Book II Chapter III: Dwarven Statues

[MiloNelsiano]

Before Dwarves go to battle, they will typically visit ancient Dwarven statues, to pay tribute to their ancestors. One place many Dwarves visit before a march is the Hand of Aargoth. It was once an enormous statue standing guard over the Avalonian border, standing over the site where an Elvish tribe had once lived, before the Dwarves removed them from the disputed land. The statue was built as a warning to the elves to stay farther south. However, the sole surviving member of the tribe waited until the statue was finished before using his remaining energy to curse the land where the statue stood, causing the entire statue to sink into the ground, leaving only only hand above ground, as it is seen today. It now serves as a reminder to both Dwarves and Elves of their hatred and mistrust of each other.

Of course, it is very common knowledge that Dwarves visit statues vefore marching to battle. When rumors that Dwarves planned to march to war had reached Lord Orys and his son Osric of Oros, they began dispatching their best rangers to all the known Dwarven statues to see if the rumors were true. Here we see one such ranger listening in on a pair of Dwarves talking to their ancestors, praying for strength against Drow and Elf alike. No doubt the other rangers visiting other statues will report similar findings. It seems that the rumors were true, and Dwarves praying for strength to fight against Elves could only mean war--unless, Men are able to intervene and mediate whatever started the trouble between Dwarves and Elves this time.

I had been working on this "Hand Statue" for a while before this challenge was announced. I had originally designed it to be the top of a broken tower, but could not get it to look right. I thought it looked better as a ruined statue, but feel like I may have lost some of the shape in the building and rebuilding. Anyway, when this challenged was finally announced, I decided I had to fight for the side of men, as that's more the path my character would take, but the ruin seemed to be pretty good for the other side of the challenge. Eventually I came up with this idea, and went with it. This was the first time I've ever attempted to build snow, and can see I definitely need some practice (and more white pieces). It was also meant to look like the snow had blown into a pile at the base of the hand (in case anyone is wondering why there's no snow further away from the statue). Anyway, it's probably not the best build, but I enjoyed building it anyway. Thanks for looking, and comments and criticism is very welcome!

[Jakorin Swiftsword]

Great work on that statue!

[Alfadas]

Looks nice! Excellent work!

[Slegengr]

Nice work on the hand, Milo!

I like how you essentially combined both the dwarven side and the side of men in this build by building a statue for the dwarves, then having your ranger spying on them to listen in on their intents.

The hand looks nice, but I would like to see a little bit more greebling inside the hand and around it.

Keep up the good work, Milo!

[IenjoyLego89]

I like the hand, I agree with Slegengr that a bit more detail in the hand would bring it much further. But I like your take on the category :)

[Lord Vladivus]

Cool take on the category! Nice posing too!

[mrcp6d]

Nice way to combine the categories, I'm planning on doing the same thing for my "Men" entry. Great minds right?

I think a bit more detail/sloping inside the hand would help out a bit. The transition is kind of rough for a ruin.

[Gideon]

It's not clear which side benefits from this build Well done!

Some feedback is that I think the inside of the hand is a bit plain, some more detailing would improve that (not necessarily white plates/tiles). I would also recommend you to use a more uniform background, or edit out the one you had now.

[mccoyed]

I have to agree that this is a nice execution of the concept. There's one thing that holds the build back a bit, I think. mrcp6d mentioned that the backside of the hand, where the spy is, has a lack of detail. This is true. Without any landscaping of any kind, it looks like an "unfinished" area or that it wasn't meant to be shown/photographed (like in a facade style build).

[MiloNelsiano]

Thanks to all for the feedback. I didn't really intend to take pictures of the inside of the hand, but only did at the last second to show more detailing of the fingers (it seemed difficult to see their shape from the outside alone). I meant to mention this in the original post but clearly forgot. I also considered taking apart a different build so I'd have enough pieces to detail the inside as well, but just wasn't quite ready to take apart that build yet. I was satisfied with it as I wasn't planning on showing the inside at all.

And as far as my background goes...I would love to have a better setup or even some decent photo editing software to make my photos look better, but I just don't currently. As I've mentioned in a previous post, building with Legos is my hobby, not taking pictures!

Edited October 29, 2014 by MiloNelsiano

[Gideon]

And as far as my background goes...I would love to have a better setup or even some decent photo editing software to make my photos look better, but I just don't currently. As I've mentioned in a previous post, building with Legos is my hobby, not taking pictures!

Taking pictures is not my hobby either, just a necessary thing to do to be able to show my builds to other people since I at most participate in one or two exhibitions a year

You don't need to work with fancy lighting setups, extensive post processing or anything of the kind...but there are some factors which are good to keep in mind for the photography/presentation to not detract from the build.

I would say that these are:

• Background: minimum a solid color without too noticeable angles/wrincles
  
• Lighting: sufficient lighting is usually achieved outdoors without direct sunligt = in the shade or on a cloudy day
  
• Sharpness: have the right parts of the build in focus. (overview shots = the whole build, detail shots = at least the part you want to emphasize)
  

You seem to have nailed the second and third items on my list already

[MiloNelsiano]

Taking pictures is not my hobby either, just a necessary thing to do to be able to show my builds to other people since I at most participate in one or two exhibitions a year

You don't need to work with fancy lighting setups, extensive post processing or anything of the kind...but there are some factors which are good to keep in mind for the photography/presentation to not detract from the build.

I would say that these are:

• Background: minimum a solid color without too noticeable angles/wrincles
  
• Lighting: sufficient lighting is usually achieved outdoors without direct sunligt = in the shade or on a cloudy day
  
• Sharpness: have the right parts of the build in focus. (overview shots = the whole build, detail shots = at least the part you want to emphasize)
  

You seem to have nailed the second and third items on my list already

Thanks! The second and third parts I've determined pretty easy to do. I don't think photo editing is an option for me, but I've been trying to figure out something that works well as a backdrop. Your ikea blind (if I remember correctly) looked like a good idea. I just haven't found anything real suitable in my possession that I can set up easily on our balcony where I typically take pictures.

[Jorrith]

This is a nice entry! Because it looks like a dwarf side entry, but it's not! Very cool.

[Hammerhand]

Nice idea with the sunken hand, it shows that the original statue must have been quite large! I agree with the others that some more landscaping inside the hand would be nice, just so it flow a bit better, and not be so bare.

[soccerkid6]

Cool 'hand' statue The figs are very good, I like the mace design.

The spy is well hidden too

[de Gothia]

Great idea with the hand thing, it really stands out! The inside of the hand is a little bare though!

I agree with Gideon about the photos. GIMP is free and really easy to use. Tuturials on youtube as well. I understand that building is more fun than taking photos but when you have worked hard with your mocs I think that you should give them one last push in the right direction with some great photos as well. Right now all I see is the lack of the background which is sad cause you have built a great moc!...=(

[SarahJoy]

This is a really unique approach to the challenge! I like it!