An elf, a man and a dwarf.

Discussion of custom parts made for the Castle Theme
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jon_p
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An elf, a man and a dwarf.

Post by jon_p »

I have updated my Helms deep gallery with some custom figures I have made.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=93977 - When Public

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jonfe ... ragorn.jpg
Aragorn was pretty simple, I could have chosen a better head but I liked this one. I had to use a black marker just to fill in a gap between the hair line and the hair piece, but you can't see it very clearly.
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jonfe ... egolas.jpg
For Legolas, I chose to paint the qui-gon hair piece tan. The tan paint I chose was very close to Lego tan. I will try and get a comparison picture of the two.
I also gave him a pair of Jeffs smitars, although they are not too movie accurate.
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jonfe ... /gimli.jpg
Gimli required the most customizing. I kinda borrowed a few ideas of a Gimli I saw on Brickshelf. I shaved the sides of the beard off so his helmet fit and then I painted it brown. Not that close to the new Brown but it is just a little lighter that the old one. I also removed the front bit of one of those ninja armours so his beard would fit. He is armed with an axe by Jeff.

Hope you like them, any questions please ask.
You can check out the rest of my work on Helms deep here - http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=85183

Jon.
"We dine well here in Camelot, we eat ham and jam and spam alot!"

My Brickshelf gallery - http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=85183
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Sir Garth
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Post by Sir Garth »

They are very cool :-)
I've also made those three, but I use the dumbledore hair for legolas (painted, of course) And I don't have any green capes yet :(
All I don't like is that dwarves are very immobile, but thats not our fault.
*And the bulls arrive in kk2*
Cedric the bull: "Hahaha Leo we're here to- wtf?"
*and the bulls see some happy knights bouncing at each other with carts*
Cedric (shocked): "I guess we got the wrong KK''
Bull soldier (frightened): "Lets go back"
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jon_p
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Post by jon_p »

All I don't like is that dwarves are very immobile, but thats not our fault.
Well thats the problem with using stubbies. But if we used normal legs they would not be dwarves, they would be called.. normal-sized.
One thing I like about Legolas is that by using the Qui-gon hair piece it makes him look slightly taller than Aragorn, which he should be. Of course I planned it to be like that :wink:

Jon.
"We dine well here in Camelot, we eat ham and jam and spam alot!"

My Brickshelf gallery - http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=85183
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Legolas
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Re: An elf, a man and a dwarf.

Post by Legolas »

My favorite three characters from Lord of the Rings !!!! :D
I too am making the three, well actually their close relations. (I got to be more original, you know. 8) )
jon_p wrote:http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jonfe ... ragorn.jpg
Aragorn was pretty simple, I could have chosen a better head but I liked this one. I had to use a black marker just to fill in a gap between the hair line and the hair piece, but you can't see it very clearly.
There really isn't any minifig head that does Aragorn justice, but I think you made a good choice with that one. :wink:
jon_p wrote:http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jonfe ... egolas.jpg
For Legolas, I chose to paint the qui-gon hair piece tan. The tan paint I chose was very close to Lego tan. I will try and get a comparison picture of the two.
I also gave him a pair of Jeffs smitars, although they are not too movie accurate.
Good choice of hair, (same one I used)...I used a paint by Testors* 'Interior Tan'... Did we use the same paint ?
As for his swords, they do look pretty cool, but two of Red Beans Elven Blades (trimed down a bit) might be a little more accurate. Hmm customize an already custom weapon ? I'll burn for that one... :lol:
jon_p wrote:http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jonfe ... /gimli.jpg
Gimli required the most customizing. I kinda borrowed a few ideas of a Gimli I saw on Brickshelf. I shaved the sides of the beard off so his helmet fit and then I painted it brown. Not that close to the new Brown but it is just a little lighter that the old one. I also removed the front bit of one of those ninja armours so his beard would fit. He is armed with an axe by Jeff.


Jon.
Gimli looks really cool, specialy with Jeff's axe, I also shaved the sides of my Dwarves beard off to help his helmet fit, but now he doesnt use the helmet :oops: . One thing, I can't believe you cut up a Samurai Armor :shock: hahaha, just kidding....whatever it takes to make cool looking minifigs. :wink:

BTW, your Helms Deep project looks really cool, can't wait to see it finished.

-- Joey
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Post by Formendacil »

Everytime I see Lord of the Rings stuff, I have this incredible urge to go and make some of my own...

These look great. For specific comments, see below. (Warning: may contain canonically related criticisms.)

ARAGORN: Looks great, nothing really to say. The choice of head works. Its what Bruce N. H. used for his creations. I've used Harry Cane (from the Adventurers) before, and I'm thinking the Qui-gon might be good too. But there's really no face that both matches the scruffiness seen in Bree and the well-groomed culture seen in Rivendell, and everything inbetween. This is a pretty good choice though. Wish I had the head....

LEGOLAS: He looks great. The choice of the Lil Armoury Scimitar works well. It might be a bit too big, and it might be too curved for a canonical purist (as I strive to be), but it works better than the Lego knife/dagger, which is what I would use.

About his hair: did you paint it tan because of the movie? Just so you know, Tolkien never actually tells us what colour Legolas's hair is. So it COULD well be blond (his father's was: see the Hobbit), but it could also be brown. To save myself the hassle, I'd just use brown, unmodified Qui-gon hair. But blond is just as acceptable, and you did a great job on it.

GIMLI: My favourite of these three. I love the custom work you did. I would never have thought of the Rockraider helmet, but it works perfectly. A great job overall on him!
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Post by Robin Hood »

Very nice.

Aragorn:

He looks pretty nice. A good choice of head. I prefer the Harry Cane one myself, but each to his own.

Legolas:

Ok. The hair looks great. As for the knives, well they are two big for my taste.

Gimil:

A very nice dwarf. He actually doesn't remind me of Gimil a lot, he more reminds me of Thorin or Dain. Still very nice.

Great job all around, keep up the good work. :wink:
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Post by Luís »

I like the Legolas and Gimly,but about Aragorn:
I know no head makes him justice, but that is one of the worst.
I too don't like the torso, at least for Aragon.
Please, don't judje me as an anti Cristus.
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Post by Luís »

I like the Legolas and Gimly,but about Aragorn:
I know no head makes him justice, but that is one of the worst.
I too don't like the torso, at least for Aragon.
Please, don't judje me as an anti Cristus.
Thanks.
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Post by Dragon Master »

BEST GIMLY EVER!

PERIOD!
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Post by jon_p »

Thanks for all the comments guys. I'm glad that most of you like them. I am pretty pleased with Legolas and Gimli but I guess I need to do a little work on Aragorn.
I know no head makes him justice, but that is one of the worst.
I too don't like the torso, at least for Aragon.
Well, I was trying to make a version of the Aragorn we see at Helms deep.
He is wearing chain mail so I thought that the best was to represent that was with grey arms. He has some sort of leather coat but I chose to use a brestplate. As you can tell, his face is rather rough at this point in the film, so I think the one I have chosen represents him well for this part.. much better than a Qui-gon face.

Jon.
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Post by lil Jon »

Those look good. I really like the dwarf even if he cant move as well as the others
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Post by Formendacil »

jon_p wrote:Well, I was trying to make a version of the Aragorn we see at Helms deep.
He is wearing chain mail so I thought that the best was to represent that was with grey arms. He has some sort of leather coat but I chose to use a brestplate. As you can tell, his face is rather rough at this point in the film, so I think the one I have chosen represents him well for this part.. much better than a Qui-gon face.

Jon.
Here I go again....

You mean the Aragorn we see at Helm's Deep in the movie. And you did, in my opinion, an excellent job of capturing that Aragorn.

The REAL Aragorn, as he is described in the REAL Lord of the Rings, prior to the battle of Helm's Deep:

Now men came bearing raiment of war from the king's horde, and they arrayed Aragorn and Legolas in shining mail. Helms too they chose, and round shields: their bosses were overlaid with gold and set with gems, green and red, and white.... - The King of the Golden Hall, TT

So I guess, your Aragorn isn't THAT inaccurate. Just slightly. And it doesn't really matter, I just like broadening movie fans' horizons.

Your guy looks good as he is, don't change him just because I'm nit-pickety. :wink:
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Post by Red Bean »

Hi jon_p,

You know I'm a sucker of anything to do with lotr in Lego (second to Formendacil), and your figures are quite well-made. For the head of Aragorn, I probably would have favoured either a Qui-Gonn or Obi-wan (ep2) head more (more heroic-looking, in my opinion), but I suppose you had a different interpretation than me and there's nothing wrong with that. But I do like your Gimli very much even though I agree with Robin Hood that he reminds me more of Thorin for some reasons. The RR helmet and custom bearded both work very well for a dwarf, I think. The gungan torso also works well for Legolas or any elven-armor. Are you going to make more lotr figures in the future? If so, I look forward to seeing them.

Btw, if you don't object to even more customization, you might consider downloading some of my custom lotr stickers from my website and using them in your upcoming lotr projects. The instruction on how to use them can be found on the faq section.

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Post by jon_p »

Formendacil: I'm sure you have realised by now that I base my LOTR stuff on the movies. Due to the fact that I had only previously read Fellowship of the ring (and the hobbit) before the movies came out, my visual interpretation is of the movie. I have now read TT and ROTK but I imagined the characters and places to be like in the film.

Red Bean: As I said, it took me a while to find a head to fit Aragorn. I will probably go back and make a generic Aragorn (for how he looks in the rest of the movie) but I wanted this one to represent him at helms deep.
I was atcually going to download the legolas decal you made but I decided not to and chose the gungan one instead. I think it still works well. I am in the process of making some more figures. King Theoden, some rohan men and some elves. Maybe I could get some of your decals and weapons as well for them.

Thanks for all the comments.

Jon.
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My Brickshelf gallery - http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=85183
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Post by Formendacil »

jon_p wrote:Formendacil: I'm sure you have realised by now that I base my LOTR stuff on the movies. Due to the fact that I had only previously read Fellowship of the ring (and the hobbit) before the movies came out, my visual interpretation is of the movie. I have now read TT and ROTK but I imagined the characters and places to be like in the film.
Yes, it was fairly obvious.

Poor you, doomed to visualize the characters, places, etc, as dictated by another person. :(

Makes me glad I read the books (too many times, I fear) before I saw any of the movies. :wink:
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