dossen
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Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 20, 2017 15:53:01 GMT
Hi, Figured it's about time to share something of my own, after having enjoyed some many craft-projects (and being inspired by quite a few) :-) He's still quite a ways from being done, but here's my attempt at a more impressive Earth Elemental for the Temple of Elemental Evil board game: The little guy besides him is the original Earth Elemental from TOEE.
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 20, 2017 16:02:07 GMT
Some background...
The kids got me the game for Christmas, and we've started playing the campaign. We've made a small modification to the game to account for the fact that the kids are four and eight (and not native english speakers) - I'm DM'ing the game (running the monsters, encounter cards, and generally adding flavor (and bending rules where needed)) while my wife plays the third PC. This works surprisingly well - we've already played quite a few games with the Wrath of Ashardalon set.
But I'm a little bit disappointed that the earth and water elementals are only medium sized monsters - I'd really have liked all four to be large... So only one thing to do... Get crating... ;-)
I'm still working on the idea for a large water elemental, but I'll add a few more work in progress photos of Earthy below - with a bit about what I did. Sorry, but I didn't grab pics at the very beginning, so it's not going to be a full how-to.
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 20, 2017 16:10:01 GMT
He started life as a large block of semi-soft foam (the black kind that computer bits come in - forget its name) for the legs and body, plus two small bits for the arms. I carved the block into a rough humanoid-ish shape with a box cutter, added carved arms held on with needles (they are left glued in to maintain stability) and glued him onto a suitably sized round disc of some scrap fiberboard (I think it might be from a fruit box or some other packaging). Onto the dabs of glue holding him together I sprinkled a few small rocks.
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 20, 2017 16:15:26 GMT
Once the initial glue hardened came the step I mentally referred to as the "White Glue Elemental".
The basic idea was to just cover him with a thin(ish) layer of PVA. Onto this I attached a few more rocks and ended up with the current state of the project. Next step is to improve on a few face-like features and cover everything with black paint so I can drybrush a reasonably earth-like finish on him :-)
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Post by margaret on Jan 20, 2017 16:36:49 GMT
An impressive start! and welcome to the forums
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Post by jennifer on Jan 20, 2017 17:50:29 GMT
Good job! WAYY more impressive! )
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 20, 2017 18:39:14 GMT
The unpainted look works, IMO. He really looks like an animated, ginormous, lump of earth! He is actually quite good, at this point. Looking forward to seeing what you do with painting him. As for the Water Elemental, here is a link to what I did for a Huge Fire Elemental figure (Scroll down the page to seeit; this is what a 24 HD Fire Elemental should look like, IMHO). Perhaps it will give you an idea on how to make your Water Elemental? I've been thinking of using the same basic technique, only shaping it differently, and then painting it blue and white, to make it into Water, instead of Fire Elemental. Cheers!
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 20, 2017 18:58:56 GMT
Thanks for the link :-) I think I came across it a while back actually - but having the link in this thread sure makes it easy to find. I'm already thinking over the ways to make your method work for water. And I might even try it out for additional fire elementals in different sizes (which I really think there should be).
Rant: In the rules of ToEE they explicitly state that the new water elemental is different from the Drizzt ones... so why not spend the tiny bit of extra plastic to make it a different size...
BTW: a question of customs - if I craft something inspired (or straight-out copied) from an old thread, should I then post it in a new thread (perhaps with a link to the old one) or is resurecting the old thread allowed?
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Post by voodoo on Jan 20, 2017 19:19:16 GMT
great you guys do this as a family. Elemental is way better looking than the board game mini. Cheers and keep the posts coming.
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 20, 2017 21:30:42 GMT
However you wish to do it. A link to the inspiring thread would be nice, but I don't think it is necessary -- as a reader, though, I would certainly appreciate it as it would give me more ideas, and demonstrate how you came to your version of it. As to thread necromancy, I like it: it tends to keep the topics all together.
For example, there are numerous threads on Purple Worms. I don't mind that, but if they were grouped together, somehow, it would make it much easier for me to research the different approaches, and see the development of the techniques.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for a huge Water Elemental... I need to put some effort into this, myself. I think I could create a variation on my basic technique, to create a decent Air Elemental, as well. Then again, I like what previous posters have done using cotton batting to make a fully scale-able Air Elemental, virtually any size you want/need...
I may spend some time in the crafting room, aka, my Mad Crafter's Laboratory, this weekend, having been duly inspired, and motivated! Thank you! Cheers!
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 20, 2017 22:41:12 GMT
Thanks for all the kind words :-) Here's a closeup of the markings that I hope will become sufficiently face-like once painted. After that he got a round of nice black paint (just some generic craft acrylic from a tube - not going to risk spraying on foamed plastic - plus it's cold outside). Finally I put a bit of light blue paint in the eyes (old GW Ice Blue I think it was) - hope this will give a nice look once he's all done (my current plan is a dab of gloss varnish on top of it once he's all painted up). So far it draws my eyes to his face, so I think it will work... We'll see if I can put more details in there...
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Post by kgstanley81 on Jan 21, 2017 1:55:36 GMT
Maybe a little bit of moss on some raised areas
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 21, 2017 2:44:41 GMT
Gorgeous! Love the blue eyes. Cheers!
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 21, 2017 22:33:53 GMT
kgstanley81 I think there's a good chance he'll meet a bit of moss or lichen or something - I've got a little basket full of basing stuff (benefits of having painted miniatures for quite a few years) sgtslag Thanks - I hope they will show up well when he's all drybrushed up and pretty - it's one of those details that I think would be a pain to get back to later... And thanks once again for the link to your neat fire elemental - I've started on a water variant... It started with a piece of clear plastic (from the box of a toy), which I cut in a tongue-like shape and taped into a curve that I think will work for a cartoon style breaking wave (sorry, this stage didn't really want to pose for a nice photo). Into this I superglued a smaller bit of the same plastic to add some rigidity. The result went onto a suitable base with a dab of hot glue. If you look closely, you can see how the smaller bit curves inside the large one, pulling it (partially) into shape. Once that was stuck on (with a fresh piece of tape holding the shape), I proceeded with a load of hot glue on the outside - enough to make the clear plastic go kinda soft - but not enough to turn it into a messy glob of glue and plastic, luckily :-) Once that cooled down, I had something with a half-decent shape and I added a bit more glue to both sides to build up the texture. I think it scales nicely with the Air Elemental from ToEE - by far my favorite of the for in the box, and my son (he's the four year old) instantly recognized it as a wave :-) To get a bit of the anthropomorphic feel to the final result, I wanted a couple of small pseudopods/arms looking like smaller waves breaking inside the big one (I have no idea if the physics of this makes sense - it's "rule of cool" all the way on these kinds of things for me). Gluegunning those up on a few scraps of the clear plastic: This time the plastic will be in the middle, horizontally, seen from the front (so rotate 90 degrees from the other bit of plastic). Gluing those into the big wave looks promising: Next step is a little experiment with some old ink and some PVA - I'd like to get the base blue tone onto the wave without turning it totally opaque... But that will have to dry overnight on a test-piece...
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 21, 2017 22:36:25 GMT
BTW, I also took a quick shot of the foam that the Earth Elemental is based on:
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dossen
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Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 21, 2017 23:51:59 GMT
And I just got in a little more hobby work before bedtime: And the closeup: Still a bit to go, but he's starting to look the part :-)
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 22, 2017 9:49:15 GMT
Mixing PVA and ink did not turn out as I wanted (lucky I did a test), but I found something else... An almost empty jar of water based gloss varnish (the kind you can use for paper crafts and stuff) mixed with a bit of water (because it was almost dried out) and a big drop of ink (it's the unfocused pot in the background - GW blue ink from back before they came out with ready to use washes. It backs a lot of color and I usually watered it down a lot before washing with it) gave me a mixture that painted on in a light blue tone, didn't run too badly (I only had to do a little bit of picking up drops and run offs and reapplying it to bare spots), and dried into a pretty nice basecoat: Now it begins to look like water :-) It does have some bubbles and stuff, but I'm hoping that a few careful highlights with light blue and white paint will make it look like part of the surface texture.
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 22, 2017 15:13:48 GMT
Wow! Gorgeous Water Elemental! Love it! Cheers!
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Post by skunkape on Jan 23, 2017 16:55:09 GMT
Great looking earth and water elementals!
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dossen
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 182
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Post by dossen on Jan 23, 2017 21:11:55 GMT
I worked on some finishing touches today... First getting a little bit more highlights on the water elemental than I really wanted: Dialing that back down a bit with some blue wash (and some new highlights), here he is attacking an old PC of mine:
I think the scale works out well for a boss monster :-) It got a little darker in the process, but in person it is still quite shiny (it got some plain gloss varnish after paint) and slightly translucent. I put some basing on it and took a (totally unfair) comparison shot with the original (unpainted) elemental: The earth elemental also got a little love:
Besides being way small, I actually think his purple friend will look nice in the same color scheme. And a parting shot with some friends for scale, before they go into my display cabinet to await their time on the table: And again thanks for the comments and suggestions :-)
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