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OoTS Miniature Worklog
UPDATE: Durkon Thundershield has been added to the worklog: 12-20-08
Belkar Bitterleaf has been added to the worklog: 1-17-09
Haley Starshine has been added to the worklog: 2-4-09
Elan the Bard has been added to the worklog: 2-21-09
Vaarsuvius has been added to the worklog: 5-12-09
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This is my first post here- I've been a lurker for a few weeks, and I am very happy that this worklog is my entrance to this fine community.
I love to paint miniatures- I've been doing it for a few years- and I've just recently started doing conversions and customization on miniatures. I've been a big fan of oots for a while, and I decided that one of the cast members would make a perfect project for my first custom made miniature. I chose Roy Greenhilt. He was simpler than the other characters, but also provided plenty of artistic challenges, so he was a great choice for my first miniature attempt. Enough with the lead-up: onto the pics!
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The core of Roy's design is his torso. From a lot of research I discovered that his torso is always shown as a square. I resized a picture I took via One-Note so that Roy was 1 1/8" tall- this is how large the final miniature is. At this scale his torso is a 1/4" cube. I started out by cutting all of the pieces out of 0.5 mil sheet styrene:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy1.jpg
The pieces were so small that getting them all glued together (using plastic cement- the best thing for sheet styrene) and squared was a challenge:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy2.jpg
Once the torso was completely dried I needed to give it a bottom, which will serve as an anchor for the legs- a later step. Trying to get another piece of styrene to fit inside the cube would be difficult, so instead I went with Green Stuff! This epoxy putty compound is very fexible, so I was able to roll it out flat, and then I pressed the cube into it, like a cookie cutter:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy3.jpg
While the torso dried I started work on the boots. Now, I'm no sculptor so this was a real challenge! After many tries I finally came up with a solution that worked. I first created some cylinders out of green stuff that are the same width and height of Roy's boots. Once they were dried I used smaller bits of green stuff to create the toe portions or the boots. It took some time, but eventually I got a good looking pair of boots:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy4.jpg
I spent some time looking for the best material to create the legs and arms for Roy. I needed something that would be straight and able to hold some weight. I discovered that 1-1/4" paperclips were perfect, so I cut them to create the arms and legs. The green stuff bottom of the torso section was completely dried when I came back to it, so there was no way to put the leg pieces through without ruining everything, so I used my hand drill and a #60 hobby drill bit:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy5.jpg
I made certain to angle the holes I drilled so that the legs would look exactly like I wanted them too when I put them in. I used super glue to hold everything in place:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy6.jpg
While the superglue and the boots were drying I got started on Roy's famous sword! Sheet styrene was the perfect thickness and had the perfect strength to be the blade. I designed it so that I would cut out the blade and the tang (the metal part that the handle fits over) were all part of the same piece:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy7.jpg
Once the blade and tang had been forged I used green stuff, the old reliable :smallwink: to create the handle and hand guard for the sword. Now, I know that the hilt is green, but it's not the right green. Painting comes after assembly:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy8.jpg
I had a problem creating the fingers for Roy's hands. The center finger was easy- I used the paperclip, but the other two were a real challenge. After a lot of trial and error I settled on green stuff again. It didn't look as good as I wanted it to, but it was the best I could get. Now, I did do some more shaping after it dried that this picture doesn't show:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/.../oots/roy9.jpg
I created Roy's pauldrons (pieces of armor that cover the shoulders) using green stuff. Once it dried I used the hand drill again to make holes for the arms and assembled everything:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/...oots/roy10.jpg
The head was another really big challenge. After a lot of bad Ideas I ended up using Epoxy Sculpt, a special compound, to create the head. It didn't turn out perfect, but it is pretty good:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/...oots/roy11.jpg
Now it's painting time! The first step is priming the miniature:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/...oots/roy12.jpg
I was lucky to discover that Roy's paint scheme perfectly matches some of my Citadel paints! Here's a pic of the miniature at the halfway stage:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/...oots/roy13.jpg
I free-handed Roy's mouth and eyes, and completed the painting, waited for everything to dry, and then mounted him to a base I painted. The letters on the base say "Roy Greenhilt" and on the back my signature: "R. Shea 12/08" :
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/...oots/roy14.jpg
Here's a comparison pic, showing Roy from the comic and my finished miniature:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/...oots/roy15.jpg
This was a great experience and I learned a lot! I am currently planning on creating miniatures of the entire oots main cast, for my own personal enjoyment:smallbiggrin:. I'm researching new ways to create the fingers, and also looking at some other ways to create the heads. I can't wait to post my next worklog- currently I'm thinking that Durkon might make it to 3D next!
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
I think Roy was definitely the best choice for a first attempt, and he looks pretty good. The only criticisms I could mention were the ones that you mentioned yourself. Although, I do think that his joyous expression doesn't quite match the Roy frown that we're all so used to seeing. :smallbiggrin:
Durkon's beard may be a bit tricky, but I wish you the best of luck! I'd love to see more.
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
*clapping* excellent work. I never could get the hang of sculpting myself, but you sir have done a most admirable job - I look forward to seeing the whole collection! :smallbiggrin:
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
Excelent, great, looking forward to seeing more of it!
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
Awesome!
I would just change the mouth too a front view instead of a side view, but appart from that it's pretty damn awesome. :smallbiggrin:
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
Awesome incarnate. Can't wait for more.
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
Holy crap, that miniature is awesome!
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
Thanks for the comments guys :smallbiggrin:
I fixed some broken image links in the first post, so now you can see everything.
I've definately decided that Durkon will be the next miniature in this series. I'm going to my local Michael's today to see if I can find anything I can use as a base for the heads- a sphere I can just mold some Epoxy Sculpt or Green Stuff onto.
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Durkon's beard may be a bit tricky, but I wish you the best of luck! I'd love to see more.
I think I've got his beard figured out- a small, flat sheet of Green Stuff, but we'll see if that idea works out:smallwink:. And I will be posting another worklog as soon as Durkon's done.
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
I wish you much luck with these, good sir.
Actually, i tried sculpting some of the cast of oots in a more realistic style a year or so back. I can say it didnt go well, and therefore never made its way to these fine boards. I hope you do better.
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
i have but one criticism...
the hand holding the sword....
to me it just looks wrong.
But apart from that keep up the good work
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
This could be a new line of products for the Giant! OotS minis for your game!
I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the team, and hope that you both make them, and post them here in this thread.
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Re: oots Miniature Worklog: Roy Greenhilt
Durkon will be done soon... probably by the end of this weekend.
Would be sooner but my wife and I had a gas leak scare last night- an odor that smelled exactly like natural gas was leaking out of our furnace closet, so we vacated the house and called the gas company. When they finally got there to check things out the guy immediately asked me if we had put out any rodent poison bait, which we had. What we were smelling was a mouse in decomp:smalleek:
Oh well, better to err on the side of caution that to be blown up:smallbiggrin:
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
It's now time for Durkon Thundershield to make his transition from 2D to the wonderful world of 3D.
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I used the same scale to create this miniature as I did Roy. This means that Durkon's front dimension is 3/16" wide X 1/4" tall. I used sheet styrene and glued it to create the cube that is his torso:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d1.jpg
While the glue was drying I moved onto Durkon's signature weapon: his hammer. I used Epoxy Sculpt to create a very rough shape that was slighly larger than necessary. It turned out looking kind of like a cylinder. I also cut the haft from a paperclip and filed down the rough edges:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d2.jpg
I used hobby files and 220 grit sandpaper to shape the blob of epoxy sculpt into the hammer. One I was happy with the shape I used a #60 drill bit to drill the hole for the haft:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d3.jpg
And then, with the magic of super glue, the hammer is created:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d4.jpg
Once the torso was dry and the hammer finished, I sculpted some green stuff along the sides of the torse to smooth out everything and make it square:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d5.jpg
My wife helped me find some beads at out local Michael's that turned out to be the perfect size for his head. I had to use some green stuff to fill the hole in the bead and bland it into the shape of the bead. Then I rolled out a thin sheet of green stuff and cut out D's beard. Since Green Stuff is an adhesive epoxy compound, no glue was needed to attach the beard to the face:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d6.jpg
Adding the pauldrons to the torso:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d7.jpg
The hands were a big challenge last time. This time I decided to try and make them completely out of paperclips. I cut the natural bend of the paperclip in half and used a file to get rid of rough edges and to angle them. The superglue I used didn't bond well with the metal, so I had to develop a way to hold everything in place. I ended up using a surgical clamp (I love that tool!) and some tweezers to hold everything in place while the glue dried:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d8.jpg
I decided that I wanted Durkon to hold his amulet aloft, so I had to create it. I used 28 gague steel wire, which I carefully bent, to create the loop. The pendant is created out of green stuff. I hung it like this to dry:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d9.jpg
Partial assembly:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d10.jpg
Here he is halfway through painting:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d11.jpg
Here's the finished version of Durkon, with a comparison shot:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d12.jpg
I think he turned out really well! I painted the amulet with a white center, because it always turns white whenever D's casting a spell. I also gave him friendly eyes... I just thought they looked better for this mini. The base says Durkon Thundershield, my sig, and the date. Matching his skin tone was difficult- it took me two tries to get the mix right. I also had a lot of trouble with his beard color. I'm very happy with the overall appearance, and I learned a lot. I think the next mini will look even better!
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/d13.jpg
I do think that Durkon's right pauldron is a little too big, and the head/torso relationship isn't exactly perfect... but I'll get it right the next time:smallbiggrin:
Comments/criticisms appreciated!
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
I'm going to have to be terse, I'm afraid. Being a lowly pixie, I'm not really qualified to deal with levels of insane awesomeness this high.
Grats, CreganMan.
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
Consistently awesome, Cregan! Great work.
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
:smallannoyed: Hmmm.... The pauldron does seem odd and it puts the head off kilter. Also, the belt is a tad crooked and the beard could use more beardieness (sorry that last bit is so abstract
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
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Originally Posted by
drakeblood4
:smallannoyed: Hmmm.... The pauldron does seem odd and it puts the head off kilter. Also, the belt is a tad crooked and the beard could use more beardieness (sorry that last bit is so abstract
Yeah, the pauldron needs to be smaller- not come down onto the chest as much as it does. I think next time I'll add it after the head has been attached.
If you take a close look at D his belt is crooked- it's a very slight diagonal from high left to low right (as he appears on screen). I may have made the diagonal too sharp though. I free-handed it without measurement.
For the beard- do you mean that it should have more jagged edges?
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
I think the beard needs to be a bit larger, stick out a little more
Outside of that? Frickin' Awesome.
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
WOW! That looks great!
One question... Why the Holy Symbol and not the shield? It's minor, but I'm more used to seeing Durkon with a shield at the ready rather than his Holy Symbol. :smallconfused:
Seriously looking forward to the rest of these! Will you do Elan in his Bard Outfit(old), or his Locke Outfit(new)?
Are you planning on doing up Team Evil as well as the OotS? Or other "Major" characters?
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
Quote:
One question... Why the Holy Symbol and not the shield? It's minor, but I'm more used to seeing Durkon with a shield at the ready rather than his Holy Symbol.
Yeah, I thought about that, but I thought the Holy Symbol was a lot more interesting as a design choice.
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Will you do Elan in his Bard Outfit(old), or his Locke Outfit(new)?
In his old outfit- I'm doing the entire cast as they were before their first battle with Xykon.
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Are you planning on doing up Team Evil as well as the OotS? Or other "Major" characters?
Right now I'm just focusing on the main OoTS cast... but depending on how the rest of the cast goes I may continue to do others. I've already had a couple thoughts about Xykon and Redcloak... and even the monster in the shadows:smallwink:
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
UPDATE
The Sexy Shoeless God of War will be the next miniature I build... but it'll be a little while before I can make him. I ordered some supplies a day or two after christmas- mainly some more green stuff and some styrene square tube- which I will be using for the torso- it'll simplify the process. I won't have to make the torso from flat sheet styrene anymore, which will give me more time to work on everything else.
As soon as everything arrives, I'll get to work on Belkar. I just hope it gets here soon :smallfrown:
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
Bump, bump, bump, bump the epic thread.
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
Okay, Ladies and Gents, it's time for the next installment of the worklog; the Sexy, Shoeless God of War himself: Belkar!
This miniature took a little longer than expected due to the holidays, but also due to some problems of the miniature itself. I used paperclips for arms and legs again, but unfortunately, paperclips don't work well with superglue. This forced me to remake the hands a couple of times. The worst problem was that the legs kept breaking off of the feet. I think I superglued them back together about 5 times; the last couple of times were duing the painting process. I didn't redo the legs and feet because I was so close to finishing. He's only for display, so I'm not to worried about him being fragile.
For future minis, I am going to be using some styrene rods I bought today that are close to the same thickness as the paperclips, which means they will be the perfect size!
Enough blathering: on to the pics!
I used square tube styrene for the torso. My cut wasn't quite clean enough though, so I had to file it down some. I used the nifty hobby vise my wife got my for christmas to hold it in place while I worked:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/b1.jpg
As always, I used green stuff to fill in the bottom of the torso. The new green stuff I bought worked a lot better than the old stuff I had, which was nearing the end of its life:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/b2.jpg
I used the same size bead for the head that I used for Durkon, only this time instead of using green stuff to cap the holes, I covered the entire thing in a thin layer of epoxy sculpt. With a little work I as able to sooth it over evenly. After it dried, I got to work on Belkar's hair. Originally I tried to stick hobby grass into the expoy sculpt, which I would then cut to length after it bonded and dried. Unfortunately, that didn't work. So, I let everything dry and then drilled holes in the correct pattern (do you know how hard it is to find a picture of the back of Belkar's head!?). I placed pieces of 28 gague steel wire into the holes with a little superglue, and then cut them to length. It turned out very well:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/b3.jpg
Because of all of the construction problems I had, I couldn't use some of the pictures I took... I also forgot to take some:smalltongue: I'll do better next time.
Here you can see the final assembly before priming and painting. The feet are styrene that I cut to the right shape. I put a think skin of epoxy sculpt over the feet and used the hobby grass for his foot hair- it worked because the epoxy sculpt was thicker on the feet than the head. The dagger was cut from sheet styrene, and green stuff was used to make the handle. I also used green stuff to create Belkar's famous cape! The cape was a lot of fun to make, and I think it turned out great:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/b4.jpg
After I started painting, I realized that I wanted to do an angry Belkar, so I cut some styrene strips and glued them to hs head for his eyebrows. Here he is, all painted up and ready for action:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/b5.jpg
Here are some other views that show him off completely:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/b6.jpg
Hope you guys like him! Comments are accepted.
Haley is next on the list, and she is going to present some very interesting challenges. The main challenge is one of design: I can't decide if her torso is going to be square tubing like the men, or if OoTS women should use round tube. I'm leaning toward using the round tube for a number of reasons, but I still haven't made my final decision.
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
Great work, Sir:smallsmile:
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This is awesome, good sir.
On the topic of haley's body, id probably be tempted to sculpt a simple bent roll of greenstuff, being an arty type and all, to try and stick to the original material as much as possible. However, that would probably make it a bit hard to keep balanced though, so maybe its not the best idea.
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce Miss Haley Starshine!
Haley was a lot of fun to build, and a very big challenge because the female silhouette for OoTS characters is so different from the male silhouette. I decided to use round styrene tubing for Haley's torso. I sketched out the basic placement of important design points on the tube- the V line of her shirt, and the waistline- the thinest point of the torso:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h1.jpg
Next I used Green Stuff to sculpt haley's chest. This was a very tough process because I tried to get both breasts even. Once the chest section was dried, I used more Green Stuff to mold the bottom half of her torso- the increasing slope that moves from her waistline down to her hips. I didn't get the hips quite as wide as they need to be, but overall it looked good:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h2.jpg
I decided to use very thing styrene tube (0.03" to be exact) for the arms/hands and legs. THis was a GREAT choice because it is much easier to glue than the paperclip pieces were. Plastic cement causes them to bond really well. As you can see, I created the basic shape of the legs, and then sculpted the boots with Green Stuff:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h3.jpg
Here's a picture of Haley all put together. I used a fine point sharpie to draw out Haley's hairline on the bead/head so I could be sure to get the placement correct. I molded Green Stuff on to make the flat part of the hair, let it set for a few minutes, then added the pony-tail to the head. The pony-tail was a very shallenging piece because it has such an unusual shape. Also, trying to mold in whatever she uses to tie back her hair was a little rough:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h4.jpg
I created Haley's trusty bow out of green stuff, using 28 gauge wire for the bowstring:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h5.jpg
Here she is, ready for battle with bow in hand. I did a lot of research to make sure that the bow was really supposed to be behind the hand. Seemed wierd to me, but it's what The Giant drew:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h6.jpg
Haley is the first miniature I made that I can say is completely, 100% home built. The reason for this is because I always used bases created by other companies. Well, not any more! I've finally learned how to create molds and cast pieces from them. Here Haley is standing on a mold I created, molded, and cast myself. Turned out pretty good, I think:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h7.jpg
Painting was pretty easy, since I didn't have to do too much color matching. Haley's hair was a big problem though. She's supposed to be a redhead, but her hair looks more auburn to me... also it's a color that I couldn't match no matter how hard I tried. However, one batch turned out an absolutely gorgeous red, which I used instead. I think it's the perfect color for her:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h8.jpg
The mini from multiple angles:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h9.jpg
Here Haley stands, ready to do battle against the fierce (and unfinished) Balrog! :) I set her next to him on the back area of my work-desk to dry, and was so amused by the visiual that I had to take a picture. You can see Gandalf in the background, ready to give aid should the battle go ill for her:
http://www.stonetowerminiatures.com/albums/oots/h10.jpg
Overall I would say this was one of my most successful miniatures in the project. Replacing paperclips with styrene rods really decreased my build time, while increasing my control over the medium and the quality of the piece. I do wish I had been able to get the lines of her torso exactly right, but I've never been much of a sculptor, so I think I did pretty good. The more sculpting I have to do on these minis, the better I'll get.Next in the lineup, is Elan. I really expected him to come in second in the voting thread I did a while back, but instead he's next to last. I think he'll be a fun character to model, especially since this time I'm going to try to sculpt the eyes and mouth into the head, instead of just painting them on, which will be a very important step since I'm going to eventually try to make molds of some OoTS style figures and attempt to reproduce them; but that fun excercise won't come for a very long time!
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Re: OoTS Miniature Worklog
This is freaking awesome. Belkar is my favorite so far. Keep up the great work!
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Part of me thinks the hair could use a little more body.
Off the by, that Balrog looks pretty good so...far...
You're kidding me. This useless spellcheck doesn't know the word Balrog?
...or spellcheck?