Just turned up from Amazon, Book 3 in this superb series. Only had a quick look, about 230 pages of concept art John Howe and Alan lee, pics from the film, costumes, weapons, buildings to name a few.

Quality paper and Master Portrait supplement at the end. All pure ART, amazing, inspirational for any figure painter and scenery builder. A great source of information.

Book 1 is also along these lines and book 2 covering Characters and Creatures.

Would Thoroughly recommend Books 1 and 3 to everybody, Book 2 to any die hards.

Get them, they are not expensive, i paid £14 delivered, Hard back and its large, a real coffee table book.

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

I have all three. The Current #3 is very useful. There are lots of line drawings that were used to build the sets and models. A must have.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

I spent over an hour carefully trying NOT to drool over the book this morning. It is always fascinating to see the might-have-beens in the design process as well as what actually made it onscreen.
There are some fascinating images of the Mirkwood elves and the thought process behind the designs. Same also goes for Laketown.
And Smaug, though they are crafty about only really giving him a small section in the book - there will be much more in book 4 when it comes out.

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

I'll be getting the second AUJ and the new DoS one on Christmas. Looking forward to them both immensely.

Is there much Dol Guldur in there?

LOL, Creaky, those two are on my list too

Are they limited or will I be able to pick them all up after Xmas?

VG

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"Dark have been my dreams of late."

They're not limited as far as i know.

There is a section on Dol Guldur in the new book.

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

Good news, the new Chronicle book coming next year "Cloaks and Daggers" hope it will be like the Lotr weapons book that came out years ago.

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

The second chronicles book for AUJ came out in April or May, but I do not mind waiting a little longer as it is the quality of the product that counts.
Here is the publishers link:
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Hobb ... 0062265708

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

Is there something about Bolg in the third one?

speculation.
May be a good painting Guide

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Had a sneaky look at the copy that arrived today before it was (cruelly, and i thought with far too much pleasure) snatched from out of my hands.

Some brief reactions from what i noticed:

I'm buying a second Legolas to sculpt that hood. That design was killer.

Dale is breathtakingly beautiful, both before and after Smaug's attack. I'm inspired to do something special, when i get my hands on the book for real.

I really like the log flume style Barrels out of bond concept. Glad it wasn't in the movie, but it gets my brain thinking.