Maori Warrior from New Zealand

Tomcat RIO · October 25, 2011

Well that ought to scare yer off the chair abit.

Intro

Introducing my entry for MCW contest category 1 Globetrotters. This figure is based on the Maori tribes, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand. They are a warlike people and best known for their elaborate face and body tattoos and war paints, as well as their songs and war dance called the "Haka".

Inspired by a travel brochure "Visit New Zealand!" Well the front of it was a Maori tribe, kiwi birds, river rafting and bungee jumpers, and the back of the brochure was epic landscape scenes from Lord of the Rings. Lol!

Cost

Cost of making this figure was about $7, the Dastan minifig head and muscular chest from BL cost $2. A set of flesh legs and cheeseslopes from the spares box. Sculpey was from my knight project so it isnt counted. Lastly $1 for a wide brush, which I used to cut off the bristles for the skirting, and $4 for greenish black and flesh colour paint.

The most difficult aspect of this project was painting the tattoos. I do not know how to operate the decal printer program and I'm bad with drawing with a mouse, so I went the old school brush and paint. This one was much more difficult and thinner than my knight's. A unique aspect of the project was using brush bristles for the grass skirt. I glued the hairs together, then taped over it to create a sash. The hair braid was sculpted with epoxy putty, taking note of the rather curled and dense hair locks. Thus it is distinctly different from the ones provided by Lego Islanders.

The external link to more pictures can be found on my flickr

Flickr account link

On to the pictures, well since the front picture is already on top, I move to the sides.

note the motifs on the arms, thighs and the Taihaha - the Maori double edged spear.

Back

Lastly the vignette, this one is for another of New Zealand's most representative figures, their All Blacks Rugby team, which just won the world cup by the way :) The All Blacks also had their legs slightly modified. They are shown doing a 'Haka' War Dance, which is a Maori custom before going to war. You can easily youtube it for clips. The Maori sometimes make appearances in traditional garb on the pitch, a good number of New Zealand's rugby players are also descended from Maori.

Thanks for looking, hope you all will enjoy this entry! Comments and critiscm welcome!

Edited November 15, 2011 by Tomcat RIO

Darth Yogi · October 25, 2011

This looks really great. I really like the tattoos. I'm actually doing an aborigine, so along the same line but a different place. The details are very nice.

Great job :thumbup: and good luck.