Tauster's Toadstools, or: Mushroom Mayhem

[sgtslag]

This type of plastic will not take acrylic paint, directly. You will need to spray it with automotive primer, first. Then apply acrylic paints to them. Either Hot Glue, or E6000 is what I would try to adhere them to the base with. I doubt most glues will adhere to this soft plastic for very long. Keep us posted as to how this progresses. Cheers!

[Draklith]

I think a two part plastic epoxy would suffice for the job, if you don't have any primer around

[erho]

Having posting issues but the above vid I think you’ll enjoy.
Using tiny LEDs to make some great glowing ones, seems a natural progression for you

[tauster]

Aug 8, 2019 3:01:10 GMT erho said:

Having posting issues but the above vid I think you’ll enjoy.
Using tiny LEDs to make some great glowing ones, seems a natural progression for you

I saw this tutorial some years ago and started wortking on it: I have molded the mushroom cups, made the wooden board, drilled the holes, did the cabling work, ...and then live intervened and the project got pushed back. We built our house, got a second child, changed jobs. Then other projects became more motivating, pushing the mushroom light even further back, to the point that I forgot about it and remember this thing only avery few months. Now I don't even know where I've stored the components, and would have to put some serious time into finding that stuff.

Thanks for the reminder - I really want to finalize this thing and thanks to you it got drawn a little higher on my to do list!

[erho]

May help to shine a little light in on the situation...

[tauster]

The mushroom light still hasn't made it to the top of the to do list, but another giant construction foam mushroom has. It isn't finished yet, but here's some WIP shots.

The cap was made from the part of the foam that had spiled over another mold when the stuff expanded, I simply cut the spillover away and had a mushroom cap ready for use. Now I just needed a stem, and a base. I drilled a hole in the MDF board, stuck an old bent nail through (which had been countersunk into the board so that it will be flat on the table) and added two scraps of wood which were glued to the base, and each other. That all gives the mushroom a sturdy core/skeleton, so it wont break even when droppedfrom the game table.

 

Some more foam added, to get a 'fungus growing on fungus' effect. These additional growths will need a different coloring later on, to make it clear that they are a different organism.

I based the whole thing in neon green because I want the finished shroom glow from the crevices.

Then I added basecoat of brown, only leaving the crevices free:

    

The darker brown for the parasite fungus was wetb-bledded into the lighter basecoat.

I wanted a lot of mushrooms growing on the big one, so I made an army of teeny tiny shrooms by squirting hotglue into cold water, snipping it into small pieces and glueing beads on for caps.

I scored the stems horizontally with the nozzle of the gluegun to add more texture to the stems. They will probably be based in off-white or beige and a wash will make these scores visible. I might add a brighter drybrush to bring them out even more, but I'll wait until the paint is dry to decide that.

And that's where I stand. No idea how fast this thingie will be finished, but lets hope for the best.

[tauster]

The minishrooms are almost done. I made a few different caps, some with texture paint but most of them smooth. The stems are all based in an off-white, then washed with a brown I made from watered-down stamping ink. Not sure this will work out, lets see how it looks when the wash has dried...

[sgtslag]

They look like eyestalks, for a very large Beholder...

Victim:  "Aaahhh!..."

Beholder:  "They always say the same thing.  'Last words', are a bit of a cliche', it would seem..."

[tauster]

I made my first from-scratch Mykonid in 2014. These three are Reaper Bones minis. I used them as test pieces for the airbrush I got a few months ago, to learn the basics of airbrushing. Guess what: After two sessions I lost motivation, resulting in three more or less primed mykonids...

One got completely painted, the other two stood on the craft desk and stared at the other projects accusingly. Yesterday I finally finished them, now they joined the others in the showcase cabinet.

[deafnala]

OUTSTANDING! The Reaper Mushroom Fellows painted up in FINE fashion...I love the stem color. VERY WELL DONE!
The Purple one behind the new Guys is a WONDERFUL piece as well.

[tauster]

Oct 8, 2019 16:27:17 GMT deafnala said:

OUTSTANDING! The Reaper Mushroom Fellows painted up in FINE fashion...I love the stem color. VERY WELL DONE!
The Purple one behind the new Guys is a WONDERFUL piece as well.

Glad you like them. I'll get a better shot at the purple one and its colleagues. You might find them oddly familiar...

[tauster]

The first project in my new crafting room should have to do either with tentacles or mushrooms...

sgtslag decided that question for me when he shared a vid containing a hitherto unknown way to make (mass produce!) mushrooms completely out of hotglue. The method is quick, simple and cheap, and produces a wonderful variety of different shapes. What more can you ask for.

Making the first few caps. I started making them all uniform in size, but quickly discovered that larger and smaller caps add lots of options. You'll quickly learn that the larger the cap, the longer it takes for it to harden, so be wise and start making the largest first!

I already had those stems, which I had made months before for another project (guts for my zombie sharks, I believe). My boy cut them to size with the knive, thereby practicing hiw bladework skills.

It took us about 40 mins to come up with the lot you see in the pic below. Not bad!

Now it is tome for painting... Since my craft table still needs a cover to protect it from cuts and paint stains, so this will have to wait another few days.