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Post by tauster on Jul 21, 2017 21:24:10 GMT
Painted the first three up. I did the caps with different color schemes to see what works best. Not surprisingly, deafnala 's red-yellow-white-dots-on-purple color combo looks best.  Three done, seventeen more to go. I'm not completely happy with the color of the stems, so I might return to my old paint scheme. Lets see... |
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Post by tauster on Dec 18, 2017 19:51:40 GMT
A new fungoid lifeform is soon to be discovered by a poor party of adventurers.  It has no name yet and its dangers and uses are only known to itself, just as the answer to the question what in Zuggtmoy's name those balls are. They could be spores of the mushroom, parasites that eventually bring their host down (like the one specimen in the pic) or cancerous outgrowths caused b the unhealthy radiation in some parts of the underdark. Who knows? As always, ideas are welcome! A word of caution: If you work with these little styrofoam balls (the stuff found inside beanbags), take care where these little buggers jump to! They are impossibly hard to control and I am sure I'll find more of them on, and around, my craft desk.  |
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Post by deafnala on Dec 19, 2017 1:13:28 GMT
Whatever the balls are isn't the thing; it is what they could be that gives the adventurers something to be afraid of.
One thing is definite; i.e., they are definitely VERY COOL. GREAT STUFF as always!
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Post by tauster on Dec 19, 2017 10:14:02 GMT
Whatever the balls are isn't the thing; it is what they could be that gives the adventurers something to be afraid of. One thing is definite; i.e., they are definitely VERY COOL. GREAT STUFF as always! Thanks for the compliment! I know that the unknown causes more fear than the known danger, but as a DM I should have prepared what I want to throw at the party, thats why I ask. After a not so good night's sleep (thanks to the baby), my idea is that the balls are growths filled with the nutritious spores, but hidden among them are eggs of some parasite that pop up when touched and release ...something nasty. Like swarms of teeny tiny stinging flies, or a cloud of spores (parastiic fungus growing on other funghi) that infect the poor guys who stood nearby with something that either develops slowly after several rests, or causes immediate shortness of breath, extreme itches, etc. The art will be to recognise the good eggs and to avoid (and/or somehow neutralise) the bad balls. That way I have both good and bad aspects in the game, preventing the players from torching each and every mushroom from afar just to be safe, and there's an incentive of investing character points in the Survival (Underdark) proficiency (ADND 2nd edition & Player's Options add-on rules). I had based two of them in black last night and just drybrushed them, to see how the texture turns out (love it!). Here's two shots, one taken with flash and one done with my crappy LED work light taken in the flickering light of the dwarf's flaming axe.   |
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Post by deafnala on Dec 30, 2017 16:47:17 GMT
If you roll for the type of egg sac the PC has just touched, you add more terror to the situation; i.e., there is NOTHING quite as fear inducing for a PC as having the DM start rolling dice in response to an action.
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Post by tauster on Jun 4, 2019 20:15:28 GMT
...another case of thread necromancy, or it would be if it were actually dead. Though I'd like to think that the Mushrooms were just...hibernating.  I'm reading underdark campaign Rise of the Drow at the moment, whose mushroom chapter was the thing that sold me. So I spontaneously decided that I needed more giant mushroom minibigatures. 'Giant' meaning one cap with 40+cm diameter, two caps half that size, and Pringles cans textures with construction foam for stems. The trio is far from finished, but here's some WIP pics. A wok lid wrapped in cling foil propped up on a bucket is the frame for the large cap. The two smaller ones were made with styrofoam half-spheres as frames, again wrapped in cling foil so I can pry the paper maché off the frame after it has dried (which worked perfectly, btw). I used Scotty's paper maché method with watered-down PVA glue, using up a whole kitchen roll and some newspaper for the frame. It took two days of drying outside in the sunshine (20-25°C and dry, sunny weather). I had put some small mounds of crumpled paper maché to the smaller caps for some added interest,... ...but left the large cap free of features - which I found it too boring after all had dried. So I added construction foam to get some organic, growing textures. I'm quite happy with the result: This stuff really looks like there's another type of fungus growing on the giant mushroom!  I'll paint this growth in a different color than the cap, even if this might take some time and work (maybe a wash & drybrush will do the job quicker...?).
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Post by skunkape on Jun 5, 2019 20:53:33 GMT
That large one does look like it's got some kind of growth on it, other than just it's mushroom cap! It has a high creep factor!
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Post by tauster on Jun 6, 2019 15:09:28 GMT
That large one does look like it's got some kind of growth on it, other than just it's mushroom cap! It has a high creep factor!
That's ecaxtly what I intended. What's not visible on the last: Even that 'first-order' growth got a little second-order growth on it. I hope I can make that clear with the paint job - which I don't look forward to, to be honest...
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Post by tauster on Jun 22, 2019 21:23:54 GMT
I'm making giant stalks made with construction foam. It is a relatively cheap material, quite durable and takes paint well.
I wanted the stalks to bend over a bit, and to be detachable from the caps. The first got made with a core of a bent steel wire of 6mm diameter. This should withstand everything I might put on my game table. I losely wrapped some chicken wire around it so the foam has something to grab onto while it is still soft. This worked quite well.
For the second stalk I couldn't use the same method because it was was already too late to use the angle grinder to cut the wire, and I hadn't any spare chicken wire left. So I just used a relatively strong and flexible twig as the core of the stalk. I drilled a 2nd hole in the board, put the twig in and carefully covered it with foam. It's a bit tricky, as the foam tends to slip from the twig and falls of. It is quite warm in the workshop right now (guesstimate 25-30°C), so the foam starts to cure faster than normal. After 10-15 minutes it had already a non-sticky 'skin' that could be ripped and torn open, giving the stalks into even more grotesque shapes:
If this survives the complete curing process (the foam will expand during the next few hours, so none of those shapes are final yet), it will look quite nightmare-inducing.Not sure how to paint it to keep the effect alive... Pro tip: Don't wear your favourite shirt while working with foam. Or a new shirt. Or your NEW GODDAM FAVOURITE SHIRT!   |
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Post by margaret on Jun 23, 2019 6:36:33 GMT
Oops! =(
nice mushroom stalks though
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Post by tauster on Jun 23, 2019 14:47:29 GMT
If this survives the complete curing process (the foam will expand during the next few hours, so none of those shapes are final yet), it will look quite nightmare-inducing.Not sure how to paint it to keep the effect alive... The texture is still sufficiently disgusting after curing, so I'm quite happy (with my shirt, not so much).
I hotglued twist-off caps to the undersides of the caps and three neodym magnets to the top of the thinner stalk, separating the hotglue-empedded magnets and the twist-off cap with cling-foil.
I had to hold the cap in the position I wanted until the glue cooled down:
Turns out that the cling foil clings to the hotglue - which is bad because color wouldn't cling to it and I wouldn't be able to paint it later. So I smeared a very thin film of contruction foam over the foil & magnets. When it started to expand to 2-3mm thickness, I repeatedly scraped over the film to make it thiner again because the magnets lose significant amounts of grabbing strength with each mm distance. It still expanded happily afterwards, so I left the cap on the magnets, hoping the pressure between the magnets and the twist-off cap will press the foam down.
The top of the fat stalk/trunk wasn't level at all, and I had left a piece of the steel rod looking out because I was hoping to use it to fasten the cap in some way. I scrapped the idea spontaneously and filled the top up with more foam. I watied for a few minutes for a 'skin' to form, then put a wooden board on top to make it mor or less flat, and level.
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Post by tauster on Jun 24, 2019 19:29:34 GMT
Working on the third stalk, and having just learned something new about foam, so I'd call that a good day. I used another twig, this time an inverted "Y", because it makes vor more interesting terrain. I drilled two holes slightly bigger than the twig ends, filled them with hotglue and pushed the twig in. Which means that this piece of wood will become the final base (so I have sanded it beforehand).
As mentioned before, the foam forms a 'skin' when it begins to cure. Which is considerably quicker in warm weather like today (about 30°C in the workshop). So you can rip that skin open carefully to create organic-looking holes that look like something fought its way from inside out.
What was new to me is that when you rip the foam open and spread the skins open wide enough, you can stick your finger in (wear rubber gloves - don't touch that stuff with your bare skin!) or a piece of wood, strong wire or whatever, and clear most of the foam out. It deflates as soon as it gets touched, and leaves a collow/cavity whose surface will cure into gorgeous organic-looking textures. ...well, 'gorgeous' is probably the wrong term. It's more like 'disgustingly realistic icky-ness', but you get the point.   |
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Post by margaret on Jun 29, 2019 8:19:28 GMT
'disgustingly realistic icky-ness' is a perfect descriptions. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this!
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Post by tauster on Jul 3, 2019 15:03:32 GMT
Progress on the giant mushrooms! I made two mid-sized mushrooms (i.e. about 20cm high) so I have giant mushrooms and ridiclously giant funghi. Here's the WIP from one of them. I didn't prime them, as I liked the beige of the construction foam, so I just gave them a brown wash. One was done with Army Painter's Strong tone, which I still don't like as it smells horrible and gives off a strong sheen (which might be good at mushrooms, but otherwise you rarely need a glisteing brown mini). The others were washed with diluted acrylic color. I didn't like it at that stage, but after I careflly dusted them from above with a purple from an old spraycan I had around (Army Painter's Alien Purple), it already looked wonderfully weird! After spraying the purple froma bove, I hit everything from below with dark green, then bright green. Now the beasties change color depending on the angle of view! If you put them on the game table, the caps will be at or slightly above eye level, so the effect should be clearly visible. I took lots and lots of pics to demonstrate the effect, and will add them after imgur's upload hickup ends. Still not sure it comes across as cool as in reality...
Top down:  Bottom up: The caps were sprayed from the center outwards.
The underside of the caps: From above, the green is far less visible. A look from the PC's perspective: More close-ups. Green & purple are a surprisingly good combination, if you want to go for weirdness. The pair of medium giant funghi. Now all there's to do is texturing and painting the bases.
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Post by Draklith on Jul 5, 2019 0:48:42 GMT
the fungus is among'us now... crazy colors boss, love 'em |
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Post by sgtslag on Jul 5, 2019 13:49:01 GMT
Repulsive! I love them! My characters would keep a safe, minimum distance... "Priest! You DO have Cure Disease at the ready, don't you?..."
Cheers!
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Post by tauster on Jul 5, 2019 17:17:27 GMT
Repulsive! I love them! My characters would keep a safe, minimum distance... "Priest! You DO have Cure Disease at the ready, don't you?..." Cheers! Glad you like'em. The group are all natives of the underdark (Mothers Children, see here) and will be contacted by an Underdark mushroom wardens of Hraak Azul, a troglodyte fortress made out of fungi. The fungi will commnicate via telepathic spores with the party, asking them to destroy a batch of mutated mushrooms that were corrupted by Moander, the god of rot and corruption.
So the first part of the evening will lead them in a cavern filled with my standard mushrooms (the players already know most of that stuff). If they take that mission, it will lead them in a cavern filled with the new set I made. I have a dozen of insectiloid minis that will fight them, plus whatever corrupted minis I'll find. |
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Post by sgtslag on Jul 5, 2019 21:33:34 GMT
Wicked!... I love it! Cheers!
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Post by deafnala on Jul 8, 2019 13:14:28 GMT
They really are DELIGHTFULLY creepy, WONDERFULLY imaginative, AND BEAUTIFULLY crafted & painted creations.
Your color choices are liberating. VERY WELL DONE!
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Post by tauster on Aug 5, 2019 18:17:19 GMT
From large to small... Though I'm not sure these will be converted into mushrooms. They might be just as great for subsea vegetation.
I had to drill holes in an old plastic tube to make a watering pipe. The tube was from an old vacuum cleaner, and the plastic is quite soft,...
...so the drill didn't produce small dust-like particles but rather large 'scales'. Not sure this is the right english term, so see yourself:
Not sure how well they take acrylic colors, but IF they do, I'll have another cool-looking growth for my evergrowing collection of underdark scatter terrain.
They aren't very sturdy and might break off after a while, but if I place them between other, sturdier materials on a small base (poker chips are great bases!), they might survive a little longer.
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Cheers!