Iron Builder VI: Arthur Weasley Arrives at his workplace in Ministry of Magic via Floo Network

 This blog has plenty of Discworld characters, and many creations from worlds of Tolkien, but here's the first Harry Potter themed build I've ever published. And what a trivial one!

Idea of using the seed part as a green fire of Floo Network originates from the "Master list" written on lecture of history of architecture right after opening Guy's mystery packet. I had forgotten about this idea, and found the list one day, and read the word: Hormiverkko, the floo network.

I like Rowling's HP books, I've read them maybe six times; they're fast to read, well-written, both humorous and serious, and have excellent Finnish translations. I've seen the films once or twice and don't remember that much about them; my visions originate mostly from the books. There are plenty of interesting characters, and I've thought of building some of them; Albus Dubledore and Alastor Moody especially. But the first character ended up being Arthur Weasley, Ron's dad. The person emerging from the Floo could have been someone else - Cornelius Fudge maybe, or even Harry or Dumbledore, but I quite liked Arthur, and I though that building such marginal yet likable character would have good humorous attitude; Arthut felt right for this situation. And even though I don't remember much of the films, he is played by Mark Williams who also plays Father Brown in BBC's excellent series I used to watch at the police station, and Brian Williams in Doctor Who (on which Rory is pretty much my favorite character).

Now, the build. This was intensive Saturday build that took almost the whole day. I thought it would be smaller, but given that the character has my original three-stud-wide design, it couldn't have been much smaller. The head was the starting point, as usual, having the friendly face, reddish hair and eyeglasses. I knew I'd use some green shades, and the coat was shaped after the parts available in sand green. The olive green vest has wooden buttons - Weasleys aren't that rich. Arthur has his wand on other hand and a briefcase on other; The trousers are pretty basic stuff, but making the stepping stance took some tries. Most of my characters like this are in static pose and have longer coats.

Then there's the fireplace. It's one of those in the Ministry of Magic used as communication by the wizarding folk. It's number eight (Discworld reference, perhaps) and looks rather grand, as ministry should. It's mostly constructed on pieces I had plenty of. Those dark green cut-out slopes are from TLG's LUG support packages and the masonry bricks, fences and goldes cheese slopes are from LUGBULK. Fortunately I had enough black bricks to fill the back correctly to create sense of snug space. Some oddly-shaped spike pieces give some life to the flames. Overall, the fireplace is quite grand and reminds me of Alphonso Mucha's art - maybe I should make something similar to character build in the future. But they take lot of bricks...

-Eero.