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 Post subject: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 3.2.16
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 9:24 pm 
Kinsman
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Hello fellow Ringbearers,

Commissariat here with my first ever Hobby Blog!

A little about me:
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I took my step into a larger world 10 years ago with a little 4-man box of Chaos Warriors that looked like Boba Fetts. Within a year I had Imperial Guard and Ork Boyz stomping across my workshop, albeit in very small numbers. Fast forward through Orky conversions/sculpts/kitbashes to today. Today I am a Dungeon Master, Game Consultant, Developer, League Organizer, and a big-huge-nerd. So nothing's changed really. I take more enjoyment out of creating and customizing than painting or playing, however I do not shy away from any of the elements. I play Dungeons & Dragons, make Paintings, read, and the like because breathing life into worlds makes me wiggle my toes in delight.


About my experience:
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I am easily still a novice. I have done a decent amount of sculpting with Green Stuff. My sculpting repertoire goes so far as to re-sculpt Muscles, Wires, Elbows, Bandanas, and Commissar Caps for my Catachan and Ork models. Not the best by a large amount but I've taken pride in my modest workings.


Inspiration for this Project:
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I am an avid "Battle Companies: Warbands of Middle-Earth" player, pretty obvious considering I am narrative-driven. However, being more preoccupied with growing the system and developing it has gotten me used to simply using models from my various armies. Conveniently this is becoming less common practice while I am slowly selling my unused collection and quickly creating a need to do what I love. Thus putting this all together alongside an extreme love for the Shire and her children has made me wish to make my first personalized Battle Company. The Shire Confederacy!

The name and motto comes from a jest that one of my players made about a Shire Battle Company designed around the opposite effects of the Scouring of the Shire. Basically, what if the Shire Folk became organized but corrupted after the fall of Sharkey? What if Sharkey turned the Hobbits in the end? I am unsure if the paint-scheme will completely be based off of the American Confederacy of the 1800s, but it is an entertaining idea nonetheless.


About this Project:
Click to: Show
What I will be attempting and doing my best to share is a mass conversion of an entire Hobbit Army. I shall have 24 Hobbit Models, 1 Dunedain, and 2 Rangers of Arnor to round out potential Battle Company endeavors.

I shall not be using any standard hobbit models for my entire force will be converted from several sprues and groups of assembled Mines of Moria Box Set hobbits that I ordered off of eBay. This means that I will be cutting, carving, and resculpting two dozen hobbits in different poses and wargear with a minimal number of cloaks left on the models.

Please forgive my photography skills!

Chapter One: Merry Christmas!
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So the first model I decided to pick up was Merry. I figured that starting in the middle as far as difficulty, Frodo being the easiest and Samwise being the hardest, would be the best way to dive in.

I took a Dremel, Pin Vice, Knife, and No Small Amount of Courage with me as I began to cut and carve away at the cloak. I have shaved the cloak down, following the rough geography and lines of his jacket underneath, to begin my process. I also cut him at the shins so that I can pin him to his feet later on as all Rider of Rohan modelers could attest to!

My plan is to get the rough shape of his jacket finished before I go in with my handy Green Stuff and resculpt the lines of his belts and so forth. I plan to garb this ordinary Hobbit with a scarf and swap his hands with another of the hobbits to help mask his identity.

As for battlefield wargear, my battle company need some clubs to even the odds, some mallets to dismount cavalry, and some axes to finish the job. I suspect that this hobbit will be armed with an Axe, hopefully with the axe-head cradled in his hand that is currently holding a rock.

This is not done, as any painter could attest, but I wanted to show my progress so far before I have forgotten. Just in case anyone found inspiration and wanted a rough idea of how I did it.

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I do not have any closing statement, but this is the start of probably the hardest project that I have dived into that I plan to follow all the way through. (Poor Mono-Wheel Nob Bikers.) What I can say is that this project is about to be tackled by the most unlikely of creatures.

I welcome all support, constructive critique, and suggestions!


(All Linked Images are not mine but found on Google, or eBay, to give you a better illustration of what I am talking about.)

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Last edited by Commissariat on Wed Mar 02, 2016 7:55 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Dec 30, 2015
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 12:21 am 
Kinsman
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Really like the idea of a Confederate Shire... that's such a unique idea. Very cool concept, keep us updated!

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Dec 30, 2015
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:39 pm 
Loremaster
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Like what you are doing, looking forward to seeing more.

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Dec 31, 2015
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 11:00 pm 
Kinsman
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Thank you for the kind words! It is definitely growing the hair upon my feet.

Image: Merry
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Image

(Spoilered so as not to take up the screen!)

After some more work trimming down his coat I found little need to keep him off of his slot-stand. I grabbed some cheap ornament hooks leftover from the Christmas tree and used that to pin the thin little ankles. I think it went over well.
After pinning him in place, I got to work on getting rid of that dagger he got from the Barrow-Downs using my trusty Hobby Knife. It didn't take long to clear the way and I was soon on to creating a hatchet. I took a piece of sprue and whittled it down to shape. I am unsure of how it turned out but I think my opinion will change as soon as it is painted.
When the hatchet was complete I carefully cut the stone out of his hand, being sure to retain the shape of an empty hand so that I could have him rest the axe against it. When the stone was cleared I cut him at the elbow, rotated his hand/forearm, and then pinned it into place.

I have not glued the axe into place yet, I want to know what yall think of the axe head. So far I think that the bottom of the axe needs to get rounded out a little.

So far, no Green Stuff has been used. I might only need to use a little to fill in cracks where I pinned the arm and to clean up some of the recesses from my carving.

A note on the feet: most of the hobbits I ordered were on their base already with nice piles of glue around the feets, which I am relatively okay with, but that is why they look the way they do.

This is 1 out of 24 hobbits, so there is more to come!

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Dec 31, 2015
PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2016 11:00 pm 
Loremaster
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The axe-head looks much to large for the diameter of the axe-handle. Other than that it looks good so far.
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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Jan 7, 2016
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 2:10 am 
Kinsman
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Hello! More Updates of the Hobbits after an incident with my finger getting injured. Remember they are all works in progress.

"Merry" Lumberjack
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Image

@theavenger001
Thank you for confirming my suspicions. I felt the Axe Head was too big so I have modified it to fit the handle. It went from Lumber Axe to more of a Hatchet, this is perfectly fine with me!

"Samwise" Banner Bearer
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Image

I started working on a banner bearer idea that I came up with after taking a second glance at the Samwise Gamgee Model. I cut and rotated his former Frying Pan arm to hold a flag and I replaced his sword with his frying pan to be treated as a hammer. Of course he got the same "no-cape" treatment as the Merry.

"Frodo" GentleHobbit
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Additionally, I started working on who will probably represent a sergeant at some point! This idea came from the fact that it looks less like Frodo is holding his ring but his jacket instead, as seen in stereotypical aristocrat depictions. I lopped off Pippin's Rock Arm and Frodo's Sting Arm and swapped them around. The rock now takes the place as the head of his cane, much like my grandfather's cane. And again, more Cloak Removal was to be had.

Misc Rider of Rohan Tail Replacement
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Image

It is a 40k Ork Boy ponytail, not a horse tail.

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 1.7
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:41 am 
Loremaster
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Yeah as for your confederate theme it could work.

Idk if anyone saw but at Nova I did a Hobbit army with revolutionary war militia and colonial blue regulars. Also Bandobras was Uncle Samdobras Took.

I didn't post them here because I quick painted them poorly ha-ha. Maybe I can show an example some day.

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 1.7
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 5:09 am 
Kinsman
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LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
Yeah as for your confederate theme it could work.

Idk if anyone saw but at Nova I did a Hobbit army with revolutionary war militia and colonial blue regulars. Also Bandobras was Uncle Samdobras Took.

I didn't post them here because I quick painted them poorly ha-ha. Maybe I can show an example some day.

Would very like to see that, no matter how poor!

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 1.7
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 8:55 am 
Kinsman
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Spike117 wrote:
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
Yeah as for your confederate theme it could work.

Idk if anyone saw but at Nova I did a Hobbit army with revolutionary war militia and colonial blue regulars. Also Bandobras was Uncle Samdobras Took.

I didn't post them here because I quick painted them poorly ha-ha. Maybe I can show an example some day.

Would very like to see that, no matter how poor!


That sounds very intriguing, I second the motion! Even if it was a quick paint-job I would be interested in seeing them on the forums, I'm no master painter myself! I'd much rather customize and create things with my own twist.

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 1.7
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 6:43 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Awesome idea, and great conversion ideas so far! Frodo has to be my favorite, might actually steal that idea! :yay:
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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 7.1
PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 2:14 am 
Kinsman
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After a long and delightful "X-Wing:Miniatures" break, and working on an expansion for it based off of Battle Companies, I have returned with some progress finally!

Pippin of Death
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Image


Knowing I will need to knock people over so my Hobbit minions can stab at the eyes of the enemy, I have armed this once-Pippin with a warhammer as well as the usual cloak removal. He is all wired and ready for Green Stuff Sculpting. It is just a matter of figuring out which direction to point the Hammer's face. The hammer head itself is made from sprue. The hand closest to the top was once the hand of "Gentleman Frodo".

I think it is a little funny having a "Warhammer 40k" style warhammer in a wee Hobbit's possession, but I wanted to do it anyways. If my Shirefolk are supposed to be fierce Confederate Soldiers, why not have some weapons of war in there for a few laughs!

-Wild

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 Post subject: Re: "The Shire will Rise Again!" WIP Hobbits // Updated: 3.2
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 7:54 pm 
Kinsman
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Hello All Ye Shirefolk!

I have another update, mostly composed of my Battle Company Modelling work for the second season within the California Coast Hobbit League.

Gentlehobbit sculpted up with a nice hat!
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Image
Image

Getting close to the painting Stage, this gentleman-frodo-conversion has got himself a hat to go with his fine cane.

Some of my Converted Mordor Uruk-Hai and Barad-Dur Company Work
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Mounted Version 1+2
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Converted Uruk-Hai Warrior into Mordor Uruk-Hai
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The Whole Gang
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There are 5 Mordor Uruk Hai, 3 are armed with converted Two-Handed Axes and the other 2 are Axe/Shield. They are lead by my three Orc Heroes that I am created mounted versions for.

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