A Rivendell Update - When Big just isn't Big Enough

Big just wasn't big enough.

So, last time I shared an update with everyone on the progress of our Rivendell miniature environment I mentioned that we had elected to use the largest of our base sizes, making this the biggest LOTR miniature environment to date. Well, it seems big just wasn't big enough. We had begun by sculpting a rocky hillside base upon which we determined the positioning of the various wings and out-buildings. Then we nutted out what the scale would be, working backwards from the base, balancing the issues of detail and accuracy with size.

However, once our talented model makers started crafting the tiny buildings, it became apparent we were going to need to bump them up a bit in scale to really capture the detail this miniature demanded. That meant that once we placed them back on the sculpted rock base, they no longer fitted. Unless we were prepared to accept an unreasonable amount of squeeze between the buildings, we had to opt for a new, even bigger footprint for the base, now freshly milled out for us by model maker Jordan Thomson.

The result has been an amazing new miniature environment that now spans a whopping 450mm long, or just shy of a foot-and-a-half, by 310mm or more than a foot deep and 190mm or 7 ½ inches tall from the bottom of the base to the tip of the tallest tower.

In order to ensure we were replicating the original shooting bigature as accurately as possible, we had to refer back to the source. Weta Workshop's own Duncan Brown and Matt Mills retrieved the original model in all its many pieces from deep storage. Although originally constructed according to a specific layout scheme as evidenced in most of the establishing shots seen in the movies, the Rivendell bigature was subsequently divided and reassembled in a number of different configurations, often with significant modifications made, so what remained did not necessarily match the reference imagery we had available in the form of film stills and preshoot photography of the model. David Tremont and I pawed over the model trying to piece together which elements matched up with which parts of the complex seen in film stills. Having the actual shooting model right there next to them, even in a deconstructed and modified state, was a huge boon for the artists when it came to replicating it at minute scale for the miniature collectible environment.

This responsibility was divided between our sculptors and model makers, with fan-favourite sculptor Gary Hunt sculpting the tiny carved elements and David Tremont and Shari Finn replicating Alan Lee's building designs by hand. With efficiency in mind, as many elements as could be were created in batches and as repeatable panels.