Eddard "Ned" Stark

My dear friend and colleague, Rich, stopped by last weekend to see what I was up to, and he was astounded at the number of Game of Thrones projects in the works and/or in the planning stages. Well, my friend, I’ve just added another: the Lord Paramount and Warden of the North, and Lord of Winterfell, Eddard “Ned” Stark.

Ned Stark, as brilliantly portrayed by Sean Bean, had an all-too-short run on HBO's GoT, being beheaded in the pivotal ep9 of the first season. His perfidious execution, ordered by Joffrey, sets the stage for the War of the Five Kings.

The base figure will be Knight Models’ 1/10th scale bust of Boromir in their LotR line. As you all probably know, Boromir was portrayed by Sean Bean in the first installment of Peter Jack- son’s LotR, The Fellowship of the Ring (he also appears in flashbacks in the second install- ment, The Two Towers). The bust is based on this iteration of Boromir.

I will be the first to admit that this is not a spot-on likeness of Bean in the role; however, it is nowhere near as bad as some claim. Most of the critiques revolve around painted versions of the bust, not the raw casting—or the master!—and this should never be the basis of a critical review! Unfortunately, I have not seen images of the master; i.e., how much of a role did distortion play in the final product?

The bust is cast in the now-familiar grey resin in two pieces: bust and truncated shield. Overall, I have to give KM its props and say that this is arguably the best example of resin casting I have seen from this company! It was by no means perfect; BUT, it was certainly that where it needed to be. Very impressive!

I also have to give props to the price point: this is VERY reasonably priced at right around US$45.00!

The project will involve sculpting the Ned Stark costume (the challenge here will be the shadow- cat stole/collar of the mantle), and reworking the likeness to reflect an older Mr. Bean.

FOLLOW-UP. . . Phase I of the facial (read: likeness) reconstruction is done. I believe the main shortcomings can be attributed to casting distortion due to poor mold design. Mold design should have been reevaluated when faced with disproportionate lateral shrinkage/"compression".

Finally, this is a "large" 1/10th scale bust--IMHO, more at 1/9th!