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ell, if you want my ring yourself, say so!' cried Bilbo 'But you won't get it. I won't give my precious away, I tell you.' His hands strayed to the hilt of his small sword.
Gandalf's eyes flashed. 'It will be my turn to be angry soon,' he said. 'If you say that again, I shall. Then you will see Gandalf the Gray uncloaked.' He took a step towards the hobbit, and seemed to grow tall and menacing; his shadow filled the little room.
The Lord of the Rings, Book One; The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Long-Expected Party"
This little shadowbox is depicting the omnious contest of wills between
Gandalf and Bilbo in the study at Bag End. The old hobbit has just slipped
away from his 111th birthday party and is just about to leave the Shire
forever when the Grey Wanderer barges in to make sure he leaves his
magical ring behind.
The whole thing is based on Mithril's MV362 vignette from 'The Lord
of the Rings Vignettes (1)' series. Mithril released two series
of a total of eight vignettes, all with miniatures in very dynamic
poses and with lots of little odds and ends that make them ideal
for dioramas. This particular one, part from Bilbo and Gandalf,
has a chair and a table, a fireplace, a candlestick among other
things, all very useful for furnishing a hobbit's study. The
vignette didn't work very well on the included base, so I decided
to make this cross-section of a hobbit hole.
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I discarded the original base, and after cutting a almost circular
hole in a square block of styrofoam which was covered, not too
smoothly, with spackling. I put in a new tiled floor made by a
piece of square-pattern sheet plastic. At the far end of the hole
I cut a piece of cardboard to shape which would do as the outside
wall. Small strips of mahogany were glued into a wooden paneling on
it and then I cut out a circular window. A circular frame was cut
from sheet plastic (quite tricky, that) and fitted with a round
piece of clear acrylic sheet. The smaller bars were later painted
in by hand. I got the design of the window from a painting by Ted
Nasmith, showing the exterior of Bag End. A portion of it can be
seen here to the right.
The cast fireplace was fitted to the left wall by making a
chimney of Miliput ( a sort of epoxy putty). The original
base had a nicely sculpted rug in disarray on it. It gave
an impression as if it had been kicked aside by the angry
Bilbo. I wanted to keep this in my scratch built scene so
I made a new one from a piece of lead foil from a wine bottle.
The design to the left was painted onto it and then the rug
was carefully and partially bent to a roughened look. Lead
foil is a splendid material, by the way; cheap, easy to get
hold of, easy to shape and cut, and excellent to use as most
kind of thick fabric with miniatures. Lead foil was also used
for the curtains by the window.
A scene like this, the interior of a hobbit's study, could
be very easy to clutter with details. It is in the hobbit
nature to collect mathoms and such after all. Here think
I actually was a bit on the conservative side. To the items
included in the original vignette I added a bench at the far
wall, a book stand and a lectern (all three from a company
called Grenadier, no longer around). I also painted an itty-bitty map of the
Shire which I hung on the right wall and excavated a small
sword from my scrap box which I hung on the far wall. I
arranged all this so it wouldn't steal focus from Bilbo and
Gandalf, when they were put in place. Looking at it now I realize
I could have allowed myself to do put some more things in there to
enhance it's hobbitish atmosphere. Floral wall decoration perhaps,
another painting or a long pipe above the mantle piece.
What really annoys me is that I was not careful enough
to get the wrought iron chandelier properly centered. Oh, well... All in
all I am actually very happy with this piece, mainly because
of the cross-section effect.