Category: Dioramas
Article Type: Project

Article Title: Building Balrog's Doom
Author: Dorthonion
Article Description: A diorama based on the epic Battle of the Peak shown in ‘The Two Towers’

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An excellent article , worthy to a great Diorama!

"A meeting of Olde Fiends" Brilliant !

Utterly astounding Chris...just an amazing piece of work and a wonderful article explaining just how you achieved perfection!

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No one feels as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.

Another great article from Dorthonion. One question though... where's the speech bubble saying "Ba zoo ka?"

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"Mustard the Rohirrim! We've got to ketchup with those Uruk-fries before they capture the Hornburger!"

I went through 3 dictionary's proofreading this monstrosity !

Brilliant article, would have liked to see it even longer with step-by-step photographs depicting each stage and text to follow.
The overall finished item is simply brilliant and well executed.
Look forward to seeing future projects Chris...nice one !!!

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There are fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world

Great diorama!

Just one question, are the balrog and Gandalf glued to the ruined tower?

Otherwise it would be a great gaming board!

Rueben

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"Mickey, my friend!"

@ (the Late) DurinsBane - I would have liked to have taken more pics but this piece has been worked at on and off for well over a year, dragged back and forth between 3 rooms in this house more often than lost luggage in Heathrow terminal 5 (now there's a thought, if The Luggage (Discworld) turned up there, what havoc!) And I was more or less making it up as I went along a lot of the time, so I was unsure when to take a picture as the method might have failed and been scrapped for some alternative.

I am being more diligent for the next one (actually make that 3.. maybe 4) which is underway even as I type...

@ Amarthadan - yes of course thay are detachable, for reasons of ease of transport and because I intend to do some painting tidyups on Gandalf and the Balrog.

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

Fantastic! Brilliant article in itself and wonderful diorama! Absolutely wonderful!

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Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Jake

Outstanding, I have seen a few pieces that are of the tower top with some craggy rocks to suggest the mountain below but not the entire tower... and what a tower, a stirling job of recreating it, as you say the frame cap library is a tad short on some scenes.

Great work, it must have been a relief to put the article together.
My main issue when it comes to any terrain project is...where can I store it ?

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No..you pronounce it..EL Rab-beet-oh.

A meeting of old fiends?

Dorthonion, I must congratulate you on the length of the article. It really is an epic! I found it very interesting to see the different stages in the construction of this excellent model. Well done.





I think it should be 'dictionaries'. Seriously, if you'd like some help with proofreading from time to time, then I'm willing to help.

Yours sincerely,
His Royal Smugness aka The Upstart.

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Painting again...

Natarn Ulka inscribed (with a elegant sufficiency of lexicographical smugness):

I hate explaining jokes, puns, satire... oh here goes:
Gandalf and the Balrog are both demigods - Maiar. Demons are simply the more wicked side of the demigodding business, and fiend is yet another name for demon.

The 'Meeting of' portion comes from the chapter and scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf returns to Hobbiton for Bilbo's Eleventy-first birthday - 'A Meeting of Old friends'.

HeWhoShallNotBeNamed aka TheEyeRollerSupremeMC built a fabulous diorama of the scene - http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/kb.php ... icle&k=198

So, now you know.

(Dorth goes back to building something even bigger...)

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

Thanks, Dorth.

I did get the joke. Honest! I just can't read! My dim and slow-working brain put an 'r' in your fiend when I read the phrase...
and then I made up a fabulous joke all of my own...
which happened to be the one you had already made.

I think I'll go and get some sleep and leave humour to those with sharper wits.

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Painting again...

HOLY F$(#$%)(g $h*(&#$!!!!!!!

From the pictures i have scene the tower looks like a mirror image of the one Weta created! Any thoughts on working on the hobbit films?

Have you tried playing any games on it? It would make a great last stand sort of thing. Jeez that is well done.

Magnificent! What else is there to say?

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I hate Black Hat SEO!
Smite the iron, shape the pewter, sculpt the putty.
My DeviantArt Page

Woah! Totally awesome, dude!

An excellent insight into that piece of creative delight.
Thanks for sharing it with us Dorth.

Inspirational stuff!

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

I want to launch into superlatives but that would make it seem like I'm just spewing them out, whereas this deserves more consideration, something new and worthy of the time and trouble you put into both the product and the article.

Ah, what the heck.

That's some incredible building and painting! It looks fantastic! The article is almost as impressive as the work itself. Magnificent!

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"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

Wow! The moment I saw this tower, I was impressed by its beauty. And a very enjoyable article to read! I do like the painting of Gandalf, it makes him look battered and weary!

I like to see more of this, Dorthonion!

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“Thou hadst better by far be the devil in hell,
Than the Sheriff of Nothinghame!”

I just haven't got any words to describe this masterpiece

The more you look at it, the more you start understand about the scale of such an undertaking (and I’ve looked a few times at this tower). I’m impressed by the paintwork & the snow effects, but it’s the methods that you used for imitating the architectural embellishments on the Tower of Zirak-zigil that I admire most (notably those of the lower & central ring of the Tower and the top section). As for the closing picture, I just love it. The way the Balrog is caught in a whirl of black smoke… It’s an effect I haven’t mastered yet! (A pity you didn’t use this one as icon for your article – this being my only critical remark).

I pity you Brian, no wonder you've run away!

Dorth this is one of the longest articles I've ever read, however the sheer scale, detail and overall finish made it an enjoyable one. The work on the Balrog alone could have easily produced an article. I'm still trying to understand how you did this single-handedly! If I would change anything for future projects, I would make you cut down on those ridiculously long words!

Looking forward to the next one Dorth

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The Southern Fiefdoms: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21928