From ScottB - Beorn, in bear form (10 points)

The first week is over and I get my first submission up. Technically its my 2nd submission, but as my first was to Curt direct for the cold theme it hasn't appeared here yet. No matter! So I break my duck offering you Beorn in bear form, from the Hobbit.

Beorn is a skin changer , a man of great stature, capable of transforming himself at will into a bear form (rather than being forced to by full moons like a werewolf). He is a somewhat aloof character, looking after himself, and not necessarily being on anyone's 'side', much as the Ents started off in LOTR... but he hates orcs so that at least has him leaning towards the good side!

In the movie he is played by Mikael Persbrandt, a Scandanavian actor, who is a big man which matches the height requirements for the part, and his accent is an excellent touch I think, giving him that 'other worldly feel' in the Middle Earth setting. The additional scenes in the Ext Ed of Hobbit DOS I greatly enjoyed, and found the "Making of" info on the additional disks, very interesting.

Back to the Bear, and this was clearly CGI, but various sources were used as inspiration, including looking at prehistoric bears for the shape and bulk... The model itself was an easy job. It was in several pieces that required gluing together and joint filling with greenstuff. Then a simple black paint job, drybrushed with dark grey then washed black again. Its produced very subtle contrast which sadly doesn't photograph too well... The claws and facial features were then added, and after varnish, base decoration effected. Oh, that base is a 60mm round, so its quite a big model, towering over a regular man-sized 28mm figure.

I am unsure of his points value so Curt may have to rule on this one. He's 28mm scale but about 60mm tall. For all that, the painting was easy.

In the game, he is brute strength nastiness, but at a substantial points costs. I look forward to trying him out and tearing orcs limb from limb...

 Finally, I don't think it was my turn to post today? But I believe we were all allowed to in the first week so I may have just sneaked this in there in time... right, back to the paints!

From Curt:
Lovely work Scott! That is a very impressive model to be sure. This is one of those models where it pays to do the eyes. Brilliant bit of detail there.  Scott, if you get a chance, come back and upload a shot of Beorn next to a standard LotR model.  

I'm going to score Beorn like a 28mm piece of ordinance, which seems appropriate. So 10 points. Well done and welcome back Scott!

And, at Curt's request:

It's not a good day to be an orc! ;-)