LotR - Farewell to Lórien - Galadriel's & Celeborn's Swan Ship

„They turned a sharp bent in the river,

and there, sailing proudly down the stream toward them,

they saw a swan of great size.

The water rippled on either side of the white breast beneath its curving neck.

Its beak shone like burnished gold, and its eyes glinted like jet set in yellow stones;

its huge white wings were half lifted.

[..] and suddenly they perceived that it was a ship,

wrought and carved with elven-skill in the likeness of a bird.

Two elves clad in white steered it with black paddles.

In the midst of the vessel sat Celeborn, and behind him stood Galadriel..“

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

Details

Pieces: approx. 700

Minifigures:

•  Lady Galadriel
•  Lord Celeborn
•  Círdan the Shipwright
•  Elven sailor

Functions:

• movable parts: feathers, paddle
• the wings can be lifted
• the beak can be lowered
• Celeborn's seat can be turned into a stand of the mast

I hope you like the project, I'm looking forward to your comments and I will do my best to respond to them individually.

However, there might be some questions coming up more than once, so please read the FAQs listed below first.

FAQs

1. Why is the hull of the ship black?

Due to technical reasons; I usually build my models with LEGO Digital Designer (and not LDraw). Therefore, I'm also limited to already existing colours (in this case black or brown). With the black hull however, you can see the superstructures better in front of the white background. In the meantime I've gotten used to the colour and I wonder if an all-white version wouldn't be too boring. Please feel free to tell me which colour you prefer.

2. Why are there only generic minifigures?

Galadriel appeared already in one LEGO The Hobbit set. Celeborn and Círdan exist as digital versions (in the LEGO LotR computer game). Some people have rendered minifigures based on the computer game already - so my versions would very much look the same. I don't want anybody to shout „plagiarism“ or „copyright infringement“ at me - so I will not design these three minifigs. That only leaves the elven sailor - which I might publish eventually (after I have learned how to properly render self-designed minifigs - so I ask for your patience).

3. Where is the sail?

Not there yet, you got me. The convertion of Celeborn's seat is a rather recent idea - in order to provide more functions. So I haven't thought about the rigging too much and I don't deem it very important at the moment - any kind of sail should do, if you don't want to rely on elven magic alone. ;-)

4. What about building instructions?

Please understand that I don't intend to publish building instructions for the time being - let me give it a shot first.

5. More pictures, please?

Sure. Updates will follow. Just give my not very new computer some more time. It has been busy night and day lately. ;-)

6. And finally: what did you do to „my Precious“?

I reused it for the swan's eye. Sorry, Gollum! ;-)