Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I've been using my free time to make a lot of progress on the modeling of the remaining members of the Unexpected Party. I'm pleased with how things are turning out. Not quite as great as I would have liked but I always set the bar a bit to high for myself. I definitely feel like I'm improving my work the sculpting putty.
Here's a couple WIPs:
For this guy (Bofur) I had to reposition the sword arm from the previous WIP. I just wasn't happy with his arm's length. So I had another go at and had the sculpt the sleeve and fix some of the cloak.
Here's Ori. I've decided to make all three of these using what is like an Iron Guard Body. For this mini, which started as a Dwarf Archer, I had to smooth out the armor and then add the sleeping pack on his back.
Here's Dori. He started as an Iron Guard with a Dwarf Ranger head with lots of modeling putty on the beard and hair. I also had to smooth over the metal armor and add some leather "plating".
Here's an update on Bombur. I finished modeling him and have started on the banner. Ultimately it will be turned around the other way but I've only sculpted one half of it so you can see the back half right now. In addition to the banner, I'm especially pleased with how the additions to the cloak turned out.
Here's the model I'm going to use to represent Balin. I really like this model with the possible exception of how it looks like his right "shoulder" is up too high. Believe or not, I've fixed this 3 times. Twice I had to tear the weapon arm out and remove all the modeling putty and start over. He'll have to do as he is now. I still think he looks good. I love the Gimli (3 Hunters) sculpt that this model is based from.
Here's Gloin, another of my Dwarf Heros. You've seen WIPs of this model before but I've finished him up and undercoated him white.
This model is Bifur. You've see this one as WIP as well. He's another one that I had to rework an arm. The first version had his arm too short. Hopefully this one looks better. Not sure if I'm completely pleased with him but I think he'll be just fine once painted up.
Finally, here's Thorin Oakenshield. As you can see, I used the Durin model as the base. I added the sword hand from Theoden and had to do a bit of sculpting around the sword to hide the Rohan icongraphy. Before someone points it out, I know that Orcist should match Glamdring but I couldn't find a suitable way to get a Glamdring sword on this mini. Not a lot of models are holding swords in the left hands either and since I had an extra Theoden, I just used that one. I cut away his head and had to have a go a sculpting at least part of a face. I think it came out okay but only time will tell when I paint it up. I added a long droopy hood to Thorin and tied in the long braid in the back of the Durin model to be the "Silver Tassel" that hangs from Thorin's hood. I think it works pretty well. I also had to cover up all the chainmail with leather plating.
Finally, I've started working on Gandalf. Since I needed to represent Gandalf riding Shadowfax, I decided to make some modifications to the horse for this conversion. Shadowfax needs no saddle, tack or bits. I had to cut away the original head, shave down the existing saddle parts and then come up with a new head free of the reins. I went with the Shadowfax model and cut its head off. I'm going to sculpt a new neck (in progress as you can see). I also added Glamdring from the foot version of the model and cut away the hands and robe where Gandalf is holding the reins on the old model.
That's it for now! All the dwarves are finished in terms of sculpting. I need to finish Gandalf and finish the modeling on the banner and then I can get on to painting in full force!!
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I was just wishing that there would be some more sculpting related wips and what do you know! 
