ROOTHU

For Roothu, my third Ent, I wanted to create an angry Ent really taking it to a servant of Evil. Thujaleaf came close to this idea, but he was more or less threatening violence, not committing it. A plastic Uruk-hai volunteered itself for the task of "stompee" as it had a decent pose for the action I wished to convey. To get that flattened Uruk-hai look just right, I employed primitive tactics. Placing the Uruk-hai on my worktable and topped by a large rock, I slowly pressed down and let physics do the work for me. Lifting the rock up, I had a finely crushed model. Placing Roothu's left leg on the Uruk's back I discovered that the foot would cover most of the gaps in the "dead" miniature, and help me avoid Green Stuffing. A very happy accident!

Moving along, I grabbed an Ent body and gently bent it so the torso was leaning backwards a bit. Next, I bent the left leg and positioned it to suggest a stomping motion. Then, I lined up the torso, left leg, and flattened Uruk-hai to check the fit and make adjustments before committing with any glue. Once things looked right, I glued Roothu to his base. As things stood, the pose looked good, but then inspiration struck. Why not show roots extending from Roothu's foot to crush the Uruk-hai even farther? Why not, indeed. A bit of Green Stuff, a few minutes time, and the idea was fully realised.

To drive home the fact that Roothu was really bringing his foot down with conviction, I needed a smart pose for the arms. After reenacting a stomping action on the floor (luckily no one was home to ask questions...) and taking note of how my arms moved, I was led to the pose shown above. It only took some minor bending, so I considered that an easy win. I had yet to use the second head option on one of my Ents, so Roothu got it by default. I had to trim a bit of the neck away to angle the head (and Roothu's attention) downward toward the Uruk-hai. That left a decent gap between neck and body, but some Green Stuff and an extra branch bit fixed it up nicely. Finally, I glued the back branches into their plugs and a few pieces of slate to the base. Roothu was set to defend Fangorn from invaders.

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