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

Now the finished figure pics, might be a boring character but he was fun to pose for these pics at least! Might be slow loading for some as these are a bit better quality according to my phone at least..

Excellent craftsmanship all around, Alex. So many cool details it’s hard to pick out just one thing to compliment.

I'm happy to see him done, and your perseverance even after yet another hurdle (with the hair). The attention to detail was exquisite, as usual in your builds. Like Stryker, I am lost (in a good way) in all the glorious detail, and loving all of it. Your ranks are filling out.

Stryker2011 wrote:Excellent craftsmanship all around, Alex. So many cool details it’s hard to pick out just one thing to compliment.

GubernatorFan wrote:I'm happy to see him done, and your perseverance even after yet another hurdle (with the hair). The attention to detail was exquisite, as usual in your builds. Like Stryker, I am lost (in a good way) in all the glorious detail, and loving all of it. Your ranks are filling out.

Thanks Stryker and GTF! I still feel I failed on this build as far as the resculpt goes, those eyes look like they belong on Tutankhamen's gold mask and not a 'real' face and the hair is still too bright. perhaps I'll be able to correct them in the near future when the mood takes me, for now I want to move on to Bofur played by James Nesbitt and is the most likable of the Dwarves (I'm Irish maybe I'm biased) and friendly to Bilbo. He's also Bombur's brother and Biffer's cousin, which the opposite to what I thought and makes less sense but anyway... Talking of Bombur the cook, I had to make a second leg for the chicken so he can hold it, I spent hours looking for the tiny leg in loads of large boxes full of parts and useful scrap, seriously I have former post office as a storage room full of boxes that are mostly figure related! I'll take a pic, it's also the end of my shooting gallery, don't worry the figures are safe!! Anyway made the leg myself from a bit of thick yellow wire and part of some little figure's (Narnia?) sword pommel that looks just like a curled up chicken's foot in 1/6!! LOL.

Just the scratching the surface of a 1/6 scratch builder's heaven and a collector's nightmare!







BAGS ARE FULL OF 1/6 CLOTHING, MATERIAL FOR BUILDS AND LARGE WEAPONS FOR 1/6, DRAWS AND TUBS ARE FULL OF LOOSE 1/6 WEAPONS, PARTS, ELECTRONICS AND BUILD PROJECTS. IT IS ACTUALLY ALL ORGANISED AND LABLED BELIEVE IT OR NOT!LOL.













OKAY BACK TO CHICKEN FEET...

That poor, poor chicken! Well found and adapted.

Man, I thought my work space was cluttered!

Nice find for the chicken leg. If you hadn’t pointed out it’s source, I would have thought it was the actual leg that had been there all the time.

GubernatorFan wrote:That poor, poor chicken! Well found and adapted.

Well he has to put food on the table and Dwarves don't get all that strength eating salad!

Stryker2011 wrote:Man, I thought my work space was cluttered!

Nice find for the chicken leg. If you hadn’t pointed out it’s source, I would have thought it was the actual leg that had been there all the time.

That's my storage room not my work area!!

Starting Bofur now. I don't have too many yellow/beige/mustard clothes for 1/6, it's not exactly a common colour for figures unless it's desert camo (just remembered I have a box of firemen's gear and clothing in 1/6) so I've had to be a bit creative in sourcing yellow materials I can use to make his clothes, they are heavily textured and even a lowly Dwarf miner's (as he is described in 'One Wiki To Rule Them All') work clothes have complicated geometric patterns all over but especially the kneepads and cuffs of his clothes. I painstakingly cut and plucked all the threads from two stuffed animal toys (came with clothes left on the street in recycling bags but they don't recycle clothes here) to reveal and create a bunch of useful textured yellow and brown material to work with.

Here are some of the reference pics I'll be using:































Material and clothing collection:







IT'S THE INSIDE/REVERSE OF THE MATERIALS I LIKE:

Ah, that one. I was going to say that hat should be fun, but hey, it comes pre-sculpted. I hope you don't feel the need to redo the sculpt this time. Looks good from what I can see.

GubernatorFan wrote:Ah, that one. I was going to say that hat should be fun, but hey, it comes pre-sculpted. I hope you don't feel the need to redo the sculpt this time. Looks good from what I can see.

LOL! I knew you'd say that! I agree Peter did a great job on this guy, the only thing I'll change is to replace the string Peter used for hair, with proper 'real hair' braids.
After gathering all that yellow material, he now looks brown in these images! I think my phone has a far more vivid colour setting than my tv! No wonder I've been struggling to identify colours on these characters via reference pics!

As for Ori's sculpt, I haven't given up yet, just ordered a double tipped flesh coloured professional designer's marker (like the TRIA markers I used for my Degree) to try and fix those eyes, I'll order a brown one too as my TRIA one died, and use that for the hair so it will colour it subtly without drenching it in ink or leaving a residue like paint or pastel, chalk etc..

Nice, I like his hammer, now that is an effective weapon! Do you already have aplan how to make that hammer?
Made something slightly similar some time ago, maybe this helps/inspires: https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t3983-historical-fantasy-weapons-dagger-axe

And what you did with those useless ugly stuffed anmals, turning them into beauty, art, giving them purpose.
The gif looks like he could talk? I don't remember one line.

The other guy looks cute, but agree, oh that poor peter sculpt! The feather/quill and little details are beautiful, and that book! And of course the manly hair.

Ovy wrote:Nice, I like his hammer, now that is an effective weapon! Do you already have aplan how to make that hammer?
Made something slightly similar some time ago, maybe this helps/inspires: https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t3983-historical-fantasy-weapons-dagger-axe

And what you did with those useless ugly stuffed anmals, turning them into beauty, art, giving them purpose.
The gif looks like he could talk? I don't remember one line.

The other guy looks cute, but agree, oh that poor peter sculpt! The feather/quill and little details are beautiful, and that book! And of course the manly hair.

Cheers Ovy! No plans for the hammer yet (great work on your weapons though!) I'll probably just grab what ever's closer to me and carve it! Might use Sculpey/FIMO/Milliput too and sculpt it, not sure yet. I have wooden chopsticks for the angular shaft. Ori's hs still needs some work like I said above. The stuffed toys material may or may not be used on this figure but at least it's ready to be used for something now!  I never thought I'd say this but I wish I had some light brown corduroy material!

Making his body nw, I think he's one of the shorter Dwarves:

Body built, foam added but not pictured. Textiles for clothing getting there thanks to neighbour throwing out more clothes and that towel which's bordering is perfect for the build! Loads of cutting, sewing and gluing etc.. to go yet but sort of have a direction now

Looks like you’re off to a good start.

I agree. Is that the same neighbor you were making fun of regarding Ori? Sounds like he's rather useful.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looks like you’re off to a good start.

Cheers Stryker!

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree. Is that the same neighbor you were making fun of regarding Ori? Sounds like he's rather useful.

Hell no, never seen that neighbour throw anything out! He now gets in and out of his front door by removing the bottom plastic panel (the cops loosened it for him breaching his flat in the past many times) and crawling in! Guess he lost his key and the landlord won't be giving him a new one lol. No it's another neighbour, some Indian couple down the road I think but they leave the stuff bagged near my front door, not specifically for me, it's sort of a comunal dump and share area for old furniture etc.. I don't think everyone knows I'm a 'mad artist' who uses junk; some of my white neighbours do and let me know when they're having a clear out but the Indians, Arabs and Chinese keep to themselves.

More amazing work, you certainly have a great eye for detail

BAMComix wrote:More amazing work, you certainly have a great eye for detail

Thanks BAM!

Talking about details and eyes, I redid Ori's eyes and hair colour yesterday, looks a lot less cartoon like now I think and gives him some realism looking a bit tired and weary of the adventure he's not really cut out for IMO. Also been writing too much in bad light and difficult circumstances. That's my take on his character anyway.













Reference reminder:



Development from left to right:



That's it, I'm calling him done and dusted!

Done and dusted, eh? I bet he will get plenty dusty on the road... You managed to convey the scruffiness of the character. And keeping so many balls in the air can't have been easy, as we witnessed.

GubernatorFan wrote:Done and dusted, eh? I bet he will get plenty dusty on the road... You managed to convey the scruffiness of the character. And keeping so many balls in the air can't have been easy, as we witnessed.

Thanks GTF! Been working on the best and worst ways to get the patterns done on Bofur's coat and trousers. Brought my pens back to life with watered down alcohol and a syringe but they look terrible on this type of material, the water dipped coloured pencils faired better for the stripes but I'll end up gluing thin foam to the inside and hand sewing all the diagonal and vertical lines of the coat....I hope it's therapeutic as I see a lot of it in my near future, possibly more than on Balin's coat! . Found a simpler solution for the trousers at least.

RUBBISH RESULTS:

 



BETTER BUT NEEDS STITCHING:





BORDER PATTERNS TO BE CUT/PASTED INTO LONG LINES THEN PRINTED ON FABRIC:











TROUSERS:BLEACHED BLACK SOCK WITH YELLOW SHARPIE MARKER:

The attention to detail always helps bring so much more depth and realism to your renditions. I have had to research a thing or two here and there (though not on the scale or with the consistency that you do), and am very impressed with you doing your homework so painstakingly. And trying again until you get the result you want.

I’m always amazed at where you manage to find the tiniest old details to be so precise in your custom work. The due diligence required to pull off all of our work just astounds me.

GubernatorFan wrote:The attention to detail always helps bring so much more depth and realism to your renditions. I have had to research a thing or two here and there (though not on the scale or with the consistency that you do), and am very impressed with you doing your homework so painstakingly. And trying again until you get the result you want.

Stryker2011 wrote:I’m always amazed at where you manage to find the tiniest old details to be so precise in your custom work. The due diligence required to pull off all of our work just astounds me.

Thank you very much for your support guys! Truth be told I'm not trusting my decisions right now as I'm getting burnt out on making Dwarves so need to take a break from them, put Bofur aside for a bit and build a couple of large bad guys that I'd always planned to do as part of this thread anyway.
As for the latest Bofur stuff, made the base of the coat, added foam to get a 3D effect with the stitching but the towel material is too thick for that to work so might scrap the stitching altogether and unpick what I've already done. The trousers came out okay so far but still need complicated kneepads. I need to make a load of teeth/tusks for 'buttons', then print a bunch of patterns for this coat and cuffs of his sleeves and so on; just not in the mood right now. I want to make evil! The Weathertop Wraith King in 'spirit' form and an armoured Uruk Hai crossbowman, been saving parts for these guys for years now!

























AARRGH!... I can't even tell which direction the stupid stripes on his coat are meant to go! Think I got the back ones right but the front ones wrong! Bugger...

Absolute Fantastic Work. You spended so much time in Your reference and it was worth it. Every single Dwarf is a masterpiece. That must be the best collection of LotR Dwarf ever. Tolkien an Pete Jackson will be proud of it

Ephiane wrote:Absolute Fantastic Work. You spended so much time in Your reference and it was worth it. Every single Dwarf is a masterpiece. That must be the best collection of LotR Dwarf ever. Tolkien an Pete Jackson will be proud of it

I concur completely.

Alex, I understand your frustration and feeling burned out. I like your idea of working on some villains. I’m sure you’re aware that Asmus already made the Witch-King in spirit form…?

Ephiane wrote:Absolute Fantastic Work. You spended so much time in Your reference and it was worth it. Every single Dwarf is a masterpiece. That must be the best collection of LotR Dwarf ever. Tolkien an Pete Jackson will be proud of it

Thank you so much Ephiane! Great to hear that from a fellow fantasy character builder although you go the extra mile and invent your characters!

Stryker2011 wrote:

Ephiane wrote:Absolute Fantastic Work. You spended so much time in Your reference and it was worth it. Every single Dwarf is a masterpiece. That must be the best collection of LotR Dwarf ever. Tolkien an Pete Jackson will be proud of it

I concur completely.

Alex, I understand your frustration and feeling burned out. I like your idea of working on some villains. I’m sure you’re aware that Asmus already made the Witch-King in spirit form…?

Thanks again Stryker! Yes, when Asmus 1st released it it was a reminder that I needed to build mine. Nothing wrong with theirs I just want to build my own, probably won't be as good but it will be free! LOL.

A new day, a new tray! Sifted through the internet for reference pics of the White Witch King (WWK) and through my stuff for useful parts and materials. I've had this reject cast of the Red Skull lying around my spray booth for many years now and it always looked like a great hs for the WWK which is when and where I got the idea to do the build from but there was always something else going on build wise. Over the years I picked up some DID Gandalf The White clothing, got some left over bits from my Saruman The White upgrades and a tall skinny body or two. On the tray you'll see this stuff plus hair, white pleather, talonned hands, some really nice diaphanous white stripped material (from the neighbours along with the new tray! ). The blue Austin Powers suits are just there so I can unstitch the white frilly parts and use them as detail bits of the WWK's costume.

REFERENCE PICS INCLUDING STATUES BY WETA, THE REAL PROP COSTUME, A COUPLE OF THE OTHER KINGS, THE ASMUS FIGURE ETC..:







































STARTED TODAY:

Wow! Looks like you’re already off to a great start.