The Watcher in the Water – The West Gate of Moria

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat_title.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat_title.jpg[/imgz]

The Watcher in the Water is the ‘Missing Link’ for many of us, but as Mithril Miniatures are in no hurry to make it happen I thought do it meself .

To recreate the Watcher is actually a relatively simple process as I used a Shelob’s Lair that I got cheap on EvilBay, and by utilising the abdomen part of Shelob it still leaves a bit of mystique as to how the Watcher may have looked without being too definate as nobody knows for sure– the fact you can see the body heaving itself out of the water, but any ‘head’ is still hidden appealed to me.

The hardest part to recreate are the tentacles which I created out of Super Sculpey (a heat curing synthetic clay a bit like Fimo I guess); and to do this I simply rolled out long strips and ran a ribbed plastic bottle lid along one side to give the ribbed effect, stuck a small metal rod in so that I could stick it in the base, twisted the tentacles to shape and baked them.

If you follow this idea and have more patience that I do I would suggest adding bumps and bobbles to give the tentacles some texture .

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat1.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat1.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat2.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat2.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat3.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat3.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat4.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat4.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat6.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat6.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat7.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat7.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat8.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat8.jpg[/imgz]

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/11_wat9.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/11_wat9.jpg[/imgz]

For the observant among you, you may notice that the doorway is a little low – this is due to building the groundwork up too high :rolleyes:.

This has been on the go now for a long time mainly because I have had other things to get on with, plus the original trees were plastic ones which looked ok, but were obviously plastic and this bugged me. I have only recently found some suitable real bits with roots which I was far happier with.

I didn’t add an avenue of rotting trees as I felt it would get in the way of the Watcher.

The rocks Master Archer are plaster cast from Woodland Scenics molds – I don’t know if they are available to you, but they are good and come in a variety of styles. Well worth the investment and they are much lighter than the real thing depending on what you cast them out of.

Go for it Holger – you know it makes sense 😆

Once again many thanks for the comments, Swan boat of Galadriel next!