Valiardes Photography Thread

Nice pics of Geralt. Your Kratos oooks amazing, and love the little… goblin? Excellent pics and characters.

Wow these are all fantastic. I just love the look of your characters and world!

You have a great art in presenting mix & matches that somehow never look out of place….very entertaining to see who will turn up next!

Thank you all, ladies and gents, your enthusiasm for my pics is always nice. We all love this hobby with their many creative forms of art.


For a little change of my usual castle Walls diorama (finally! lol), I dived into LotR franchise lately. I was always a fan of the books and the movies and have quiet some figures. But after Gandalf I got my hands on some new figures and wanted to create some more scenes.

I want you to present my two new customized hobbits and Gollum.


Part I: SMEAGOL/GOLLUM













(yes for some shots I changed details in the environment and the lighting also changes a bit as I did several shoots with different settings for fun and I liked this kind of sequence with the fish)

Comments and critique always welcome

Ooooh wow!!! That is an amazing diorama, the way you did the water in the stream is incredible! Sorry that I don't have better comments, other than..... 'oooh' and 'ahhh!' lol!

Nice sequence. And a glimpse of hobbitsess.

We are lost
We can never go home

Is it real water in the dio?

Fantastic pics! I love the water, top work! Your skills keep getting better and better, and even more inspiring!

What a coy way to introduce this new amazing diorama. And are you sure that is not some other castle wall? Love it all, very realistic and I think worth making a follow-up tutorial, if and when you are up to it. As always, beautiful posing and photography with your figure. And looking forward to see part II, which seems to be sneaking up from the right.

skywalkersaga wrote:Ooooh wow!!! That is an amazing diorama, the way you did the water in the stream is incredible! Sorry that I don't have better comments, other than..... 'oooh' and 'ahhh!' lol!    

haha no problem there isn't always much to say, especially when it is just gollum.

Visisonor wrote:Nice sequence. And a glimpse of hobbitsess.

We are lost
We can never go home

Is it real water in the dio?

Yeah hobbitsess. No, isn't real water it is resin.

BAMComix wrote:Fantastic pics! I love the water, top work! Your skills keep getting better and better, and even more inspiring!

Thank you so much Dal! Glad you like my work

GubernatorFan wrote:What a coy way to introduce this new amazing diorama. And are you sure that is not some other castle wall? Love it all, very realistic and I think worth making a follow-up tutorial, if and when you are up to it. As always, beautiful posing and photography with your figure. And looking forward to see part II, which seems to be sneaking up from the right.

Haha it seems I can't make a diorama without stones. But it is more a small "garden wall ruin" and not a castle. It is hard to see the dimensions when you only see zoomed in pictures.
I can post some making of later if you are interested.

Those are fantastic. I have yet to put together my Sméagol/ Gollum figures. What you’ve pulled off here is stunning. Nice new environment. The grass and water (with the rocks) is impressive to say the least.

Stryker2012 wrote:Those are fantastic. I have yet to put together my Sméagol/ Gollum figures. What you’ve pulled off here is stunning. Nice new environment. The grass and water (with the rocks) is impressive to say the least.

Thanks Mark. I had fun assembling the dio, especially the wall.

You have the Smeagol / Gollum two pack at home? I only bought Smeagol, since the figures aren't perfect and buying two just for the extra head wasn't what I wanted.
The figure has several problems. I tried to fix it with a repaint (lighter ashen color like in the movies) blacker hair, I cut the PERS sticks because if you put his head on the neck he will get instant strabism...
The second head here is a 3D print not the Asmus Gollum head. The original isn't bad, I just didn't want to buy two figures.

I do have the two pack (with the rock/water dio). That’s cool that you have a custom head.

Whoa, the fact one of the heads is a custom is even more impressive! I didn't even realise, looks so amazing!

That the second head is a custom that you painted itself is just more testimony to the excellence of your skills. Bravo!

I know he understands me

Ganz grosses Kino

Before we go on with PArt II of Middle Earth I want to show you my newest Pop Costume figure

REceived this figure a few weeks ago and finally made some pics
(I desaturated the colors somewhat in the pics, because I liked a "movie look")

Overall I really like that figure, it looks very cool and the armor and equipment is of very good quality!
The hand pegs are good and he can easily grab and hold the weapons, which is a plus.

The thing that is bad is that he can't really stand without a figure stand...bummer.  The shoes are very soft and the legs feel a tad to weak.
I also changed the head, like on most of my figures, I like my own touch/modification on it

That Gollum/Smeagol series looks great!! What a beautiful and PERFECT diorama for him! And I enjoyed the sequence. What an awesome figure!!

That Pop Costume guy also looks fantastic, but that head is AWESOME!! Was it the original head modified by you? Or is it another head entirely? It looks extremely convincing anyway. Well done!

Stunning custom and kitbash work, and beautiful photography. Is that a modified Joker Joaquin Phoenix head?

That’s an awesome looking figure. Great use of that particular head sculpt. Love it.

Great photos.
Too bad he cannot stand, but maybe this can be fixed.

Great diorama and Gollum scene work, I half expected to see the scene of the fish getting eaten and squelching, although that would be difficult to model! I’d always like to see making-of-pictures, as & when you might get time. And impressive pop upgrade, the head looks amazing and fits well with the whole look.

That is one hardened-looking knight! Nice work!

The crossbow guy looks awesome and quite rugged and experienced too. The shots with Golum are also really great, love that little creek.

Nice figure, and great upgrade touches too. Can you not swap out his boots for more sturdier ones?

Holy crap that head looks incredible!!! The figure is nice but it's your headsculpt that makes it truly 'pop' (pun intended ).

I'm gonna have to start commissioning YOU for custom heads!

Diana wrote:That Gollum/Smeagol series looks great!! What a beautiful and PERFECT diorama for him! And I enjoyed the sequence. What an awesome figure!!

That Pop Costume guy also looks fantastic, but that head is AWESOME!! Was it the original head modified by you? Or is it another head entirely? It looks extremely convincing anyway. Well done!

Hi Diana, happy you enjoy it. I'm pretty happy how the creek and especially wall turned out.
The head was a 10 dollar unpainted head from aliexpress. I think the rough skin and long hair work pretty well in combination with this pop figure

GubernatorFan wrote:Stunning custom and kitbash work, and beautiful photography. Is that a modified Joker Joaquin Phoenix head?

Yes it is a Joaquin Phoenix head.   When I opened the package for the pop costume guy, I knew I wanted the head. The original isn't bad and has a unique expression, but I'm just a fan of giving most figures my own touch. Not because I think they are always better, but because this is one of the creative joys of this hobby 

Stryker2012 wrote:That’s an awesome looking figure. Great use of that particular head sculpt. Love it.

Thank you  

Visisonor wrote:Great photos.
Too bad he cannot stand, but maybe this can be fixed.

Yeah I'm not sure, maybe I need to make a custom base where I hide the figure stand.

Tanzenwolfe wrote:Great diorama and Gollum scene work, I half expected to see the scene of the fish getting eaten and squelching, although that would be difficult to model!  I’d always like to see making-of-pictures, as & when you might get time.  And impressive pop upgrade, the head looks amazing and fits well with the whole look.

Hm, with 3D printing or Fimo it shouldn't be hard to model. Good idea actually.

Zes wrote:That is one hardened-looking knight! Nice work!

Thanks!

Theboo-bomb wrote:The crossbow guy looks awesome and quite rugged and experienced too. The shots with Golum are also really great, love that little creek.

Yes, the rugged look works good imo

BAMComix wrote:Nice figure, and great upgrade touches too. Can you not swap out his boots for more sturdier ones?

I don't want to swap the boots as they are pretty cool and historical fitting. I will try to build a figure stand that is somewhat natural looking...

skywalkersaga wrote:Holy crap that head looks incredible!!! The figure is nice but it's your headsculpt that makes it truly 'pop' (pun intended ).

I'm gonna have to start commissioning YOU for custom heads!

Oh that is such a nice compliment   I'm not sure I'm ready for commissioning pressure lol  It is easier to do some heads and sell them as YSWYG (you see what you get) instead of trying to make one like the customer wants it to be. But maybe it can be a inexpensive option instead of asia painters for SOME projects.


And your pun works 

Ok here are some pics of the hobbits. Sam still needs a bit of fuzzing with the hair but I had not much time lately...and won't have much until june

















I had some fun with them. Are they perfect? Of course not! But as always, I like to have my own touch on standard figures.
Once I get my new shelf end of the year I will see how the final display will look like...

Great looking Hobbits! I do love that part of the film where its the two hobbits against the cunning and sly Gollum.

Did you re-hair them? They looks pretty great.
It's quite rare to see non-female characters with realistic hair.