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

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.

Wow, you're on a roll with these. Great upgrade to Lurtz, he looks even better and I'm sure there was no noticeable damage to his brain capacity. Very nice work on Eomer and the horse, too!

Geez so much has happened here.

That hooligan with his pyrotechnics worked out really well, in between I feared the head might be too large for the body but it worked out. You could turn him into a lamp on your desk.

I remember from the promos that something was a bit off about Eomer but you seem to have fixed him.
Is that an old Asmus moveable horse?
I know that spotted pattern as Apfelschimmel which seems to translate into Dapple grey. Looks like an airbrush would be of help.

Theboo-bomb wrote: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.

Thank you TBB! I think the bladed hooks in this case are simply decorative to keep with the Uruk-Hai theme of simple angular aggressive armour and weapons. The only possible use they might have in battle is to hook/impale any wood or other soft material i.e. soldiers, to help ensure that the giant ladders themselves get hooked in place over the battlements securely and not pushed back since the Berserkers ride the tops of the ladders as they are raised to ensure they get a 'beach head' at all costs.

GubernatorFan wrote:Wow, you're on a roll with these. Great upgrade to Lurtz, he looks even better and I'm sure there was no noticeable damage to his brain capacity. Very nice work on Eomer and the horse, too!

Cheers GTF! I found a brass chainmail antique purse on eBay and bought that (I think I'm addicted to real 1/6 mail now and nothing else will do! ) that if not used on the King Of The Dead (KOTD) will be used on Eomer to replace the mesh stuff Asmus uses. Those decorative bits on the hinges could be handy for the horse's bridle too.

Ovy wrote:Geez so much has happened here.

That hooligan with his pyrotechnics worked out really well, in between I feared the head might be too large for the body but it worked out. You could turn him into a lamp on your desk.

I remember from the promos that something was a bit off about Eomer but you seem to have fixed him.
Is that an old Asmus moveable horse?
I know that spotted pattern as Apfelschimmel which seems to translate into Dapple grey. Looks like an airbrush would be of help.

Cheers Ovy!! I would if I had a desk! My desk is my lap and occasionally a tray! . Not an Asmus horse, much older, probably DID, I have another 4 spare horses but they are a bit undersized for war horses unfortunately and my other full size horses are being used by British and French Napoleonic Cavalry! As for painting the horse I had been thinking airbrush too, it's the only way to get the edges of the 'spots' to fade convincingly.

[quote="Ovy"]That hooligan with his pyrotechnics worked out really well, in between I feared the head might be too large for the body but it worked out. You could turn him into a lamp on your desk.

shovelchop81 wrote:I would if I had a desk! My desk is my lap and occasionally a tray!

LOL Well... I was about to propose you could just hold him in place with your thighs, then, but I thought that might come off a little weird. Right? Nice sourcing of more real (chain) mail -- I just passed on a parted-out real (chain) mail suit from a Persian archer on Monkey Depot -- didn't feel like spending nearly $80 on that. And I think I own one of those horses.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Ovy wrote:That hooligan with his pyrotechnics worked out really well, in between I feared the head might be too large for the body but it worked out. You could turn him into a lamp on your desk.

shovelchop81 wrote:I would if I had a desk! My desk is my lap and occasionally a tray!

LOL Well... I was about to propose you could just hold him in place with your thighs, then, but I thought that might come off a little weird. Right? Nice sourcing of more real (chain) mail -- I just passed on a parted-out real (chain) mail suit from a Persian archer on Monkey Depot -- didn't feel like spending nearly $80 on that. And I think I own one of those horses.

I'm also very glad you didn't suggest that! LOL.
As for the chinmail, I'd go with the purses, £15-£20 each is a steal now a days and they were mass produced so you're not destroying history even if they are 100 years old, that's nearly half the age of your country right? Weird for me to imagine that yet I lived over there lol!
Anyway.. totally off topic there, I'm building/rebuilding Eowyn, Eomer's sister in her borrowed armour, I'm using mostly Asmus parts with a bit of Hasbro (boots, trousers). Toy Biz (sword & scabbard), generic eBay parts (head and body) then some custom stuff too. I've repainted the armour to make the colours pop a bit and the 'chainmail' to dull it down, cloak next then weathering.
I also spent the day (I don't do religion so no X-mas stuff for me) moving all my Iron Man dios from my displays at my living room window so I can put up two giant sets of shelves there instead which will have loads more room to show off my dios and overflowing 1/6 LOTR/Hobbit collection too. Crap view anyway!!



























DAMN I HATE THOSE CURTAINS! NEW SHELVING STILL IN PACKAGING

You've been busy. And I'm glad to see your enthusiasm span far and wide across the LOTR figures. I'd love to see you put them in a single continuous diorama one day. And glad to see that with more display space that dream is coming closer to being a reality.

Nice upgrades on Lurtz and Eomer. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the horse and Eowyn. I’m hoping at some point Asmus upgrades Eowyn, or gives us a new one in one of her gowns — the original head sort of sucks, and tends to only look good with the helmet on.

Those are some good upgrades, I've been tempted to get those purses but I'm 100% certain I would just end up with a neat chainmail purse in my room.  The mix of items is very good and so is the colors, they do pop. I also read you not a very christmasy person, neither am I but I'm usually there with the rest of the family because of the food and drink and the occasional gift (Don't get those anymore) then I'm out, kinda like a food raider.  

Theboo-bomb wrote:Those are some good upgrades, I've been tempted to get those purses but I'm 100% certain I would just end up with a neat chainmail purse in my room.

You and me both, buddy.

Missed these updates earlier --- Ovy is correct, Firehoof is a dapple grey. Dappling can indeed be difficult replicate convincingly, though there are some tutorials available on youtube (just search 'model horse' and 'dapples' and something should come up).