bricklearth

These are completely incredible Theodoric! Do you have any still for sale?

Just sent you an order for the elven helms :)

I'm still here - just been a bit busy :) The torsos come from Green Pea Toys on ebay. It looks like they're on vacation (store on "away" until 9/25) but you can see their flickr here: The helmets come from here: http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Dan76. I think the one here is even more impressive, but it's gdugaucquier's personal custom work: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=112909 The shields come from here: http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Friend.bricks All of these things are solidly made. I'm not sure if they'd stand up to children's play, but they're more than durable enough for a display - they don't feel any more fragile than stuff directly from TLG :) Hope this helps!

I'm very open to that. Have you used any specific brands or colors with particular success? Out of curiosity, what weapons are you looking at? The brickforge elven swords are pretty solid, but hard to have the figs hold in the pose I've got going here. I buy third party accessories extensively, and considered them here, but feel none are right here. The form is as important as the color to me...and the form of these cut helmets is simply much better than any of the 3rd party solutions. I'm pretty patient about these things - it may just be an issue of experimentation over several months to get things right

I'm hear to learn, so please do intrude . I'm interested in painting/coloring the helmets because 1) they're speckled gold/black, which doesn't match up with anything movie-ish and 2) the underlying plastic, so trimming the ridges on the helmet has left it mostly black in a way that makes it very clear modification happened. My interest is in getting a single even tone, far more than the particular tone. The silver idea is interesting, although I think I prefer a gold color. I'm very open on what that gold color should be and also think your olive green arms idea is a good/interesting one. Any suggestions on paints/approaches on those alternate colors (e.g matching the metallic gold). Have you tried anything similar and, if so, are there pics somewhere to check out? Very interested in what people have tried :). This is great info, thank you!

Hi folks, I've got some helmets I need to re-color to match lego pearl gold. I did some searching, but wasn't able to find any clear recommendations. Has anyone else gone down this rabbit hole and, if so, what did you find? For reference, I'm looking to match the helmets to the arms on my Elven soldiers: Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr

2-3 dozen. A fair few, but not a really giant number the way some folks do :) The helmets are a kind of gold-black speckle right now, plus the underlying black is exposed from where I trimmed the parts. I want to paint them to match pearl gold, but haven't been able to figure out a good color match yet. But shape-wise they're done :)

The color match on your paint is so good. What brand/color did you use? I'm looking to paint some different helmets pearl gold :)

Thanks

Your stuff really is inspirational. This, and the pre-official LoTR sets, are some of my favorite MoCs of all time :D

They're not *that* bad - bricklink, plus some patience Thanks! The helmet hack is not an original idea, although I cannot for the life of me remember where I first saw it.

Thanks! I've been meaning to post those, but got a bit busy this weekend :). I"m gearing up to work on a minifig-scaled fell beast for the nazgul to ride. A lot of the design of the new "Red Creatures" creations set can be reused - the idea is bascially "different head, different wings, longer neck, and built using black parts".

I've been working on building up an army of elves, using Elrond from the Witch-King Battle set, and some slightly customized helmets from the Atlantis theme. I think they look pretty solid form-wise, but haven't painted them yet, so they're clearly in-progress. Even in their not-done state, I think the effect of a dozen of them together is pretty cool, so I wanted to share/get feedback. It might be a better question for the Minifig customization forum, but does anyone know a good paint to get close to pearl gold? Need to track that down to finish these :) Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr by bricklearth, on Flickr by bricklearth, on Flickr

As promised, here's some more of these guys, plus some still-in-progress Rangers and Denethor: Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr by bricklearth, on Flickr by bricklearth, on Flickr

Your guys look awesome, and that Minas Tirith is sweet! I ended up not waiting, b/c I was worried that these parts would sell out (some are from v. low quantity producers)...but it would be great news if one of the big 3rd parties got involved. Seems like it would make a lot of sense too - it seems like there'd clearly be a market for Gondor kits. They could even design them around a "best fit" more common minifig.

The helmets come from http://www.bricklink...ore.asp?p=Dan76. Thanks, I'm very happy folks like them :)

Very nice dragons! What are the neck pieces? I don't recognize them and they're perfect!

Thanks for the nice feedback folks :D I also initially felt like the helmets were a touch too large. Having lived with them in person, that concern has faded. Maybe it's just familiarity, but imho it gives the extra height gives the little guys an imposing presence. Either way though, they're really the only choice - nothing else I've been able to find is the correct shape, and those helmets are so iconic that it really throws off the entire look to use anything else. That said, I'm very game to try other parts if anyone has suggestions :). The main downside is that these are tough on the wallet. A lot of this was bought from the EU and I'm in the US, so conversions/shipping/spread-out-acquisition-times make the final price a bit fuzzy. But I believe the damage was $18 per fig. So definitely not cheap. On the flip side, I'm not looking to build truly massive armies the way some folks do. I just want a couple dozen truly-on-point guys :).

Hi folks, I've been working on tracking down the right parts to assemble a solidly movie-accurate Gondorian army for quite a while now. I think I've finally gotten it pretty nailed down, and I wanted to share the results with other people who might be interested. That "wait, what, no Gondor?" feeling is a tough one :D. These aren't purist, by any means and I certainly did not make any of the parts myself...but, as far as I've been able to find, no one has shared these parts all assembled together before. I'm really happy with them, and think they've got a very strong "purish" vibe - they're close to something TLG would have made, if they'd actually made Gondorian figs. I'm unsure on etiquette around sharing links to sources, but I'm more than happy to do so if it's allowed. Anyway, hope everyone enjoys this first section of my little army. This is about 30% of the guys I've got for this group, I'll post more photos as I get the rest of them fully assembled. I'd love feedback, tell me what you think :D Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr Untitled by bricklearth, on Flickr

Hi folks, My name is bricklearth and I live in northern California. Long time lurker, new poster. I love Lego as a kid in the 90's - mostly Space and Pirates, but a bit of Castle too. I reconnected to the hobby as an adult when I heard that Lego was going to be making Lord of the Rings sets. I decided I wanted to build as complete a vision of middle earth as I could manage out of Lego. So, that's what I've been working on in fits and starts for about the last two years! My main projects, right now, center around "filling in" the parts of the world Lego didn't cover - assembling the parts for really solid looking Gondor Soldiers, Haradrim, and Easterlings, building a version of Lothlorien, etc. I like to work in a "set-ish" size for MoCs, and achieve a "purist-ish" look for minifigs - things that feel like TLG could just barely plausibly have actually made them. As part of that, I also have a habit of reusing/modifying sets from other themes to fill various needs I'm going to go post a Gondorian army in Historical now, and will post a few other things over the next bunch of days, if folks are interested!