And there he is: the so called prologue elf from Toybiz, which is a Noldor Elf from the Battle of Dagorlad.
I did a lot on this figure and had A LOT of trial and error :o .
For this figure I used techniques I never did before.
Before the text, first the outcome:

There were two major issues I had with this figure. The lack of posability in the legs and the colour scheme.
The overall look of the original figure is way too pale.
The colour scheme Toybiz used is movie accurate. Nevertheless, I liked the Asmus Toys look and they used blue.
Since the elves came over the sea and are ever longing to sail back to Valinor, the blue of the sea seemed accurate.

Also, the figure comes with spear, sword, bow and quiver. Everybody poses them with all of these weapons.
Believe me, you have to make a choice when on the battlefield. You cannot swing a two-handed sword with a shield, you cannot wield a spear and shield with a clumsy parge bow on your back.

I hesitated for a long time to start this custom, afraid I was of messing it up. Twice I became desperate and wanted to abandon the figure. The face was a trouble to smoothen out and is still more wobbly than I like. :o
The cloth had to be glued instead of stitched, which was a messy thing to do... :o
I started with the idea of replicating the armor with coloured paper. That was necessary, for when removing all the rubber cloth, there were holes in the armor everywhere.
The problem is that each of the scales was unique and had to line up perfectly. I created the whole upper armor, but messed it up on the back... :o
You cane still see pics in the making of section.

WHAT I DID:
- Replace the hips and legs with ball-jointed ones, putting the boots on the new legs
- Recreate the sword from wood and adding a scabbard.
- Mold the upper armor with greenstuff
- Recreate the cape and skirts from shiny silk fabric
- Sharpen the spear and add a decorative ribbon
- Create two grips to replace the original one, adding a magnetic fix for the leather strap
- Create a leather belt with a buckle for the sword
- Remove the orignal face and replace it with Aragorn's
- Make a removable thumb
- Create two clasps for hooking up the cape
- Recreate the leather fasting for the armor on the back
- Make a leather chin-strap for the helmet
- Create a base for posing
- Repaint the whole figure from top to bottom
- Placing two pearls on the armor
- Replace the chainmail at the bottom

FABRIC
The fabric I bough was for silk curtains. It had a very nice shine, but when cutting it, the edges fell apart immediatly. Also it had no grip for stitching. I found out after trying to use the sowing machine at first :o
So I needed to glue. The fabric was thick enough to prevent the glue from pressing through, but there was spillage anyway. In the end I got it camouflaged by painting it.
The cloth became very thick and heavy though, especially the skirt, for I used double layer there.
Result: zero posability... :o
For this I glued in no less than fifteen iron wires all over the place. The effect is fantastic!

GOLD PAINT
When painting, I used a new enamel oil golden paint from Humbrol. The colour is realy deep.
I stirred well, but the paint never dried out and was sticky even after a week, picking up dust.... :o
So I used my old paint (20+ years old) which was dilluted with quick-dry. That did the trick. I highligted with a acrylic gold paint, which was more yellow by colour.

MELTED PAINT
When pulling apart the figure, I boiled it for a boil-and-pop method. That did the trick, but the gold paint started to loosen up and rearrange itself in heaps... That gave a lot of scraping with a knife to come close to a smooth armor surface again. :o

FACE OFF
When placing in the face of Aaragorn, I used old greenstuff which was too cold for the edges. You cannot grind the face, for it is rubbery plastic, so all blemishes needed to be cut away. Painting, cutting the wobbles, painting, new wobbles and holes, filling up with thick paint, cutting wobbles, coating, cutting wobbles... :o
I cannot reproduces the number of layers on that face, but in the end it was there. Arya Stark would be proud.

FAT BELLY
At first I when I thought of using the cardboard scales, I filled up the belly. But when molding in the scales with greenstuff, his belly became fat and the scales sticking out... :o
The sash was merciful and covered up most of it.

FIX THE FLAPS
I needed a way to fixate the flaps of the cape on the back. At first I thought I could fixate them on the shash, But I wanted something that looked removable. So I created these clasps from iron wire. Don't know if I will do that again, for they are a bit bulky.

SHIELD
The shield had a grip from top to bottom, which is movie accurate, but not to my taste. When I do LARP you get a feel for how shields work. In the original, the whole impact of someone crashing in your shield is on the single wrist. Horrible. You need the lower arm to add strength, so you can press in your shoulder.
When looking in historical kite shields, I saw the two grips and straps in the middle.
A plastic figure cannot bend the arm like a living human, so I needed the loose strap. To fix the loose end, I came up with magnets and two metal pieces.

SPEAR AND THUMB
I used to paint Warhammer figures and having the ribbon on the spears was my favourite. Painting is a tough job though, so I glued in a string of paper. Coating it and done, right? Nope.
When sliding the spear into the hand, the plastic was way to sturdy so it scraped of the paint and ribbon... :o
I came up with the idea of the removable thumb. Gettig it lined up just right was tricky, but it worked.

CHAINMAIL
At the bottom, you have two pieces of chainmail sticking out. They were way too small, so I replaced them.
I used the gauze of doors, three payers on top of eachother. Neat chainmail has a leather lining on the edges, so I did that.

LEGS
I used the legs from the Gandalf figure, for it had nice ball joints. It was impossible to press the upper body on the linking pin again though. Therefor I glued in a big screw and stuffed the body with alufoil and glue to get a grip. The lining up is not perfect, but again the shash is merciful.

STAND
I allways make stands for my figures, but this one really needs it. The upper body is so heavy with the cloth and shield, it topples over when not supported. Also you cannor make the cool energetic wide poses without, for the upper leg armor is tight rubber.

SWORD AND SCABBARD
The hilt of the sword is spot on. I own a United Cutlery version of the sword, which was very helpful when recreating it. The plastic sword is just too thin and small, also often bending. The blade was an issue though.
I grinded too much and lost the machete like end, creating a pointed sword. :o
Since it is in the scabbard most of the time anyway, I kept it. Better luck next time.

The sword was too big for the plastic scabbard, so I had to recreate it. The decorative metal lining was hard to do though.... It turned out too thick, but so much effort I had allready put in, I kept it.
The hilt has a golden wire glued to it, embbed in greenstuff as red leather in the end.

In the original figure, the sword hilt sticked out up to the cheek, which is ridiculous. You would knock yourself in the face when moving all the time. I have it hanging much lower on the hip, being extra armor in that way for the exposed leg. Since the sword is heavy, just a belt in the waist seemed sloppy. I made a crossover belt over the chest to add support tot the belt. The buckle is made from iron wire.

INNER LIGHT
Enjoy this beauty, it has the inner light elves have. On the table, pitted against orcs, he looks like a sunbeam all by his own! Elves have the inner light, so their armor should reflect that. Weta made too dull figures.
This inner light is the power of Galadriel by the way. She is not a character driven by revenge for her killed brother. These a lower motives, negative in nature. Galadriel is driven by her desire to protect what is good and fair, which is something quite different. Proud yes, but not someone who is driven by blind hate for orcs. Also, blind hate is a negative emotion that does not become a high elf like Galadriel. Her power is her will strength to create beauty, be independent and protect what is good from evil.