MOC: Fili

 Yezz, my summer job in north is finished and I'm back home and building business. I was planned to stay there until the end of the month, but there wasn't much to do (there was free time, but not very much, you know, activities, except reading or surfing on the web in reception). And before you call me job-alienating lazyguy, (which I am a bit probably still) my 11-month civil service job on Police department begins in September. Hooray.

Ah yes, the MOC!

Here's Fili, son of Frerin and Dis (who is Thorin Oakenshield's sister and only mentioned female dwarf in Middle-Earth). He is, of course, brother of Kili and one of the younger dwarves of the company. In the Hobbit films he is played by talented Kiwi actor Dean O'Gorman. Fili has lots of weapons, Including paired swords, four boot-attached throwing axes, two gauntlet-mounted knives and a war hammer, which is never seen in the film and neither in this MOC.

This was a fun build, and quite a fast too: around eight hours including the photographing and editing. That was partly due to LUGBULK pieces that I got on Tuesday (dark brown!) and three-month break after the last time I seriously MOCed (I bought five sets on clearances during my journeys, including Goblin  King Battle -52% though). I had thrown the head together many months earlier, but had to reassemble it because it broke: The design is far from sturdy, as the medium dark flesh hair and beard consists of 1x2 brick, Persian arches and three 1x2 tiles. Luckily those arches were perfect for Fili's flowing hair, even though they deemed some serious SNOT work that was not easy.

There was some concerns with the belts. It is hard to say what color they are on the film - something between greys and dark browns I guess, but I went with lighter options (dark tan and brown) to make it stand out better. The scabbard strap uses fisherman cord piece with headlights. It would have been very hard to make one with plates going diagonally over odd-shaped studded surface, so that was good alternate: Kili uses small tack links on the same purpose.

The arms are rather poseable with a ball joint on shoulder and a brick hinge on elbow. The sleeves have a fur wristbands. The boots are in my opinion two of my most succesful ones with throwing axes and all. They made Fili a bit taller than Kili, so I lenghtened Kili's boots my one studs. According to size charts Kili is a bit taller.

Now I have only Ori left with dwarves and then there's Bilbo and Gandalf to finish the project with. Ori will be tricky with his colors scheme: I'm going to mix dark purple and dark bley. It's too late to give up! Actually I put together most of Ori's head already, and I have Bilbo's hand too.. But before them, here's a group portrait of Thorin and his nephews. Enjoy ahoy!

-Pate-keetongu