This took a year to get finish and I seriously mean that, keeping it a secret and finishing off bits, starting and stopping it was a really difficult custom to bring to life. This is one I planned from day 1 of re-collecting Tolkien figures but never got round to. Then about a year ago I started sculpting onto the body and after miliput alone didn't work I came back to it a week later and went over with miliput and plastic from a folder as usual because it's thin and easy to use and I highly recommend when you make weapons and armour it is a strong base for figures. I don't like just taking bits of other figures and sticking them onto a character and making it look somewhat like the design, I really crave attention to detail and workability of a custom so did me this was a massive project with lots of stopping and starting.

Everything was sculpted onto a Thorin Oakenshield figure which I removed the tunic, vambraces, arm armour and replaced the legs with a Marvel Legends Black Cat from the Sinister 6 pack. Each Piece of armour took ages to get right using pictures online to get the right shape, building layer by layer, sanding etc and sculpting using milliput. I wanted the genuine article so I spent ages getting each piece right, including the elbow armour pieces which can be moved as they are held on with straps. The Sword and Shield are scratch sculpted using a piece of plastic cut out from a folder into an octagon then bent in the appropriate places to get the right shape then sculpted over with all the details of ravens etc. The sword was just 2 pieces of plastic in the shape of the sword I drew then cut out then sculpted onto. The Raven's all over the Pauldrons Sword and Shield took forever to sculpt. I made an alternative head of Thror using the decapitated Thror head from the Azog figure and then sculpted the decorative beard braids beard pieces from the head as I had a spare and put them onto a Thorin head. Appropriately he should look like an older Thorin but I did paint his skin pinker as he looks like that in some scenes and adds age. The coat cloak wrapping was just some old blue material, artificial fur I used also on Dain and the details were taken from the coronation gimli figures cloak. I really love my shield, the handle is a borromir shield handle but everything else was made from scratch out of miliput and plastic same for everything else just layer by layer adding parts to get the proper effect. I made sure the Gauntlets (which go from the hand to just below the elbow) were made so they fit over the arm but also move 360. In other words the hands are able to move with the gauntlets on without restriction. I had to make the elbow peieces 3 times to get it right but evenutally got a pen thar was flat and round and sculpted the pieces onto it which worked perfectly allowed them to be the same size and have a roundness. The crown of course is from the Thror head and sculpted over where parts were blank. I also fixed the broken bit at the back with miliput and repainted the whole thing making it wearable by any of the royal bloodline. Also I painted the decapitated head the same skin tone but a little paler as the custom head I did.

The Throne is made from scratch using polystyrene from packaging which if you have a sharp enough knife and are slow and careful you can cut through with a minimum of mess and chipping. It took a long time to sculpt all the details and paint it right and make a functioning removable Arkenstone spot. The throne like I said is polystyrene and to get it to stick together I used tooth picks and PVA glue. When you have concrete structures in real life you have steel beams inside so this seemed logical and worked well to strengthen it. Miliput was also used and plastic for parts such as the Arkenstones place, which I just sketched on plastic cut out stuck on and then painted the detail. The stone clips into place as it slots in betweeen two plastic pieces above and below it and a rounded piece behind which was just a spare leg joint. The Arkenstone itself is just 2 beads stuck together, the sort of thing from a childs jewelry set. It works well as each half bead has silver on the back so it reflects the light. I tried a white one and blue looks more like the film due to the glow it gives off. It is hard to show but it REALLY catches the light and looks great. I usually say I'm happy with a custom if I think I've done a good job but this is my pride and job custom that I'm so glad the making of is behind me!


As usual I have provided scenes from the films and yeah hope you enjoy, please leave a comment.