Many Mithril Pages @ Faerylands

I know of three people who own the ME2, well, with Meneldil gone, now two.... maybe another one ...  there is one in the US, still under blister.. If I could put my hands on a blistered one that would be great indeed, I think that's the case for Kenneth "Kennako"

as far as I know, more than a dozen of those were produced though.

as for other rarities thats a compilation work from Zoetrop, using average prices gathered trough all the sales on Ebay... a methodical statistics work


Same for the three white 54mm prototypes, I know I am one of the ucky owners of this demonstration set of three, only three prototypes of them were made.
and Born of Hope, only 7 exist, given to me...

Gildor Inglorion wrote:

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Same for the three white 54mm prototypes, I know I am one of the ucky owners of this demonstration set of three, only three prototypes of them were made.
and Born of Hope, only 7 exist, given to me...

I am one of the three and also happy owner a Born of hope exchanged some years ago :-) but I miss the squirrel ... and ME2 and probably some variants in the common range.
However I am not looking actively for rare Mithril anymore since personal health issue

Maneas wrote : I also listen to Loreena from time to time, she has some magical songs. I specially like the album that has a pomegranate on the front (can't recall it's name at the moment).

Dear Maneas,
I recently discovered a singer, truly worthy heiress of Loorenna Mac Kennith, it is Azam Ali. His second album "Portals of Grace" is very beautiful, a real pleasure to listen to and undeniably an invitation to travel the spirit in the forgotten realms. Nothing better to encourage the imagination and paint figurines.

Comme deux frères !
   
Vestige d’une époque révolue, voici deux figurines pas ordinaires et tant convoitées aujourd’hui par certains…
En voici l’histoire…
Nous sommes alors au tout début des années 90, Prince-August/Mithril s’est fait une place dans le milieu des figurines fantastiques, auprès des autres marques de l’époque, comme Ral Partha, Grenadier, Citadel, Minifigs et consorts. Les figurines Mithril dégagent « un je ne sais pas quoi » de poésie, que les autres marques n’ont pas. Elles ont su séduire les peintres de figurines fantastiques et des amoureux de JRR Tolkien. Jacques et moi en sommes, de fervents lecteurs du Professeur. Rien ne nous a échappé, Le Seigneur des Anneaux, Le Silmarillion, Les contes et légendes inachevées, Bilbo, bien sûr ! Nous collectionnons les calendriers Tolkien et toutes les représentations graphiques en lien avec les Terres du Milieu et nous sommes également  peintres de figurines fantastiques.

Nantes  est déjà un véritable vivier de talents en tout genre dans le monde de l’Héroic Fantaisy. Parmi eux, des créateurs de jeux et des sculpteurs de figurines vont donner naissance à une marque nantaise de figurine, Armaggedon. Son créateur, Thierry Abgrall, récidivera  quelques années plus tard avec Ilyad Games avec l’aide de deux fantastiques sculpteurs peintres, Thomas David et Jacques Alexandre Gillois. Ces derniers travaillent aujourd’hui pour Kingdom Death.

De fabuleux peintres oeuvrent alors sous nos yeux. Pour n’en citer que deux, je commencerai par  Philippe Plual véritable maître de la peinture Humbrol. Ce dernier nous ébahit à chacune de ses réalisations. Si vous avez déjà essayé de peindre à l’Humbrol, vous comprenez alors aisément notre étonnement et notre stupéfaction à la vue de ces véritables bijoux. Pas de téléphone portable ou d’APN à l’époque,  pour prendre des photos, afin de pouvoir vous les présenter aujourd’hui. Ma parole doit vous suffire.
Jacques fait parti de ces fantastiques peintres, mais lui peint à l’huile et propose une autre lecture que celle de Philippe.  Il se spécialise assez rapidement dans la peinture des figurines Mithril. Il est de plus de dix ans mon aîné mais très vite nous nous lions d’amitié. Je passe de la peinture à l’acrylique à la peinture à l’huile. Il va me guider patiemment dans la découverte de ce médium. J’y prends goût et assez rapidement, je produis quelque chose de convenable… pour mon Maître. Nous devenons alors conscient de notre force d’impacte, nous peignons bien, pas autant que nous le souhaitions, mais la production est bien là, elle n’est pas négligeable. Et la venue d’Hervé dans le groupe ne fera qu’accroître l’évidence ! Il nous faut faire découvrir aux autres, notre travail et ainsi peut-être  convertir d’autres peintres aux figurines Mithril. Bien évidemment nous visons l’excellence en terme de peinture, il ne peut en être autrement. Nous écumons alors dans notre Bretagne natale, les conventions et autres concours de figurines pour nous faire remarquer. Nous achetons une vitrine pour exposer nos réalisations et créons l’association Myth’Image (nous adorions également Robert Holdstock) et son fanzine Mithril Maniac.
Prince-August France nous découvre et informe la maison mère irlandaise de l’existence de nos petits bijoux : nous avons peint alors plus de 200 références de Mithril avec une qualité de peinture de concours. PAI souhaite utiliser nos figurines pour réaliser un catalogue couleur. Nous sommes aux anges et comble de bonheur, nous recevons des mains de Maria, une  exclusivité, une figurine 54mm d’Aragorn, le début d’une autre série nous dit-on. Les tractations commencent. PAI souhaitent récupérer nos figurines pour les prendre en photos. Or, nous sommes très réticents à voir partir notre trésor loin de nous et sans qu’un des nôtres ne l’accompagne. La peur d’une trop grande casse où de ne pas les récupérer tout simplement feront échouer le projet, bien que nous ayons proposé une alternative, celle de faire prendre en photos les figurines par un studio professionnel de Nantes.  Aujourd’hui, avec le recul, je pense que nous aurions dû faire le déplacement directement en Irlande, mais je ne me souviens pas  qu’une seule fois l’idée ne nous soit venue à l’esprit. Le transport aérien n’était pas aussi développé qu’aujourd’hui, mais nous aurions pût prendre le ferry. C’est un regret que je nourris aujourd’hui et par la suite, nous n’avons jamais visité le site de Cork. Une occasion de ratée.

De ces années, il me reste aujourd’hui ces deux figurines, comme deux frères…que nous étions Jacques et moi.

English version

Like two brothers !

Vestige of a bygone era, here are two figurines not ordinary and so coveted today by some ...
Here is the story ...
We are in the early 90s, Prince-August / Mithril has made a place in the world of fantasy figurines, with other brands of the time, such as Ral Partha, Grenadier, Citadel, Minifigs and others. The Mithril figurines give off a "do not know what" of poetry that other brands do not have. They have seduced painters of fantastic figurines and lovers of JRR Tolkien. Jacques and I are, fervent readers of the Professor. Nothing escaped us, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Legends, Bilbo, of course! We collect Tolkien calendars and all the graphic representations related to the Middle Lands and we are also painters of fantastic figurines.
Nantes is already a veritable pool of talent of all kinds in the world of Heroic Fantaisy. Among them, game creators and figurine sculptors will give birth to a brand of Nantes figurine, Armaggedon. Its creator, Thierry Abgrall, will repeat a few years later with Ilyad Games with the help of two fantastic painters, Thomas David and Jacques Alexandre Gillois. They are working today for Kingdom Death.

Fabulous painters then work before our eyes. To name just two, I'll start with Philippe Plual, a true master of Humbrol painting. The latter amazes us with each of his achievements. If you've ever tried painting at Humbrol, then you can easily understand our astonishment and amazement at the sight of these real jewels. No mobile phone or camera at the time, to take pictures, so you can present them today. My word must suffice you.

Jacques is one of those fantastic painters, but he paints with oil and proposes a reading other than Philippe's. He specializes rather quickly in the painting of Mithril figurines. He is more than ten years my senior but very soon we make friends. I go from painting to acrylic to oil painting. He will guide me patiently in the discovery of this medium. I take my taste and quickly enough, I produce something suitable ... for my Master. We then become aware of our impact force, we paint well, not as much as we wanted, but the production is there, it is not negligible. And the arrival of Hervé in the group will only increase the evidence! We need to introduce others to our work and perhaps convert other painters to Mithril figurines. Of course we aim for excellence in terms of painting, it can not be otherwise. We then skate in our native Brittany, conventions and other figurines competitions to point us out. We buy a showcase to showcase our achievements and create the Myth'Image association (we also loved Robert Holdstock) and his Mithril Maniac fanzine.
Prince-August France discovers and informs the Irish parent company of the existence of our little jewels: we painted then more than 200 references of Mithril with a quality of painting of contest. PAI wants to use our figurines to create a color catalog. We are thrilled and overwhelmed with happiness, we receive from Maria, an exclusive, 54mm figurine Aragorn, the beginning of another series we are told. The negotiations begin. PAI wish to recover our figurines to take pictures. However, we are very reluctant to see our treasure away from us and without one of ours to accompany it. The fear of too big a break or not to recover simply will fail the project, although we have proposed an alternative, that of having photos taken by a Nantes professional studio. Today, with hindsight, I think we should have traveled directly to Ireland, but I do not remember the idea coming to mind once. Air transport was not as developed as it is today, but we could have taken the ferry. It is a regret that I feed today and afterwards we have never visited the Cork site. A chance of failure.

Of those years, I still have these two figures today, like two brothers ... that we were Jacques and me.

Using Humbrol oil-colours is a very good choice, I think. Though it  needs some skills and even more time. I do like those colours very much. Yes, of course they cannot be compared to acrylic colours ... but can be combined once a layer has completely dried.
Thank you very much, Fabrice that seems to be quite a project. Wishing you every success in taking part in it.

Er, I just wondered about the base of the Aragorn-figure of which you provided a pic.

Wahou, this is stunning !

Master Fabrice, thanks for this history / biography  that I've just discovered today...
And of course also for the beautiful painting works showed here.
They are all Master-works !
Congrats to the painter wherever he is now ... I imagine how it was such a pain for you to loose a friend, it's so sad ...

What do you think about this Master Thingol ?



Jacques 's work

Fabrice JACOB wrote:

What do you think about this Master Thingol ?



Jacques 's work

Great work!! Super "soft" colours, but still beautiful!

Fabrice JACOB wrote:

What do you think about this Master Thingol ?



Jacques 's work

What a gorgeous piece of work!!!

Good morning all,
this little word will echo that of Maître Milo worried about the low number of visitors to these sites. It reminded me of an illustration of Olivier. F who offered us his help for the cover pages of the Mithril Maniac fanzines.
Snowball, the illustration of Angus Mc Bride is therefore imposed on my mind and the sleeves of the playing cards.
Is there a post on the site dedicated to these cards (exchanges, sales, donations ...) ?

Fabrice JACOB wrote:

Good morning all,
this little word will echo that of Maître Milo worried about the low number of visitors to these sites. It reminded me of an illustration of Olivier. F who offered us his help for the cover pages of the Mithril Maniac fanzines.

funny image ! ... MMP looks like the Chamber of Marzabul !

Snowball, the illustration of Angus Mc Bride is therefore imposed on my mind and the sleeves of the playing cards.
Is there a post on the site dedicated to these cards (exchanges, sales, donations ...) ?

I've never seen those cards ... seem to be interesting .