WIP projects fantasy

I'm finally starting my projects. I have a habit of buying parts but not making anything yet. It took me awhile, but I managed to get the 3 orcs made by Asmus and Thranduil, my grail. The second hardest figure to get was Gothmog. I was like Templeton at the fair, but shopping for LOTR figures.

 

In the movie, his infected arm was cool looking. In 1/6 format, his arm looked akin to a large rock attached to his shirt. While I was trying to remove the rock, his shirt ripped like homework and the rock was hot glued onto his bicep/ tricep area, below the deltoid. I decided to add more meat to his skinny arm with Apoxie sculpt pink and brown/pink mix. I also added leather straps to his right forearm



I also notice his boots are akin to early BBI style with armor superglued on them, causing many shelf dives. His joints are tight on the knees and he's standing on his human feet for 3 days. His feet are unique to this body. I either have to add apoxie to the feet and glue the armor on or add something to the base of the foot so he can still have ankle pivot.

Looks like you have begun a worthy project. Also, glad you were able to post.

Thanks GubernatorFan. it was alot of back and forth from Safari to Chrome and back to Safari.

I never get tired of seeing these LOTR projects. When the movie was first released, DVD players were very expensive. My wife and I saved up for months to get one. We bought it just so we could watch the extended edition of LOTR and they were the only DVDs in our collection for a long time. The Argonath book ends still take pride of place on my bookshelf.

Looking good. It’ll be interesting to see them all finished.

Nice job on the arm!Never had a problem with my Gothmorg shelf diving but then I use stands for all my figures especially as he's on 7ft high shelf with Sauron and a glass table right where he'd land!! I did break his cutlass style sword though, it's just cast resin so be careful with that, glued it back together and have it in his belt now.

Very nice work. You're going to end up with a helluva custom figure...one you can and should be very proud of.

Major fail. I glued a wooden  pop stick to maintain the weight and balance and he fell. So I decided to remove the armor. When I placed the boots in hot water, they shredded akin to soft clay dough.



since I had a coffee mug of hot water, I dunked his feet in to figure out the joint mechanism. His legs are made of a soft plastic similar to early 6inch Spawn figures.





I removed his arm as well to view the joint. I might swap it out for a more sturdier plastic. Also planning to make him taller. Maybe the same height as Threezero GOT the hound.





On the subject of Clegane



Does anyone know what this fabric is called? Joanns does not know and told me to check Hobby Lobby. But they said it was canvas from a backpack. I can't even find a cosplayer who knows about this fabric. One emailed me to go to Joanns.        

I could make a rubber stamp copy of the material, but I would have to destroy Clegane, which I want intact to one day pose him in silly pics when Arya comes and hopefully Brienne will be made.

Super cool. The arm looks properly nasty! Love it. And adding that height is the way to go. It really does make a statement when you see the difference in size when you have the figures next to each other on the shelf.

I wish I knew the name and a good source for that material too. It really does work well. Right now, I've been messing with making my own chain mail out of super tiny jewelry jump rings, and it's such a pain and super time consuming.

That is ssome nasty awesome dude! I am confused about 6 scale chainmail materials as well.
What do you mean by rubber stamp copy, would you reproduce parts of the chainmail texture?
And would you recommend that Apoxie sculpt over Greenstuff for less detailed, larger sculpts?

ReverendSpooky, Sorry about your figure. I'm still looking. I hate making chainmail too. BTW JOAnns has a 25% off sale on YamaHan fabric. Alot of GOT and MassEffect themed cosplay fabrics. I got a 6 inch of black fabric with tiny embossed dots for $2.50

Ovy, I use Amazing putty to make extra parts to prevent damaging the original. I use to get miliput, but it expires and you have to cut around the gray tube when it starts turning brown. Apoxie is great for large areas. The pink feels akin to dough, but the black apoxie I have feels like frosting and smears alot. I have to mix it with the pink to make it less frosting-like.  





Since I messed up on the arm, I'm using a bionicle socket.



Making extra articulation by making his fingers fing. Still needs painting. This is the oversize glove with bendable hand from the Soldier Story Pararescue medic (the one with the Timberlake head) I added a duplicate of the armor from his original hand, which looked incomplete and cartoony on the original. I added the boot part to cover his elbow. glued Leather straps to his forearm.











Boots were a pain to make

Very impressive, and thank you for sharing your process. So the molds are amazing putty, while the pieces are apoxie?

Ah thanks! I like the 'casted' look you achieved, reminds me of those LotR DVD Weta Workshop extras.

And...Bionicle <3 I don't remember, but are there smaller Lego/Technic joints than the Bionicle ones?

MerylAkiba wrote:ReverendSpooky, Sorry about your figure. I'm still looking. I hate making chainmail too. BTW JOAnns has a 25% off sale on YamaHan fabric. Alot of GOT and MassEffect themed cosplay fabrics. I got a 6 inch of black fabric with tiny embossed dots for $2.50

I so appreciate you keeping an eye out! Seriously, beyond awesome. And would love to see pics of the fabric you're referring to. It sounds really cool. The closest JoAnn's is a little ways out from me, but might be worth the trip.

You're absolutely killing it on this figure! That is an epic amount of extra work, but looks like it's paying of in spades.

Great Work on the Figure ! We difinitely need more fantasy creatures like orcs here

Wow, the casted armor looks really good, Meryl! I've stayed away from push molding as I found it hard to get all of the little nooks & crannies in past tests, but yours turned out great.

Many thanks! I had to unfortunately stop as I was having kitbashing creators block. His main armor looked slim and tall akin to a basketball player. Didn't want to take the figure apart again and build an entire muscle body system. So I thought to make a mold and make areas of the armor in separate pieces to bulk him up. But then I thought to stuff his stomach to give him a gut like a defensive lineman, but it looked like a mead belly.

So I thought to do the armor in layers. Alot of trial and error and I ran out of ideas. I decided to continue to add more armor to his orignal armor than design a new one from scratch.






I stopped and just started to work on Guritz. The problem with the main body is the neck joint has a hot glued neck peg and his head is top heavy and flops off. I added foam board glued to the neck peg on a HotToys body.




The other problem was his costume had that ruffle neck collar, which was tucked and glued under the chest armor. He looked like the wrong orc henchmen dressed all in burgundy tapestry wine. Odd that I like the color. I once had a SAW Viper that was this color and liked the figure.

I wanted to make him look cool, not change the outfit too much, and make the color scheme work. I added armor from the VeryCool Viking set.



With the shoulder armor in combination with his original, I kept thinking about the first MGS  Solid Snake Armor with the vest. So I glued the left over shoulder armor to a leather strap.



He is top heavy so I have to figure how to make him stand without a stand

Fantastic work!  I really like this figure and all the detail you are putting in to it!
I think the fabric is commercially sold ad HDPE shade netting, similar to this...

Obviously, you will want black or "pewter ".
The tightness of the weave is determined by the "shade factor" which I believe is 80% in this case.
Google search for it, or possibly try an RV or awning company. If you are like me, I would ask if they have any that customers have had replaced due to damage and cut out the good parts that remain.
I hope this was helpful!
Again, Great Work!

I hadn't looked in for awhile, and I am very impressed by your progress. Beautiful work.

Pontiacivan, a million thank yous! Found it in black, plus I'm going to check Home Depot since I need one for gardening.  GubernatorFan, thank you as well. I asked a fellow GOT watcher, and she said that Jon Snow's costume was a rug from IKEA. So instead of checking the fabric sections, she said to check upholstery, automotive, and gardening.

I almost wanted to stop kitbashing because I kept finding little flaws in Gothmog and Guritz. both have front armor, but the back is faux fur sewed or glued. Both head sculpts are incredible, however the rest of the figure felt half-finished, or as my dad says "Mickey Moused." Both their hands looked cartoony, like when a cartoon character balls up their fist and it looks similar to a Hawaiian dinner roll, but with a drilled hole. It reminded me of a lego hand. Even BBI had detail. It seemed like Asmus did a rush job on these two. except for the armor and head sculpts.

As I was adding parts and painting, I began to feel dissatisfied in these two Asmus figures. Akin to being ripped-off. I don't know how to describe the feeling. I guess it feels like ordering the Double Western Bacon, but they forgot your waffle fries and your burger has one small strip of bacon cut twice.

I have Gandalf, Thranduil, and Grishnakh, which are awesome all around, and both x23 and edward bodies. But Gothmog and Guritz almost drained my interest. The time I spent to find these and money spent. I am putting them aside and start on another project.

I used a CS Series Callous Soldiers Engineer glove instead of the first attempt on Gothmog. Used the left over fabric sleeve from his infected arm to cover the bionicle joint of the right arm.

For Guritz, I applied clear red and a dark purple paint on the armor. Then added a flat black wash. Added apoxie to the back of boots to make larger feet and maintain the heavy weight of the metal verycool armor.


















I just got Tbleague Fighter and she has removable rings! Going to start on tbleagues again



Definitely a classic of the Artistic Interpretation series. I updated her to a muscle body (Arhian: Huntress). Her original 4.0 plastic skeletal body no longer makes clicking sound and her arms have tension.

Looking good. Your Orcs turned out great.

Beautiful work on all the figures you showcase.

Wow! Coming along great! Everybody really looks the part!