1/3000 Scale Isengard Diorama

The tower of Orthanc at 1/3000 scale is pretty small, just a bit over two inches. So I decided to build the entire Isengard compound, with flaming pits, timber towers and cranes of the uruk-hai.

The tiny tower of Orthanc on my template

The basic foam shape

The cavern cutouts

Vinyl plaster covering

Starting the enclosure. Wall sections are foam and bastions are fired cosclay

Making the bastions

Firing the bastions in my heat gun powered makeshift tea tin oven 

Making the wooden towers

Adding an uprooted tree

The cranes are in place and the tree root craters are done

The foliage is complete

Finished shot with the wooden base

This was a fun build

3D Minas Tirith in 1/3000 Scale

While I had the printer up and running, after printing all of the 1/2400 WWII ships I needed, I printed three LOTR iconic locations: Minas Tirith, Barad-Dur, and Orthanc in 1/3000 scale. Actually Barad-Dur is a much smaller scale, but is about the same size as the Minas Tirith model so they can sit on a shelf together. I was surprised at how large Barad-Dur was and how small Orthanc was compared to Minas Tirith. In the books Orthanc is 500 feet tall. Minas Tirith is 1,663 feet tall, and Barad-Dur is a monstrous 4,482 feet! At 1/3000 scale that would make it 18 inches tall. Who has that kind of shelf space?

Here is Minas Tirith

The book describes the first wall as black, made from the same stone as Orthanc.
The movie ignored this.

Second Sauron Book Nook

Another daughter birthday, another Sauron booknook! My youngest girl was so envious of her older sister's Christmas present, so I made her another one, this time in black leather. After having made the first one, this one went much faster. It was completed in just a couple of days, as opposed to a couple of weeks for the first one. 

15MM WWII Vehicles

Ok, I admit it! Jonathan Freitag asked me to print him a few trucks and I went a tad overboard. But that's just me. The last time I did this it was ACW ironclads for my buddy Pete in Bournemouth.

Left row German: Opel Blitz, 5 Steyr 580 trucks, Raupenschlepper Ost track, 2 Sd.Kfz. 221 armored cars.

Next row Italian: 4 SPA Dovunque 35 trucks, 1 Dovunque Protetto

3rd row Italian: 3 Lancia 3RO trucks, 1 Lancia 3RO 100-17

4th row Italian: 3 Fiat 626 trucks with 1 water/fuel trailer

5th row French: Matford F927, Renault AGR, 3 Citroën C4P17 tracked, Citroën Traction Avant command car

Last row Japanese: 3 Isuzu 97 trucks, 2 IJA Type 94 trucks

First row US & Canada: 2 Mack 7.5 ton trucks, water/fuel trailer, 2 GMC deuce and a half trucks, M3 scout car, Ford F15 CMP, Otter light recon car

Next Row UK: Bedford Lorry, 30 CWT cargo truck, Chevy 30 CWT LRDG (Long Range Desert Group), 2 Marmon-Herrington armored cars, Morris CS8

Last row Poland: 5 Polski Fiat 621 trucks (Germany used these after the occupation of Poland)

I am going to include one unbuilt "kit" of another US M3 scout car with the delivery. 

I will be taking them over to Jonathan the next time we play a Face to Face.

Now, back to the Japanese fleet!

New Toys

 These WWII Trucks are starting to get kind of fun. I may try some tanks in a bit!