Merry & Pippin Commission...

[dwing]

Add DWING to the mix. If we can get the clothes made also would be cool. I will be willing to use the SS hobbits as stand ins for now but with a little custom work i.e. getting a yellow vest made would help much.

 

[Entropy]

Are you in EC?

Since I'm going to be tackling these no matter what, I'm not going to sign up.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to cast mine in a similar translucent resin as Sam & Frodo. The neck will have the same ball adapter as Sam & Frodo so they will just pop onto the regular SS Hobbit necks.

As I said in the Gimli thread, while they are the focal point, the headsculpts will be the easy and quick part of this custom. The clothes are going to be the real challenge.

And since you guys have ants in your pants, I'll start roughing the first one out in the next day or so.

 

[thenammagazine]

Ah... so its gonna be $15 a head if you get 20 people. OK, I see. Casting is separate. Thenam needs to add that to the proposal. Buyers need to consider shipping too.

So are you approaching Howes? Maybe you should wait for EC to finish his sculpts first.

Hey bud, sorry about the confusion. Added this to the first post:

I need to clear up a bit of confusion for some people.... Please keep in mind, the initial price is just to have a hard sculpt of the Hobbits made. Once done, that sculpt will be sent to someone else to make PVC recasts. the PVC recasts should be no more than $5-$10 and will be ordered straight from the freak doing the recast.

 

[pixletwin]

Well I am anxious to see what you do EC because if its as awesome as your One Ring I know we will be knocking on your door.

 

[icruise]

Well, I'm certainly down for them in some form. I'd be interested to see what Entropy Chicken comes up with too.

As for the clothing, I wonder if the woman from A.J. Clothiers can do something for us. We don't necessarily have to have entire outfits made -- maybe just the parts that would be too difficult to scrounge or alter from the exiting hobbit outfits. I personally I'm not such a stickler for accuracy as long as things look reasonably authentic.

 

[FlyAndFight]

Count me in as long as we get a proven sculptor. I really wouldn't want a "facsimile" of the hobbits. Pip and Merry are too important. My wish would be that we could get Trevor or Andy involved.

I'm not knocking anyone, by the way. It's just that to me, the sculpts are THE most important aspect to a custom figure. The clothing doesn't have to be dead accurate when the sculpts "are". It's the sculpt that is the first place looked to after taking the full figure in. It's what all eyes are drawn to.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Frankly headsculpt commissions are a dime a dozen on the Freaks Board and there are several qualified people that do them.

If someone has the skill to do quality clothing, I'd prefer them not to spend their time on headsculpts.

I'm just one person, but this is my plee:

I'm more willing to spend money up front on clothing because I know that there is almost always a way to get the head sculpt down the road. I'm less willing to pay now for a head sculpt with uncertainty about clothing. Please make the clothing first, or defer the headscullpt to someone else while you focus on the clothing.

Ideally, I'd like to see someone with fabric skills privately work with a sculptor and offer a jointly completed project at a flat rate.

PS. I'd really like to know where people get the clothing for customs because on this board headsculpts and headpaint commissions outnumber clothing commissions like 1000 to 1.

 

[thenammagazine]

As I already stated in the Gilmi thread, and this is just my opinion, while both aspects are great, to date, I've never seen a great sculpt completely ruined by a costume, but quite the contrary. With what's already available, the two Hobbits could be bashed together with minor custom clothes needed.

 

[pixletwin]

Vikkitx is a great one for clothes. There are 3 or 4 others who do a really nice job here (whose names escape me at the moment)

 

[ProgMatinee]

As I already stated in the Gilmi thread, and this is just my opinion, while both aspects are great, to date, I've never seen a great sculpt completely ruined by a costume, but quite the contrary. With what's already available, the two Hobbits could be bashed together with minor custom clothes needed.

Dif'rent strokes for different folks. I really value clothing authenticity. I wouldn't dare try to pass a Pippen head on Sam's outfit as a Pippen. And as I said, I can hire a number of people to produce a headsculpt any day of the week around here, not so much with clothing.

I'm willing to bet several of you have customs heads lying around waiting for outfits or have commissions in the works. Why add two more? It sure be nice to start or concurrently go for the outfits.

But as I said, I think I'm different than most. I can easily live with most Ada Chan quality headsculpts.

 

[pixletwin]

Why not get the "easy" part out of the way first Prog?

 

[ProgMatinee]

Why not get the "easy" part out of the way first Prog?

While I normally believe in "Johnson's Rule"
I don't want to prepay for disembodied heads if there is uncertainty about the rest.

But I'm not ruling out my participation by any means, just making a case for my preference.

Edit: All that said, the wait times, as I'm finding out, to have certain painters complete a repaint, is ridiculously long. Perhaps getting the sculpt done is preferable.

But I'd still really like to see a person be commissioned to do the clothing work for the group rather than put every one in a free for all. I'm not in the loop enough to round up the gear from different places.

 

[icruise]

I think the problem is that most people aren't going to get excited about making a custom Merry or Pippin without a sculpt to focus on, and we don't want to spent a lot of time and money on clothing without knowing if the sculpts are going to turn out in the way we like. I suppose it's true that it's easier to commission a sculpt than to get an outfit made (although I think the A.J. Clothiers thing is a possibility), but the sculpts generally serve as the focal point for a project, so it's hard to put them off until the end.

 

[ProgMatinee]

I understand, but don't you traditionally have to pay the $200 upfront to get the sculptor moving? So really, the people kickstarting the project are ultimately taken that leap of faith regardless.

 

[pixletwin]

Well we'll see.

 

[Wor-Gar]

But I'd still really like to see a person be commissioned to do the clothing work for the group rather than put every one in a free for all. I'm not in the loop enough to round up the gear from different places.

I would love to see a custom clothier here on the boards. We have none, and we desperately need one. I had hoped Billy B was going to fill that need, but alas...

That said, with the exception of very basic items like shirts and suits, I have never seen great unique clothing items produced for mass sale by anyone. There were a few people at one time that made some nice stuff but they are long gone and the 1/6th world has gone leaps and bounds in terms of what we all expect now for accuracy.

You have to make due with what you can source yourself -- you got to break the outfits down and start looking for pieces that will work. For me, since I don't paint or sculpt, it is the fun part for me when I customize... finding that perfect piece to work, whether through a bit of dying, sewing, whatever.

It would be convenient to have a custom clothing-maker here, but I don't see that happening unless you want to pay...and it would be expensive if its done right.

Then again...it's not customizing if every part is provided for you.

 

[pixletwin]

I was just parusing CHowe's site and I am greatly impressed with his sculpts.

 

[lerath666]

Hey EC, would you be willing to do the recasting at the very least, even if you don't do the sculpts? I'm realy eager to see your gimli heads BTW. ESPECIALY if you cast them in a simular resin to sam and frodo. the toybiz sculpt is nice, but it's far from perfect.

 

[pixletwin]

I definitely am anxious to see the Gimli too.

 

[Entropy]

Hey EC, would you be willing to do the recasting at the very least, even if you don't do the sculpts? I'm realy eager to see your gimli heads BTW. ESPECIALY if you cast them in a simular resin to sam and frodo. the toybiz sculpt is nice, but it's far from perfect.

I might be up for that. Churning out these sculpts is my first priority, though.

You think the translucent tinted resin is necessary for Gimli? So little skin is actually seen - he's like two-thirds hair.

I've been extending his beard and adding more detail to it lately, not altering the face at all. But I must admit Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead have been soaking up most of my free time.

Here's what I'm thinking on Merry and Pippin. Basically neutral sculpts but with a slight smile and hint of mischief with Pippin looking a tad 'goofier' than Merry.