Hello Realmers and all hail to my fellow Tolkienerds (you know who you are !) ;-)

Since J.R.R.T.'s books are so highly detailed, concerning the description of it's characters, their descent and their fate, I've always been kind of disappointed, 'bout the fact, that the fate of the two, blue Istari, who'd been sent to the east, hadn't been told at all. Their existence had been mentioned once in LOTR and the Hobbit, but their story...just a few vague words in a letter of Tolkien. ..."failed their mission", "perhaps started magical cults".
Not a plausible, or satisfying explanation, in my opinion, since both were Maiar !?! I mean Maiar !?! Such mighty entities surely played a more remarkable role, in the fortune of middle earth.
In one of the last writings of Tolkien, it's said, that both were far from failing, rather they had a pivotal role of the victory of the west. That's more plausible, but still an untold story, unfortunately !

Had to think about that topic, recently and had the insight, that Alatar and Pallando definitely deserve a tribute and have to be in my LOTR-collection.

It was the most spontaneous project and the only challenge was self-imposed : not buying anything for / using spare-parts and -figures, only.

My goal was to give both figures a varying look, even though both are blue. I used five different blue-tones and tried to keep the colors muted and a bit worn of looking (dirty shoes; dirt on the tuck of the cape and the clothes...)
Wanted to add some extra texture by using fabric, that's why I removed the original plastic scarf. Wanted to avoid a flashy all-over blue-look.

Here's my interpretation of Alatar / Morinethar, the darkness slayer

Recipe :

Basefigur : Gandalf, LOTR/ToyBiz. Cut of its left hand, drilled into the forearm and attached a Legolas hand.
Sculpted over the batterie-slot on the left sleeve.
Head : Rory McAllister WWE-Jakks pazific
scarf : fabric
Coat : Coronation Aragorn. Wanted to use one from Boromir first, because of the hood, but it was a little too short and the Aragorn one fits perfectly around the shoulders.

The straw-hat is made of a piece of fabric. Since I wanted the staff to be the only weapon Alatar is carrying (bored of way too many swords in my diorama...) I found the idea of an asian-wandering-kung-fu-stick-fighting-wizzard style quite cool...

Staff : Cut of those spindle-shaped trimmings from a Gandalf the white-staff... carved the the remaining three prongs and added those branches, which I carved from polypropylene and carved a spiral-shape into the pole.

I hope you guys like it !

CHEERS !