Prince Maerendil on Findelhuv – Leaving the Beloved for Jousting

[Wardancer]

Prince Maerendil on Findelhuv – Leaving the Beloved for Jousting in a Foreign Kingdom

The forest flowers were in full bloom when Prince Maerendil had to leave. His beloved elven wife, the most precious flower of all, he had to leave under the arch where they first met. Elves – as even a child knows – do not usually partake in the jousting sport the humans invented for their leisure. But now, with the woods in the West shaking from the enemy's boots and the smoke pillars of war overshadowing the Elf Queens Kingdom, a messenger had to be sent – and this was him. Maybe winning the joust would enable him to speak to the human’s king, maybe to Bretonia’s ambassador, maybe even to the Grandmaster of Ordo Penguinius… Alliances, friendships had to be made and this – as even a child knows – can best be done in playful exhibition of a warrior’s strength and the merrymaking a joust always provides. So with a last look at his beloved and his trusted steed Findelhuv beneath him, he left home, when the forest flowers were in full bloom.

Vignette von MWardancer auf Flickr

Front von MWardancer

rechts von MWardancer

back von MWardancer

Horse and rider von MWardancer

Flickr Folder

These are the 5 pictures for the contest. More below.

Motivation:

I have been raising a custom elven army during the last months which I hope I can show soon after the contest. The fig started as a heavy cavallery and then became a prince on his way to the joust. At first I thought it would be great to make 4 more of these guys afterwards to have a regiment, but it was so much work that I won’t do another one for a while. As I hope you can see I strive to maintain a somewhat ‘purist’ Lego look, making things TLG would produce if they listened to me. So besides the Brickforge helmet and the paint and glue, 100% LEGO materials are used.

Customized Parts:

Brickforge Viking Helmet – Wings from Lego Dwarf Helmet cut off and glued on, painted

Dark Green Breastplate Armour – painted

Flags on Lance – carved to half size and shortened

Horse – 1x1 cheeseslope parts carved and painted, legstraps painted, 2 Elf Capes cut to fit as saddle blanket, Laces on head painted so they match the head armours colour

Horse Head Armour – Painted, tip of some lego pole cut off and painted instead of the unicorn-horn

Head – This is not the usual Elf head, as its eyes are too narrow for the helmet, hair painted on back.

Flower blossoms – painted to fit wife’s dress (that did not turn out perfectly, I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money for this)

Hunter’s Knife – shortened Katana

Costs:

around 11 Euro for the parts (expensive wife and base not included),

around 25 Euro for paint, brushes and a black fineline edding I used for the black lines on the breastplate, this is just so much because I had to try 4 shades of blue for the flowers.

It took quite a while to make him. Although I have a Warhammer past, I have no big experience in customizing Lego. Painting the horses’s legstraps and carving the cheeseslope pieces for the foot armor were the most difficult parts of the work. Every leg of the horse has a different angle, which made it difficult. All brown painted parts were additionally coated with clear paint. The second hardest part were the blue flowers. I wanted to match the wive's dress, but I couldn't.

One inspiration were these Warhammer riders:

Warhammer Wood Elf Riders

@Mods: If an Elf is not human enough, as the rules for the competition demand, let me know. Then I’ll give him a different background story. In my opinion, Elves are pretty humanoid. This one has a human grandmother, which makes him 1/8 human.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Wardancer

[Thrash]

This is a great entry so far! The thing that really catches my eye is the wings and painting on the helmet.

I'm excited to see the horse and vignette!

Edited October 28, 2011 by Thrash

[Wardancer]

Here are two more pictures I liked:

Filndehuv right von MWardancer

Findelhuv left von MWardancer auf Flickr

Edited November 10, 2011 by Wardancer

[Darkblane]

I really like the horse's helmet, especially the round part where the unicorn horn would normally be.

[Praiter Yed]

I really love this entry, the helmet is brilliant and the colour scheme is quite beautiful. I'm eagerly awaiting your story and vignette.

[LuxorV]

Rules check: Please reduce the pics to a maximum of 5 (1 for vignette, 3 for front, side and back of the minifig, and 1 extra) and add some indicative info on the cost of materials to qualify.

[Praiter Yed]

Nice vignette, very romantic.

[swils]

Wardancer, this is a beautiful custom. The lines are crisp, color scheme has a distinct forest/elven feel to it, and there's just enough model customization to make it unique without going overboard. And don't get me started on that vig. Love it!

[Wardancer]

Thank you for the positive feedback.

I am glad that you like the vignette. I have no experience in vignetting and it was difficult to come up with an idea for such a small space.