ELENDIL'S HELMET ..... Building a custom articulated 1/6 scale SAURON from Peter Jackson's LOTR using 3D printed statue parts

skywalkersaga wrote:Omg, I can't handle how awesome this looks!!!

Thank you very much SWS! I'm working on the base now.

I shared the thread with the seller of the printed parts and got a nice reaction too!

New message from: aikusstudio (5) Omg. First of all thank you for promotion. Your work is fantastic!!! I didn't had idea you will do that if i knwo, I could print you another sauron version (same pose but more parts), so you didn't need to cut it so much. Your work is awesome wrote:

Very nice indeed. Now you can team up with them and go into business making a small set of these for sale. I know, I know, it will get old real fast...

Oh, aww! Glad the artist appreciates it, too. And lol, yeah now you can make another one (for me)

P.S. I'm a metalhead too.  

GubernatorFan wrote:Very nice indeed. Now you can team up with them and go into business making a small set of these for sale. I know, I know, it will get old real fast...

skywalkersaga wrote:Oh, aww! Glad the artist appreciates it, too. And lol, yeah now you can make another one (for me)

P.S. I'm a metalhead too.  

You know me too well GTF! I'm struggling to get the base done as it is, separating the helmets so I can build at least one of them into a complete one to make castings from for future projects. Then a whole lot of sanding (yawn) needed before primer can even be sprayed, oh year and plenty of black milliput needed before that too so I can fill in all those holes and foot stand marks, also work out a way to attach a HT flight pole stand and loads more detail pieces of bones and weapons etc.. then plenty off volcanic dust and sand.
I'm also a bit distracted now as I have my first cat in many, many years being delivered tomorrow, a 6kg 4 year old Maine Coon Tom called Murphy! This could be an expensive disaster! LOL, hopefully not but I have been busy doing all this crazy stuff required by the UK cat people (not by law) for his comfortable transition into a new strange home, in Greece the cats I had just adopted me and that was it!

Good luck with your new kitty! Hope he doesn't knock over too many figures.

Holy!!! He turned out awesome. That cloak, despite the craftily look is beautiful and pulls the whole thing together. Pretty neat that you got that reply back from the person that printed out the parts for you. That base is going to be something special for him.

Your cat adoption should be an interesting experience. I hope that as long as you keep your shelves crowded with figures, the cat will not get it into its head to try to scale and explore them, and so will hopefully not cause damage. Fingers crossed.

skywalkersaga wrote:Good luck with your new kitty! Hope he doesn't knock over too many figures.

Thanks! I hope so too!!

Stryker2011 wrote:Holy!!! He turned out awesome. That cloak, despite the craftily look is beautiful and pulls the whole thing together. Pretty neat that you got that reply back from the person that printed out the parts for you. That base is going to be something special for him.

Cheers Stryker (nearly called you Stryder there! ) Craftily? I'm imagining a sneaky villain covered in glitter and stick on stars now!

GubernatorFan wrote:Your cat adoption should be an interesting experience. I hope that as long as you keep your shelves crowded with figures, the cat will not get it into its head to try to scale and explore them, and so will hopefully not cause damage. Fingers crossed.

That's what I'm counting on!! I pray it works!

Started 'building' the base/dio as is, then later thought "hang on, this is huge! I only need half of it!", so I cut it in half with a huge wood saw, I'll use the other half for Star Wars or something like that. Did lots of sanding with really low grit rough sandpaper and a wire brush trying to minimise the ripple layer effect of the printing, then made a metal base attachment point for the 'flight pole' ect.. which was hot glued in place. The original foot placement stand areas and the new stand system have all been blended into the bases with black milliput then sanded, not sure what to do with the helmets I removed yet as they aren't movie accurate as is, so will need modding. Also want to make something gory for Sauron to hold like Elendil's fire ravaged partial skeleton still sporting his iconic helmet and remnants of his armour. I'll then be able to use this as a nightmare visage for his son Isildur and call it 'Isildur's Bane' as the One Ring warps his mind!

Milliput to fix holes left by helmet removal and the statue foot/feet placement cut outs.







Metal stand adaptor construction.



















Annoyed I had to use this lovely motorcycle acorn nut!













When I decided I only need half the base.









After putting it in the large vice and using the wood saw to cut it in half.



Cut metal bracket back a bit to slide it further to the rear.



























Just starting basic paint...





Lots more to do but been a bit down as the bloody cat went missing again, been over a week now and all I've got for my extensive daily and nightly searching, leafleting etc.. is a nasty cold!! Which is why work on this has been so slow.

Oh no, sorry your cat went missing. Didn't you only just get it??? :'(

The base looks good though, seems fitting for such a great figure. : )

Sorry to hear about your cat, Brother. Hopefully it will come back.

The base is looking good. (Despite the cold and cat issues).

skywalkersaga wrote:Oh no, sorry your cat went missing. Didn't you only just get it??? :'(

The base looks good though, seems fitting for such a great figure. : )

Stryker2011 wrote:Sorry to hear about your cat, Brother. Hopefully it will come back.

The base is looking good. (Despite the cold and cat issues).

Thanks guys and yes SWS, I did, he'd been out before and come back, think some junky bastards nicked him to sell as he looks like a purebred even though he's not.
Anyway going to start painting the skulls and bones white then do loads of washes, PVA some dust, add some lava perhaps etc..

Sheesh, that cat is an adventure. Hope you get him back safe and sound. In the meantime, beautiful work on that base... those bases.

The base looks really great as does the overall figure. I hope your kitty cat comes back soon.

GubernatorFan wrote:Sheesh, that cat is an adventure. Hope you get him back safe and sound. In the meantime, beautiful work on that base... those bases.

Theboo-bomb wrote:The base looks really great as does the overall figure. I hope your kitty cat comes back soon.

Thanks! Done some paint.

That looks really good. The skeletons are awesome looking.

Beautiful work on the painted base(s).

Stryker2011 wrote:That looks really good. The skeletons are awesome looking.

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful work on the painted base(s).

Cheers guys! It's still evolving with molten lava being the main addition, I may or may not incorporate the extra base below to add more of a lava river that Sauron can hold Elendil's burnt skeleton over. Like I said this is sort of a nightmare scene from Isildur's mind while he is under The One Ring's influence, seeing a very distorted view of his father's death by Sauron and I like flames and skulls too, got enough of them tattooed on me!

Obviously I would blend the bases together with Dremeling and black milliput.









PAINT FOR LAVA etc..



























I'll be adding layers of gloss clear to the lava, dust to the rocks and perhaps even some EL-Wire to light it up.

Looking good, Alex. That’s a nice effect with the lava added.

I agree, you made it beautiful and striking. I would have been tempted to make the skulls more dark/weathered/grimey.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looking good, Alex. That’s a nice effect with the lava added.

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree, you made it beautiful and striking. I would have been tempted to make the skulls more dark/weathered/grimey.

Thanks! It's still liable to change, yes the skulls are a bit brighter at the moment but I might darken them again.

Something that I associate with lava flow but may be too difficult or messy, are some layers of dark or medium-dark grey flakey ash -- especially cool when the lava shines through the cracks. But that might be too time/labor-consuming to apply here (even if, for practical reasons, it is kept to a single layer), and I can't think of an easy quick technique that is sure to work.

GubernatorFan wrote:Something that I associate with lava flow but may be too difficult or messy, are some layers of dark or medium-dark grey flakey ash -- especially cool when the lava shines through the cracks. But that might be too time/labor-consuming to apply here (even if, for practical reasons, it is kept to a single layer), and I can't think of an easy quick technique that is sure to work.

Is this what you mean? It's the paint dust (painted the 'rock' with PVA then sprinkled on the dust and brush off excess dust when dry) I was talking about being part of the next stage, the other part is the gloss clear, still drying (so looks milky in places until it dries shiny clear) but you get the idea.

Oh yes, something along these lines, definitely. Hard to do, but you did it very nicely.

https://www.moehotglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/IMG_6540.jpg

Wow, you sanded and sawed like a maniac. Beautiful base, the different oranges really give it an effectve lava effect.

And glad you found a plausible way to incorporate the helmetskullspine thing, haha.

GubernatorFan wrote:Oh yes, something along these lines, definitely. Hard to do, but you did it very nicely.

https://www.moehotglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/IMG_6540.jpg

Great reference pic! Yes I'll add a bit of surface slag, good idea!

Ovy wrote:Wow, you sanded and sawed like a maniac. Beautiful base, the different oranges really give it an effectve lava effect.

And glad you found a plausible way to incorporate the helmetskullspine thing, haha.

Cheers Ovy! Yeah, you can't argue with the realism of a deluded dream sequence!

That looks excellent. I like the flecks of ash in the lava. Nicely done.

Stryker2011 wrote:That looks excellent. I like the flecks of ash in the lava. Nicely done.

Cheers Stryker!
GTF, I added the 'moving' crust to the lava but it's dulled the brightness and contrast of the lava considerably so I'll need to redo the orange etc.. paint to make it 'pop' again.

The main work I did was cutting up the spare lava/rock type resin base I had lying around and grafted it to the PLA printed base as an extension to add some wider rivers of lava at the front. I used milliput of course to sculpt in all the gaps and have done the basic black and dark brown base coats soon to be followed by the dust and bright lava colours.











Plastic food tray material and duct tape with super glue, will be covered by foam later,



Resculpted the edges of the resin base too



Milliput sculpting as filler.

That is a nice 'Dead Strange' base

Looks cool