My Custom 13 Dwarves & Bilbo From 'The Hobbit' Movie WIP. Bombur Weapons & Accessories.

Looking good!

Eyes have been a bane for me too. I usually do the base flesh, then the white of the eye and then I put blu tack over the eye till I'm ready to do the rest. I like to mark out the iris with a pencil, then, depending on colour, I either draw it in with a permanent art pen or use a pastel. Pastels are better as you can wipe them off if you go wrong. Doing it in pen can mean a strip and a repaint. I want to see if I can paint them when I start again.

You look to have done a good job on yours

CHEERS!

Eyes are pretty much the reason I don't paint HS anymore. (That, and my own eye-sight is getting so bad I need TWO magnifying glasses and my own bifocals just to see anything that small). Have you guys thought of using the decals that you can get off eBay for irises?

RS: Great job on the eyes!! They look really professional to me, as in high end 1/6 figures. The pencil is a good idea to, surprised I never thought of that, all the other tricks mentioned by all of you above I've tried with varying degrees of success or failure... I actually thought about doing the edges of the whites with pencil to show the slight greyness or shadow of the sclera (orb) of the eye. Ah well I crack it one day! LOL. Done a bunch of braiding (that acrylic white hair is super slippery!) to give him some real hair beard and braids down the back since his beard is actually a bit longer with quite long braids too. Finished sculpting his boar spear/harpoon blade and crossguard with his machete to finish next.

Great work on the spear and braids; excellent progress.

Looking good!

I think, because eyes are often the last things on a head that you do, you can rush them because you're so eager to get the project finished. I've done that so many times. I've learned now to sit back and take my time. Do an iris, put it down, take a break, maybe pick it up the next day. Obviously if it's a commission you may not get that luxury, but, if it's your own work, take it at your own pace.

CHEERS!

Stryker2011 wrote:Great work on the spear and braids; excellent progress.

Cheers! Getting there!

Rogerbee wrote:Looking good!

I think, because eyes are often the last things on a head that you do, you can rush them because you're so eager to get the project finished. I've done that so many times. I've learned now to sit back and take my time. Do an iris, put it down, take a break, maybe pick it up the next day. Obviously if it's a commission you may not get that luxury, but, if it's your own work, take it at your own pace.

CHEERS!

LOL, Ido! And still muck it up!

You'll get there. I don't think there's a single one of my painted projects that has been totally right from start to finish.

CHEERS!

Glad to see it continue toward completion. Every little detail has been thought of!

Rogerbee wrote:You'll get there. I don't think there's a single one of my painted projects that has been totally right from start to finish.

CHEERS!

To be fair to you, your kits rely mostly on paint unlike my builds so it would be pretty damn hard to get it all right!

GubernatorFan wrote:Glad to see it continue toward completion. Every little detail has been thought of!

Cheers! Done a lot more work on him the last few days, lets just say he's at the barber's right now...

Not quite, you have to trim the vinyl or resin, fill gaps, resculpt parts if any are missing and if you can have more than one pose, settle on one you like and hope you made the right decision when it's permanently set that way. There is a bit to do before one drop of paint touches that kit. It's a job where skill is still involved.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Not quite, you have to trim the vinyl or resin, fill gaps, resculpt parts if any are missing and if you can have more than one pose, settle on one you like and hope you made the right decision when it's permanently set that way. There is a bit to do before one drop of paint touches that kit. It's a job where skill is still involved.

CHEERS!

Worked with enough KO vinyl kits to know that! And my own casting too..

Sorry Peter, I can't resist the pull of real hair and enjoy doing it too much! You can start cringing now...

I obviously added paint after all this deconstruction work, just not at this point yet...





















ALWAYS BETTER TO HAVE TOO MUCH SO YOU CAN TRIM IT LATER.



























HEAD FINISHED NOW.

harsh flash





overhead natural light.













I HAVEN'T ADDED ANY 'PRODUCT' TO THE HAIR YET AS I STILL NEED TO WORK ON THE FIGURE.

He looks great! Did you gloss his eyes?

CHEERS!

Fantastic upgrades on everything. Man, that’s a lot of impressive work.

Rogerbee wrote:He looks great! Did you gloss his eyes?

CHEERS!

Thanks! I did many times but then touched over the gloss many times too! Just added some more now, cheers for the reminder (still wet in pics).

Stryker2011 wrote:Fantastic upgrades on everything. Man, that’s a lot of impressive work.

Thanks Stryker! Trimmed his beard some more so you can see his shoulder armour, its a bitter shorter and with a split in the centre where the beard hair is braided into a thick plait. Also added some more white/grey to bits of the hair with the magic marker and trimmed the hair by his shoulders a bit too. Working on Balin's glaive, pain in the butt to get symmetrical! Done Bifur's machete.

Same mix of harsh flash and more 'natural' lighting in the figure pics.

Great work Alex, he looks amazing, I could have done the sculpts beardless and hairless for you if it would have helped.


Cheers,

Peter.

peter the painter wrote:Great work Alex, he looks amazing, I could have done the sculpts beardless and hairless for you if it would have helped.


Cheers,

Peter.

Thank you very much Peter! I'm so sorry you had to see a lot of your hard and excellent work destroyed by me . The sculpted hair v real hair thing is just a feeling I get for a character during the build process and even if I decide to go with real hair your sculpt of the hair is still a brilliant guide and foundation for me to work from. I think the most likely candidates for the real hair conversion are the long haired or long bearded characters although I felt no need to modify Balin's beard as he has short hair so it didn't hamper his head articulation. I'll be giving Fili, Kili and Thorin real long hair but I think all the others are safe from my meddling! I want Bilbo to have messier hair so not 100% sure what I'm going to do there yet but got some ideas.

I wouldn't put yourself down, you've done sterling work on all your stuff you've got from Peter and all of the dwarves look stellar after you're done with them.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:I wouldn't put yourself down, you've done sterling work on all your stuff you've got from Peter and all of the dwarves look stellar after you're done with them.

CHEERS!

Oh I'm not questioning my decisions or results, I'm giving Peter the respect he is due from one artist to another. Thanks for the kind support though.

Finally finished Balin's bloody complicated glaive (well complicated for an individual piece!), built Bifur's boar spear and I'm 90% there with Nori's kukri knives so I should be spraying primer soon.

Looking good as always.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Looking good as always.

CHEERS!

Thanks! I'm meant to be taking a break and working on the Barrett .50 replica, somehow I've gone back to Dwarves and seem to have double bluffed myself or something, oh well surrounded by Dwarf and gun parts as usual, just another day...er night...whatever...

Great work on Bifur all round, he looks excellent.

Cheers,

Peter.

peter the painter wrote:Great work on Bifur all round, he looks excellent.

Cheers,

Peter.

Thanks Peter!

Primered and now painting the weapons, boots etc.. done the tusks too. The coats fastening system is a bit complicated but I'm doing my best to replicate it in 1/6 as with the boots.





CRAP!! JUST REALISED I CUT THE SLOTS FOR THE TUSKS TO SLIDE INTO THE WRONG WAY..OOPS, OH WELL THAT'S A DAFTER DESIGN IF YOU ASK ME..

Some last progress pics before I go for food and a nap...

Just be glad you're keeping busy.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Just be glad you're keeping busy.

CHEERS!

Er okay... I am, just an odd thing for you to say. I'm probably over thinking it as usual!

Wow! wonderful work on Bifur, he is a real work of Art.

Cheers,


Peter.

peter the painter wrote:Wow! wonderful work on Bifur, he is a real work of Art.

Cheers,


Peter.

Thank you very much Peter! And I thought he was going to be simple initially...LOL. Probably do Bombur next as a change of pace but I refuse not to give the cook knives!! He'd have the best quality knives FFS.. not just a stupid ladle (that I'll still give him), he needs a good cleaver and general purpose large slicing knife that both designs actually lend themselves very well to Dwarven blade smithing.

Looking good!

Compared to me, everyone is busy! I've had such a lazy year, so much I should have done, but, just couldn't be bothered. Mind you, it has saved me a ton of cash, which I can put towards getting off my backside next year.

CHEERS!