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

Stryker2011 wrote:That Palantir is looking awesome.

Thanks! I'm going to coil the EL Wire inside it through a hole in the bottom so I can light it up (it should be much more effective than the torch I'm using to give you an idea) and the flames as well in the base.

Damn, that looks mighty good.

Funny you mention liquid cooling, my CPU is liquid cooled. Even in this weather the temperature of the processor doesn't get above 35 degrees. With the stock fan, even with all the others, on a day like this it could get to over 65 which is not good at all. DIY just wouldn't be the way to go. For a properly cooled PC you have to build from the ground up with proven components. Each part has it's own warranty so you're well covered if stuff goes wrong.

The palantir is looking great by the way

CHEERS!

dadrab wrote:
Damn, that looks mighty good.

Thank you sir! Unfortunately just got an email saying they're out of the 1.3mm yellow EL Wire and won't be restocking but have offered to send me some 2.4mm or 3.2mm instead, not ideal but should work.

Rogerbee wrote:Funny you mention liquid cooling, my CPU is liquid cooled. Even in this weather the temperature of the processor doesn't get above 35 degrees. With the stock fan, even with all the others, on a day like this it could get to over 65 which is not good at all. DIY just wouldn't be the way to go. For a properly cooled PC you have to build from the ground up with proven components. Each part has it's own warranty so you're well covered if stuff goes wrong.

The palantir is looking great by the way

CHEERS!

Thanks!
Well useful to know water cooling actually works, I'd be using PC specific parts and not bits of my sink for a change! , a build from the ground up would just be too expensive and cooling system is a cooling system, we use VW oil coolers on Harley choppers for example.

Added the copper and night time pics, black should be the last next.

Looking good!

Building a PC isn't quite as expensive as you might think, building it bit by bit means you can spread the cost and take as long as you want. I was on the dole when I built mine. I started in Feb and had all the parts by about August I think. I kept to the maximum spec I could afford. I got lucky on a few bits and scored some OEM parts. CCL in Bradford was where I went. I'll PM you their site address if you're interested.

Have fun with the LOTR build

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Looking good!

Building a PC isn't quite as expensive as you might think, building it bit by bit means you can spread the cost and take as long as you want. I was on the dole when I built mine. I started in Feb and had all the parts by about August I think.  I kept to the maximum spec I could afford. I got lucky on a few bits and scored some OEM parts. CCL in Bradford was where I went. I'll PM you their site address if you're interested.

Have fun with the LOTR build

CHEERS!

I don't doubt it especially as I have a few towers lying around to work with but I'm too busy building figures for now! You going away or something? Just the way you added the last bit.

Well I got too brush happy even with a .00 so ended up with too much black, sanded bits back to build up again reducing the black; I've also sewn an extension to Sauron's robes and finished painting the fire.
Gone back to the Reaper Wraith to make him a cool helmet so he will stand out more, it will reflect his dragon culture.

No, I just kept things on topic at the last minute, LOL!

CHEERS!

Looking very promising... but I've got to ask... are you trying different looks out or is the wraith going to wear a headgear that is half Dwarf King (or is it Gamorrean Guard?) and half Lord Underbite (or whatever his name is on Venture Brothers)? I am sure it will look good, although the jaw part might be so prominent as to detract from the grim reaper feel of the look.

I'm just playing around with parts for the helmet but I do like that jaw with a set of fangs/teeth as a visor, keeps with the dragon look and reminds me of that cool costume Mickey Rourke as the sadistic King Hyperion in 'The Immortals' that is a cross between a scorpion and a venus flytrap. Besides before people were questioning why a Wraith would have a skull even if it was a helmet and I had to defend that decision with lengthy explanations! I know our tastes don't always coincide as I saw your comment on the Pscylock(?) thread about the DC Aquaman and Cyborg costumes that I actually think are beautiful and your thought on 'less is more'. Not having a go at you at all, we all have different tastes thank goodness or this would be a world full of clones (although to be honest when I lived in Florida it often felt like one, all the main steam girls looked exactly the same! LOL); but after surviving torturous years of sitting through art history lessons with endless slide shows I think it only fair that I bore you with the actual 'less is more' philosophy. It's not a golden rule at all, it's merely a style of design promoted by the Bauhaus school of art and design in Germany during the 1920's and 1930's until it was shut down by the Nazis for promoting communist intellectualism.
Anyway.. nearly done with the palantir (again) just needs some more delicately applied black this time .

I was just curious whether you meant to use both pieces or were testing to use one or the other. I see you mean to use both and I am sure it will be as glorious as usual when finished. At present it reminds me more of Tom Hardy/Mad Max Fury Road than Hyperion. By the way, while I agree Hyperion had a good look and the film did have a few cool visuals, don't start me on how God-awful that movie is... so much so that the goofy low-budget version of the Minotaur myth starring Tom Hardy was far more tolerable.

GubernatorFan wrote:I was just curious whether you meant to use both pieces or were testing to use one or the other. I see you mean to use both and I am sure it will be as glorious as usual when finished. At present it reminds me more of Tom Hardy/Mad Max Fury Road than Hyperion. By the way, while I agree Hyperion had a good look and the film did have a few cool visuals, don't start me on how God-awful that movie is... so much so that the goofy low-budget version of the Minotaur myth starring Tom Hardy was far more tolerable.

A minotaur movie with Tom Hardy? I've got to see that! What's it called? I still haven't watched Fury Road yet, had it for months now!

More faffing around with parts getting them to fit for the helmet, not easy to hold them all together for pictures so they're not centred very well, I'll be adding long vertical horns/dragon spikes to the top of the helmet too. Pretty much finished the Palantir again but it's still not lighting up as much as I'd like but I have to concede a lot so it looks good when not lit which would be most of the time.

Just think how much easier your job would have been if, like the emperor in Star Wars, Sauron and his magic used blue light/fire/lightning -- which would be easier to see.

Something that might be really striking is if you painted the skull-helmet a darker metallic gray/back, leaving your two-piece outer helmet more pronounced and silverish on top of it. Just an idea.

Fury Road is great. The Tom Hardy Minotaur movie is called... wait for it... Minotaur! It was made in 2006. Be aware that although I pointed out that it annoys me less than Immortals (which was despicable), it really does not mean it is really good. But if you approach it with low expectations, you would find it quirky off and amusing.

I'd already thought of two toning the skull and helmet for a contrast, not sure which way to go though yet, probably help if I build it first! Who knows I might even ditch the skull completely. Just waiting for the EL Wire now, could do with a 1/4 scale stand as this guy is really heavy!!

As good as Fury Road is, they're asking you to forget that the Mel Gibson movies ever existed, but, you can't. I really like Tom, but, Mel will always be Max to me.

Looking forward to more Sauron progress

CHEERS!

shovelchop81 wrote:I'd already thought of two toning the skull and helmet for a contrast, not sure which way to go though yet, probably help if I build it first! Who knows I might even ditch the skull completely. Just waiting for the EL Wire now, could do with a 1/4 scale stand as this guy is really heavy!!

I was wondering about the same thing (considering the wraiths don't show facial features unless seen while one's wearing the ring), but it would be a shame to give up on your skull helmet completely. That's why I thought repainting it a darker metallic color might do the trick and provide a nice backdrop to the outer helmet. Moreover, depending on how you make it, I suppose you might even end up with options as to how to display it -- with or without the skull part.

Rogerbee wrote:As good as Fury Road is, they're asking you to forget that the Mel Gibson movies ever existed, but, you can't. I really like Tom, but, Mel will always be Max to me.

I would normally sympathize with such sentiment, but it didn't hit me this way. It is not a remake, different plot from anything we've seen, so I didn't mind. One might perhaps say that Max was being outshone by Furiosa (with some justification, although I don't think it was egregious), but that's another matter. Slight tangent: I saw something in the entertainment news about Mel's son becoming an actor; he looks very much like his dad, and he sounds exactly like him. I don't know about his acting abilities (yet), but if they wanted to make a Mel Max prequel, they should try casting him and avoid the Solo silliness. Of course there's an equal chance they will cast someone like Alden Ehrenreich. But Hardy was perfectly fine, for another version of the story.

I think Tom Hardy's my favourite actor in recent years, used to be Garry Oldman but all his recent roles have been very bland.
Got the new EL Wire so have been playing with it doing mock ups for the Palantir shown below, I'll Dremel out the bottom of the fire pit's flames a bit to make them thinner and hopefully get more yellow light through them and finish repainting the skeletal hands as the glue ripped some paint off. You can see the extended robes on Sauron standing up now.

Now I see fire... inside the mountain...

GubernatorFan wrote:Now I see fire... inside the mountain...

Lyrics?

Looking great with the added lights.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looking great with the added lights.

Cheers Stryker! I'll get more done today even with the damn weather and airshow going on, HTF can I manage to live in the middle of an airshow but not be able to see any planes?! All the windows face the wrong way or the walls are too tall...bloody salt in the wound...

It is all looking rather good!

CHEERS!

Plodding along with the dremel, drill and glue gun mostly..











70% of the EL Wire is actually in the palantir since they sent me 1m of 2.3mm.





Found I can sculpt the hot glue using a wet metal tool.

Plod right along, it's coming along nicely now.

CHEERS!

Great progress... but are you just yanking my chain, or did you not get it (this of all things)? "I see fire inside the mountain" is from this...

I don't follow any new music to be honest mate, Five Finger Death Punch is as new as I've gotten recently! LOL. All I know about Ed Sheeran is that he seems to be getting sewed all the time! Cool video though, that can't be official can it? Did he do music for The Hobbit Trilogy?

Not that I'm aware if, but, he did have a cameo in Game Of Thrones.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Not that I'm aware if, but, he did have a cameo in Game Of Thrones.

CHEERS!

Really?LOL.

Finished the palantir and base/light up system. Painted the hot glue to blend in with the flames, redid a lot of black and some silver too; glued the palantir to be held at an angle of the base so it's more interesting than just a view of a flat wall. Continuing with the Wraith's helmet and nearly done build wise save for some mail at the back for the neck. Still not sure if I'm including the skull or not...

Not really an Ed Sheeran fan (not a critic either), but I did recognize the refrain and chorus of the song. It was in one of the Hobbit movies, I think the Desolation of Smaug, maybe during the closing credits if not during the film itself.

Loving the new helmet. I think it's almost ironic that you've gone from basically no helmet (ok, skull helmet under the hood) to something like this.

Looking good!

CHEERS!