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.

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 Pallando/Rómestámo, the east-helper :

Recipe :
Base figure : 6" Gandalf, Hobbit/Bridge direct

I've tried a "face-swap" for the first time. Cut out a Gimli-; and a Gandalf-face, right underneath the nose. Switched both and sculpted around. (Dwarf with Gandalf's face is in progress)
Eyebrows are sculpted and the face is painted with a fleshtone and some "dirt".

Bow : sculpted from scratch and filed into shape
Scarf : fabric
Quiver/arrows : LOTR/ToyBiz
Staff : (found only two references on the web and I went with the snake-design)
The pole is made of wood; snake application is sculpted from scratch; the sphere is a gem of a ball-closure-piercing-ring.

The part I'm REALLY happy about is the cape, cause I knew, I had no blue fabric, plus... I really wanted one with a hood... seemed to be a massive problem... but I've found an old, but unworn pair of blue tights in the basement. The part where the feet are...perfect hood-shape, double layered, so I could sew the cord from the flipside.

I hope you like it !