Ultimate Collectors' Forums

Hello all, hope everyone is well!!

I haven't posted here for a while, busy working and all! I've been lurking every few days, got to keep up with current affairs here!

finally found some time to make some progress on my Theoden helm, pulled a rough cast for painting tests ....

any tips/thoughts appreciated!

Wow! it looks incredible!

I think it looks really good. Would love to know a little bit more, did you make/sculpt this yourself? As I have been working on a Blindsquirrle kit for a few months I can tell you got the details correct and your colors look good as well. Can't wait to see more!

Thanks for the feedback, great to hear the opinions of other enthusiasts!

I did indeed sculpt/make it myself (I work in film for a living so I can't quite claim to not have a little background knowledge of this sort of stuff )
based it around a polystyrene head, and spent the odd weekend over the past year creating the master. Still need to get around to sculpting the cheek plates/crest details

Impressive work. I'm re-doing the crest pieces for mine as well as the details arn't as accurate as I would like. Would you mine sharing the paint and colors you have used as I think they are really close to the photos I have. I was planing on just using Rub'n'buff gold and silver.

Thanks! I haven't finalised how I'll paint these yet, but so far it is as follows:

Undercoat
Montana Black - Gold spray all over
Curator ageing fluid (black) - washed all over
Rustoleum acrylic paint 'Pewter' - for the steel parts
Games Workshop 'Boltgun Metal' - stippled over the top
Rustoleum 'Old Penny Copper' for the copper parts
rub'n'buff black stippled/buffed around edges (diluted with renaissance wax)
Gold areas highlighted with rub'n'buff gold

That's it so far!

Man, that looks sweet. First I thought Thranduil would be our only shot at owning one of these, now suddenly Jamie show us his pet project, and N2 reveals he is working on one of his own. If I know him well enough, he may just make more to sell, or am I wrong? Couple that with Kit mentioning that UC could possibly revive the LOTR line in the future and that this helm is on his personal wish list, and who knows what could happen??

Thanks Jamie for the color break down, as I have never herd of curator aging fluid before it sounds rather interesting. I'll have to look for it. Thanks for the tip on diluting with Ren wax as well.

Val, I'm not making my own version, I'm building a kit that Mike from Blindsquirrle props sells. He had an anniversary sale awhile back and I couldn't resist. Here is the link. http://blindsquirrelprops.com/king-theoden-helmet-kit/

Sounds like this may be available from many different sources and I look forward to everyones progress.

N2darkness wrote:Val, I'm not making my own version, I'm building a kit that Mike from Blindsquirrle props sells. He had an anniversary sale awhile back and I couldn't resist. Here is the link. http://blindsquirrelprops.com/king-theoden-helmet-kit/

Sounds like this may be available from many different sources and I look forward to everyones progress.

Ah yes, I see what you mean. The kit is one use only. I'm not talented enough in these things to attempt to put one together and paint it myself so I will watch you two with interest.

No worries N2, yeah curator ageing fluid works wonders in metal, I'm guessing Montana gold has metallic powder in it as it seems to age that down too. You can get a whole range of 'dirty down' sprays that we swear by on set, great for ageing down pretty much anything.

Just got some better resin delivered so I'll be hopefully pulling my first full cast tonight, will post progress pics and some shots when it's fully painted!

Frankly I'm amazed its taken this long for any of us to make Theodens helmet, it's an amazing piece in the film

Hello!

It's been a while since I've posted here, been away on a film project so haven't had time to do much work on this. Thought I'd post pictures for you all to see, of my nearing completion Theoden Helm. I've painted this one up, I'm working on the cheek pieces and crests, hoping to have them done within a month! I created a stand which is in keeping with the UC stands too, I couldn't have it on anything different now could I!

Be great to hear feedback/thoughts/suggestions from you all

Woow OMG what another great talent on board that looks awesome Jamie and the stand is also amazingly beautiful done.

Looks really good and I especially like the base of the stand you came up with. Not sure if it's the lighting, but you gold looks to be a bit antique in color, not quite aged brass. Can't to see it finished as I'm still a ways away from completing mine.

Also, I was never able to get anything from the "dirty downs" line as they seem to be UK only.

If you finish this Theoden helm what's next on your program Jamie another helm maybe ?

great helmets. i hope you will stay tuned in forum.

Thanks all! That's a shame N2darkness, I didn't realise they were only based here!

I think it was the electric light that made the colour look weird, I'll do some
Better pictures in natural light next time. Dark Shadow, I don't really know what my next project will be, I tend to focus on them one at a time and then once one is done, start looking around for other fun things! I'm tempted by either the standard Uruk hai helm, or the Galadhrim elven helm though. I've sculpted the basic shapes for the cheek plates for Theodens helm, hoping to get these detailed and moulded in the next week or 2!

Hello all,

Apologies for the delay in an update, life just likes to get in the way I guess!

I've given casting the helm in cold cast brass a go, and the results are fantastic, much closer to the original. I've also sculpted and moulded the cheek plates, which I hope to pull the first casts from tomorrow, so we're getting close!

I had a disaster with the helmet stands though, which is driving me mad. I took a cast from my high elven warrior helm base to use as a starting point for the theoden helm base. Due to a rookie mistake, I've damaged the base almost beyond repair :-/ a side note, if anyone has any of the wooden display bases that they don't want (unlikelyi know but as I've contacted UC and scoured various online trading places for weeks to no avail) I'd happily purchase it from you!

Hoping to post progress pictures shortly ....

I'm really looking forward to see pics of your progress Jamie.

Well, here's the first picture, I've cold-cast the cheek plates. I hope to refine these, and need to age and paint them. The helm is at home (I'm at my parents for Christmas) so I'll add photos of that at the weekend! Hoping to leather-line it over the coming week, and add the side pieces. Then I just need to sculpt the print/back medallions, and the semi circle pieces.

Thanks for keeping posted Jamie

So,

Apologies for the delay! I've recently started working on the remake of 'The Mummy' and this is naturally taking up most of my time! In what free time I do find, I have been busy working away on various personal projects. Forever guilty of beginning a new project before finishing the last one, the Theoden helm has been put on hold the past few weeks (though I'm hoping to start work real soon!)

To begin, whilst I was coming up with a base for my Theoden helm, I inadvertently caused damage to the stand for my High Elven War Helm I managed to cause some weird damage to the varnish, leaving it permanently sticky (Couldn't figure this out) - so I thought I'd try cleaning the varnish off with White Spirits and re-varnish. this worked, however it also removed the elven one ring text!
I ploughed ahead and re-varnished this, reassembled and put it back on display. A week later, I realised the new varnish was still tacky too, and I was unhappy with the lack of Elven text. As I took it apart, the upright pillar had become stuck to the veneer on the base and ripped it right off

At this point, I contacted UC to see if they had any spare old-style bases they might be able to sell me (I figured I could swap the medallion over) Unfortunately they hadn't. In the end I managed to find a fine gold paint pen, which i carefully traced the elvish writing back on with. I then painted the missing veneer area black (luckily it only came off directly below the pillar, so once assembled it is not visible) and revarnished the whole thing. Phew, saved (just)!

I Then decided the Gondorian shield I picked up off Ebay needed some seeing to. It came without certificate, box, flag, hanging hooks or handle. I set about making a handle from metal, wood and leather, then I decided to paint the stars gold, to match the film/the resin re-issue. I realised the metal banding top and bottom had a thick layer of resin-like paint over it, which I thought looked awful.
After several hours, a few choice swear words and a very sore shoulder, I managed to strip it down to the bare steel. I aged this with chemicals and then used wire wool to clean it up in places. I think it looks much better!
I then procrastinated more and avoided Theodens helm by making something I've always wanted ......

An uUruk Shield! This was made to accompany my UC Uruk Scimitar, commander helm and Rohan shield display. I thought about casting it in fibreglass, but took a chance on making it from Steel sheet (Never worked metal before) and it paid off!

Hope this has been an interesting read, I'd love to hear feedback and I'll hopefully progress on the Theoden helm soon!

Happy collecting!

Some really amazing work done here Jamie!. Your Theoden helm is coming along nicely and your work on the Uruk-hai shield is great. I'm really curious about the Rohan shield, did you make that one totally from scratch as well as I have not seen it before?

Also I'm not sure if you have said or not, but what effects company do you work for? And what movies have you done work on?

Great work. Those shields look fantastic

N2darkness wrote:Some really amazing work done here Jamie!. Your Theoden helm is coming along nicely and your work on the Uruk-hai shield is great. I'm really curious about the Rohan shield, did you make that one totally from scratch as well as I have not seen it before?

Also I'm not sure if you have said or not, but what effects company do you work for? And what movies have you done work on?

Thanks N2, I appreciate it!

We all work freelance in the Film industry here, so I don't work for a particular company. It's more a case of moving from one film to another as they come and go. I'm a draughtsman for the art and props departments. I've done a few films, most of which are listed on here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5965494/

I did indeed make the Rohan shield from scratch, sculpted/moulded and cast the boss, the rest is timber/metal and leather.

Love both Shields Jamie.

Thanks!

I finally got round to mounting it yesterday, phew! Job done.

Now to work up the energy to carry on with the helm ...