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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:53:43 GMT
This is a copy of the original thread in the old message board. sorry for the doublepun in the title, couldn't resist...  I'll need mushrooms in my underdark campaign very soon, as the party will first enter a part of the King's Highway*, and from there through a portal into the Feydark**.
* --> nuntonlibrary.wikia.com/wiki/Torog ** --> www.wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20100108Mushrooms come in various shapes, fey mushrooms should be even weirder and for the mutated mushrooms I want some extraordinary cool stuff. I had already seen some mushroom variants here, plus some ideas from other youtube videos, so what follows below is a bucket full of fungus fun. ...and that was the last bad pun of this posting. Not because of self-restraint but because the posting ends here. |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:54:10 GMT
I wanted some relatively simple and small dungeon dressing tiles that represented mosses and lichen, but large enough for the PC to sumble over them and alien enough to make them think twice if they really want to step on that stuff. I found some growth in the garden on an old willow and on dead wood that fit perfectly. I hotglued it on mosaic tiles (2x2 cm) that come cheap and that make excellent bases. You'll get those tiles in all kinds of colors and textures, even some that look like ancient bone. *drool*   |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:54:48 GMT
Next type is the classic giant mushroom, large enough to walk under or even on the mushroom's heads. I had already seen something similar (mushroom headss made of cardboard and the stems made of pencils), but I don't like that they will take up too much storage space. So I glued old bottlecaps below the heads and neodym magnets (5x5x2 mm) to the stems. Besides better storability, now I can use the stems for other things as well (trees maybe?). I covered heads and stems completely with hotglue to give them some texture. The ones on the pictures below took me about half an hour to get this far. I'm not sure about which color-scheme to use, so I'll paint them later... BtW: I discovered that neodym magnets have gotten dirt-cheap since last time I looked (several years ago). I know that they have a very bad ecological footprint (coming more than 90% from china/mongolia, with some very serious pollution issues). This is something I usually take extremely serious and avoid at all costs, but creative greed (...so many possibilities!) got the better of me and I ordered 200 smal (5x5x2 mm) magnets for less than 15 Euro, shipping included. Ridiculous price, if you ask me...    |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:55:24 GMT
The following was inspired by Miniwargaming’s wicked idea of making alien vegetation our of straws: However 'inspired’ is the wrong word, as I blatantly copied the whole thang. The only idea I added was to glue small magnets to the bottom of the plants and to the bases, creating two major advantages: 1) Much better portability. Now you can stack the relatively flat bases and keep the plants in a small box. 2) Better flexibility: You can use the bases together with other decoration and you can stick the plants to other things. I’ll post pictures of the complete tiles later on.     The holes in the stems, with their orange-red rim, almost look like screaming mouths. I plan to use that in-game, making these weirdos into a kind of underdark reed that got mutated byTorog's madness left behind as some kind of divine background radiation of evil/madness/pain, so these plants now telepathically scream the pain of their warped bodies out. Let's see the party fight against themselves and/or imaginary foes!  |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:55:55 GMT
On my list of videos to do are these...  Very simple using only the standard materials shown so far. Cardstock, Kebab skewers, hot glue and paint and waterbased gloss varnish. I had seen this picture before and absolutely LOVE these mushrooms! Just from the picture alone, I can't really figure out how to get the warping of the caps right, so I can't wait to see your vid... The magnet idea for breakdown/storage/modularity is really cool. Your unpainted mushrooms looked great, and the "reeds-in-psychic-pain" tile looked totally otherwordly. Great job! |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:57:00 GMT
I modified DMG's mushroom variant another bit...This is what I had done so far: i.imgur.com/6fE4zFo.jpgThat's basically copying DMG's method, plus glueing a neodym magnet in the base of the toadstool. Now, instead of building the 'shroom cap completely out of hotglue,... 1) I formed the basic cone-shape with a piece of strong paper and glued it on a circle: i.imgur.com/O4nVj7n.jpg2) Then I just build up hotglue on the cone and waited for it to dry: i.imgur.com/cWdpSRP.jpg3) Since hotglue can take quite long until it cools down and isn't sticky anymore (a fact that frustrated me to no end...), find something to stabilise the piece so that you don't have to hold it until it's cold. These three corks do a good job, but if you do more than one piece (which is quite likely), you'll need lots of corks. And you can bet that some will topple and leave you with sticky mess of hotglue. Murphy's law says thatthis will happen in the worst possible situation, creating the most possible chaos on your craft desk (domino effect, anyone?).
Today I ended up with nine toadstools, in less than half the time I needed for the first batch: i.imgur.com/CbnZTCo.jpg
Haven't glued on the neodyms and couldn't paint'em so far, but I am quite happy with the outcome.
...oh, and there's one other thing I figured out today...
I hadn't seen it so far anywhere, so it is either so incredibly trivial that nobody bothered to mention it so far, or I just stumbled over a new hotglue technique that is worth a nomination for the Nobel Price of crafting.
...hey, I didn't ever say I'm modest! 
As I said above and we all probably know this from experience, hotglue can be quite frustrating to work with. Not only does it take a long time to cool down, there's also the thing that it when you touch it while it's hot, you'll draw these whisps and filaments, which usually create a mess. Not more. Instead of waiting for it to cool down, dip it in cold water. [astonished silence] Dip. It. In. Cold. Water.Only five words, but they have changed my crafting. I also never said I'm into avoiding hyperboles...
First, you'll save yourself a whole lot of waiting time. Second, when dipping it in cold water, you can arrest the shape of the hotglue. Let me explain: I often applied hotglue and got it in a nice shape, only to see it running away because it was too liquid. If you dip it in water, it instantly gets cold and keeps whatever shape it was in. I still have to experiment with this, but I suspect this opens up new ways of shaping / modelling with hotglue... |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:57:17 GMT
Great idea, soon to be stolen... |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:57:30 GMT
The painted toadstools, this time using a more muted color scheme: i.imgur.com/yFxahpw.jpgThe one in the center on the red screw cap is the stem of a garlic bulb.I just glued a neodym on the bottom and gave the stem a light brown priming to cover the hotglue. The next batch of toadstools is already in the works: i.imgur.com/zHLGYLa.jpgThis is how many cones you'll get from a CD cover: i.imgur.com/y2ilRq4.jpgI used the cap of an empty deo roll-on as guide for the circles (diameter 4,6mm). If you want broader caps, cut the circles in half. For more pointed caps, cut them in thirds. A strip of scotch tape holds the cone together (faster than hotglue or whiteglue). [edit] 'nother shot with natural light: i.imgur.com/T0mRsDG.jpg On the left side you can see the next toadstool variant: acorn caps. Pretty obvious, when you think about it... They are smaller than the current toadstool batches (which are slightly higher than a normal-sized creature), yet still large enough for a halfling to get at least some cover behind it. It already somes with an interesting texture, and if you prefer natural colors*, you don't even have to paint the cap. * Of course when you want them to be growing in the underdark, any color can be considered 'natural'...Once you get an eye for shapes, you can't take a walk without finding some stuff - especially in autumn. I hope that eventually, my neighbours will get used to me constantly picking up stuff on the streets...
Here's another variant for mushrooms: You can buy dried mushrooms that are funnel-shaped on ebay. They're used by florists and for decoration, so they come in bags of dozens or even hundreds and are quite cheap. I'm not sure about their english name, but the german online entries I found call them "Kalix". small variant: i.imgur.com/ie05i1Y.jpglarge variant: i.imgur.com/Fqi9BSB.jpg |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:58:00 GMT
...guess what: 'nother kind'o fungus!  (I think I might have an unhealthy funghi obsession.) Try to find some dried lotus pods. Like the funnel-shaped mushrooms, they are used by florists and as decoration material and come quiet cheap. I got a box of 50 pods, prepainted (burgundy, i.e. red/brown) for 13 euro, shipping costs already included: i.imgur.com/HUonjLD.jpgYou don't really have to do much - they already look wicked enough.   The brown 'stump' i sculpted from modelling paste, but paper maché should do the job equally well. Just form a little cone, press the small end of the lotus pod in to form the crater, add some texture on the sides (I pressed a piece of bark in the still-malleable modelling paste), let it dry and paint it up and you're done. They're ideal as mushrooms (the harmless variant), but I prefer to use them as brood chambers for critters. Seriously, this stuff looks like the organic kindergarden for tyranids or aliens, or whatever swarming creatures you want to throw at your players. You don't even have to come up with some foreboding text to read or tell your players - when you put up the dungeon terrain (with the usual descriptions, you put the lotus piece on the table last ( after the party's miniatures) and fall silent. Don't describe it, let the optics of this thing do the job. Look ominously, or try to make no speciaol expression at all. I think the players will be scared like hell.  |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:58:24 GMT
Awesome stuff, Tauster, everything here looks excellent. I think you are undisputed forum expert on fungi. He is a fun guy...  |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:58:38 GMT
Worked on the 3rd batch of toadstools (16 pieces, all with papercone-caps as described above). The lord of the house already approved them. So today I finished painting the stems, but I am stull unsure which colors to use for the caps... All have neodym bases, and the hotglue whisps on the bases of the stems proved to be a godsend, because they add really great texture when basepainted and drybrushed. - mahagony brown as basepaint, then - an olive/ocre/sand color for 1st drybrush layer (with a bit more color left on the brush than usual, as I wanted to cover most of the dark brown), then - the same color, mixed heavily with white. See here for the two drybrush-colors. First drybrush layer applied: i.imgur.com/kuHNXIM.jpgi.imgur.com/BV2FSz8.jpgSecond drybrush layer applied: i.imgur.com/otVkW4v.jpgi.imgur.com/lDo5kO7.jpgThe stems came out very organic-looking, and I'm quite happy with the result. My concern is that the caps won't have such a look, as the glue there dried more uniformly. So either I torture the caps again with the hot gluegun or I'll have to paint some structure on... I also thought about giving the stems a layer of clear acrylic glossy varnish, but I did this on the greenish-brown batch and I don't really like the resut. It looks too wet and/or plastic. Now that I have both variants in front of me, I definitely prefer the matte look. |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 20:59:30 GMT
Excellent stuff... hotglumagoo Your mosses and mushrooms are superb! Lots of excellent ideas. Really great looking terrain! Really like the last set in the picture you posted on the 23rd! The lotus pods are fantastic. |
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 21:02:42 GMT
I copied (quoted) all the content from the original thread in the old message board.
Please do not use the old thread for any further postings, as I will not transfer them to this one.
All new postings will appear only here in the future.
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Post by tauster on Aug 19, 2014 11:49:34 GMT
Time for some new fungoid goddess goodness! Junkshroom Made out of ...cheese rind.   No, really. Guess you haven't seen that coming. Have you ever eaten Babybel? You know, the tiny cheese rolls where unwrapping them is half the fun?  The picture above shows almost the complete craft: Unwrap it.  Scrunch the wax into a ball, wrap it in the red plastic foil and twirl it together until it looks like in the first picture. Cover it completely in whiteglue and hang it somewhere to dry.  Hotglue it on some bases. Add some rubbleflock or static grass, whatever you like.  ...that yellow stuff you see in the pic above? That's another pasta type of course!
GnoccishroomsThey shouldn't let me near the pasta shelf...  The left one will probably become some weird kind of brood pod. OK, that's a tautology. Which brood pod isn't weird... The one on the right is our gnocci fungus. Since no two of them are exactly the same, you have to cover them heavily in hotglue to hide the seams.  Rubbleflock all the stuff. When all is dry, don't forget to go the rocks again to give them an additional protective layer, preventing the tiny stones to flake off everywhere in your room or flat.  The first thing I thought when I saw the gnocci was ' clouds!', but I don't know where i would need miniature clouds. But brood pods aren't bad, and I can always use another few shrooms for dungeon decoration! They might also work as lump / cancerous growths on some mutant creature. Just a thought... [edit] Here's the additional whiteglue layer. As long as you don't mount heaps of glue on the rubbleflock, it won't obscure the texture. But don't be stingy with glue in this step, or you'll have rock chips on your carpet. If you want, you can also include some small magnetic metal scraps (I cut twist-off caps into small squares and glue them on) so you'll be able to add various dungeon deco pieces with neodym magnets glued to their base.  [/edit] |
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Post by tauster on Aug 22, 2014 19:36:13 GMT
Forgot to update the progress of the cheserind 'shrooms here... The first batch has been basepainted black as seen in the lower half of this posting:  I just made another batch, plus a few underdark flowers (corn poppy pods with a litthe wire and hotglue). Since I ran out of babybel cheese, I crumpled some aluminum foil into similar shapes. The result is lightly different but still has some nice folds. Guess I'll see the final result only after painting them up... Word of caution: Aluminum foil is a great heat conductor! Even if you glue in the magnet on the shroom's bottom, the top still gets quite warm. Nothing our hotglue-scarred fingertips can't handle though.  As you can see in the pic, I didn't glue each piece to a base as with the first batch. Instead I gave each a snall magnet, so I can use them a bit more flexibly. |
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Post by whytespirit on Aug 25, 2014 7:58:05 GMT
This was one of the initial posts that got me hooked onto this site. A smorgasbord of amazing crafting techniques and tricks, truely inspirational.
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Post by tauster on Sept 21, 2014 14:26:03 GMT
For the sake of completeness, here are my latest mushroom projects that I had originally posted in the Flotsam and Jetsam thread. Shroom Number Onevalas infected my with his mykonid project, and today finally some plastic 'shrooms arrived! *happy dance*  So I finally made my first mykonid, but boy was that critter hard to craft!  All in all, it took about 45 minutes or so (didn't really look at the watch), but it felt like ages. My main challenges were: - Forming the legs into a believable walking pose (I failed, it's just standing) - Making the eyes actually look, i.e. making two simple indentations that looked like eyes and cause the illusion of a face. sounds easy but was super-hard for me, because whenever I had something I liked, I destroyed them when I tinkered at the shoulder areass, or elsewhere. - Arms... I liked the spindly arms that valas made and wanted to replicate thatm but the difficulty is that they always bend out of shape. - ...and don't even mention the hands! *teeth gnashing* Long story (rant) short, here are some pictures: Lady forscale was witness to the birthing of 'shroom number one.  I accidentally ripped the first arm off, so I had to try again. Three times. His right arm seems caught in a rapper's pose.  After I was done, I had to find a place where it can rest and harden, without toppling over or bending. Gravity is your enemy here... I put a nail through the center hole and made gravity my friend.  Zoomed in and turned upside down. Or downside up, to be exact.  Well, for a prototype, it could have been worse, but the next 'nid will be made with clay instead of green stuff. It would be too much to say I actually hate greenstuff, but I certainly like other sculpting materials like clay much better. For one, 'stuff sticks like hell. It gets better when you dip your fingers and tools in water from time to time, but whenever they are dry again, you're stuck. Literally. And then there's those fingerprints all over the figure... *sigh* |
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Post by tauster on Sept 21, 2014 14:28:21 GMT
Original Post'nother mushroom project - hurray! I had sculpted these ages ago; they're sitting on my crafting table for longer than I can remember. It must have been at least a year ago, early fall 2013 I think. In other words: High time to finish them!  As you can see, I made some stems from clay but not nearly enough. The simplest solution is rumpled aluminum foil and some hotglue:  Just take care not to burn yourself - aluminum is a great heat conductor (I know I've written that a couple of times, but I manage to burn myself every so often, so I guess I can repeat it a few more times *g*)  So now I have the same problem I always encounter at this stage: How in Zuggtmoy's hellish realm shall I paint them?!¿? I guess its time for a bit of online research...
Part twoColors are not my strong side, but I dragged myself today to put some color on the newest mushrooms. I have some Valllejo and Citadel colors that I got cheap from a auction but never used so far. Turns out I really like'em! I still have to try some of the color combinations, but even with the results below, I can do some funny underdark / feydark mushrooms! The opper picture is taken under neon light, the lower one with cloudy daylight.  The stems made of crumpled aluminum foil are a real winner. The pictures don't really show it, but their contours look great when basepainted and drybrushed with two different colors.
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Post by fayegrimm on Sept 21, 2014 16:53:21 GMT
Wow. I love all the designs, especially the straws and the straight up garden growths. I think I may have to make an excuse for the party to make either a trip to the Feywild or the Underdark now.
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Post by whytespirit on Sept 22, 2014 15:06:43 GMT
Tauster is the Mushroom King. And as its coming up to Autumn -which is mushroom season - very topical indeed. I've yet to find the time to finish off sticking neodyms to my bases..... such is life.
Love the mush!
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sorry for the doublepun in the title, couldn't resist... 
