Lord of the Rings, 5 NEW Wildlings from Dunland, second batch finished, page 10

[Yoda36]

I made a repaint and custom of the already fantastic figure of Gothmog.
He has no less than 20 points of articulation!
Since I had a big whopper of a sword lying around, and I disliked the oversized slashing sword toybiz gave him, I gave him this one. I made him a hilt on his hip, so he can wear it.
The face and disfigured arm had great detail which I was longing for to bring to life with a few washes.
In the movie he has fuzzy hair, I gave him more outgrown hair. Somehow he makes me think of the Witcher now...
The coat and pants were brown, but I wanted the crimson red of Mordor in it. It is a mix of dark purple, deep red and bits of darkbrown and black.
I had some real fur to wedge in behind the sheep fur on his back, to smoothen the lining there. Since it was dark brown, I made the fur more brownish.
With the hair and all, it became an intimidating piece of work!

[Yoda36]

Time to display one of the good guys. Next in line is Haldir, the brown version of the gift pack.
This is what i did with him: i gave him a cloth cape with hood, a quiver, a handmade bow and repainted him, making the basecolour green. The grey Peter Jackson used is book accurate, but somewhat dull. I prefer green, for them being on guard in the woods.
The bow i made from two coffeesticks glued together, boiled them and let them dry up in the curve of a metal bowl. After that, you apply cutting and sanding until it becomes a bow. With greenstuff added, I got the jugendstil like decoration I wanted.
Let me know what you think of this custom! Some comments once in a while would be nice...



























MAKING OF:

[Yoda36]

Here is a sneak preview of the new batch of 4 Wildlings from Dunland.
I am creating an archer, a torch bearer, a drummer and hornblower and another spear + shield warrior.

Here are some snapshots from the process of making:

The tunica soaked in coffee debree for colouring:



The light taken from an electric candle and wired through the arm:





The archer with tunica and pants ready. He needed seperated fingers for holding the arrow, so I gave him a new wooden one:



The bow made from iron wire with greenstuff. I had some left, so made a drinking bottle.



For the drummer I created a holding strap for round his neck. The drums are from a chocolat-egg holder.



The drumsticks go with leather straps on two hooks on the side.



The drummer has a vest. He will wear it open, but I did want realistic closing materials.

[Yoda36]

The constructing is finished and I started to paint this group of five. I added one.
Here are the pics of them without painting added:





















All of the new weapons together:

[spinc]

This is all so amazing! I second doing Talion, he's basically a Ranger, design wise he's a mix between Aragorn and Faramir. So he could go in any of your ranger displays, and we mere mortals can see how a master does it! How do you do the hair? It looks terrific, how do you even glue it and make it look like an actual hairdo?

[Yoda36]

This is all so amazing! I second doing Talion, he's basically a Ranger, design wise he's a mix between Aragorn and Faramir. So he could go in any of your ranger displays, and we mere mortals can see how a master does it! How do you do the hair? It looks terrific, how do you even glue it and make it look like an actual hairdo?

Hey Spinc,

Thanks for the enthusiasm! Alas there will not be a Talion. I don't play the game myself, so looked him up.
In short: he is not a character I would want to add in the ranks of me recrating armies of LOTR. The view of Tolkien is dear to me and an elven spirit incorporated in a human body, Celebrimbor no less, is just not right. The company that build the game simply looked for a single figure to identify with as a gamer, putting in no less than three realms in one person: Gondor, Noldor Elves and evil Nazgul. It has nothing to do with the legacy of Tolkien and more with gaming entertainment. So nope, though he looks cool.

[Yoda36]

Hi there,
Well, doing five figures in a row takes a lot of time before finishing...
All of the cloth you see has heen hand-sown and painted, same for the rope and leather.
I thought I was getting handy with the skin, but ended up doing layer after layer to get the tone right.
And glueing hair is rewarding, but also is a slow process. I took some pics this time.

Nevertheless they are DONE and filling the ranks. Enjoy the photo's.

First I present Goron, mr sledgehammer.
You don't see, but he has underpants matching the rough fabrics.
When first ready, I found the fur alone too boring, so I added leather stuff from a Macfarlane figure.
He has a knife and working sheath. This one got wild brown hair, made from real sheepwool. It even had funny things still in it...
The hammer is from the Isenguard Dungeon Master from toybiz, but with a new stick.
The sack is handmade.

For a making-of, check the thread above. It is funny to see how the original wrestling figure really disappears when the hair is added.



















Second is the musician, which I named Brandan.
He has double skills, for can blow the horn and play the drums.
Creating the horn was tricky and I am very proud of the result. It resembles a horn from a Texan longhorn.
The base is foam, cut with a bend in it, added to a piece of plastic tube. I needed that to create a hollow horn.
The foam is covered with greenstuff and sanded very smooth afterwards. The iron pieces are cardboard.
The leather wrappings are fake leather. The rope is a real rope which was screaming orange by itself...
The drums are the two halves of a Kinder chocolate egg interior.
The carrying system is inspired by real life, but not of iron, but rope and reeds.
In real, it is an iron wire with rope glued to it.
The drumsticks are carved from real wood. They were supposed to hang down, but when the drums were fixated, there was no room left.
The hands of this wrestling figure are massive! You can see how Saruman evolved these humans into superorcs, for the muscle, skin colour and large hands are allready there.
His vest is from an old piece of cloth, with added buttons and loops by myself. I wanted him to have it hang loose, for he looks badass this way.
As a handweapon, the has a shieldbraker club, made from wood.
It was quite a to-and-fro to line up all the brownish colours of the items in a way that they staid distinguishable.

























Some more making of's with this figure:

Colouring the vest with coffee remains:


Base colour of the skin:


The skin before adding the suntan washes:


Wild hair, before adding the hairwrappings:

[Yoda36]

The third figure is a torch carrier, which I named Zayden. It means fire in Celtish.

The trick was to build in a battery and working led light. I used the ones from an electric small candle light, so the led would shimmer. The flames are made of hotglue and than painted (with many layers) and coated.
The smoke I added last, made from a cuddle toy filling. The touch of brown really makes it work!
You can switch it on with the button under his tunica.
His hair is different than that of the others, for really smooth and reddish.

The sword is an item with a story. It is the sword toybiz gave to Guritz, the Orc Lieutentant, the one with the skull on his helmet. But in the movie he has a skythe, so what happened...?! The mixup is clear when you look at this movieshot. Who's that directly on the right to Saruman? A Dunland laddy with the giant sword!! Mystery of the wrong weapon solved.



SO all the Dunland dudes have this sword now, or trimmed down versions.
Here is my finished figure:

















The next one is Malchom, the archer.
The quiver is the bulky one from Aragorn, but on these big figures they do work.
The arrows are dummy ones, in the sense that it are small coctail pins with cardboard feathers on them.
I made only 1 realistic arrow, the length of the whole arm.
He has a knife and a trimmed down large sword as handweapons, in case of close combat.
The collar is from the Isenguard Orc from toybiz.
His clothes are handmade. The shoes are covered up in cloth and leather lines to make them look medievalish.
I really like how the bracers worked out!
I gave him anoher loose finger, so he can hold the arrow properly.
The bow is made of an iron wire, covered with greenstuff. Great way to get the hunter's curved bow.
I should have made another bow, for when he is pulling, the string, it should be backwards and the bow bend...
Really like the outcome. The completed warband will get one other archer.

[Yoda36]

The last one is Gherdar, a spearman with large shield.

For this shield I use black leather.
He carries lower leg guards which will hurt him, for they have thin ropes to hold them... Sorry.
His beard is very dwarfish and I like his sturdy look.
The arm brace is massive, thick enough to wield of a sword!
It was fun to create the cloth shoes.
The drinking bottle is from playmobil.
Gherdar is a bit older, has less hair and some grey in it.

[Yoda36]

And finally some group shots on my portable diorama display: