Hey, guys !

The orc offensive has only just begun...

I've recently extended the area, of my middle-earth-diorama, to get more space for further figures. So now I also follow the path of army-building by just (less, or more) altering Lord of the rings -figures, besides creating elaborated ones of Tolkien's characters, which ToyBiz, or Bridge direct didn't made figures of.

So I'd label this one a "mild" custom, since it wasn't that costly in terms of labor, like the few I did yet, or the ones I'm currently working on (BOTFA-orcs, battle-/catapult-trolls).

I stripped an "Grishnak"-figure and removed it's head. This was my very first try in head-sculpting from scratch, by the way. It can only get better. ;-)

If I had to give this evil fellow with the cleaved corner of the mouth a background story... Yizruk lived underground, in the darkness of Moria (that's why his eyes are that big), till the call to war against mankind brought him onto the face of middle earth, where he commands attacks by pitch black nights since then.

The "tunic" is made of reptil-structure-fake-leather. There's no paint on it. Some fake fur and -leather on the back, a part of a battle troll-forearm-armor on top of it. The silver spike halfmoon around the collar is made from a shoulder-armor of Sauron. The belt is from an Uruk Hai.

The shin armor "happened" by accident. I've had mixed too much sculpy for the head and it was already to hard to use. I didn't want to throw it away, so I flattened and bent it a bit, but it already broke and cracked. The unexpected result was better, than my original design-idea. I totally like the look of coarse, barely worked metal-sheets with extremely jagged edges. I "repaired" one crack in orcish "use over design"-style.

The handles of the mace and halberd-axe are both real twigs, the blades made of polypropylene.

That's all !

I hope you like this quick, "in between- custom figure".?

All the best !

Staley