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

That should be really cool. Hopefully you’re right about the size.

Nice progress, and exciting new build on the horizon.

Very cool really, that torch is looking really good. The uruk and his clothes and helmet is also spot on.

Stryker2011 wrote:That should be really cool. Hopefully you’re right about the size.

Cheers! Hopefully but at the end of the day he's a magical(?!) King and leaders tend to be tall anyway... I'll probably only be using parts incorporated into a regular body, think Zombie builds.

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice progress, and exciting new build on the horizon.

Cheers GTF! Ordered another bag of mail for it too.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Very cool really, that torch is looking really good. The uruk and his clothes and helmet is also spot on.

Thanks TBB! I'm hoping to get the 'torch' to light up as well, but it's not regular flames because it's burning black powder, more like a very big sparkler!!

Built an LED system with power source that is enclosed inside the igniter's body which is sealed around it because who ever changes the batteries in their figures? As an owner of a stupid amount of HT and custom built Iron Man figures I can tell you I never have, the lights are nice for taking pics of the finished builds or a new figure but rarely get used again (except for EL wire stuff that has an external power source with normal batteries and an accessible on/off switch). This will simulate the black powder (could be thermite I suppose) flaring white/blue hot as per the movie (I guess it was more dramatic than lighting a fuse but too wet for both in reality lol). I'll be cutting up the translucent Star Wars 'hologram' base to use for this effect covering the LED.









SWITCH

Very cool work and effect. I recognize the visual continuity with other Middle Earth baddies.

That torch is going to be so cool all lit up. Awesome stuff, Alex. Where will you hid that switch?

Stryker2011 wrote:That torch is going to be so cool all lit up. Awesome stuff, Alex. Where will you hid that switch?

Isn't that the switch, in the base of the torch's crown in a couple of the shots?

Ahh, yeah. You’re right. Good eye.

GubernatorFan wrote:Very cool work and effect. I recognize the visual continuity with other Middle Earth baddies.

Cheers GTF! What generally spikey and flamey? Well you need to praise the costume and prop designers for that.

Stryker2011 wrote:That torch is going to be so cool all lit up. Awesome stuff, Alex. Where will you hid that switch?

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:That torch is going to be so cool all lit up. Awesome stuff, Alex. Where will you hid that switch?

Isn't that the switch, in the base of the torch's crown in a couple of the shots?

Stryker2011 wrote:Ahh, yeah. You’re right. Good eye.

You had me laughing there Stryker! I obviously hid it VERY well even with the pictures titled 'SWITCH' and using a macro camera setting!

Painted the body up with a mix of primers and black matte top coat but have yet to finish the painting to make it rusting iron. I cut, Dremelled, sawed the translucent base up to fit together like jigsaw bits and avoid the spikes while still completely covering the LED. Gluing them was a nightmare, super glue wouldn't work (no idea why) so mixed it with Revell model kit glue (both clear transparent glues which is what I wanted) but that wouldn't cure properly either so I had to use Bison glue (translucent but has a yellow hue) with super glue to finally get the stupid plastic to bond but now it's not a transparent bond so I've been scraping away at the glue as much as I dare to minimise the effect on the lighting feature. Took quite a while for something I thought would be simple but I'm not in a rush and it's starting to look the part.

Very creative solution!

It looks gorgeous! Sorry about your troubles with the glue, but glad to see you surmount them. As for the continuity of baddie design, I mean the pairs (or double pairs) of spikes -- like the wraith king's crown, or the tower of Mordor, or this torch, etc.

skywalkersaga wrote:Very creative solution!

Cheers! It's kind of like a very stumpy lightsabre!

GubernatorFan wrote:It looks gorgeous! Sorry about your troubles with the glue, but glad to see you surmount them. As for the continuity of baddie design, I mean the pairs (or double pairs) of spikes -- like the wraith king's crown, or the tower of Mordor, or this torch, etc.

Ah good point (pun?) ! I wonder if they represent the cardinal points on a map? Indicating Sauron's plan to spread in every direction?

That is so cool. Well done.

Stryker2011 wrote:That is so cool. Well done.

Thank you sir!

I've maximised the light by using silver foil and built up the thermite looking reaction by jigsawing more cut up base pieces together, I've done the paint for it and just need to add some white cushion stuffing to make the prominent smoke it gives off in the movie. I've worked on the sword hilt too, slimming it down more, adding grooves then covering it with very thin real leather, gave it a skull crusher pommel too.

Nice work. I love what you have done with the torch. I wouldn't go too far in emulating the iron oxide burning, lest I burn down the house with all your treasures. The torch effect is beautiful.

Very cool. That turned out amazing. It’ll be interesting to see with the smoke effect added.

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice work. I love what you have done with the torch. I wouldn't go too far in emulating the iron oxide burning, lest I burn down the house with all your treasures. The torch effect is beautiful.

Stryker2011 wrote:Very cool. That turned out amazing. It’ll be interesting to see with the smoke effect added.

Thanks guys! Don't worry GTF, I don't even allow candles in my house...which is kind of weird since it's sort of haunted house/castle theme with a dollop of bloody terrible Victorian craftmanship! LOL.

Decided to go with light grey smoke rather than white, maybe I'll stick a little bit of white at the bottom near the conflagration to show the intensity of the heat. I'm liking the shape of the smoke, gives it a bit of life without being too distracting/invasive. More work on the sword done (seriously this sword would be pretty useless in battle, you can't do any thrusts and those spikes are bound to get stuck in everything! From victims to any wood around, I think they were inspired by the Indian Rajput Khandas that were designed (like the Great Sword) to be continuously swung in circles and figures of eight to defend/protect a leader/king against multiple opponents or break through lines.







AN ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS KHANDA SWORD!!

That smoke effect is pretty cool. I wonder if thinning it out a bit more would allow the light up effect to show through more of it…? Most large swords like that weren’t really meant for stabbing as much as the weight was designed to help with overall cleaving and hacking.

Interesting work (and thoughts) on the sword. At first sight I was skeptical about the cotton smoke effect (although cotton is the first thing that came to my mind as a possibility), but looking at the more finished photos of it in the Berserker's hand, I think the whole thing works beautifully. This is probably my favorite as far as the smoke is concerned: hNpo5G2

Stryker2011 wrote:That smoke effect is pretty cool. I wonder if thinning it out a bit more would allow the light up effect to show through more of it…? Most large swords like that weren’t really meant for stabbing as much as the weight was designed to help with overall cleaving and hacking.

The white under the grey stuffing to get more light expansion is something I was also planning (see above) kind of works (see below).
As for very large swords not meant for stabbing I'll have to disagree, although easier to swing, they mostly have pointed tips for a reason unlike a machete for example; my zweihander/Great Sword that's as tall as me has a very sharp tip and cuts off fresh juicy small branches at the tip although I don't tend to stab trees and bushes it would be fine doing it. You can see the size of it next to me and then next to a Japanese naginata polearm, also there are pics of my huge nagamaki sword and o'dachi sword, the Japanese equivalents of European Great Swords which have the same shape as katanas including the sharp tanto/chisel tips  used for stabbing. I know it's only a fantasy movie sword but they got almost everything else right functionally, still looks cool though, it also cuts! (see below).

GubernatorFan wrote:Interesting work (and thoughts) on the sword. At first sight I was skeptical about the cotton smoke effect (although cotton is the first thing that came to my mind as a possibility), but looking at the more finished photos of it in the Berserker's hand, I think the whole thing works beautifully. This is probably my favorite as far as the smoke is concerned: hNpo5G2

Thank you GTF, played around with the smoke effect as I was telling Stryker. I also did a bunch of stuff for Lurtz, making new greaves, a larger bow etc..
I hardened the edges of the Berserker sword with super glue then filed it down before repainting, I noticed it was getting quite sharp and keeping an edge so for fun I tried cutting some newspaper with it, it worked! Paper cutting paper! Keeps on doing it too, made a video of it but no sound on imgur, was just me waffling about what it was made of and what it's actually for since I posted the original video on Facebook.















BOW STUFF















SWORD STUFF

I'll upload the video of it cutting paper to You Tube tomorrow, can't be arsed now, stupid imgur had me fooled there!

Nice progress, I take it work on those greaves, etc., continues.

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice progress, I take it work on those greaves, etc., continues.

Yup, lots of darkening to do on the raw Uruk-Hai steel since it was never polished after being oil quenched and tempered, prone to rust as well due to no paint.

That torch is impressive. And the weapons are really coming along nicely.

Stryker2011 wrote:That torch is impressive. And the weapons are really coming along nicely.

Thank you very much Stryker! I got a brand new PC for the first time in 20 years (others were bodges and skip finds, basically the same PCs constantly Frankensteined) but can't find hard drive adapters, so I'll be spending most of the day turning my storage room upside-down trying to find the right cables if I even have them...yay..

Just some random stuff here, finished Lurtz after giving him cranial surgery to remove the 'Yeti' like bump on his head under his real hair which involved a lot of super glue and a hacksaw, forgot to take a 'before' pic from the front of his head but just trust me, his hair lies flatter now on the crown of his hs.

























I also had my Asmus Eomer figure arrive today. I was annoyed when first unboxing him, his face and hair were literally falling off!! The rubber waist strap pegs are useless, so useless I don't know how they thought they would work for anything as I can't even work out what they were for! Thread was hanging from his tunic and his hair looked frazzled, the 'mail' is a bit rubbish and the spear's shaft is literally a souvlaki stick... I starting regretting buying him TBH and thought I'd do a better job of my own by making a custom one using the armour etc.. from the 12" Toy Biz one with real brass mail etc.. Anyway after gluing straps, face, hair line, rearranging straps that had been assembled wrong I've now got him looking pretty good and I'm feeling a lot better about buying him, still needs a sepia wash over his armour and belts to bring out the details though. So next step is to give him a horse, typically his horse 'Firehoof' has the most complicated coloured hair I've ever seen on a horse!! I think it's called piebald or something like that, basically grey with white spots, feet and face. The saddle rig I have from a smaller horse actually looks quite Rohirran in style already by complete coincidence.

PROBLEMS OUT OF THE BOX











DONOR HORSE FOR FIREHOOF PROJECT (AT SOME POINT)







EOMER TIDIED UP AND MOUNTED

















FIREHOOF REFERENCE PICS







EVEN WETA STATUES DIDN'T PAINT THE HORSE'S HAIR COLOUR PATTERN!

Beautiful, that torch is amazing. I always thought the sword was used to pull shields or something.... but I never saw them doing that, or at least not that I remember.