[MOC] LOTR Argonath: King of the Eastern Shore

[ShaydDeGrai]

This is my first draft of one of the two statues that form the Argonath from the Lord of the Rings. The figure stands about 24 inches / 61 cm tall and consists of about 5000 bricks. A standard mini-figure stands about as tall as the thickness of the foot which makes the scale of the statue a little less than half the size of the one in Peter Jackson's film, but certainly big enough to qualify for building on a Numenorean scale.

I don't particularly care for the use of white bricks in the figure. It was an act of desperation as my supply of light grey was running very low (I have more on order and will be rebuilding the breastplate and axe head as soon as they arrive).

I haven't decided about the use of dark gray in the main figurine. The purist in me wants it to be all light gray since its a weathered statue made from a single type of stone; but I also think the touches of dark gray add some character. I welcome opinions on the matter.

Additional images of the statue can be found over at my Cuusoo account (search for Argonath, it's hard to miss a giant statue)

I'm currently working on the design for the companion statue but that may take a while...

[Apple Pi]

Just amazing!

Its a great creation (literally too)!!!

[Brickmaestro]

Very nice attempt. The Argonath in LEGO is very ambitious. I'd say, doing the whole thing in light grey (or light bley) would give the best overall look, but brick availability notwithstanding, you've done a great job. Keep tweaking it.

[JackJonespaw]

Oh, this is nice! This is captured perfectly! Once you get done with this one, will you take a picture with a minifig to show scale?

[Jesperallen]

Wonderful! These statues are impressive in art and in the films and I think you´ve captured them fantasticly. Personally I like to mix light gray and bley to give the surface more structure but maybe in this case it´s better to let this great statue speak for it self and let the details give structure.

[Gabe]

Beautiful work, the sculpting is great! I do like the mixture of smooth and studded surfaces, it gives a good amount of texture variation. I agree with Jesperallen that light grey and bley would be the best mix for colour, but on the other hand, some dark bley mixed in some of the flatter regions might look alright too - i guess the only way to find out is to experiment.

[Dwellington]

First of all, awesome work. Seriously.

Secondly, on the subject of color, I'd say you should consider the effects of the environment on the statue. The predominant feature of the Argonath is the river they run over. Perhaps the stone at the legs and the hems of the robes is impacted by continuous moisture? Also, since they're built mostly out of high cliff faces, perhaps there's been a bit of overgrowth where the figures meet the hillside? Keep the figure all one color, except around those areas. That might be cool.

I eagerly anticipate the second king. Woah man.

[ShaydDeGrai]

Secondly, on the subject of color, I'd say you should consider the effects of the environment on the statue. The predominant feature of the Argonath is the river they run over. Perhaps the stone at the legs and the hems of the robes is impacted by continuous moisture? Also, since they're built mostly out of high cliff faces, perhaps there's been a bit of overgrowth where the figures meet the hillside? Keep the figure all one color, except around those areas. That might be cool.

This reinforces some ideas I was already playing with. I was thinking of dressing up the quarry side of the hill with a bit of grass and plant parts to suggest scrub growth in the cracks between the stones and then high-lighting the areas near the river with random, small brick-yellow and sand-green tiles and plates to suggest silting, weathering and moss. I figure the first step is to clean up the figure itself (once the blasted parts get here...) and then work on dressing up the points of transition between the figure and the hillside and the river versus the shore. I think if I give the background a richer, more organic palette, a mostly light bley figure could really pop out (not that it's easy to over look it now).

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Skalldyr]

This is awesome! Now build an (I don't like the word but....) 'epic' landscape surrounding it!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Amazing work!

This MOC let me speechless ...totally cool!

[Masked Builder]

You've done a pretty good job with these! I will be checking back to see them completely finished! I can't wait to see how you tackle the sword.

[Palathadric]

Wow! This is really good. Awesome "sculpting".

Can't wait to see updates.

[ShaydDeGrai]

Wow! This is really good. Awesome "sculpting".

Can't wait to see updates.

Well I thank you (and all of the above respondents) for the enthusiastic replies. I just got a 12.2 kg box of parts from Lego so (hopefully) I'll be able to get a little more done on this guy (and the companion statue) in the not to distant future.

[markus1984]

amazing!

[SirSven7]

As a first draft I assume your going to be building two! Amazing work

[Ecclesiastes]

Impressive, I always wanted to build something like this. But it will be hard to do a better job! Great job!

[ShaydDeGrai]

You've done a pretty good job with these! I will be checking back to see them completely finished! I can't wait to see how you tackle the sword.

You had to mention the sword...

If nothing else, prototyping the hilt and cross guard for the sword in the second figurine has be a wonderful exercise in why digital design will always pale in comparison to actually tinkering with bricks. I've tried mock-ups with LDD and ML-CAD and come up with several different designs that all seem okay on screen but then utterly fail to satisfy in the actual build (too many edges, not enough edges, too big, not enough detail, too fragile, too massive, etc.)

In the end I declared my virtual design exercise a learning experience and went back to the tried and true method of rummaging through bins of parts and sticking stuff together to see what _felt_ right. It's taken two weeks of active building, rebuilding and higher than average cursing but I think I've got a prototype that might work for that particular detail. Now if I only had the actual figure to go with it...

[Vindice]

A MOC well deserving of my 400th post!

It's brilliant and I completely agree with the comments abut adding some different colours near the base to give the impression of weathering.

[Sloop]

I am amazed by this MOC. I believe the parts that make me the most happy are the hands and the helmet, I might have to borrow some of your techniques for a statue I am working on.

[Flipz]

Wow, that is epic. MOST epic, actually. Even if they're only half-scale to the movie, the sheer size of it is pretty impressive.

I definitely like the dark gray additions, though if you're still on the fence about it perhaps you could try to "fade" from light to dark somehow? Perhaps using dark gray to simulate shadows or something similar? Just throwing some ideas out there in case you like them.