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BRINGING THE LEGEND TO LIFE:

The Making of the Argonath
© Lotrscenerybuilder 2008

Assembling the finished elements can be a nervous and time-consuming activity. We're not talking about fully designed parts that come from a sprue and fit seamless into each other…

Both arms and body of Anárion were modelled upon the images in the movie but until now, we hadn't given much thought to a way to connect them. While the visible sides show a flowing, semi-natural reproduction of body parts in kingly garments, at the reverse side it's all ordinary woodwork with clumsy ends that won't easily bend to the circumstances. So, after all this artistic carving we had to do some less delicate fretwork at the dark side to make it all fit neatly.

And of course, all components had to be glued together in the exact position as shown in the pictures. It took some hard thinking to make things look all right. Although Anárion's helmet catches the eye more easily and might even evoke the admiration of the spectator, getting his right upper arm in shape demanded a comparable amount of creativity and skill. Luckily there's filler to mask any awkward seams.

We'd done the sculpting of Anárion's face while it was attached to a manageable strip of MDF. Now time had come to transplant the face from the strip to the almost finished body. We installed a 'spine-peg' to define the silhouette of the back. Thus we were able to finish the statue's west-side and fix the right position for the head. Since Anárion's back would be almost entirely covered by rocks, there was no need for great workmanship here.

As for the hauberk hood, we took some pieces of cardboard and bent them into the right shape (not an extraordinary feat of modelling, this one. We certainly could have used some Green Stuff here).
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