Dark Sword: A Song of Fire and Ice

[Malebolgia]

Official Press Release
Dark Sword Miniatures and Tom Meier to produce George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire premium miniature line

August 13, 2007

Dark Sword Miniatures is pleased to announce a premium miniatures line based on the world of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. This new pewter miniature line will be in the same scale as the critically acclaimed Dark Sword lines and other popular "28mm" miniature ranges on the market today. Origins Hall of Fame sculptor Tom Meier will be the primary sculptor of this new range of premium pewter miniatures.

"George, Tom and I are pleased to be working together on this new range of premium miniatures. We are all on the same page with what we want this range to look like and where we want this range to go over the years ahead", said Jim from Dark Sword Miniatures, "We have been hard at work dialing things in on our first batch of miniatures over the past few months."

Dark Sword Miniatures is known for their award winning miniature ranges based on the fantasy artwork of Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson (RIP), Clyde Caldwell and Jeff Easley. "When George personally approached me as an admirer of the realistically proportioned and scaled Dark Sword ranges, I thought it was some sort of odd coincidence at first" laughed Jim. "But as it sunk in that this was indeed the creator of the Westeros world, it was flattering to say the least. I am a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire and thrilled to be working with George and Tom on this new line."

"I've been impressed with Dark Sword Miniatures since the first time I stumbled across their website, and saw the ranges based on the artwork of Larry Elmore and Keith Parkinson -- superb figures, beautifully sculpted, cast with care, and painstakingly faithful to the vision of those two fine artists", said George R.R. Martin. "When I got in touch with Jim and swapped some of my books for some of his miniatures, my first impression was confirmed -- this was the kind of quality I wanted for any figures based on A Song of Ice and Fire. Dark Sword's commitment to customer service is also second to none, and that was very important to me after my last foray into this area, which left so many of my fans frustrated and disappointed."

"The best part of that earlier experience had been the chance to work with the legendary Tom Meier, and to see him bring a few (too few) of my characters to life in pewter. I was adamant in wanting Tom to continue to be a part of any new range of miniatures... and I'm thrilled to say that he will be", said George. "Tom has been one of Dark Sword's main men since the start, and will be the chief sculptor on our new range of Ice & Fire figures. He's already been hard at work, and we plan to keep him busy for years to come, sculpting all of your favorite characters from Westeros."

Fans of the Westeros world will be able to collect pewter miniatures of their favorite characters in addition troop types such as - The Black Brothers of the Night's Watch, Wildlings, The Unsullied, and other assorted background types that add flavor to the world. A realistic, detailed depiction of each character and troop/background type is going to be one of the main focuses of this new line.

"George's great material with Jim's enthusiasm and a dedication on all our parts to the highest quality should make this project something all miniature enthusiasts and many fans of George R.R. Martin's work will enjoy", said Tom Meier.

The first batch of miniatures will include - Jon Snow, Sandor Clegane (The Hound), Melisandre, The Shadow Tower Raven Keeper, a Night's Watch Archer, and more. For pictures of these new miniatures, please visit: www.DarkSwordMiniatures.com. For those folks attending Gen Con Indy from August 16-19, swing by the Dark Sword Miniatures Booth to say hi and check out the miniatures in person.

Dark Sword Miniatures, Inc. ( www.DarkSwordMiniatures.com ) was founded with the single purpose of creating extremely detailed fantasy miniatures for both miniature collectors and gamers alike. Our award winning pewter fantasy miniatures are in the newer 28mm to 30mm scale which has become the industry standard.

Jon Snow
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_jonsnow_fbs2_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_johnsnow_fbs1_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_jonsnow_face_g.jpg
Sculpted by Mr. Tom Meier
This is a depiction of Jon from around the time of the battle with Qhorin Halfhand. This is the first GRRM Dark Sword mini Tom sculpted up. We just had to start off with Jon Snow. It would not have seemed right to do it any other way...

Melisandre
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_melisandre1_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_melisandre2_g.jpg
Sculpted by Mr. Tom Meier
Dark Sword loves producing female fantasy miniatures. It is what we are known for you could say. With that being said, we will be doing quite a few of the main female characters right out of the gate. The Red Witch was our first...

The Hound
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_thehound_fbs_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_thehound_fbs2_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_thehound_back_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_thehound_face2_g.jpg
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_houndmelis_sizecomp_g.jpg
Sculpted by Mr. Tom Meier
There will be three different versions of the Hound's head in this blister pack: helmet on with visor down, helmet on with visor up, and helmet off. This way, people can choose their favorite look for Sandor or simply have multiple versions in their collections. Please note that the wire coming out the scabbord will not be in the final miniature. This is simply a Work in Progress shot of the almost completed miniature.

The Shadow Tower Raven Keeper
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_ravenkeeper_g.jpg
Sculpted by Mr. Tom Meier
We will be doing background character / troop type "flavor miniatures" throughout this new line as well. This Raven keeper is just full of character. Alot of fun this one...

The Night's Watch Archer
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/images/miniatures/grrm_nightswatch_archer1_g.jpg
Sculpted by Mr. Tom Meier
We will be doing background character / troop type "flavor miniatures" throughout this new line as well. I am a big fan of The Night's Watch, so expect to see more of these troop types soon.

Next Up....Ser Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Ser Loras "Knight of the Flowers" and some more Night's Watch troop types. Good times ahead folks!

More info:
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/

Once again fantastic sculpts from puttyking Meier :coolpics:

[lauth81]

Wow, that´s 28/30 mm? The detailwork is fantastic. I like the raventower guy.

[Ritual]

This is something from Dark Sword I'm actually interested in. I'm reading this book series right now and there are lots of cool characters in those films. I'm generally not keen on traditional high fantasy stuff, but as these are based on such a tremendously cool book they are a lot more interesting (for me, at least...). And, Tom Meier is the man! :)

[EldinTux]

I've read these books - well worth it - I'll be following this series with interest. Did you mention a film Anders? Is this a slip of the keys or is there a film out there?

[Ritual]

Slip of the mind, rather... ;) I meant books.... but I've heard something about a TV Series. Don't know much about it, though...

[Duende]

The minis look fantastic! I'm not familiar with the books that they're based on, though. Can somebody tell me a little more about them? (Great! More books to add to my must-read list! ;) )

[Hinton]

Great looking stuff there. Tom is an amazing sculptor and I'll be looking forward to these coming out.

[Ritual]

@Duende
It's a fantastic Fantasy series. Very grim and brutal! It's basically about the struggle for power in a Kingdom with a very turbulent history. There are many pretenders for the throne and the reader gets to follow characters spread over all the different fractions. At the same time there is a very dark and frightening threat from outside that draws nearer, but that most people don't know about. It's well written and stays clear of many clichés of the genre (not all, though, but enough of them to be very refreshing). The writer doesn't hesitate to kill off characters now and then (to avoid the Robert Jordan syndrome... ;)). It is supposed to be 7 books all in all (the writer is dead set on this, again with reference to the Robert Jordan syndrome...), of which four are released so far (next book is scheduled this winter sometime in early 2008). One of the books is in some editions split in 2 parts due to its size.

[Wren]

In some respects the series feels like a sweeping historical saga than traditional high fantasy. Although the characterization is very well done, when you look at the overall story it's to a degree more about the fate of families and nations than individuals. Very brutal and grim, but not without moments of humour and beauty. And I'd say he kills characters off a smidge more than 'now and again', just to forewarn people. ;-> I think that's part of what makes it have a bit of an historical feel. You can go ahead and be attached to a particular character as much as you want, but nothing's to say they won't drop dead in three chapters, regardless of how many events are entwined around them. The other thing he does that's interesting is this is very much a shades of gray world. You'll start the books thinking certain characters are horrible or vice versa, and as he gets around to chapters from everyone's perspectives, you might find that there are good reasons for horrible actions, or reasons the character couldn't avoid acting as s/he did. Not to say everything that happens is good to someone or excuseable, more that there's no stereotypical villain.

I'm very happy to hear that the project of producing minis based on this series did not die with Testor's aborted plans. We can probably credit that to GRR's enthusiasm for collecting knights. (http://www.georgerrmartin.com/knights/index.html) I'm also happy to see the new line coming from a company I have always felt has high production standards.

[gi6ers]

hmmm more unpaintable stuff from Mr Meier.

[Vytis]

Oh, just what I need! More Tom Meier sculpts I drool over wanting to paint. Can't wait.

[Skya]

So cool. I fully expect I'll be buying this entire line. I am curious though as to what will happen to the sculpts that Tom did up for Testors.

[Wren]

I think the Ruby Ford diorama did make it to release, but I haven't heard anything about the rest of the sculpts.

[Skya]

Ruby Ford made it to release with a bunch of issues, mostly due to it's not having been designed to be preassembled and then shipped. I know Testors sold a handful of the other ones they did at GenCon a couple years back, so they were actually produced, just not exactly made readily available. They were quite nice pieces though and I'll be curious to see if Darksword ends up producing them as well or if they'll fall into limbo.

[Wren]

Dang, I wish I'd gone by the Testor's booth that year, I'd have liked to have picked those up.