Marathon LOTR/TH WIP Custom Builds..Reaper/Rider Wraith Redone & Finished.

Stryker2011 wrote:That would indeed be a cool looking Sauron. Wicked and imposing.

GubernatorFan wrote:You are encouragingly unstoppable. A quest worthy for the lords of the rings themselves! Looking forward to the last wraith and Sauron.

Cheers! Looking forward to finishing them now. As for a quest... well I don't leave the house! I think that's cheating!
Here are the original Sauron design idea/parts pics from the beginning of this thread back on OSW (I'm still locked out even after sending the admins a message asking for help, the acoustic option on that anti-spam checker actually works even if the visual one doesn't).









Ughh.. got loads of sanding to do, taking forever! Even my gun build needs loads of sanding... I can;t escape it!

Love the rib-cage chest armor. Very cool idea.

I agree. It does look very promising. How sad that you of all people should be locked out and unattended to. But let's not digress.

Stryker2011 wrote:Love the rib-cage chest armor. Very cool idea.

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree. It does look very promising. How sad that you of all people should be locked out and unattended to. But let's not digress.

I'm looking forward to building him although I'm sure his weight and size will drive me nuts soon enough!
Finished all that intricate sanding on the armour pieces, took forever to get into all the nooks and crannies to do it properly and not loose too much detail. All painted with black primer, even the mail suit got a coat to dull the blingy silver. Got loads of hard goods to go through for weapons (I'm thinking  a Great Sword or zweihander) and mace etc.. then the all important helmet design, gauntlets, armour details, perhaps a heater shield? then the soft goods of course like a cloak etc..

You're off to a good start. I like where you're going with this.

Stryker2011 wrote:You're off to a good start. I like where you're going with this.

Really? I don't even know where I'm going with this! I'm liking the metal fang/cage looking visor below though, sort of a cross between a Morrior Orc helmet and that contraption poor Shawnee Smith had over her head in one of the "Saw" movies... with a helmet not hood though.

That’s a cool looking helmet, probably my favorite, as well. It kind of reminds me somewhat of the jaws on the Beast from Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Man, I like the look of this guy, Chop.

Mighty damn evil looking.

Go, man...go!

Can I come over and help put him together, now that the nook and cranny priming is complete?

I love the Mafune weapons! I have a bunch I picked up forever ago, and they're still awesome by current figure standards. And I swear, I always end up learning something reading this thread.

The ronin wraith came out insanely awesome, and that giant Sauron is blowing my mind. And that cage Helmet is really something fierce. Seriously cool stuff. I'm hooked.

Stryker2011 wrote:That’s a cool looking helmet, probably my favorite, as well. It kind of reminds me somewhat of the jaws on the Beast from Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Good film that! Got it on DVD somewhere!

dadrab wrote:Man, I like the look of this guy, Chop.

Mighty damn evil looking.

Go, man...go!

Thanks dadrab! I usually aim for evil!

GubernatorFan wrote:Can I come over and help put him together, now that the nook and cranny priming is complete?

Too late, I needed you for all the grunt work!

ReverendSpooky wrote:I love the Mafune weapons!  I have a bunch I picked up forever ago, and they're still awesome by current figure standards.  And I swear, I always end up learning something reading this thread.  

The ronin wraith came out insanely awesome, and that giant Sauron is blowing my mind.  And that cage Helmet is really something fierce.  Seriously cool stuff.  I'm hooked.

Yeah, they've put out some monster hunter weapons recently that I'm watching on ebay.
Thanks! The Ronin is nearly done, just ordered those souvlaki sticks to make arrows and I think I'll add a backing to the helmet's crest to hide the wire.

How are you guys finding the Mafune weapons? I’ve tried searching “1/6 scale Mafune,” “1/6 scale Mafune weapons,” “1/6 scale Asian weapons”.... no luck.

Done the 'mail silver' and painted all the 'straps', glueing it together now but still worried about the paint coming off as you can see on the leg straps. That's why I paid extra to get the silver armour and not the cheaper red or blue! Might be able to reinforce it with clear coat and just hope it doesn't peel or chip off; I roughened up most of the armour so it should stay put. I need to add kneecaps as this armour just splits there, odd design by Marx but this is just the base armour and will have lots of parts added to it.

Looks cool, Shovel. From a distance, I don’t think you’ll notice the partial flaking. Plus it adds character, makes it look lived in.


Oh, I found those weapons (Mononofu) quite by accident.

Stryker2011 wrote:How are you guys finding the Mafune weapons? I’ve tried searching “1/6 scale Mafune,” “1/6 scale Mafune weapons,” “1/6 scale Asian weapons”.... no luck.

Shear dumb luck?  This seller has the monster hunter weapons and others but not sure if it's even under the same brand name any more tbh, they may be a different company now as most of the sets I was referring to were released at least 10 years ago. You can try 1/6 swords or spears etc.. on ebay too in the toys section.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/worldshopgocom

Stryker2011 wrote:Looks cool, Shovel. From a distance, I don’t think you’ll notice the partial flaking. Plus it adds character, makes it look lived in.


Oh, I found those weapons (Mononofu) quite by accident.

Told you I was crap at names! Thanks for finding the correct name!

Can you count the clamps? Already had removed a bunch before the pics! Nap time while all that glue sets...

Looking good, I'm sure I've missed a couple of notifications, anyone else not get any recent ones, as in today?

CHEERS!

Yeah, you can totally get away with the chipping on the straps.  The paint job on the armor is self looks freakin beautiful.  And man, all those clamps look like an implement of torture!

And Mononofu!  Sorry stryker, for not getting the name right either.  Some can be a bit on the small side, but their katanas are pretty dead on and look beautiful.  They actually did an entire set based on the weapons from the manga Blade of the Immortal, which is one of my favorite comics of all time (I highly recommend, even if you're not usually a manga fan).  I bought up 2 cases when they came out so I'd have enough to display and do custom figures.  A project I still need to get back to some day...

I am a Manga/Anime fan; I can honestly say I know OF Blade of the Immortal, but I've never actually read any of them. I'm more of a Masamune Shirow guy (or is it Shirow Masamune?).

Stryker2011 wrote:I am a Manga/Anime fan; I can honestly say I know OF Blade of the Immortal, but I've never actually read any of them. I'm more of a Masamune Shirow guy (or is it Shirow Masamune?).

Ah, Masamune Shirow is awesome too! His color art especially is absolutely gorgeous, and I have a deep love for the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex series. Hiroaki Samura's blade of the Immortal is one of those thing I can't recommend enough. It starts out as a simple revenge story, but the morality gets murky really quickly. Fascinating cast of complex and nuanced characters, great writing, and beautiful kinetic art. I actually have a bunch of Samura's work tattooed, I love it so much. Avoid the anime (they just swung and missed entirely) and I haven't watched the new Takashi Miike movie yet (I hear it's big dumb bloody fun, but that's it) but the manga is intense and brilliant.

Here are my 6&1/2" Gondorian figures in armour for reference and you can see the styles are not uniform but all do use a lot of stacked plated armour and have armoured skirts, pointy helmets too but I'm not going for tear-drop shape the soldiers have since this is a king so more like Isildur and Elendil's stacked wings design or a derivative of that. Still clamping and gluing, got some articulation problems with the pauldrons and ankles of the greaves since the Marx body had very little articulation compared to even an old Action Man. Whittled down my parts some more concentrating on helmet and armour plate stuff to add and build.

Who doesn't love a good army build!?

Nice!

CHEERS!

Man. I could get lost in your place. Sooo much to look at it. How much more are you going to do to that shield with the Bull crest? Will it still look like a bull? Or more "Demon"-like?

Great army, Shovelchop! Given the number of sixth-scale figures you've been doing based on this franchise, I wouldn't be surprised if you turn it into a sixth-scale version soon.

Rogerbee wrote:
Who doesn't love a good army build!?

Nice!

CHEERS!

You should see my LOTR collection in that scale upstairs, got every figure made bar one or two like the Jackson one, it's a right mess at the moment, half the room's floor is covered in these and the other half in GI Joe Sigma6!

Stryker2011 wrote:Man. I could get lost in your place. Sooo much to look at it. How much more are you going to do to that shield with the Bull crest? Will it still look like a bull? Or more "Demon"-like?

Not even sure if I'll use it but modifying the bull's head into a demon is a great idea!

GubernatorFan wrote:Great army, Shovelchop! Given the number of sixth-scale figures you've been doing based on this franchise, I wouldn't be surprised if you turn it into a sixth-scale version soon.

LOL, Think I'll be burnt out on LOTR related stuff for a while after the 15(?) builds I have still lined up!!

Only had a quid in the account so these are all the souvlaki sticks I could order, shame two out of the 6 are factory rejects...not impressed! Will still make the wraith's arrows though.
Gondorian wraith's basic armour is now on, still need to fix the shoulder and ankle issues but fits the body perfectly otherwise which very lucky!!

Be prepared for a few additions. I'l be sorting out my inventory soon. I'm hoping there's stuff you want as there's too much to take with me!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Be prepared for a few additions. I'l be sorting out my inventory soon. I'm hoping there's stuff you want as there's too much to take with me!

CHEERS!

Good! I need those oversized hobbit bodies for my dwarves!

Fixed the ankle articulation issue and removed the pauldrons that will be connected to the sword catchers and mounted to the torso armour using pleather so they are articulated. To fill in the exposed gap (as the arms are now free to move in and out separate from the pauldrons) I put in random pieces of armour that seem to work. Also sorted out the gauntlets using the ones I'd initially made for the Easterling wraith but opted not to use as the wrists looked too skinny but now combined with modded Marx gauntlets they look the part. Added pointed knee guards to match the gauntlets and start the pointy theme of the armour mods to come like the modded elbow guards etc..
I have some metal scale like mail from a purse that I'll divide in two and paint to be the armoured skirts (starting to sound like this guy is cross dressing but he's not! ) and they stylised wings for the helmet, skull face may go on a shield not sure if I'm even giving him one yet.