the Table/chairs and furniture of the Prancing Pony (M122) ranges among the rarest Mithril Reference on ebay, not VERY expensive, but the average price for it is around 30€ and there is not even a character in this reference...

this clearly means there is a demand...

We do not have the equipment to cast with Resin. Any release will be in metal.

[Gildor]

Well, this gives the answer

thanks Michael!

[Axel]

I am sure that furniture and accessories would make well selling moulds, too, since they can be without too many fine details and many need plenty of them. A chair, eg. would have to be in three parts to be castable.

[Gildor]

well thrones could have several parts, not chairs.. tables can have parts (tabletop + legs) piles of books

animals or "critters" too, though living stock can be considered accessories...

see for example, some forest animals ... like a squirrel on a branch for example or cats, dogs, Harts, dears, for Beorn house or for Rhosgobel (home of Radagast)... or to complete a diorama with lots of cats for Queen Beruthiel...

the possibilities accessories, from the SAME style (that's important) than the other Mithril releases, (Chris Tubb style) would make the difference!

[Michael O'Brien]

Nov 30, 2010 21:24:04 GMT Axel said:

I am sure that furniture and accessories would make well selling moulds, too, since they can be without too many fine details and many need plenty of them. A chair, eg. would have to be in three parts to be castable.

there is a world of difference in making castable moulds and spin moulds. while we have done furniture moulds (as part of certain napoleonic kits for example, the smaller the pieces the more difficult it is for a customer to cast using drop casting methods.
Doing the chairs from the White Council would probably be near impossible without a lot of tooling work as the legs are so fine. The ingates would have to be very complex and the moulds would likely require venting.
So barrels, large objects and sections of floor might work, but cups, small swords, delicate chairs and table legs would be quite difficult.

[Gildor]

maybe there is a solution in between.. in the past, for the "Friends&Foes" ranges of PA, there were some figurine sold as is... and some other which had the "mould" version for casting by the customer... the easiest pieces could be provided as mould versions, the more detailed AND licenced ones (specific to Tolkien) would be no-mould...

This is only an "idea in the air" but I only suggest it because PA has already used this process in the past...

[Axel]

I admit that making the moulds for furniture would not be that easy. I would split a chair to "backside and two legs", "seating" and "front legs". Naturally that needs casting and assembling, which is probably not a well-selling idea...

OK, forget it :-)

[hsf62]

Why forget it? It is the best way to cast a chair!
More pieces = more possibilities! Great for conversion! You can do a lot with "parts". Just use your imagination! The more the better!
I for myself would love this!

[hsf62]

Ah, before I forget, METAL is real! I wouldn't buy anything resin!

[Gildor]

well no doubt Metal will be the best!

now about the possibility to make moulds for different kinds of chairs and tables or small animals (cats, dogs, foxes, birds, hawks, rabbits, squirrels).... would it be possible? I suppose so

making other kind of small furniture such as candelabra, books, mugs, plates, books or piles of books, inkwells, parchment, broken weapons... or statues/pillars of a given architecture (numenorean/duneadain, elven, dwarven, mannish, or even orcish) could be sold casted, with no mould...

there is also the possibility to build war engines.... for orcs.... and for the forces of good.... Catapults, siege towers, balistae, or signal tower...

These "engines" though big could be built from seveal thin pieces of metal and does not require a lot of sculpting skill I suppose...

well, these are again ideas, but maybe we can now organise all these suggestions in a synthetic list, and submit all of these to Mithril in order to know about the possibility...

it requires several informations : Could Chris sculpt them? Could Dan Joe cast them (or make moulds)? Would Lars create the range and sell them? (in any order hehe)

[Glorfindel]

Nov 25, 2010 20:51:17 GMT Gildor said:

for housing first :
- tables (round, rectangular)
- chairs (simple wood, but also more ornate chairs or armchairs) in different style , for human size, or for Hobbit size, or Thrones for Kings)
- fireplaces
- Pillars (for royal halls, like in Edoras or in Gondor)
- chests for treasures
- Armor racks (like in M62)
- Weapon racks (like in M62)
- treasure piles (like in ... M62)
- plates, mugs, candelabras, books open and closed
- doorframes (like the door to chamber of Mazarbul)

for exteriors :
- ruined low walls in stone
- ruined statues (like the description of the crossroads king beheaded with his crown of flowers in the books)
- bridges
- small boats and rifts (like in the laketown series, but empty)

for battlegrounds :
- fallen orcs (corpses) without distinguished shields
- fallen common human/elves/dwarves fighters
- sets of BROKEN weapons
- sets of BROKEN shields (require licence)
- fallen horses / wargs
- static campment flags (no need to have the symbol sculpted it can be blank)


well these are ideas to begin with... and I may think of others later

A shame nothing became of this. I would love more items to deck out Bag End or The Prancing Pony. Ruins would have also been awesome. To recreate a Weathertop scene would be amazing. I’d have no issue with resin pieces at all. I’d welcome it for Ruins, buildings, bridges, furniture, etc. I guess it is good to dream.