how to build an isengard (under siege)
Sep. 20th, 2010 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frith_in_thornsThis is what you need to build an Isengard:
1 quantity of gingerbread (the sort I use to make gingerbread houses at Christmas)
2 bags of Bassetts jelly babies
1 big box of Cadburys chocolate fingers (three trays of them)
2 packs of Flake bars (4 bars in each pack)
1 packet of Tesco Value 'flake and rasin chocolate clusters'
1 packet of Tesco Value dolly mix
1 paket of Haribo super mix (although we ended up eating this all before we started)
Cocktail sticks
Butter icing
A large table
You also need a friend who's as obsessed with Tolkien as you are, and therefore will back you up in your excellent idea. I used![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unbrokenwings91 (who I shall just call Zanna for the rest of this entry, since it's much quicker to type).
Method:
Build Isengard. Then takes lots of photos. Zanna is much better at taking photos than I am, which is why I am in more of them (I'm the one in the purple t-shirt). Also, none of the blurry ones are hers ;)
A little preview of the finished masterpiece!
Now follow the cut for many more (and better) photos, and commentry :)
The supplies are laid out. Apart from the Haribo, which we'd already eaten during Merlin the night before. And the gingerbread, which is in the oven.
Half of the (baked) gingerbread. This is some bits of Orthanc and assorted wall.
Zanna carved the hobbits, Saruman, and Wormtongue out of dolly mix, held together with a splinter of cocktail stick. These are the hobbits - I think Merry had orange trousers and Pippen had green, but I could be wrong. Behind them is an ent. Not Treebeard; I hadn't made him yet.
Me making last-second alterations to the sides of Orthanc before I stuck them together with butter icing. I was in charge of Orthanc, the ents, the walls and the orcs. Zanna did the people, the orcish scaffolding, and the Boulders Of Destruction.
Orthanc constructed! Saruman and Wormtongue are standing at the top of the tower with a very oversized palantir.
Me strewing orcs over the battlefield. Most of them are lying down because they have been slaughtered, not because I carefully balanced them upright and then kept knocking them over. Obviously.
This orc thinks he can stay alive by standing on top of some scaffolding. He's since been eaten. Serves him right.
Here is Treebeard, with the hobbits on his back. He has some convient cocktail-stick-fragments growing out of his shoulders and covered with buttercream, which the hobbits are sitting on. There's also buttercream sticking him to the table because he kept falling over and then Merry's head would fall off and have to be reattatched.
And this is a closeup of Saruman and Wormtongue and their palantir. I think they're adorable.
The whole of Orthanc, with battle taking place around it. It's standing on the breadboard which someone once burnt with a saucepan, in the unlikely event that you're wondering.
I was trying to make Orthanc look as tall as possible in this picture. I also took loads of orc-eye-view photos but they came out looking rather confused.
This ent has an orc skewered on his arm. He definitely needed a lot of buttercream under him to stop him from falling over.
This is an orc which has probably been stood on, near some walls. If you like you can imagine that Isengard has already been flooded and only the tops of the walls are now visible. We'd intended to make the dam but we didn't really have enough time, and it wouldn't have fitted on the table anyway.
This ent has just ripped the head of the orc. Very bloodthirsty, these ents.
Here's a close-up of the slightly misguided ent who thinks he can push over Orthanc by himself.
This is why hiding near scaffolding is not a good idea when there are ents around. Admire the Boulder Of Destruction.
A view of the ents pouring through the smashed section of walls and trampling orcs beneath them. (Some imagination may be required.) We'd wanted to have Beechbone the ent set on fire, but we couldn't think of a way to do that. We could have probably set his arms alight, but given that the rest of him was chocolate that probably wouldn't have been the best of ideas.
Zanna and I towering over the battlefield like the viewpoint cameras in the film. Yes, this picture is big, but I wanted you to be able to see everything properly! *gg*
Aerial view (or standing-on-chair-ial view). Note the ents rushing in through the gap on the right and the orcs running away to the left. It's hard to keep the camera steady while balancing on a chair.
Sadly Isengard later had to be demolished, but it was exceedingly tasty. I'm eating a bit of the tower right now.
So what do you think? :D
1 quantity of gingerbread (the sort I use to make gingerbread houses at Christmas)
2 bags of Bassetts jelly babies
1 big box of Cadburys chocolate fingers (three trays of them)
2 packs of Flake bars (4 bars in each pack)
1 packet of Tesco Value 'flake and rasin chocolate clusters'
1 packet of Tesco Value dolly mix
1 paket of Haribo super mix (although we ended up eating this all before we started)
Cocktail sticks
Butter icing
A large table
You also need a friend who's as obsessed with Tolkien as you are, and therefore will back you up in your excellent idea. I used
unbrokenwings91 (who I shall just call Zanna for the rest of this entry, since it's much quicker to type).Method:
Build Isengard. Then takes lots of photos. Zanna is much better at taking photos than I am, which is why I am in more of them (I'm the one in the purple t-shirt). Also, none of the blurry ones are hers ;)
A little preview of the finished masterpiece!
Now follow the cut for many more (and better) photos, and commentry :)
The supplies are laid out. Apart from the Haribo, which we'd already eaten during Merlin the night before. And the gingerbread, which is in the oven.
Half of the (baked) gingerbread. This is some bits of Orthanc and assorted wall.
Zanna carved the hobbits, Saruman, and Wormtongue out of dolly mix, held together with a splinter of cocktail stick. These are the hobbits - I think Merry had orange trousers and Pippen had green, but I could be wrong. Behind them is an ent. Not Treebeard; I hadn't made him yet.
Me making last-second alterations to the sides of Orthanc before I stuck them together with butter icing. I was in charge of Orthanc, the ents, the walls and the orcs. Zanna did the people, the orcish scaffolding, and the Boulders Of Destruction.
Orthanc constructed! Saruman and Wormtongue are standing at the top of the tower with a very oversized palantir.
Me strewing orcs over the battlefield. Most of them are lying down because they have been slaughtered, not because I carefully balanced them upright and then kept knocking them over. Obviously.
This orc thinks he can stay alive by standing on top of some scaffolding. He's since been eaten. Serves him right.
Here is Treebeard, with the hobbits on his back. He has some convient cocktail-stick-fragments growing out of his shoulders and covered with buttercream, which the hobbits are sitting on. There's also buttercream sticking him to the table because he kept falling over and then Merry's head would fall off and have to be reattatched.
And this is a closeup of Saruman and Wormtongue and their palantir. I think they're adorable.
The whole of Orthanc, with battle taking place around it. It's standing on the breadboard which someone once burnt with a saucepan, in the unlikely event that you're wondering.
I was trying to make Orthanc look as tall as possible in this picture. I also took loads of orc-eye-view photos but they came out looking rather confused.
This ent has an orc skewered on his arm. He definitely needed a lot of buttercream under him to stop him from falling over.
This is an orc which has probably been stood on, near some walls. If you like you can imagine that Isengard has already been flooded and only the tops of the walls are now visible. We'd intended to make the dam but we didn't really have enough time, and it wouldn't have fitted on the table anyway.
This ent has just ripped the head of the orc. Very bloodthirsty, these ents.
Here's a close-up of the slightly misguided ent who thinks he can push over Orthanc by himself.
This is why hiding near scaffolding is not a good idea when there are ents around. Admire the Boulder Of Destruction.
A view of the ents pouring through the smashed section of walls and trampling orcs beneath them. (Some imagination may be required.) We'd wanted to have Beechbone the ent set on fire, but we couldn't think of a way to do that. We could have probably set his arms alight, but given that the rest of him was chocolate that probably wouldn't have been the best of ideas.
Zanna and I towering over the battlefield like the viewpoint cameras in the film. Yes, this picture is big, but I wanted you to be able to see everything properly! *gg*
Aerial view (or standing-on-chair-ial view). Note the ents rushing in through the gap on the right and the orcs running away to the left. It's hard to keep the camera steady while balancing on a chair.
Sadly Isengard later had to be demolished, but it was exceedingly tasty. I'm eating a bit of the tower right now.
So what do you think? :D
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 07:16 pm (UTC)...you could do the Lonely Mountain next, with bonus dragon! :D
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 07:36 pm (UTC)Chocolate ents! The ents were my favourite *gg* Seriously, this was the most fun thing I've done in ages!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 10:06 pm (UTC)Thanks for sharing your adventure in food!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 10:40 pm (UTC)We both think there should be more gingerbread Tolkien-related things happening in the future :D
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 12:13 pm (UTC):D
no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 11:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-23 06:50 pm (UTC)It was so fun!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-03 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-27 10:00 pm (UTC)(this reply fell into a time loop)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-27 10:00 pm (UTC)