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Author Topic: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth  (Read 12705 times)

Offline fastolfrus

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5247
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #45 on: March 27, 2013, 10:56:36 AM »
@Gutbukkit: 5£ is an unbeatable bargain... German prices are up to 100€!  :o

You can get a second hand copy for 66p on Abe, although postage adds a couple of pounds, but still well under the £5 mark.

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?bt.x=0&bt.y=0&sts=t&tn=tolkien+bestiary

I thoroughly recomend Abe for obscure books. Best if you search by title and author rather than keywords, but if you are not sure put a vague guess at the title and see what you find. Alasdair uses it a lot for text books.
Gary, Glynis, and Alasdair (there are three of us, but we are too mean to have more than one login)

Offline Mason

  • Elder God
  • Posts: 21222
  • Eternal Butterfly!
    • Blind Beggar Miniatures
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #46 on: March 27, 2013, 11:35:40 AM »
 :o :o :o

Wow!
Late to the party on these, but oh, so glad to catch them.

These fellas look spot on with my original visions of the Soldiers of Gondor.
I detest the PJ versions of them as well as a few ( ::)) other things.

These are fantastic: Great choice of original figure, excellent conversions and lovely paintwork.
 :-* :-* :-*

P.S. Thanks to Rob Bresnan, I have just ordered that Bestiary.
Looking forward to getting my grubby mitts on it!
 :D

Offline sukhe_bator

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1620
  • bad hair day
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #47 on: March 27, 2013, 12:09:06 PM »
Mason - I'm completely with you. They are exactly how I'd imagined Gondorians to be. Had I not decided a long time ago against kite shields for Gondorians (largely due to the dearth of good figures available at the time, my Gondorians would look like these now - curses!) And Mason - you will not be disappointed with the Bestiary...
Warriors dreams, summer grasses, all that remains

Offline Momotaro

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1320
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #48 on: March 27, 2013, 01:32:14 PM »
Yeah, I've just found this thread - fantastic minis!

I'm now wondering if I can retro-fit all my Conquest Norman Gondorians with winged helmets.  IIRC, Hasslefree sell mini-wings for just such a purpose...

Offline Vermis

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2433
    • Mini Sculpture
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #49 on: March 27, 2013, 08:13:19 PM »
Firstly, sorry to Finarfin for continuing this slight diversion. ;)

I was in a branch of The Works today - turns out they had both the bestiary and the encyclopedia.  £6.99 softback and £4.99 hardback, respectively.  I flicked through the bestiary first and was pleasantly surprised to see it chock-full of illustrations by Ian Miller, among other artists. (Including Victor Ambrus and even a few by John Blanche)  From my POV, a real retro-warhammer feel to Middle-Earth. :)

Then the encyclopedia.  As mentioned it's pretty much the bestiary rearranged a bit, but with a lot of the illustrations replaced by offerings in two other styles.  How can I put it?  One was like an amalgam of a child's crayon doodles and mid-20th-C soviet bloc animations.  The other was like a young boy heard from a friend that they draw Spider-Man with ink and a brush, and thought that's all you need to make your drawings great.  Neither were pretty.  So I thought it was worth paying the extra couple of pounds for the bestiary, and brought it up to the till...

... where it rang through as £4.99 anyway. :D

On-topic!  Kind of:

Quote
I detest the PJ versions of them as well as a few ( Roll Eyes) other things.

I'm tempted to start a topic. :)

Quote
I'm now wondering if I can retro-fit all my Conquest Norman Gondorians with winged helmets.  IIRC, Hasslefree sell mini-wings for just such a purpose...

Good point!  I'd forgotten about those.  I'd be interested to see how they look, if you go ahead.

Offline sukhe_bator

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1620
  • bad hair day
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #50 on: March 28, 2013, 09:32:22 AM »
I'm with Vermis - I would be interested to see the results of Momotaro's conversion ideas

Offline Kitsune

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 706
    • Mosquito on the Tenth Floor
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #51 on: March 28, 2013, 08:58:12 PM »
Really smart work on the unit. Good tips for sculpting as well.

Offline Treebeard

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 732
  • Lazy French Painter
    • Painting Log
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #52 on: March 29, 2013, 11:01:26 AM »
Outstanding. They works far better for me than the GW ones

Offline Momotaro

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1320
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #53 on: March 29, 2013, 11:16:56 AM »
I'm with Vermis - I would be interested to see the results of Momotaro's conversion ideas

Oh.  Now I actually have to do it, don't I?  :D

Offline Finarfin

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 74
    • FINiatures
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #54 on: March 29, 2013, 12:50:27 PM »
Oh.  Now I actually have to do it, don't I?  :D

We have to insist...  ;)

Offline Mason

  • Elder God
  • Posts: 21222
  • Eternal Butterfly!
    • Blind Beggar Miniatures
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #55 on: April 14, 2013, 08:29:22 PM »
And Mason - you will not be disappointed with the Bestiary...

I certainly wasnt!
Great book, very inspirational.
So thanks again to Rob for first mentioning it.
 :)

AND an even bigger 'Thank You' to Finarfin, as I have decided to take the leap and am waiting for some similar figures so that I can try the same thing.
This is exactly what Men of Gondor should look like!

If mine come out half as well as yours I will be pleased!
 :D

Offline fluffy05

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 404
    • One Painters Crusade
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #56 on: August 07, 2013, 12:10:05 AM »
Hi guys,

My two sons and I have only just finished watching the New "The Hobbit" movie recently and they are keen as mustard to game all things LOTR  :D

Your blog and brushwork is inspiring!

Please keep posting as the inspiration is great  :-*

Consider me subscribed  ;)
'The German today is like the June Bride; he knows he is going to get it, but he doesn't know how big it is going to be.' - Gen. Richard "Windy" Gale, 6th Airborne Division Commander

Offline Spooktalker

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 739
    • Warlock of Lead Mountain
Re: Watchful Peace: Normans in Middle-earth
« Reply #57 on: August 09, 2013, 04:52:20 AM »
I agree with everyone, the normans are great and an improvement over the movie designs.

I got mine when I was about thirteen or fourteen. I am 40 this year.

They had a copy in the school library and I used to pour over it, amazed by the fantastic illustrations- some of the finest fantasy art I can ever remember seeing. I was so enthralled by the book, I asked for it for Christmas. I got it as my main Christmas present because it was so expensive (it cost £25, back when that was a LOT of money to spend on a book). My Mum and Dad thought it was a bit of a waste of money to spend that much on a book, but I still have it, and it is very much treasured, unlike all those other childhood Christmas presents I had over the years. I still read it and refer to it, especially when planning campaigns to LotR. The art still enthrals me.

I believe it was also republished when the films came out,  under the title Tolkien: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia. It's pretty much the same book, but to be fair the new title is a better description of the contents of the book. You will probably be able to pick this up a bit cheaper than the Bestiary, because it was printed more recently and it much larger print runs.

Very similar experience here. I would get it from the library and renew until I maxed out renews, then come back a month or four later and get it again. I spent many hours with it and drew a number of pictures aping millers style with technical pens my architect father handed down to me.

  Later it came back in print and I only found out about it when it was on the remainder table at Borders for literally $2.50. Actually, I got two versions that way. The first was the text in a small and particularly cheap-feeling hardback called Tolkien A-Z and the printing wasn't very tight and the illustrations looked messy and blotchy. Later came the real deal, softback and with a crap cover but very nice inside. Both from the remainder table. I bought up several copies of each and passed them out to any of my friends I thought might be interested. This was a good few years ahead of the movies and the list was very small.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2013, 04:54:30 AM by Spooktalker »

 

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