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

Ephiane wrote:Holy Cow ! You build the best Lord of the rings figure collection i´ve ever seen ! Love the light up function

Thank you very much Ephiane! I've added some more shelves and reorganised my LOTR collection recently so should upload pics of that.

GubernatorFan wrote:Ouch, that looks like a painful and scary surgery indeed. But you handled it and fixed it. Setting figures on fire all too often? Sounds like something Sauron would do, ironically. I agree, even with just a silver basecoat, he looks great.

Cheers GTF! Nothing drastic, just had to blow out the odd flame here and there!  

Stryker2011 wrote:Ahhh! Poor Saury! Dismembered for art.

Well rearranged for a better look really but it does look a bit destructive initially...

Okay.. done a lot of different things, mostly paint apps but some added articulation too.

 





TRIMMED THE MAIL TO BE NARROWER



DECIDED HIS BUTTFLAP NEEDED TO BE ARTICULATED TO INCREASE ARTICULATION AND STOP HIM FROM BREAKING IT









RUBBER HINGES





AFTER BLACK INK WASH THEN BRIGHT SILVER DRY BRUSHING

















BUTT ARMOUR ARTICULATION IN ACTION!











SUPER HERO LANDING/BREAKDANCNG?













PARTIAL REPAINT IN AREAS FOR ADDED DETAIL CONTRAST, BLACK PAINT APPLIED THEN WIPED OFF, SILVER PAINT THEN SPONGED ON; HARD TO SEE CLEARLY IN THIS LIGHT.



















I THINK I NEED TO SHORTEN HIS NECK SLIGHTLY..NOT SURE..

The neck did seem a little long, but then again maybe it is supposed to be? You know far more about this than I. Great job with the added articulation and repainting. The whole look is now consistent, the paint convincing, nuanced, and detailed. It really comes across as a finished figure already.

That guy is a thing of beauty. Between the details in the sculpt and the paint work (and of course the rest of your hard work) really makes him shine. The articulation you pulled off is insane.

GubernatorFan wrote:The neck did seem a little long, but then again maybe it is supposed to be? You know far more about this than I. Great job with the added articulation and repainting. The whole look is now consistent, the paint convincing, nuanced, and detailed. It really comes across as a finished figure already.

Thank you GTF! I decided to shorten the neck and am much happier with it now.

Stryker2011 wrote:That guy is a thing of beauty. Between the details in the sculpt and the paint work (and of course the rest of your hard work) really makes him shine. The articulation you pulled off is insane.

High praise indeed Stryker! Thank you so much! And of course the art work ie sculpting credit completely goes to whoever at Prime 1 Studios sculpted the statue (if it was them) and the base..no idea but great job too with the odd choice here and there that I'll point out later in the build. I will take credit for all the mechanics and paint though!

So the neck is now one 'vertebrae' shorter, I did have to Dremel out the collar a bit to fit the mail inside and since these pics adjusted it slightly where it was bunching up on the side, I also added more mail to lay over the exposed hinge of his left elbow. Took some pics without the light on the camera which makes him look a bit darker. Going to start the weathering next.

Sweet. I like him better with the shorter neck, too.

GubernatorFan wrote:Sweet. I like him better with the shorter neck, too.

Definitely! I was just guesstimating before and probably subconsciously trying to make him as tall as possible! I seem to have this affliction I always tend to make things too long, beards, hair, bodies, belts, sashes etc.. I'm sure Froud would have a field day with this! And no I'm not compensating probably has more to do with fear of commitment or something!

This is absolutely beautiful, there's no way to tell this started out as a 3d printed kit, the work you have poured into it has made sure of it.

Theboo-bomb wrote:This is absolutely beautiful, there's no way to tell this started out as a 3d printed kit, the work you have poured into it has made sure of it.

Thank you very much TBB! I think 'kit' is being generous, statue is more like it! Unless of course you mean those vinyl model kits of statues that I've also used to turn into figures in the past, Dracula, Lurtz etc..

Right finished the weathering and minutia detailing like using a super fine tip marker (when one of them decided to work for a bit, got over 10 of the damn things and they all refuse to work! ) to make some of the decorative parts 'pop' a bit more, also painted and glued on his mace. Cloak next...





































NOT SURE WHAT TO PUT IN HIS HAND, A PALANTIR? A SKULL? ANY OTHER IDEAS?

Yay he looks great, and you were really fast again. Will look great in dark environments and glowy eyes.

About that free hand, you have a vast Predator collection, pretty sure you have one of one of those skulls with the spine attached? You could put a Gondorian helmet on it and give it to Sauron.

The detail is absolutely gorgeous. I think you are at the point where you should create photo stories with your LOTR characters interacting with each other.

Ovy wrote:Yay he looks great, and you were really fast again. Will look great in dark environments and glowy eyes.

About that free hand, you have a vast Predator collection, pretty sure you have one of one of those skulls with the spine attached? You could put a Gondorian helmet on it and give it to Sauron.

Thanks and what a great idea Ovy! I'd have to modify the spine a bit, perhaps insert a wire and articulate it? I'll probably take a helmet from from the base and then do a recast of the skull with spine and helmet. Or modify the helmet into Elendil's helmet (the King of Gondor) who Sauron kills in this battle.

GubernatorFan wrote:The detail is absolutely gorgeous. I think you are at the point where you should create photo stories with your LOTR characters interacting with each other.

LOL, been ready for years but it just not my thing GTF, I love the builds and taking pics of the processes not the finished figures with the odd exception .

The finished piece looks really fantastic. Really great work!!!

Randam Hajile wrote:The finished piece looks really fantastic. Really great work!!!

Thank you! He's not finished yet though (nearly) I just completed his somewhat complicated cloak, it has 3 separate layers, I installed wires in each, weathered the hell out of it with a steel brush and tactical snips here and there; still needs a bit of mud/dust painted on it though. Should look something like the pics below when finished.

Yeah, but that cloak is going to obscure so much of that beautifully detailed work on the armor! Just kidding, I know you got to do it to complete the look. And that it will be awesome.

Jeez, a three part cloak? You will manage I am sure.

And now that I think of it, it wouldn't make much sense for a helmet sitting on the skull-spine. I mean how does that work. Maybe a regular elf head with the spine dangling out and a beautiful golden helmet. Or a closed helmet with a spine? Well it's you figure. Maybe just give him a flower or put a beautiful butterfly on his finger.

The paint job looks great. I have no doubt you’ll be able to pull off that 3 layer cloak.

GubernatorFan wrote:Yeah, but that cloak is going to obscure so much of that beautifully detailed work on the armor! Just kidding, I know you got to do it to complete the look. And that it will be awesome.

I need it to balance out his overall design too otherwise he looks skinny with a big head rather than dramatic and evil!!

Ovy wrote:Jeez, a three part cloak? You will manage I am sure.

And now that I think of it, it wouldn't make much sense for a helmet sitting on the skull-spine. I mean how does that work. Maybe a regular elf head with the spine dangling out and a beautiful golden helmet. Or a closed helmet with a spine? Well it's you figure. Maybe just give him a flower or put a beautiful butterfly on his finger.

LOL!! It's fantasy and magic so doesn't have to make too much sense, I mean he becomes aa giant floating eye FFS! My initial problem was/is that the skulls on the base are larger than the Predator trophy skull, I can get away with this because Elendil, Isildur and a lot of their army are Numenoreans who are bigger than regular men of Middle Earth.

Stryker2011 wrote:The paint job looks great. I have no doubt you’ll be able to pull off that 3 layer cloak.

Thanks Stryker! Getting there as the pics show!

I've chosen a heavier wool material that matches the 1/12 Toy Biz figure cloak's pattern and is just more interesting then the plain black cotton that they kindly sent me. I used their templates though which seem to work great with a bit of futzing, cut holes here and there (may add some more tiny ones) attached wire to each side if each layer which I then covered with the same material to hide the wires, it's all glued on the figure now but needs some dust/mud weathering like I said before.





















UNDERSIDE/INSIDE

Sorry, looking at the cloth made me think about Darth Maul. Getting over this distraction, looks like great progress. Too late to consider now (not that it would make a difference), but it occurs to me that as Lord of Mordor and whatever else he is, Sauron of all people should be able to afford a clean, pristine cape, no matter how he uses and abuses it in the rare cases he sees any action. Then again, that would not be nearly as interesting...

GubernatorFan wrote:Sorry, looking at the cloth made me think about Darth Maul. Getting over this distraction, looks like great progress. Too late to consider now (not that it would make a difference), but it occurs to me that as Lord of Mordor and whatever else he is, Sauron of all people should be able to afford a clean, pristine cape, no matter how he uses and abuses it in the rare cases he sees any action. Then again, that would not be nearly as interesting...

Yup! Very Darth Maul like material but thicker, I actually used a 1/4 scale Darth Maul robe for my first Sauron! And this exact material on the back of his throne.





ALTHOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE I SAVED THE 'PIPED' SECTIONS OF MATERIAL FOR ANOTHER BUILD.



HERE'S WHERE I USED A 1/6 MAUL ROBE ON A WRAITH, I THINK THE PIPED MATERIAL FROM THE 1/4 MAUL ROBE WAS USED ON OTHER CUSTOM WRAITH FIGURES.




As for having a damaged cloak I guess the practical reason would be that this is the final battle of a long war for the control of Middle Earth (tearing through thousands of swords and spears on a filthy battlefield is never going to be good for your fabrics! ) and he's losing and his magic is getting weaker.

How appropriate! And I love that wraith. All of your wraiths, actually. Hmmm... not sure he can't scrounge up some new cloaks with all this power and wealth; if nothing else, his minions can go appropriate it.

GubernatorFan wrote:How appropriate! And I love that wraith. All of your wraiths, actually. Hmmm... not sure he can't scrounge up some new cloaks with all this power and wealth; if nothing else, his minions can go appropriate it.

Cheers GTF! I meant his cloak has been ripped and made filthy by this huge last battle and he does explode like a nuclear bomb in the end!! Not sure what that as to do with the cloak or why it happens but still looks cool!

COOL MONTAGE OF ALL SAURON RELATED APPEARANCES FROM LOTR & THE HOBBIT



I started off with different brown and white paints/inks then used PVA glue mixed with grey paint dust collected from my spray booth filters over time, a dark (black primer dust) and a light (grey primer dust) and some fine sand too. A couple of poses here, windy and calm using the internal wires I added.

Very gnarly indeed, great weathering. It does have the added benefit of creating more association between the cloak and the armor.

I think the light reflection on those red eye lenses make him look very interesting, nice contrast between rough heavy metal and even perfect round red baubles. Gives him some soul.

Speaking of heavy metal, ringwraiths and Sauron #1 looke very HËVY MËTÜL \m/

GubernatorFan wrote:Very gnarly indeed, great weathering. It does have the added benefit of creating more association between the cloak and the armor.

Cheers! Well it was fun to do and does what it's meant to since his base is going to be kind of the battle field of the last united stand/war thing but mixed in with the volcano of Mount Doom/Amon Amarth/Orodruin hence the black and grey ash in the weathering.

Ovy wrote:I think the light reflection on those red eye lenses make him look very interesting, nice contrast between rough heavy metal and  even perfect round red baubles. Gives him some soul.

Speaking of heavy metal, ringwraiths and Sauron #1 looke very HËVY MËTÜL \m/

I haven't used lenses at all, that's just the LED reflecting in the eye sockets, pretty cool effect though! And with you talking about Heavy Metal (I've been a Metalhead since I was eleven so 35 years?) it reminded me how much this version of Sauron looks like DIO's iconic devil used on most of their album covers (like Eddie for Iron Maiden).

BRILLIANT ALBUMS!!

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


ETA: I Dio.

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!