Rohan Project Part 1

I had an idea awhile ago.... partly because of that photo of all the SSW LOTR shields that were displayed, but never produced. I had always wanted to display shields separately with my collection, similar to the helms. Unfortunately, the only example of a shield was the Rohan one, the one on the Rohirrim Bust was exactly the thing I had in mind.

It was getting to a stage where I was seriously contemplating buying an extra and hacking it off
What I eventually wanted to do was display the shield and the RRG Helm in a box frame, maybe with the Rohan flag in the background.

Anyway, I wasn't keen on destroying a collectible just for my benefit... that's when I remembered my tin of latex.....

So by carefully painted on thin layers of latex, letting them dry between each and progressively getting thicker with each layer, I ended up with molds of the shield and the helm.

This is the amount of detail I managed to capture with the latex... and it didn't damage the paint of either.... I must point out at this stage I had never done this before and was just going on instinct. If I was doing it again, I'd use a water-based lubricant/release agent to ensure an easier release from the object being cast.... I did find that the deepest detail did stick a little. I wasn't after a perfect cast anyway, so I didn't care that much really

Because latex is flexible, I needed something to keep the latex in the right shape... especially the helm, otherwise it would flatten and let the plaster run out when I poured the mould.... the cheapest and easiest thing I could find was Playdoh .... and yes, it just happened to be fluro red
Anyway, I went ahead and poured them with plaster... and if I did it again, I would've spent more time with the edges of the mold and made them nice and neat, 'cause it took me ages to file back the excess plaster.

After filing them back (even I was quite suprised at the amount of detail I got), they were ready for an undercoat.

I was a bit scared of painting.... but after studying the originals... and especially the helm, they have deceptively simple paintjobs. The helm really consists of two different colours for each metallic area and then a subtle highlight on the horse hair.

So heres the finished pics....





To Be Continued...........