Tauster's Tentacles

[tauster]

I just found some time to continue with the robot squid:While my kid was playing with putty (something he can do for 3 or more hours straight, totally concentrated, without even a short pause - which is really astonishing for a 3.5 year old!), I gathered my painting stuff and some not-yet-finished projects and both of us were in crafter's heaven.

The fleshy parts are finished:






I re-based the black parts in black again, then painted Boltgun Metal over them. After that, some orange rust effect.








A few details were highlighted with Warplock Bronze. I considered adding a verdigris washing for copper corrosion effect but decided against it because the areas are so small that I would probably botch it.






Now the only thing remaining is the magnetized tentacle 'bush' that will get a fleshy treating.

[tauster]

'nother project finished.





I don't really like how the tentacles turned out, but I'll leave them as is. After all I magnetized them, so I can always make another one, and use this one for annoying my underdark explorers.




That's another cool thing about heavily using magnetized, modular stuff: You don't ruin the whole project when one magnetized part doesn't turn out as perfect as you hoped.

[SpielMeisterKev!]

Howdy,

  I thought of you tauster , as soon as I saw these...



Enjoy,
Kev!

[tauster]

Really can't see why...

*whistles innocently*

[tauster]

2016 starts with a new generation of tentacles and tentacle-terrain.

We had savoy cabbage fur lunch, and I took the outermost leaves (which are usually thrown away, so playin' with food was OK this time) and used them to texturize the clay.



I had tried this method a few weeks back with a lightweight modelling mass (see here) and really liked how the texture turned out. So this time, I went into full crafting mode and used up about 750 gr of clay. I made what could be a complete terrain set in about one hour - it's that easy!





Flat bases large and small, mounds, mounds with 'veins', tentacles,... whatever shape comes to your mind, simply sculpt it roughly in your hand, then wrap it in the leave. Heck, you can even continue to shape the clay while it is in the leave! The method is dead easy - simply press your material into the cabbage leaves - and yields fantastic textures. I wouldn't be able to sculpt that 'by hand'. Even if you roll two clay pieces over the same section of the leave, the texture never seems to be the same. Love it!

Detail shot:

[sgtslag]

I want to make a full, on the surface, Purple Worm, old-school style. I've been contemplating the basics of it, and I thought I had it pretty much figured out, until I saw this... The old-school Worm had pretty bland skin texture. I could see using this texturing technique to ramp up the texture on the Worm's skin, to make it more interesting. Hmmm... New vistas are beginning to open up before my Worm. Cheers!

[tauster]

Jan 3, 2016 17:07:23 GMT sgtslag said:

I want to make a full, on the surface, Purple Worm, old-school style. I've been contemplating the basics of it, and I thought I had it pretty much figured out, until I saw this... The old-school Worm had pretty bland skin texture. I could see using this texturing technique to ramp up the texture on the Worm's skin, to make it more interesting.

Very neat idea! I'm sure this texure method can be used in all kinds of ways. Can't wait to see you doing that worm!

Jan 3, 2016 17:07:23 GMT sgtslag said:

Hmmm... New vistas are beginning to open up before my Worm. Cheers!

Won't. Comment. On. That.

[tauster]

Two test pieces, to check whether the old paint scheme looks over the new texture.



...yep, still works!

Most of the pieces are still drying, so painting the whole thing up will have to wait for some days. Which isn't a problem as I'm not in a hurry.

As always when I use tested-and-true color schemes, I wonder what else would look good. I've made lots of ice-and-snow pieces recently, and ice tentecles would be something new. I'll post a pic of that if it's ready, and if anyone has other ideas what would look great on tentacles, please fire away!

[bananapanda]

Lookin' great Tauster! As for the idea... hmmm... maybe some rusted copper tendrils that could be apart of some weird robot. You could also make some plant tendrils if after you formed it either in clay or something else you could twist it slightly. You could also use rocks in some way... these are just silly ideas I doughy you would actually ever use them.

[tauster]

Here's the frost version:

 


I still love the color scheme, but when painted on a tentacle, it fails to inspire anything in me. Simply doesn't work together. Well at least I have tried...

Now what will I use that piece for? If I had a winter campaign, it could be a waymarker of strange folk, but apart from a possible combat room session, there's just no winter in my campaigns.

I could repaint it and try something else, but
a) I'll use details with every layer of color and
b) as stupid as it sounds: Even if I have no use for ice tentacles, I like the colors just too much to repaint it.

One idea that popped up was making shadowstuff-tentacles with (metallic?) black and a dark purple. Lets see...

[sgtslag]

No Frost Giants in your campaign's future?... In Gygax's infamous G2: Against the Frost Giant Jarl, there is a glacier with tunnels, and rooms, carved out.  Plenty of ice terrain for them bad boys to lurk in.  Cheers!

[tauster]

Na, not really. I've never played or DM'ed that module (or any other 1E module).

I might be able to scavenge bits and integrate them into my campaigns, but all that only to have an excuse for frost tentacles...? Don't take me wrong, I've crafted some things without any purpose, just for the joy of it, that I fell so much in love with that I changed plots (and heck, sometimes even the metaplot) of my campaigns. But these are rare occasions, and so far Frosty the Tentacle failed to inspire that amount of love in me.

[tauster]

Jan 4, 2016 18:49:54 GMT tauster said:

One idea that popped up was making shadowstuff-tentacles with (metallic?) black and a dark purple. Lets see...

Here's a try for shadowstuff-tentacles. Doesn't look too bad if you ask me.

The unpainted piece:



A word about clay: This stuff really soaks up color. Which is good because you have great coverage but if you want to do large pieces of terrain or monsters and plan to use expensve miniature colors, either switch to to cheap hobby colors or seal it with something before painting. My first try would be a light coating of watered-down PVA: The water part makes sure that it gets soaked into the material and thereby seals the pores better than if you use the thick glue without water. At least that's my guess...


Primed in a dark purple




Then a light application of metallic black (a cheap hobby color that I got for like 3 € for half a litre - it became one of my most favourite and most often used colors. Sometimes you just have a lucky streak...) I wouldn't call it drybrushing because I applied it as it came out of the pot, but basically the same technique of lightly brushing over the survace was used, so that the indentations stay clean. Sorry for the crappy shot...




An even lighter coat of an extremely dark purple, so that some of the metallic black still shines through.

[DnDPaladin]

looks like tongues coming out of the ground. or something else coming out of something else...
might also be just my too big imagination playing tricks on me. XD

[tauster]

Jan 6, 2016 11:41:15 GMT DnDPaladin said:

looks like tongues coming out of the ground. or something else coming out of something else...
might also be just my too big imagination playing tricks on me. XD

Thanks for that inspiration!

Now how to make a giant maw...?

Hmmm... a maw just sticking out of the ground (think Star Wars), or  a monster that fits that scale (Mashaaf? I never liked the maw I created so far; that would instead become the end part of the digestive tract...)

[tauster]

The cabbage tentacle project had a slight setback today... While the method is great, my choice of material was not: Clay is simply too brittle. It works well for flat terrain pieces (i.e. ground), but tentacles... not so much.

I intentionally started with the longest and most slender tentacle to see if brittleness is an issue or not. Here's how I wanted to base them:




I then decided to pait this one with three others on a larger washer. It took only a tiny bit of pressure and it broke off. I reglued it with loards of notglue that went quite a but up the tentacle's body, kind of like a surgical corset. Hope that is suffuficient now, but I'm not sure it will survive lively game nights.




And thats the status quo: I based half of them in skin color. The other half will get the shadowstuff treatment, i.e. black and purple.




Not sure what material I should use. Greenstuff would definitely not break, but is too expensive and a royal pain in the behind to work with. My gut feel is that milliout would be a good compromise between cost and brittleness, even if still quite a bit on the costly side. Mybe it is time to try out some play dough (i.e. salt paste) recipies...

[tauster]

...and yet again Lady Forscale finds herself deep in trouble:



That color scheme simply works, everytime. I washed over the orenge/skin color with a watered-down GW Warlock Purple, then applied clear acrylic glossy varnish after the washing dried. Thats it. Too easy!

[skunkape]

The purple and black tentacle looks really good! Nice combination of colors.

[tauster]

...not strictly a tentacle, but from the same batch, so it goes here too:

I tried out some green color schemes, the idea is to use the same texturing method for exotic plants (not underdark vegetation though).

I based two of the three sides with Cameo Green


...then drybrushed one side with Warboss green (one pic with, one without flash)
 

Here's how it looks with a Thrakka Green wash:


And finally, the unpainted underside. I applied only a wash and nothing else, not even a primer. It went straight on the clay. This is my favourite variant.

[bananapanda]

Glad to see more tenticles being posted tauster! Like the paint job.