banner LOTR BalrogMinasMorgulBalrog

Places to visit
in Middle-earth:

HOME

The Shire:

The Green Dragon

A Short Cut
to Mushrooms


Bucklebury Ferry

Ted Sandyman's Mill

Isengard:

Orthanc

Eriador

The Trollshaws

Rivendell

Gilraen's Memorial

The Mines of Moria:

The Watcher in the Water

The Westgate

The Chamber of
Mazarbul


Durin's Causeway

The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

Zirak-zigil

Mirkwood

Dol Guldur

The Anduin

The Argonath

Parth Galen

Rohan

Helm's Deep

The Paths of the Dead

Morgul Vale:

Minas Morgul

The Stairs of Cirith Ungol

Mordor:

The Tower of Cirith Ungol

The Black Gate

Barad-dûr

The Sawdust of the Past

Khazad-dûm Revisited

The Making of...

The Wooded Road

The Watcher in the Water

Saruman's Stronghold

The Argonath

The Tower of Cirith Ungol

The Black Gate

Barad-dûr Part 1

Barad-dûr Part 2

Barad-dûr Part 3

Barad-dûr Part 4

Scenery Workshop:

Constructing "Durin's Causeway"

The Black Gate 1

The Black Gate 2

The Black Gate 3

The Land of Shadow

Downloads

Gaming in Middle-earth

More Middle-earth:

www.one-ring.co.uk

www.theonering.net

Contact Us

Visitors

940440

Pageloads

4345173


The making of Barad-Dûr

Part two

© Lotrscenerybuilder 2009

Making_Barad-Dur_28

What we're trying to say is this: every miniature is the sum of all parts. While working on a big-scale model like the Barad-dûr we try not to become disheartened by the magnitude of the overall picture. Instead, our creativeness is solely focussed upon a single element: a belvedere, a wall, a gate. Thus, we forget about the rest of the tower and build, say, this gate. Next, we forget about most of the rest of the tower AND the gate and build the adjoining wall. In this manner we plod on until gate, walls and belvederes are completed. Of course the final arrangement of these parts is nothing but a copy of the fantasy of the Weta-designers: it is achieved by moving the parts about until we're happy with the resemblance. After that, the lot is glued together.

Making_Barad-Dur_29

But let's not trivialize the undertaking: without an eye for proportions, any familiarity with spatial construction and a great deal of patience, certain modelling hurdles may become insurmountable.

An extra layer of 1mm MDF raised the surface after it became clear that we had misjudged some heights. For a while we were confused about the exact position of the stronghold with respect to the box. In the end, we settled for the yellow markings.

Making_Barad-Dur_30

More wallpaper was added to create a seamless transition between the buildings in the front and the main structure behind it. Small variations in width produced a relief which broke the monotony and increased the suggestion of complexity.

Making_Barad-Dur_31

This collection of different shaped fences illustrates once more our fragmentary approach. Our source material gave us a rather foggy notion of the ramparts that surround the central stronghold: a jungle of corrugated barrages, most of them crowned with needles and pins. Where the picture wasn't clear we had to improvise. By turns we used 'harmonicas' and 'strip-curtains' to obtain the variation that characterizes the arbitrariness of Sauron's creativity.

Making_Barad-Dur_32

In the end, the stronghold was glued onto the main frame. The surrounding fences however were only temporarily put in place to get the picture; it would have been impractical to have them obstructing the upcoming carving of the lower rock-work.


[First Page] [Prev] Showing page 2 of 4 pages [Next] [Last Page]