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

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.

On Bofur's coat, I looks like different sections have different directions to the stripes. I understand how you can be burnt out with so many dwarves and so many details. As long as you finish them in the end. Switching to villains is an excellent idea, especially as you have obviously been planning on them for quite a while. Like Stryker said, you seem to already have a good start.

Stryker2011 wrote:Wow! Looks like you’re already off to a great start.

Thank you sir! That's the advantage of hoarding stuff! The crown seems to be my biggest hurdle so far, it'll be super fragile if I just sculpt it out of Milliput etc..

GubernatorFan wrote:On Bofur's coat, I looks like different sections have different directions to the stripes. I understand how you can be burnt out with so many dwarves and so many details. As long as you finish them in the end. Switching to villains is an excellent idea, especially as you have obviously been planning on them for quite a while. Like Stryker said, you seem to already have a good start.

Don't worry they will get done, as for the coat funnily enough it's actually a bit of an optical illusion with the border patterns and vertical lines throwing you/me off. The pattern underneath all those distractions is simply this:

I'm glad you figured it out.

Oooh, excited to see how the Witch King develops.....

This is going to be epic.

GubernatorFan wrote:I'm glad you figured it out.

Cheers! So am I, had a bit of visual dyslexia there for a bit.

skywalkersaga wrote:Oooh, excited to see how the Witch King develops.....

Thank you SWS! Makes a refreshing change from Dwarves eh?

Stryker2011 wrote:This is going to be epic.

Not sure about epic but should be fun!

Used patterns I'd printed on fabric ages ago and are basically leftovers from Dwarf builds that happen to match the ones on the statue of the WWK quite nicely. I removed the lace up under robe as it is wasted here since the WWK has small buttons that I've mimicked with studs; I will be adding layers both underneath this robe and over it with the dramatic sleeves of course. Modified the body a bit to allow for the now cleaned up head sculpt's neck and articulation for it, found long fingernailed ghoulish hands (Saruman's I think) but only a left gripping one, so you could say he's a leftie or actually using his weapon correctly as it would be a 'main gauche' dagger to use in conjunction with his sword in his right hand (although that's a 'long sword' which technically needs both hands to use but hey...he's an undead magical spirit powered by the font of all evil so he can use it one handed all day long as far as I'm concerned! ). I need to sculpt his nose and crown next using milliput and plastic for the spikes, I guess I can sand it down slightly to allow for the added real hair later.

































IT'S FUNNY TO HAVE GONE FROM BUILDING SUCH SHORTER STOCKIER FIGURES TO A REALLY TALL THIN ONE!





BOTH BLADES ARE METAL, SWORD IS ASMUS AND DAGGER IS ACI, MISSING THE DAMN POMMEL THOUGH, I'LL TRY AND FIND IT...







JUST NOTICED HE HAS WRIST BRACERS BUT MY 1/12 TOYBIZ ONE DOESN'T..ODD.

Wow that looks intricate. I'm sure you'll ace it. Great job on the neck modification on the body (I would usually go the other way and remove the molded neck from the head, but that might not work well in this instance). Very impressive already.

GubernatorFan wrote:Wow that looks intricate. I'm sure you'll ace it. Great job on the neck modification on the body (I would usually go the other way and remove the molded neck from the head, but that might not work well in this instance). Very impressive already.

Thanks! Yeah, keeping the neck of the body would mean 'paint on paint' rub in this case as he doesn't have your typical flesh tones and needs custom paint on his head, neck and hands, ie: turning his head would cause paint to come off from both head and neck if they were independently articulated. It seems those sleeves are going to have to go.. learning about the details as I build! LOL.

Wow, I'm impressed by those printed-out patterns...they really look the part and add so much to the figure already!

shovelchop81 wrote:Thank you SWS! Makes a refreshing change from Dwarves eh?

Lol, it's not that I don't appreciate your Dwarf builds (I enjoy ALL your builds, regardless of whether I'm familiar with the subject matter or not), but I am admittedly not very 'into' The Hobbit movies and much prefer the LotR films. I also love horror figures, and the Witch-King seems like the perfect build for the lead up to Halloween. :'D

skywalkersaga wrote:Wow, I'm impressed by those printed-out patterns...they really look the part and add so much to the figure already!

shovelchop81 wrote:Thank you SWS! Makes a refreshing change from Dwarves eh?

Lol, it's not that I don't appreciate your Dwarf builds (I enjoy ALL your builds, regardless of whether I'm familiar with the subject matter or not), but I am admittedly not very 'into' The Hobbit movies and much prefer the LotR films. I also love horror figures, and the Witch-King seems like the perfect build for the lead up to Halloween. :'D

Cheers SWS!! I guess he is kind of appropriate for Halloween not that it had crossed my mind consciously that is lol.

Doing the tunics now (sleeves later) after removing the wide sleeves and sewing on the 'shoulder frills' which was a pain in the butt as I kept sewing both sides together by mistake meaning I had to reverse the needle and thread countless times through both fabrics which is not easy; must have something to do with sewing white material to white material with white thread! . Made the inner robe out of a piped white sock (thank you neighbours as I only where black) and the outermost robe out of that nice diaphanous white scarf material (thanks again neighbours). I've started a bit of basic weathering by chopping at all the materials but will add more ware and tare with tools and watered down grey washes later. Found I have a metal Sting scabbard that fits the WWK's dagger well so I'll just modify the decoration on it, cut real leather to make his belt harness system and will try to replicate the prop one but that is a real tangled mess that makes no practical sense; perhaps they were continuing with the character's theme/personality?

LOOKS KIND OF LIKE THE POPE RIGHT NOW!

Pontiflike or not, he seems to be coming along quite fast.

Yeah, I feel like I blinked and already he's taking shape.... excellent work so far. : )

GubernatorFan wrote:Pontiflike or not, he seems to be coming along quite fast.

skywalkersaga wrote:Yeah, I feel like I blinked and already he's taking shape.... excellent work so far. : )

Thanks GTF and SWS! That crown will probably slow me down, just looked at close up hires pics of the actual prop and it's complicated as hell!







Something to worry about later!

Sculpted him a nose and ears (he'd look more evil without them but I always kick myself later when I don't go for screen accuracy) out of Milliput so they're curing next to the heater. After moving a chunk of my 1/1 armoury out of the way and crawling on my knees under the glass table with a torch and hooked stick I finally found the tiny little pommel for the dagger! It's now superglued onto the hilt, I also found the Orc general's hand and mace too. I the cut some material to make his large wing like sleeves (had one with the stripes going in the wrong direction a first but luckily spotted it and replaced it) that have been PVA'd together at a midpoint to give them some sort of structure that can be cut through if needed unlike thread plus it should dry invisible too. Made a scabbard for the long sword using some very old model parts from a Dracula kit (his hands are from another Dracula figure.. weird must be Halloween creeping in) and grey cotton material sewn on as a real scabbard would be made, then PVA'd That too, same with the smaller dagger's scabbard. Basically just waiting for everything to cure and dry so going for a nap, been up since 4.45am.

















SLEEVE'S STRIPES GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION





RIGHT DIRECTION









ACTUAL MOVIE PROP, NOT A LOT OF HELP!















DETAILS ON SCABBARDS NOT DONE YET, LIKE THROUGHTS AND CHAPES.









BASICALLY ALL DRYING NOW

Holy cow this is moving along swiftly. All the different layers and designs. None of these outfits were easy were they. Excellent work, thus far.

4:45 am? The sacrifices a true artist makes for his art. Great job so far. With the crown, it might take time, but if you can break it down into a series of manageable pieces cut out from thickish paper or thinnish cardboard, paint them with metallic paint (or marker?), then glue them together in the correct arrangement?

Stryker2011 wrote:Holy cow this is moving along swiftly. All the different layers and designs. None of these outfits were easy were they. Excellent work, thus far.

No the costumes certainly weren't easy to create for the films, in fact I think they won an Oscar for them alone (plus another 12 or 13 Oscars lol). A member once asked me years back, which I found harder to scratch build, Star Wars or LOTR...I think you can guess the answer!

GubernatorFan wrote:4:45 am? The sacrifices a true artist makes for his art. Great job so far. With the crown, it might take time, but if you can break it down into a series of manageable pieces cut out from thickish paper or thinnish cardboard, paint them with metallic paint (or marker?), then glue them together in the correct arrangement?

Not so much a sacrifice as I sleep odd hours due to my meds! As for the crown you are right that might be the easiest way to go, I had just been thinking of sculpting one of each complicated part then pressing them into plasticine in the correct order repeatedly (like a mould die/stamp) then casting them all joined in a row with EasyFlo 60 since it's pliable under hot water once cured or black latex. The result should look a lot better if it works but it's a lot more work and a bit of a gamble...we'll see..

Wow, that white scarf material was a great find, really looks the part. It's coming along wonderfully!

skywalkersaga wrote:Wow, that white scarf material was a great find, really looks the part. It's coming along wonderfully!

Yes it was and thanks SWS!

Used white elastic to connect the two outer sleeves as sewing would be a nightmare as I learnt from the shoulder frills. Swapped out my custom Saruman's hands to get a right fist with nails, sprayed the HS and hands with grey primer, 1st time I've had a proper look at my HS in a unified visible colour! I'll do some basic tweaks like filling in air bubbles then spray it again. I covered the wrist joints in white Teflon tape as we all know painting them is usually a waste of time. Took pics of him standing up but he's bit wonky and the pics are rushed because he is too tall for the stand. Another layer of clothing to go yet...

Nicely done, the material worked out perfectly. So true about paint on joints rubbing off.

That looks so cool. And the mods you did on the head sculpt turned out great.