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

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

Valiarde wrote:That is a nice 'Dead Strange' base

Looks cool

Dr Strange may be a manipulator of the multiverse but he's not getting Sauron's base! And yes I love the look of the new HT Dead Strange figure!!

It looks excellent, Alex. A thing of beauty. It now occurs to me that if you can get the artist to make a base mold in translucent material (especially one of yellow-orange-red color), you could illuminate it from beneath, and have it shine through like real lava from beneath a thick/opaque paint application of the ash and rock and bone. Can you imagine how cool that would be?

GubernatorFan wrote:It looks excellent, Alex. A thing of beauty. It now occurs to me that if you can get the artist to make a base mold in translucent material (especially one of yellow-orange-red color), you could illuminate it from beneath, and have it shine through like real lava from beneath a thick/opaque paint application of the ash and rock and bone. Can you imagine how cool that would be?

That would be epic.

Like the additional lava you’ve added to the base so far.

Stryker2011 wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:It looks excellent, Alex. A thing of beauty. It now occurs to me that if you can get the artist to make a base mold in translucent material (especially one of yellow-orange-red color), you could illuminate it from beneath, and have it shine through like real lava from beneath a thick/opaque paint application of the ash and rock and bone. Can you imagine how cool that would be?

That would be epic.

Like the additional lava you’ve added to the base so far.

Cheers!
As for light up gimmicks, they're cool but having made and owned SO many I can tell you they are way over rated! As long as our technology is restricted to batteries or connection leads we're not advanced enough to pull it off in an effective way for collectors of multiple displays. They are improving contactless power sources every year but it's slow going and will need at least another five years or so to get it to where we can use it for figure displays and about ten years before we can afford to use it!

Just to give you an idea of how much more lava will be added plus I found some old resin flame bits I cast many years ago to incorporate into the base.

Simply outstanding! (As ever!) Your builds never fail to inspire!
The lava looks absolutely spectacular and I’m in awe of the way you’ve perfectly matched the colour and griminess of the armour.

I hope your moggy turns up too, poor thing. 🥺

Lynkhart wrote:Simply outstanding! (As ever!) Your builds never fail to inspire!
The lava looks absolutely spectacular and I’m in awe of the way you’ve perfectly matched the colour and griminess of the armour.

I hope your moggy turns up too, poor thing. 🥺

Thank you! Getting there! LOL.

That is very cool. You did a great job, and the glow in the dark effect should be really neat.

Your base looks very cool. Very impressive work (as usual)!
The color transitions on the lava seems very realistic! I'm curious to see the glow-in-the-dark effect!

Beautiful. If it weren't for the skulls, you could even have Anakin face off Kenobi on top.

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful. If it weren't for the skulls, you could even have Anakin face off Kenobi on top.

Who’s to say those aren’t the remains of dead Jedi…

Stryker2011 wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful. If it weren't for the skulls, you could even have Anakin face off Kenobi on top.

Who’s to say those aren’t the remains of dead Jedi…

Ok, deal. They are condemned to float atop the lava and ash for all eternity without getting singed...

This is so impressive once again. I'm very much looking forward to seeing that thing glow in the dark!

Randam Hajile wrote:Your base looks very cool. Very impressive work (as usual)!
The color transitions on the lava seems very realistic! I'm curious to see the glow-in-the-dark effect!

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful. If it weren't for the skulls, you could even have Anakin face off Kenobi on top.

Stryker2011 wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful. If it weren't for the skulls, you could even have Anakin face off Kenobi on top.

Who’s to say those aren’t the remains of dead Jedi…

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful. If it weren't for the skulls, you could even have Anakin face off Kenobi on top.

Who’s to say those aren’t the remains of dead Jedi…

Ok, deal. They are condemned to float atop the lava and ash for all eternity without getting singed...

Diana wrote:This is so impressive once again. I'm very much looking forward to seeing that thing glow in the dark!

Thank you so much everyone! I wouldn't hold your breath for the glow in the dark feature as so many layers of paint have been applied since that are not UV reactive, I just really needed a strong orange and my orange ink wasn't working (mixing red and yellow inks/paints came out really dull).
I have now finished the base (might add another skull closer to 1/6 for consistency out in the front) so I've started work on Elendil's remains.

BEFORE BUSHING DUST AWAY, PAINTING SKULLS, ADDING BONE AND PAINTING CLEAR GLOSS ON THE LAVA OR ADDING THE FLAMES





AFTER DOING SOME OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED THINGS





REMODDED STAND ATTACHMENT



AFTER DOING ALL THE ABOVE MENTIONED THINGS..













ELENDIL BUILD STUFF AND A BIT OF PROGRESS..



















NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING WITH HIM REALLY LOL, HE'S JUST GOING TO BE AN 'OVERDONE' ANAKIN!!

The lava really pops now. Beautiful work on the stand. Can one ever have too many skulls? Interesting start on the remains.

That lava paint job is fantastic, Alex. Beautiful work, as usual.

Brilliant!

GubernatorFan wrote:The lava really pops now. Beautiful work on the stand. Can one ever have too many skulls? Interesting start on the remains.

Never too many skulls! In fact I used to have a jovial competition with a Dutch fisherman called Fingers (because he'd lost a few obviously) down the pub whenever his boat came in a couple of times a year, of which of us now had more skull tattoos each time! LOL (before those hipster (censored) made tattoos meaningless to the masses). I can't remember what numbers we were at when we last saw each other, soon afterwards a Dutch fishing trawler went down with all hands (but maybe not all fingers) off the coast of Wales and I never saw him again, shame he was a nice guy, I guess perhaps he's a skull now surrounded by loads of other skulls? Or he started fishing elsewhere, who knows with the crazy EU laws surrounding UK fishing back then.

Stryker2011 wrote:That lava paint job is fantastic, Alex. Beautiful work, as usual.

Thank you sir!

BAMComix wrote:Brilliant!

Thank you very much BAM! Means a lot!

Well I made Elendil a neck from an aftermarket Predator 1/6 souvenir since TKOTD got the original neck jaw and teeth off this skeleton. I then decided to play with fire literally and burn some of the bones with a 1/6 firearm! yes the puns keep going today.. my folks gave me that lighter to use for my 1/6 collection, I don't think they realised I'd be using it this way which I do a lot (long barrel stops me burning myself while heating plastic or burning material for builds), anyway he's coming together or apart technically...













AND A MANDATORY TEASER...

I hope your Dutch friend is alive and well, and you can compare skull tattoos again to your heart's content (hopefully without too much awkward undressing in the process). And the puns are absolutely delightful and justified. Nice job with that lighter. The skeleton looks very promising.

That's some really great looking lava and the ash on top is great. Neat lighter too.