Member Challenge: Air Elemental build & share!
Aug 8, 2023 18:18:07 GMT
skunkape, Sam, and 1 more like this
Post by sgtslag on Aug 8, 2023 18:18:07 GMT
I am sure many forum members have seen numerous examples of Air Elemental miniatures. over the past 40 years. They usually are sculpted as some form of cyclone, made out of hard plastic or metal/resin.
My idea is to make them out of cotton fiber filler, or cotton balls. Years ago, circa 1999, I made some pillow stuffing smoke clouds for my Army Men games. i took the filler material, pulling it into billowing masses, to form an outline for a smoke cloud, as used by military forces to mask the enemy's ability to see, and target, them (Smoke Shells and Smoke Grenades!). I sprayed the cottony mass with black spray paint, and it created a grayish cloud, of varying darkness, creating natural shading, all with the press of a spray can nozzle. I also used these to mark blown up Tanks and other vehicles -- this is a common, well-known technique for tabletop war games modeling
I realized, today, that that same technique could be applied to pillow stuffing/cotton balls, glued to a substrate, creating a cloud-like body for an Air Elemental. I will admit it may be limited to use for larger specimens, say 16-24 HD monsters, being 4-6+ inches tall. Still, it should be easy to make.
Hold onto your hats, folks, I realized this could be a fun, Board Member Challenge, like in the days of old, here on DM Scotty's crafting board!
Cheers!
My idea is to make them out of cotton fiber filler, or cotton balls. Years ago, circa 1999, I made some pillow stuffing smoke clouds for my Army Men games. i took the filler material, pulling it into billowing masses, to form an outline for a smoke cloud, as used by military forces to mask the enemy's ability to see, and target, them (Smoke Shells and Smoke Grenades!). I sprayed the cottony mass with black spray paint, and it created a grayish cloud, of varying darkness, creating natural shading, all with the press of a spray can nozzle. I also used these to mark blown up Tanks and other vehicles -- this is a common, well-known technique for tabletop war games modeling
I realized, today, that that same technique could be applied to pillow stuffing/cotton balls, glued to a substrate, creating a cloud-like body for an Air Elemental. I will admit it may be limited to use for larger specimens, say 16-24 HD monsters, being 4-6+ inches tall. Still, it should be easy to make.
Hold onto your hats, folks, I realized this could be a fun, Board Member Challenge, like in the days of old, here on DM Scotty's crafting board!
- Cut out a substrate in a vaguely humanoid shape, with a head, arms, and body dwindling down to a narrow base.
- Spray paint the cottony materials with black spray paint(?), from a distance, to impart variegated gray shading to the cotton material.
- Use either pillow stuffing (very bulky, harder to work with, on smaller sized models), or cotton balls, pulled out, and tufted into more spindly ball shapes, more airy; glue these to the substrate, completely covering it, so that the substrate is invisible. Make sure the figure is rounded -- it can be circular, like a whirlwind, but it need not be; heck you could make two versions of it: whirlwind cyclone, and an Elemental at rest, just clouding around...
- Mount the finished figure to a decorated base of 50mm-60mm diameter, round or square.
- Share photos of your entire modeling adventure, right here, to share with your crafty friends!
Cheers!