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

Stryker2011 wrote:Those are a couple of excellent choices. In fact, the top one is one of my personal favorites (I didn't say anything earlier, as I didn't want to influence any decision you may (or may not) make). And I do believe "Standard" is one of the correct terms for a banner, flag, etc..

Rogerbee wrote:Looking good, those sigils will be a great touch.

CHEERS!

GubernatorFan wrote:Yep, military flags are often called standards (though also colours and banners and of course flags). In my personal imagination, that is especially true if they are hanging from a horizontal rod (like Roman ones), but the definition is fluid.

Thanks guys! Yeah just clicked in my head, standards are usually more of a solid staff adorned with metal symbols of a unit and country as in Eagles mostly..Romans, then Napoleon, then the Germans etc.. I wonder if the Americans have them? And could be used as a weapon itself. Anyway got confused as the Japanese standards were always vertical (narrower than mine) fabric on an inverted 'L' shaped post and attached like mine but using fabric hoops as metal was and is a very rare commodity in Japan and was saved mostly for weapons and armour which is ironic as the law in Japan for airsoft weapons is that they must be less than 50% metal and really low powered but that's a post WW2 related weapons sanction political thingy as well as lack of space etc..
Anyway... just dyed a bunch of real leather bits black to make some of the final bits for this figure, then onto the master! Sauron himself!

Ohoo, Sauron, the big bad, the main dude, should be good!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Ohoo, Sauron, the big bad, the main dude, should be good!

CHEERS!

I hope so!

A picture matching what I'd already designed



Random throne drawing by someone



18 inch Sauron laid out with armour, a lot of it is metal.





with face plate





hands and feet



throne bits so far









some of the electronics to be installed, light and sound with moving eye, more electronics to come with movie phrases











impressive amount of parts and engineering for an 8 quid figure!

Oh my God! That Sauron is looking awesome! With the lighting effect it's going to be amazing! I am so jealous of your ability to manipulate found objects and make stuff from scratch. Can’t wait to see Sauron with the Nine.

Yes, looks very cool already. In the illustration he's wearing boots, although this particular foot sculpt might make him more stable.

Stryker2011 wrote:Oh my God! That Sauron is looking awesome! With the lighting effect is going to be amazing! I am so jealous of your ability to manipulate found objects and make stuff from scratch. Can’t wait to see Sauron with the Nine.

Thanks Stryker! Just need to do one more thing for the Ronin Wraith, the back of the helmet crest, then I'll do a proper dual photobooth shoot with the Gondor Wraith too. Got lots of dremelling to do on Sauron but have a dentist appointment in the morning (he's conveniently just around the corner) so he'll be attacking me with a dremell first for a few fillings yay...

GubernatorFan wrote:Yes, looks very cool already. In the illustration he's wearing boots, although this particular foot sculpt might make him more stable.

I want to show the hands and feet as the last dregs of his organic uber human form like the Wraith are still morphing into anonymous Black Riders... I'll paint them a deathly white, black and dark purple wash perhaps...

I can't help but agree! You are on a roll!

CHEERS!

Thanks Roger! finished the last bit for the Ronan Wraith to hide the ugly wire and make the crest more 3D? Fun fact: Most of the real medieval samurai helmet crests were made out of papermache!

Papermache does make sense. I always wondered how they could even lift their heads, those things looked so heavy.

The crest does look even better now, after the 3D treatment.

Stryker2011 wrote:Papermache does make sense. I always wondered how they could even lift their heads, those things looked so heavy.

GubernatorFan wrote:The crest does look even better now, after the 3D treatment.

Thanks guys, I can concentrate on Sauron now, well until the local anaesthetic wears off!!
I guess they must have lacquered the crests or they'd look rather unimpressive in the rain!

I'd say he was more a Ro'nin', you'd be on a bit of a rollercoaster with the other one!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:I'd say he was more a Ro'nin', you'd be on a bit of a rollercoaster with the other one!

CHEERS!

Ah well, guess I can't spell the names of my own figures! What does Ronan have to do with rollercoasters? I don't know anything about them as they terrify me, those and scorpions!
Done some armour cutting and sorting out that should give you an idea of where it will go, got some other parts to add like waist and chest armour. Off to bed now with some painkillers...

Ooh, cool. That cod piece almost looks like a little skeletal person.

This old boy's massive, Chop. And, looking damn good, thus far, too.

Your comment about scorpions reminded me of my only encounter with the little fellows. Growing up on the Eastern side of the US, not many scorpions to be found. However, while in college, a couple of friends and I were backpacking in the foothills of S.C. and stopped for the evening to set up camp. While gathering rocks to make a fire enclosure, I rolled over a rather large, flat one and uncovered a nest of the little buggers. Scared the hell out of me.

Rolled that rock back over and left it alone...

LOL! I was referring to Ronan Keating.

CHEERS!

Stryker2011 wrote:Ooh, cool. That cod piece almost looks like a little skeletal person.

It does a bit!LOL. I prefer to think of it as a skull with spinal cord like a Predator trophy! But an engraving of one obviously.

dadrab wrote:This old boy's massive, Chop. And, looking damn good, thus far, too.

Your comment about scorpions reminded me of my only encounter with the little fellows. Growing up on the Eastern side of the US, not many scorpions to be found. However, while in college, a couple of friends and I were backpacking in the foothills of S.C. and stopped for the evening to set up camp. While gathering rocks to make a fire enclosure, I rolled over a rather large, flat one and uncovered a nest of the little buggers. Scared the hell out of me.

Rolled that rock back over and left it alone...

Wise decision! I would have camped somewhere else! We get a lot of them in Greece, got stung on my left nipple while riding, caused permanent nerve damage to my left arm leaving me with a physiological tremour which sucks as I'm left handed. I used to be ambidextrous but shattered my right elbow twice...

Rogerbee wrote:LOL! I was referring to Ronan Keating.

CHEERS!

That's the first Ronan I was thinking of too but still no idea what that's got to do with rollercoasters!

Some important body parts swapped using boiling water and vicegrips. Needed articulated feet to incorporate the larger blue monster ones but didn't want to use the 1/4 Bruce Lee body as the thighs are snapped off (can be fixed) and the electrics in it are just dummy moulds where as the Obi-Wan body has a working system that I should be able to splice the Sauron electronics into; I also wanted to get rid of the boot tops that make up most of the OW figures lower legs.

You’re a braver man than I, my friend.

Stryker2011 wrote:You’re a braver man than I, my friend.

You just have to make sure the parts have heated up properly as the connectors have multiple barbs/ridges in them so the surrounding plastic needs to be very soft when carefully coaxing them out. The ankle breaking on the one shod foot was my dumbarse mistake, I should have pulled instead of trying to pry it out, oh well not needed now so a fix for the future..

Mmm, bodies for surgery, my inventory contains a few of them! Ronan Keating had a single called Rollercoaster.

CHEERS!

Looks like a massacre in the field; which only means the final product will be all the more impressive.

Rogerbee wrote:Mmm, bodies for surgery, my inventory contains a few of them!

CHEERS!

GubernatorFan wrote:Looks like a massacre in the field; which only means the final product will be all the more impressive.

Been up to my elbows in pistol parts all day, fixed them and now it's Sauron's electrics, so you can add disembowelment with guts everywhere to the carnage!

Electrics successfully transplanted, bloody loud!!! He says "I see you", "You cannot hide", "Build me an army worthy of Mordor" and some random static, I think it was battle noises but either the chip had corrupted over time (old toy) or there's just too much volume with the larger battery supply and more powerful speaker, either way, the best sound effect to have lost as he will be in 'temple garb' and not his full battle armour. The eye lights up as well now I've spliced into this chip but I need to add some cable extensions to reach his helmet by running them up his back and neck. Making a new activation button bracket and several rubber shims to allow activation without having it on constantly as this is a different shaped circuit board, was the fiddly part (not all pictured as I would have needed three arms)  but turned out all neat and tidy.

Looks like a fun build, is he motion activated? Had some 18" McFarlane figures that were, made myself jump a few times!

CHEERS!

Now there’s something I know I could never do: mess around with electronics. This is going to be amazing.

Rogerbee wrote:Looks like a fun build, is he motion activated? Had some 18" McFarlane figures that were, made myself jump a few times!

CHEERS!

No he's got a push button system on his belly below the speaker, installing a motion detector would have actually have made life easier both for installation (no custom shims needed) and probably for activation later because of the armour. Got a bunch of the 1/4 NECA/SOTA motion activated ones too, Pinhead from Hellraiser having my favourite voice chip! Turned them all on be fore I went to the pub years ago (pranked myself and friends as I knew I'd forget when I came back with friends pissed as a parrot hours later) , scared them and confused the hell out of me! To be fair the first thing they saw when opening my front door was a life sized Predator costume on a mannequin!

Stryker2011 wrote:Now there’s something I know I could never do: mess around with electronics. This is going to be amazing.

This is just basic +/- stuff, gates and custom circuit boards is where it starts getting a bit complicated .

My Regan bust is going in the front room, should deter nosy neighbours for a bit!

CHEERS!