A CROWN IS BORN../ The Hobbit Dwarves etc.. WIP's & Finished Builds Part 2

Theboo-bomb wrote:Turned out fantastic, specially when you gave him that flowing mane of hair and a glorious beard!

Thank you TTB!!

Just found these concept and progress hair/beard designs using the actual actor for Oin's look:

Right, round 8...Fight! ...er build!

Now you get to slog through the building process in real time with me as I try and work out what the hell I'm doing! The pattern on his collar/shoulder covering is a hell of a lot more complicated than it initially looks, first appears just as a simple diamond pattern but if you look closely you'll see that it's actually a very complicated Celtic 'maze' design with certain parts not crossing other parts, beautiful to look at but a bugger to reproduce by hand! I'll see what I can get the printer and printable material to come up with first.

REFERENCE PICS:

























MADE MOST OF HS BODY AND DUG THROUGH ALL MY DWARF RELATED GEAR TO CHOOSE WHAT WILL BE USEFUL IN THIS BUILD:

Oooh !! YAY!!!

That pattern comes down to two parallel zig zag lines interlocking the next pair. So at the very least you'll just need an edge folded in the middle to form a ^ at the right angle, then press into the material. If you want the look of stitches, then carve some gaps into the edge.

That, to me, looks like the easy part.

Diana wrote:Oooh !! YAY!!!

That pattern comes down to two parallel zig zag lines interlocking the next pair. So at the very least you'll just need an edge folded in the middle to form a ^ at the right angle, then press into the material. If you want the look of stitches, then carve some gaps into the edge.

That, to me, looks like the easy part.

You're right, I could have sworn the lines didn't crossover each other (which would have been the major headache) and did hundreds of 'stop, skip, go' partitions in the pattern but thankfully it looks like by brain just saw a more complicated pattern or I was looking at a particular part where the sculptor missed a bit or the light 'whited out' the lines?

This should be interesting. The pattern is a bit much, but overall it looks like “scale male” to a degree, with the overlapping pattern showing thru.

Oh I remember this stage... inspiration and chaos about to combine into something very cool.

Stryker2011 wrote:This should be interesting. The pattern is a bit much, but overall it looks like “scale male” to a degree, with the overlapping pattern showing thru.

'A bit much'? LOL, have you forgotten the patterns on most Dwarf armour and clothing, it's a geometric version of Celtic knot-work which is why I love it (being Irish) but it's a bugger to replicate by hand!   These are some the pics I have left for Dwarves to build, so not including the complicated ones I've already done:

GubernatorFan wrote:Oh I remember this stage... inspiration and chaos about to combine into something very cool.

LOL! Lets hope so! More chaos then, just experimenting with different stuff I have, trying to join it together and get an idea of what it could look like, similar to the traditional tailor's shop where everything is covered in French chalk, pins and loose threads!! The body needed a bit more work than usual (I think) because he's shorter but still quite wide shouldered so to get full articulation, parts needed to fold over each other in a mechanical way:









FILLED WITH FOAM FIRST, THEN STUFFING ADDED:





DETAILING METAL BEADS (making a pig's ear of it! LOL):



















MY NEW ZEALAND HARLEY DAVIDSON T-SHIRT MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE...OR AT LEAST BECOME SLEEVELESS AS IT'S THE PERFECT COLOUR, THICKNESS AND TEXTURE...

NO! Don’t destroy that T-shirt! That would be blasphemy!



All kidding aside, this is coming along nicely.

Already made some great progress! You work quickly.... would have taken me like three months just to try to find the 'perfect' fabric or something. ;'p

I gather a pig's ear is a bad thing, but your work looks excellent. Hope you don't have to ruin your t-shirt in the end, but I can understand the temptation to find the perfect thing for your custom figure.

Cheers guys! We'll see about the T-shirt, it's too small for me now anyway had it since I was 19, gifted to me by the head of the NZ HD dealership while visiting Greece to do a deal with a friend of mine who was head of the Trumph dealership in Greece. Anyway might have trouble posting and uploading pics since my PC crapped out due to a power cut caused by my boiler shorting out because the shower's leaking! FFS... Phone's playing up too...just not my day today!

Hang in there and good luck. Hope you get these issues resolved quickly -- for all sorts of good reasons.

Trying to attach pics of my experiments trying to get materials with the right shapes and textures/patterns but the wrong colours the right colour with a mix of spray paint, inks and regular acrylics. These were all scrap, diamond pattern material is offcuts from a 1/4 scale Diamond Select (appropriately named lol) Hoth Han Solo jacket, the shirt was from an old Hasbro prequel Obi-Wan and the coat was originally blue from a cheap GI JOE American Civil War figure that I had seriously distressed and tried to paint black (unsuccessfully) for a custom 'Jeepers Creepers' figure many, many any years ago but never finished; now sprayed again with some better quality paint and a lot of it (still feeling nauseous even though I had the extractor in the spray booth on) which annoyingly ran out before I got 100% coverage.

Despite the annoying problems, it is coming along very nicely.

Cheers! Continuing to slap different coats of paint on to get different results. Been using a can of Candy Red which is a translucent cherry red paint, added white as an undercoat to try to get that damned checker pattern colour correctly i.e: lighter red on the diamonds and darker at the stitching, it's been arse backwards most of the day! Lol. Also learnt not to mix up spray cans! The undershirt got a slight dusting of black matte by mistake, I'll sort it out, probably just tired and fumed out even with a respirator.

Yes, try not to inhale. I know you are a martyr to your art, but you should take care of yourself too. So many more dwarves and other characters to make. I have no doubt that with your skill you will be able to correct any mistakes. And making the thing look more worn and weathered probably would help realism in the long run.

You might want to go check out this Mr. Z body (which costs about $20 USD) that might come in useful for some short characters, if the height happens to be right, instead of having to put it together (although you are a master of that by now) --
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t4477-fully-articulated-goblin-griphook-star-ace-mr-z-kitbash

Cheers! Checked it out, great for Hobbits but too small for Dwarves plus Dwarves being twice as strong as humans have much broader shoulders for all the heavy mining work they do.

Good to know. Just figured you might find them useful for something down the line.

This is moving along so fast I’m having a hard time keeping up. Sorry to hear about your home issues,and the fumes, but your efforts are really paying off. I never thought to use spray paint on clothing; doesn’t that make things stiff?

Stryker2011 wrote:This is moving along so fast I’m having a hard time keeping up. Sorry to hear about your home issues,and the fumes, but your efforts are really paying off. I never thought to use spray paint on clothing; doesn’t that make things stiff?

Yes but you can soften it again with baby oil, works on paper too if you're careful, I think hand cream will work too but you need to rib it in for longer, just make sure you've done all your glueing on the piece you want to soften first! Glueing baby oil infused material ain't gonna happen! Lol.

Interesting technique with the spray paint and baby oil -- I was wondering about the stiffness as well, and was about to ask. I usually just use a fabric medium mixed into whatever paint I'm using, but that's because I don't do airbrushing or anything with aerosol for health reasons. Curious if the baby oil leaves residue if you touch it?

It depends how much you need really, silicone oil can work too and helps protect rubbers and plastics like pleather and 'real skin' bodies.

It is not surprising we're learning new things from shovelchop's threads, is it? I recently became aware of fabric medium, but have yet to use it. Not a good experience with spray cans, and I haven't explored air brushes yet myself.

GubernatorFan wrote:It is not surprising we're learning new things from shovelchop's threads, is it? I recently became aware of fabric medium, but have yet to use it. Not a good experience with spray cans, and I haven't explored air brushes yet myself.

Yeah, one of the many things I've missed is how informative shovelchop's threads are, and this one is no exception. 

No matter whether using on its own or with various mediums, I've found that the key with Vallejo paints is to use fairly thin layers... can achieve almost an air-brushed appearance that way.

ETA: Apologies, going back to the topic at hand, I have been enjoying seeing what shovelchop does with all the various Hasbro pieces, both on this one and the previous build, too. It's fun to do creative things with those toyline parts.

Sucks about your computer issues, but the work so far is looking great. And like Skywalkersaga we learn stuff too, I never knew you could soften spray painted fabrics.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Sucks about your computer issues, but the work so far is looking great. And like Skywalkersaga we learn stuff too, I never knew you could soften spray painted fabrics.

It's far from perfect but it helps with lightly painted materials, Dori's cape/coat has so many layers of different paints on it the baby lotion won't do a lot but it's meant to be either thick wool or leather. Added brass eyelets for a leather thong to tie the collar peice, also laced up the undershirt. I've started the inner robe but making only the visible parts due to lack of materials but also to allow more articulation and stop the clothing bunching up.

Only letting me upload three pics at a time, PC still off line.

That is looking so good!

skywalkersaga wrote:That is looking so good!

Thanks!!
Fixed PC YAY!







STRING WAS TEMPORARY BEFORE I MADE LEATHER THONG



PINCHED AND GLUED COAT TO FIT BODY AND MATCH THE LOOK OF THE CHARACTER'S CLOTHES. DOESN'T SEEM TO BE A CLOAK OR A COAT BUT A MIXTURE OF BOTH