Wow, soon the whole cast of the series will be available in miniatures. I already love to play with them in my spare time and continue the story beyond the storyarch of "A Feast for Crows". With enough imagination, it is easy to continue the story up to the "Winds of Winter". I actually use my dinosaur miniatures as stand-ins for the wildlings mammoths.

Is there a plan how many of the main and minor protagonists will be available as miniatures? And any plans on Wild Card characters miniatures or action figures ?

Ice and Fire legos would be awesome, and the sheer number of sets would be incredible. Trying to build Harrenhall or The Eeyrie would be really fun, and a nice way to while away the months between books.
I think these awesome looking miniatures might cause me to get back into collecting again, a habit I stopped about 15 years ago, which seems like forever.
While a plastic Sansa would be nice, I think it might be bought by more boys than girls;)

Where can we find these miniatures? Does Dark Sword have a website? Will there be miniatures with the faces of the actors playing the characters in the HBO series, or are they all unique to the artist? I realize that the first miniatures were probably cast decades before the HBO series was cast. How much input do you have in designing the miniatures or the poses/scenes that are cast? Do you get to approve them? Do you get to request certain scenes? Thinking of Shae, etc., are all the miniatures G rated?

Sorry for all the questions. This is a whole new world to me. I think they it is pretty awesome though...most of the miniatures I have seen before have not been related to a specific book but were made for D&D, etc.

General Kenobi. Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him in Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

He looks just like how I pictured him in the books. Its perfect! I used to make miniatures like this for a while. I was actually pretty good at it. I have four of them sitting on my desk right now that I made a long time ago. These pictures make me want to start again--I got distracted after a while and never got back into making them. Maybe I can turn one of my unfinished dwarfs into a Tyrion :)
(Purely for myself, of course) When he makes a Tyrion one I'll buy it and a bunch of others along with A Dance with Dragons when it comes out and have a release party with my friends. We've had one for every Wild Cards release. I've recently got them interested in ASOIAF so now we are a Wild Cards and ASOIAF fan club! I'm going to have to pick out some more merchandise for our party when it comes out. Maybe the calendars--they look really neat. I bought a star wars one for one of my friends a few years ago but she poured coffee on it! Maybe I'll give her something different instead :D
Sorry for the rambling, I just thought these miniatures were the most exciting thing I've seen in a while and I just started reading your blog. I've never thought that I missed making them this much. Maybe I should stop typing this and start working on them. :)
Except maybe you would want me to buy his instead, hahaha. I'll probably never finish anyway.

What a great sculpt. Love this whole line.

I've always wondered what it would be like to have someone create visual art from something I've written. I think it would be irksome for me. Even if the artist had the best will in the world and came unbelievably close to what I had in my head during the writing, I can totally see myself being *compelled* to find something wrong and then announce very loudly to the world, "Yes, it's lovely but it's not what I MEANT."

Seeing as this is the case, it's probably lucky that I am not a writer.

Luwin looks great, but Robert on the Trident ... WANT!

Wow, you guys sure are into miniatures. I Wonder Could someone tell me if there is a such thing as miniature painting classes? I used to dabel back in the day, but I was pretty bad at finishing the job, so I gave it up. Maybe if I had some plan or outline (from the painting class), I could finish before getting bored.

Looking forward to a Bronn mini, preferably where he's about to hack someone in the face. Bronn is cool.

Wow! Thanks for the advice jtprkinski, though I am actually looking for a more rigorous approach to painting figures that what you seem to be into. The analogy I would use here is that you are more of a gardener, letting your art develop organically, while I would be more interested in an architectural approach wherein I planned the whole painting process out before diving in and possibly letting down the people who were counting on me to finish the figures they've given me to paint.

After doing a quick search, I found at least three, possibly four books on the subject. I thought there might be more, but I guess not.

As I recall, Pycelle's is made up of many individual chains, woven together. I sort of imagine the effect to be not unlike Mr. T's panoply, except in many metals. Pycelle is the blingiest of them all.

I admit, I don't quite get why the production for the TV series went with that great loop of big metal links, but I'm assuming it was just the visual oddness of it that attracted them to it. Or simply that it was more visible.

A young Robert at the Trident -- I suppose it'll be in a rather different pose than the one Meier made for Testors? Can a Rhaegar be far behind? Aerys would be pretty interesting to have as well, with his nails and his long beard. Or the other Baratheons, Renly and Stannis.

They've already done Tyrion, actually, as seen here. Most of the major characters have been covered, in fact, but they like to mix it up.

Okay, I'm preparing to get a beat down...

When I was a D&D geek (in the 80's) all the miniatures were pewter colored. Are these things made of something different now? Or is this some sort of master "proof" that's a different color from what is actually sold?

George,

is Grand Maester suppose to be title of honor because he is the King's maester? or does it mean that he has leadership authority in the Citadel over/with the Archmaesters?

honestly that's how I always pictured a maester's chain too. Wonder where he has all his hidden pockets though?

Ha! I love it when George posts the new greens before they go up on Dark Sword's site!

OK, I'm just a wee a bit of a minis freak, so I can answer some of the questions that have come up:

- Is there a plan how many of the main and minor protagonists will be available as miniatures?
If people keep buying them, it's good bet they'll keep cranking them out, but you don't need to be a minis freak to guess that...

- Ice & Fire Lego?
Lego does make some castle sets. If you're thinking about something more elaborate, some good non-Lego options might be http://www.hirstarts.com (make your own blocks) or http://www.worldworksgames.com (pdf's to print on cardstock, cut, score, fold, glue, etc.) Both great products for making castle models in scale with this type of minis.

- Where can we find these miniatures? Does Dark Sword have a website?
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/ They tend to throw in "free swag" minis (not GRRM minis in my experience, but very nice) with your orders, which is a nice touch, and their customer service is excellent.

- Will there be miniatures with the faces of the actors playing the characters in the HBO series, or are they all unique to the artist?
Not the actors; rather, the books and the imaginations of the sculptors. Pretty sure they run stuff by George too, as their site occasionally mentions small changes they've made to some of the greens at his request before going to casting. If you want them to look like the HBO actors, you're looking at a pretty advanced conversion project IMO; better get yourself some green stuff (see below) and start practicing your sculpting...

- When he makes a Tyrion one I'll buy it and a bunch of others along with A Dance with Dragons when it comes out and have a release party with my friends.
Not only do they already have a Tyrion mini, but they have him in both 28mm scale (like the rest of the line, which generally means an *average* human is 28mm from base to eye level) as well as 54mm scale. Same goes for the first Dany mini.

- Could someone tell me if there is a such thing as miniature painting classes?
Yup, at game conventions, usually. Teaching these is how some of the top mini-painters in the world make a few extra bucks alongside their EBay sales and commission work. You might also check any local shops that sell minis/games - often they have painting clubs that meet on weekends or whatever. That's a great way to learn. Or google "painting miniatures". http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/forum/3-painting-tips-advice is one of the best online mini-painting resources I've ever come across (they are friendly with the folks at Dark Sword)

- When I was a D&D geek (in the 80's) all the miniatures were pewter colored. Are these things made of something different now? Or is this some sort of master "proof" that's a different color from what is actually sold?
That is exactly what it is. It's a 2-part epoxy putty that comes in blue and yellow parts that turn green and begin to cure when mixed. It's been the industry standard for miniature prototypes for decades. The same putty is also used by people who collect and paint minis - once you assemble a multi-part mini, there is a thin gap between, say, the shoulder and the arm that you've glued on. Since the minis are so small, this is quite noticeable. So you mix up a tiny bit of green stuff and stuff it into that gap, smooth it out, add a little texture to make it match the surrounding area (using toothpicks, dental tools, homemade tools, whatever) and once it's primed and painted, you can't tell it was ever more than one piece to begin with. People also use it to create scenic bases for their minis to stand on, various items in their surroundings, or even to convert "stock" minis to create something new by adding or replacing parts (or perhaps making the Eddard mini look more like Sean Bean?). There are newer mediums designed for sculpting but green stuff is still probably the most common, and the prototypes are usually called "greens" even when they're not. Green, that is.

Hope that helps...