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Well, this was my main entry at GamesDay Baltimore and as it was completed in the proper time frame, I will enter it here.
As this depicts my favorite scene from the Return of the King, I decided to convert the standard Mumak to the rearing beast that it now is.
This started by glueing the body together and then sawing the legs off. I had to move a dead rider on the base and then used plumbers putty to fill the hole and after placing a very large and malleable wire through the base then up one hind leg, through the crotch and down through the other hind leg and back through the base. Again, I used Plumbers putty to roughly fill in the legs. I started at this point to use a large carving blade to make the wrinkles on the skin. I would start with the bottom edge of the blade in an original wrinkle and then gently push the blade to continue this wrinkle and try to match one on the opposite side. ( or in other words, I went from original material through putty and then back into original material.) I say started, because later much of it was redone with green stuff to make a much smoother fit. I also had to redo the trunk as it curved to the left and I wanted it straight as in the film. This was a nightmare and after three breaks and re superglueings, I left it not so perfect and tried to paint a little tromp loeil to look right. I also had to make major cuts on the neck and after much puttying on the front legs, I noticed that I had glued a rear leg on the front and a front leg on the rear. Most of you will say "So What " that is until you count the toes. So I had to resculpt the two right legs. Finally, painting commenced and the base was Vallejo Cold Grey and then washed with Cold Grey and Black and Charred Brown, and then highlighted with Cold Grey and successive additions of Bleached Bone. The Howda was painted Brown to match the one in the film, and the wicker was Beasty Brown with Charred Brown Wash and Cobra Leather drybrushing. The leather was Cobra Leather with Golden Brown highlights. The tusks were many layers of Brown and nothing looked right so ended up mostly Bleached Bone with Brown Ink for the ends. The haradrim were Black with drybrushed Cold Grey and Scar Red with Blood Red highlights. Most of these were positioned to look like they were going to fall and so are hanging on to beams or such. The long ropes are painted wire and the arrows all started as very thin wire which was heated over a lighter and then stabbed into the original plastic on the Mumak and then cut to length. ( Do not try to stab a hot wire into Green stuff or other putty, it won't melt and consequently won't hold.) I then painted the wires black and then Cobra Leather for the feathers, and if you use wire cutters at just the tip, it will make the feather kind of spread, which gave it a nice look.
So, I hope this helps, and please feel free to email any questions. I will try to post some more pix in my separate folder. BTW, it made first cut, but lost out to some very nicely painted groups of figures. Cheers, LavronYor |
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