MOC reboot: Balin

 The story behind this MOC ei rather unfortunate. It was going to be Balin in his battle costume from Battle of the Five Armies to go with Dwalin posted a few weeks ago. I it looked quite good with the studded leather armor and all, but was way too fragile for my standards; The arms kept falling of all the time and there were some mathematical problems. So I got rather irritated by it and quited, but had already reworked a rather nice new Balin head. The old version from 2012 had been seriously outdated with the more recent dwarves on my Hobbitsplosion project, so I decided to give old Balin the new head. It turned out rather challenging, as the torso built two and a half years ago wasn't very sturdy, so I ended up reworking the whole dwarf.

There were a lot problems on the older version. There were too much straight lines, some of the cloak details didn't exist, and somehow it lacked the puffiness of the character. Balin's coat is my favourite piece of clothing in the Hobbit movies; It looks so comfortable (though it wasn't according to the actor Ken Stott; Which is understandable with all the prosthetics, beard, nose, fat suit and all).

The angle of the arms was another thing that looked unnatural, even though it is somehing expected for LEGO bricks. It was hard to get the angle right without making the shoulders too wide or too thin and allow some trimmings to the sleeve. There are also some dark bley details on the overcoat. The gloves are redone. Boot toes are new too (though the studs look a bit out-of-place) but the cheese-slopes-in-trans-black-panel detail is the same than in the original. The inner construction is a lot more solid than on the old MOC. That's it, basically.

I think I'll be able to post Dain II Ironfoot later this week, as reguested by many. Stay tuned for that, the guv's missing only a few parts now; He has a lot. But for then, enjoy Balin. He's a nice guy. My favourite dwarf from the Hobbit.

-Eero