Dwarven Warrior of Erebor (Phase 1 complete) - The Hobbit

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Right gauntlet ready for orc bashing, handguard(s) still WIP.



Now I need to find out how far we are with Star Trek replicators technology so I can make the left one out of thin air in seconds.

 

[Yrien]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Looking great so far! I love all the detail work you're adding; very Dwarven.

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Looking great so far! I love all the detail work you're adding; very Dwarven.

Thanks. Though I'm getting worried this is the wrong adjective for "dwarf". All the actors and crew of the Hobbit say "dwarvish", but then there's those gaming terrain makers, "The Dwarven Forge". Anyways, some updates:
Dwarf pants !


Boots shaped and weathered

 

[Sabs]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

This is great, there isn't enough lotr stuff on here.

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

First glove is done, all armor pieces attached and strapped

Handguard closeup:

 

[hbw60]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

This is seriously amazing work! I love the details on the gloves.

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Here's a pic of both finished gloves with gauntlets and handguards:


Next piece to do is the armor front plate. I'm still in the process of shaping it and getting the proportions right

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Done shaping the front piece. Still needs some trimming but I want to wait until the back plate is ready before I make any final cuts.


The whole thing is way to long, after trimming the bottom rim, it should have an angle like this

 

[Yrien]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

That looks great! I can't wait to see it finished - your painting is so good!

 

[FuzzyDrawings]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

The painting is top notch. I'd love some more details on that process.

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

The painting is top notch. I'd love some more details on that process.

It's really no black magic and fairly simple. The base is black worbla and two coats of wood glue. Black worbla has a smoother surface than the old, brown worbla so two coats usually give you a smooth finish.
The wood glue is watered down a little and the second layer of glue is applied by hitting your brush on the armor piece to achieve the look of forged metal. You won't see that effect until you start painting it, though. Credits for this idea go to Eloquiell and his build thread here

Next I apply a coat of black foundation, currently I'm using Reeve's Acrylic Paint in "Mars Black" but I've also used Abadon Black from Citadel (Games Workshop) and black primer spray paint from my local hardware store.
Next I dry-brush the silver on. You want the silver to cover most of the ridges and grooves, black should only remain in the very deep ridges here and there. The forged metal look I mentioned earlier should be visible now.
Last step is dry-brushing bronze on the armor piece but try to stay away from any ridges, grooves, etc. The bronze should accompany the silver, not dominate it.
I hope that description helps. I can't really explain the details or the exact paint distribution, it's more drawing by the eye and some practice I got from painting Warhammer miniatures.

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

A little update, though you don't see much thanks to the light-swallowing blackness of the worbla.

Here's the finished armor foam core:


And here's the front armor with the ornaments I did today after I coated the whole thing in worbla and sanded down all the seams.
You don't see much though due to the black worbla and the sanded areas reflect more light than the ornament edges so it all looks kinda messy.


While I love black worbla I gotta say it's a pain in the butt once you've reached a certain size with your worbla pieces. The pieces on the torso became almost uncontrolable, warped in every direction but the one I wanted it to go and once you have one area under control and you want to move to the next area, the worbla there is already too cool to work with. Made me angry. Any hints on working with larger worbla pieces ? Are there any tricks you need to know ?

 

[sanctuspiox]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Great work! Following with great anticipation!!

 

[Yrien]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

I've never worked with black worbla, or with pieces of that size, so I unfortunately don't have any tips. But it's looking good so far!

 

[PHArchivist]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Excellent work! Great thread...

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

Excellent work! Great thread...

Thank you, sir.

Spent the last two evenings working on the chest details and I'm almost done. Of course my dremel slipped on the center tooth that's right above the hammer so I had to redo that one and it still needs sanding :unsure

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Moria - The Hobbit

All details done. Hammer, the ruined center tooth, the shoulder scales and the hip armor plates or whatever those things are.
I'm going to apply some wood glue to the areas where I had to sand the worbla with my dremel to smooth them out a bit before I apply a coat on the whole piece.
The colored lines are just some acrylic paint to shine through the first layer of wood glue so the 3D pen lines become sharper later on.



On a side note: Changed the title of the threat because it sounded as if this was a warrior from Moria rather than a warrior at Moria.

 

[Dweexie]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Erebor - The Hobbit

Nice work! I'll keep updated on this tread, that's really awesome so far!

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Erebor - The Hobbit

Chest plate is done. I tried to track each stage of the painting process.

Here's the second layer of wood glue, hammered on the armor piece. That's what causes this pattern:


Black foundation on dried wood glue:


Drybrushed layer of silver:


Drybrushed layer of bronze


Next up: Backplate

 

[FrontaLittle]

Re: Dwarven Warrior of Erebor - The Hobbit

Been busy doing real world stuff lately but here's the finished backplate. The front and back are strapped together at the shoulders and I'm going to do the side strapping next.

Unfortunatly, the whole thing is far from finished. Still gotta do the cod and hip armor scales before I can move on to the shoulders