Str0ngbad

That's not a place I want them using their budget for the sets anyway. The current mold is just fine.

Haha! I'm going to be out of town this evening but I promise I will try and sit down and take pictures of a project tomorrow. I bought a few more jars today and some sanding supplies. It really can be used like a regular paint with the only difference being how quickly it starts to dry. You only get a few seconds to put it where you want it and then you need to leave it to dry as it gets sticky. Drying only takes maybe 10 seconds though. I use cheap nylon brushes from WalMart as nylon is not dissolved by acetone. I put acetone in a small glass to get the paint out of the brushes. However, it WILL take the paint off the brush handle if that matters. I'm going to try and yellow the elf ears on Tauriel's hairpiece. It should be pretty easy to apply but I imagine I will still need to do a little sanding to touch it up. RBC, I'm also going to try some pearl silver tomorrow.

I tried melting a couple pearl gold pieces; a treasure chest and a 45 angled piece. Neither dissolved. I haven't tried pearl silver but assume its the same. There are actual pearl silver bricks though, aren't there?

I'm using Illustrator from Adobe Creative Suite 2 since it's free now. I started on GIMP and still find it much more user friendly but looked for something new when I ran into it's limitations with CMYK colors. Plus, vector programs really do make for cleaner lines. Really?! I'm going to have a hard time NOT holding my breath for that. I found a good shield that someone had designed for 3d printing but when I sized it down to scale, parts of it were too small to safely print. I sure hope you are successful in that endeavor.

I highly doubt they will re-release or continue the 'preview' sets. They will have run their course by then and something new would sell much better. There are so many things in this portion of the story that would make great sets that I can't say what I would expect to see outside of a few characters. I wouldn't even be surprised if we don't get anything from the inside of Erebor in this one as Smaug could just as well be released in his attack on Laketown. Honestly, I find that more likely as it takes care of more characters with one set and has more playability potential than Smaug napping and rolling over on his back... I really am hoping that we get a set with brown-haired elves at a lowish price point though. The new Rivendale set is spectacular but neither of those awesome hairpieces really help with army building.

As long as the jar seals well, it will keep. I've been working with the same jar of white for the past ten days and it hasn't thickened on me. If it does start to thicken up, just pour in a little more acetone and stir it.

That would be really easy and it would be much more durable too. It seems like none of the metallic colors are pure ABS as they I haven't gotten them to dissolve but I've tried it with five or six colors of actual bricks and they all work great.

For the decals. I have the front torso done now but not the legs or back. I would like to tackle the helmet but being new to sculpting, I don't know how to approach it just yet. I need to find the right base helmet to build onto first I guess.

Welcome aboard! I'm glad you're stepping out of the shadows. LOTR is what yanked me out of my Dark Ages as well. I tend to agree that the important scenes from the first movie have been covered and think that TLG will not reach backward for material. I doubt they would do the meeting with the trolls because it doesn't really work with just one troll and I can't see them putting three in a set. Radagast's house would be wonderful but I'm quite certain he'll be in the second movie anyway. I expect a set to include him this winter as I doubt he'll play a large part in the third movie but with so many new characters being introduced in this next movie, it's possible he gets skipped over. There were five ringwraiths that attacked Frodo for the ring on Weathertop as Gandalf drew four of them off a few days before. The Council at Rivendale would need a whole lot more than the just entire fellowship (I think there were 20+ people at the meeting) but most are minor or even nameless characters. Gloin was there though and Bilbo was in Rivendale but not at the council I believe. Regarding the release of Orthanc, is it likely that it would be released around the same time as the summer wave or are these kind of things usually released separately?

I thought the minifig was a Target exclusive? Can't hurt to take a look though.

You can get Adobe CS2 for free from their site now. I'm using the old Illustrator program from that and there is a Mac version. Fantu, I love that green elf. She makes me think of the Elder Scrolls.

I got to see what I needed of Gil-galad today so don't kill yourself to get him in a hurry. I really appreciate you offering your help. The only thing I could use now is a good shot of the generic prologue elf but I don't think that's a playable character.

My Target doesn't have the it anyway. They have the combo pack but not with the minifigure.

I'm sorry, somehow I missed this yesterday. I think it would work. As far as I can tell, the plastic is just as strong after it solidifies as it was before being melted. All you'd need is a thin coat and to be able to keep the crack pressed together for a bit while it hardens. I should have mentioned earlier why thin coats are important. Putting a thin coat down and letting it dry allows the acetone to evaporate quicker and keeps your plastic from having air bubbles all through it from the acetone evaporating. This is why molding new parts with it doesn't sound like it would work to me.

I don't think it would be very practical to pour into a mold but I have absolutely zero experience with making new parts so I'm not really familiar with the standard procedure. Minor modifications like your example with the 2x2s would be pretty straight forward though though. You would probably want to sand a tiny bit from one of the bricks so that it will be its original size after having plastic applied. Other than that, just push the two bricks together while the plastic is still melted and they should bond. I definitely suggest practicing on stuff you don't care about first though. As as far as fumes, a well ventilated area is important but it's not nearly as bad as Brasso in my opinion.

Sadly, pearl gold and silver LEGO are apparently not made of ABS plastic (they didn't melt) so I am going to have to paint it eventually. I'm melting down some white bricks now and hope to sit down and play with it tomorrow. I love Turgon but I doubt I'll be working that far back for a while.

Oh, I'm interested. I love the Silmarillion and I know there are tons of good candidates there but I'm going to try and start with second age elves. Cirdan is another I am working on and I am considering giving him something but not what I have prepared. Glorfindel is a good candidate I suppose. Do you think gold would show up on the bright light yellow hair or would silver be better? (I'm not sure either will hold their color when melted the same as the yellow does though. The 'pearl __' colors seem to be a little different.)

Thanks Omi! I just hope it works. I've thought about this a good deal and there doesn't seem to be a very good way to make it detachable but I'm okay with that. Is there any elven, Tolkien character off the top of your head that would merit a crown/circlet on the back of his/her head? I have one that I'm ready to work with but it's not for anyone in particular.

You are a saint. I was about to break down today and buy the Xbox version just to get a good look at a few characters.

That's exactly what I plan on using it for. I've soldered a couple different circlets out of very tiny copper wire. I plan on shaping the circlet this way and then coating it little by little until I'm happy. It won't work like putty but you might be able to shape it some while it's semi-solid if you had tools that it wouldn't stick to. If it was possible, you'd still have to work; the acetone evaporates incredibly quickly.

Beautiful MOC. The cliff and waterfall are stunning and I love the colors you chose for the interior. Thanks a lot for sharing it with us!

I got to mess around with this a little tonight and am very pleasantly surprised with how well it worked. I updated the OP with my little experiment but if you need a tl, dr... Shavings melt almost instantly, the plastic maintains its color, it applies rather easily and doesn't mar what it's applied to if done with care. I hope to actually use this on a project within a week or so. Questions and comments welcome. -SB

I will probably pick that up tomorrow and sell off the Blu-Ray version to a friend.

Sorry purists. I'm a bad person. I'm about to try melting some LEGO by soaking it in 100% acetone. After doing some reading, I learned that once taken from the acetone it has a consistency somewhere between water and glue, depending on the ratio of your mixture, and that it will solidify back to its original state when left alone. What I haven't been able to learn is whether it keeps its color. Have any of you tried this before? If not, I have 3PO head that's about to be a guinea pig. Also, does anyone know what I could apply to the surface of an object to keep the liquid ABS from bonding to it? Will a standard mold release coating work? I'll try and post my results as I go and hopefully something useful will come of it eventually. -SB I finally got to experiment with this a bit tonight. It didn't take long at all and it worked brilliantly; it maintained its color, it applied easily and it didn't harm the piece I applied it to! I went and picked up a quart of 100% acetone from a hardware store for about $8. I scraped little shavings from a couple old technic bricks that were already broken onto a piece of paper and then poured the shavings and what was left of the bricks into a little glass canning jar. Next, I poured just enough acetone into the jar to completely cover the plastic and within thirty seconds the shavings were melted and the bricks were getting gummy. I got a toothpick, dipped it in the stuff, and then tried applying it to a broken red brick. It spread much like thick paint while it was wet but it became kind of tacky pretty quickly as the acetone evaporated. The plastic maintained its original yellow color and didn't harm the brick I was applying it to unless I rubbed it with the mixture. Even then, there was no noticeable change to the brick itself but I began to have red mixing with the yellow I was applying. As long as I apply it carefully and in thin coats, I don't think this will be a problem. Now that the brick has been sitting for about an hour, the yellow has completely dried and is just as solid as it was before I melted it! I still have questions I want to answer: if mold release will keep it from bonding to pieces and whether dipping is an effective means of coating something. I'd love to hear ideas any of you may have that this would be handy for. Right now, I am hoping to use it to add crowns/circlets to hairpieces. I still have to pick up a few things and do a little prep work before I start on my project but I wanted to share what I've learned so far with you. I hope its helpful.

Exactly. There was nothing in the book to make me think of the Goblin King as flamboyant or comically eloquent. I understand trying to give The Hobbit a less serious feel than LOTR but that was overkill. I didn't get a headache but I definitely winced and squirmed uncomfortably in my seat.