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

Cracking stuff!

I would never have thought of using a hairbrush for helmet parts. Most inventive. You have such a unique eye for things. Wish I had it, I can't scratchbuild to save my life.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Cracking stuff!

I would never have thought of using a hairbrush for helmet parts. Most inventive. You have such a unique eye for things. Wish I had it, I can't scratchbuild to save my life.

CHEERS!

This + 10. I never would have thought of that. Ingenious.

Man, that helmet is coming out fearsome. I love the design. And that hairbrush idea is straight up brilliant! I may have to steal that trick some day.

Rogerbee wrote:Cracking stuff!

I would never have thought of using a hairbrush for helmet parts. Most inventive. You have such a unique eye for things. Wish I had it, I can't scratchbuild to save my life.

CHEERS!

Stryker2011 wrote:

Rogerbee wrote:Cracking stuff!

I would never have thought of using a hairbrush for helmet parts. Most inventive. You have such a unique eye for things. Wish I had it, I can't scratchbuild to save my life.

CHEERS!

This + 10. I never would have thought of that. Ingenious.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Man, that helmet is coming out fearsome.  I love the design.  And that hairbrush idea is straight up brilliant! I may have to steal that trick some day.

Thanks guys! I normally use metal hairbrush pins for studs but the fibreboard was a little to fragile wiggle them in so I opted for plastic this time. I've used hairbrush bristles/pins for all kinds of things over the years, aerials, studs, buttons etc..

Added his modded forearm armour and gauntlets, I'm bulking out his shoulders as his helmet is quite big, also made his pleather kama/tunic that the real metal mail will go over spiky side out to be more evil and aggressive looking. Then got his pelvis armour to do, attach the helmet, weapons etc..

You are making relentless and encouraging progress. This new character seems almost complete. And it's not as if you are making a few minor modificaitons here and there... helmet, armor, clothing, and even proportions design, everything's being taken care of. Looking forward to the finished figure.

It's those flashes of inspiration which sets your stuff apart from the rest.

CHEERS

GubernatorFan wrote:You are making relentless and encouraging progress. This new character seems almost complete. And it's not as if you are making a few minor modificaitons here and there... helmet, armor, clothing, and even proportions design, everything's being taken care of. Looking forward to the finished figure.

Rogerbee wrote:It's those flashes of inspiration which sets your stuff apart from the rest.

CHEERS

Thanks for the support guys! Getting there, I'll paint the mail attachment parts to match properly, the mail just does it's own thing due to being quite heavy and gravity but that seems to work beneficially on the figure. Weapons and cloak designs next...

TIP: I HAD TO SUPERGLUE THE LARGE RINGS CLOSED TO BE ABLE TO KEEP HOLD OF THE MAIL.

That looks so good. These wraiths are easily some of your best work. Keep it up!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:That looks so good. These wraiths are easily some of your best work. Keep it up!

CHEERS!

Thanks Roger! I don't think that myself though, I'm much prouder of my Iron Man related builds that are ten times harder, even my scratch built Mandarin was way more work than three of these put together! They do make a nice team though . Been playing with hot glue, more paint done, helmet attached and some weapons selected and painted (not the sword yet). The cloak still needs to be sewn and attached and I want to cast some little detail parts for the knee and gauntlet plate armour as decoration (little wings) so the last two pics ARE JUST A SILHOUETTE NOT FINISHED!





ARROW IS FOR RONIN WRAITH

Hence 'some of', the true best of anything just doesn't exist and trying to be it will drive you crazy. You do the best you can. In that context it works every time. You can be 'one of' the best, but nobody is ever 'the best'.

CHEERS!

Holy cow, that chain mail is sick! Really ties that armor together nicely.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: almost there...

I think this sort of thing and the Iron Man suits are two very different genres. Keeping things articulated, to scale, and realistic is something they have in common. But this is gritty and aged, perhaps even Romantic (in the non-love way); the other thing is modernistic/futuristic, clean cut, and cold. These differences require a very different look and feel. You excel at both, but the former (this) resonates with me infinitely more than the latter (Iron Man). For all the cheap, expensive, or kitbashed collectibles I own (in more than one scale), I still don't have a single Iron Man (or similar). I guess that while I think it is cool, I am just not drawn to it. But something like these guys, that would be quite different.

That's one wicked looking SOB.

Great work, brah.

Rogerbee wrote:Hence 'some of', the true best of anything just doesn't exist and trying to be it will drive you crazy. You do the best you can. In that context it works every time. You can be 'one of' the best, but nobody is ever 'the best'.

CHEERS!

Well I'm not going to argue semantics over how good my work is!! Cheers Roger and thanks!

Stryker2011 wrote:Holy cow, that chain mail is sick! Really ties that armor together nicely.

Thanks Stryker! Never used it this way around before (the mail) actually looks better than the way it was designed to be used!

GubernatorFan wrote:I've said it before, and I'll say it again: almost there...

I think this sort of thing and the Iron Man suits are two very different genres. Keeping things articulated, to scale, and realistic is something they have in common. But this is gritty and aged, perhaps even Romantic (in the non-love way); the other thing is modernistic/futuristic, clean cut, and cold. These differences require a very different look and feel. You excel at both, but the former (this) resonates with me infinitely more than the latter (Iron Man). For all the cheap, expensive, or kitbashed collectibles I own (in more than one scale), I still don't have a single Iron Man (or similar). I guess that while I think it is cool, I am just not drawn to it. But something like these guys, that would be quite different.

Cheers GF! Done my fair share of 'Ashley Wood' weathered Iron Man builds too, more fun and less taxing on the brain than super clean stuff that has to be 100% symmetrical! A great way to use any 'oops' moments as detailed weathering too!

dadrab wrote:

That's one wicked looking SOB.

Great work, brah.

Thanks dadrab! He has the face of a meat grinder!! Quite Clive Barkerish.. in fact I've been planning from the beginning to hang his shorter melee weapons from those loops on the torso armour like Pinhead from Hellraiser does!



OOOH!!! I want this hoodie!!

shovelchop81 wrote:He has the face of a meat grinder!!  

I'm sure his mother loved him...

dadrab wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:He has the face of a meat grinder!!  

I'm sure his mother loved him...

....Not if he came out of her like this!!...

shovelchop81 wrote:

dadrab wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:He has the face of a meat grinder!!  

I'm sure his mother loved him...

....Not if he came out of her like this!!...

Were that the case...she didn't make it...

dadrab wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:

dadrab wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:He has the face of a meat grinder!!  

I'm sure his mother loved him...

....Not if he came out of her like this!!...

Were that the case...she didn't make it...

Yup....

Soft goods at last...well one anyway! Sewed his cloak. I also finished casting the little detail parts, took a while as latex is a bitch to cure when thicker than a sheet of paper and I wanted flexible black for fitting and any paint degradation over time. I'm still faffing over his polearm design but think I've come up with a happy compromise that doesn't include a part I wanted to but should work/look better.

Cool looking. Love the Celtic knot clasps. I'm curious to know what the bird forms are going to be used for...

I, too, was instantly drawn to those Celtic knots. I am sure we're in for another work of art.

Stryker2011 wrote:Cool looking. Love the Celtic knot clasps. I'm curious to know what the bird forms are going to be used for...

GubernatorFan wrote:I, too, was instantly drawn to those Celtic knots. I am sure we're in for another work of art.

Ah yes, the Celtic Knots, they're actually a pair of sterling silver cuff-links I joined together years ago for my Vladd/Dracula in armour figure that has since been dismantled. Been saving them for something LOTR or Viking related, figured I'd use them now before I lose them! I can always make casts of them later if needed. Talking of which, the birds (cast from a sterling silver ring) were created to get more wings for detail accents as you'll see below. I've also used another cast from a sterling silver ring (I wear a lot of silver!! ) of "The God Of Hellfire" which actually looks a bit like the Tree Of Gondor corrupted into a demonic face; to put on his torso armour and the back of the helmet as I love the "I see you..." implication. Might do something more pronounced for my Sauron figure along the lines of a multi-faced helmet like the one worn by the Lord Marshal in 'The Chronicles Of Riddick' and recently the one worn by The Voice Of Rao in 'Krypton', again encompassing that whole "I See You.." vibe but looking like a Sauron helmet too.

Before paint so you can see where they all are

Very cool use of the wings. That multi-faced helmet idea is pretty interesting, as well.

Very cool progress. I was actually looking at the parted-out Coomodel Gothic armor just the other day. But now I'm thinking about it even more... and you've also got me thinking that after you complete this LOTR collection, you should do some Riddick Necromancers ... actually that was one of the things for which I was looking for that Karl Urban sculpt, but it would have been a big custom project, as I imagine I would have had to sculpt the armor myself.

Stryker2011 wrote:Very cool use of the wings. That multi-faced helmet idea is pretty interesting, as well.

Cheers Stryker! 'We'll see..' about the helmet design in the next figure..

GubernatorFan wrote:Very cool progress. I was actually looking at the parted-out Coomodel Gothic armor just the other day. But now I'm thinking about it even more... and you've also got me thinking that after you complete this LOTR collection, you should do some Riddick Necromancers ... actually that was one of the things for which I was looking for that Karl Urban sculpt, but it would have been a big custom project, as I imagine I would have had to sculpt the armor myself.

Necromongers might get you better results!
I have a bunch of the 7" ones that have been customised to be more movie accurate in a box somewhere... The basic armour is actually quite similar to a lot of European knight armours so you could probably get away with starting there and then just adding custom details that you sculpt yourself, would be great projects to follow!

More weapons being made and painted plus the armour details. Also found a great cheap easy to find substitute for filters on my spray booths, a roll of dust/cleaner cloths that are even the perfect size! I've been pealing old filters back for years extending their life spans by 10 but you do eventually run out and filters on line cost a bloody fortune for some reason; all they need to do is allow the fumes to be sucked out and keep the particles in so they won't jam up your fans etc..

He's coming together really well.

I haven't been getting notifications for these again, anyone else had that lately?

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:He's coming together really well.

I haven't been getting notifications for these again, anyone else had that lately?

CHEERS!

Thanks Roger, I'm all good notification wise.

Looks awesome. Love the sword with the serrated edge.

I almost never get notifications, by the way.