While on a trip to the local Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago, I noticed some Barbie-like Mermaid Dolls in the toy section, and was struck by the intricate molded detail on their tails. Having had recently read about the upcoming Frostgrave rulebook, Ghost Archipelago , I thought that these tails might make some sort of neat sculpture or totem of an ancient nautical themed civilization for use with the new rules. And, so I began my first Ghost Archipelago terrain project.
I started by removing the tails from the upper torso. They are just held in by a plastic button, so easily pull apart. I then created a base out of an old CD and a couple 1.5 inch washers. Next, I cut the tails down so they would sit, and cross, at just the right angle. After that, I cut off part of one fin to help give that ancient crumbling look. I then glued the tails to the base, and also glued a pattern of plaster hexes into the center to help hide the hole in the CD. I then filled the broken fin piece and the part of the tail where I cut it from with a bit of cork, and then covered the cork over with hot glue. Lastly, I glued the broken fin down, and then covered the hot glue on the broken pieces with some white glue, and sprinkled a little fine sand on it to help the broken stone appearance.
I then coated the base with white glue and then covered it with a coarse sand mix. When everything was dry, I sprayed a base coat on the piece with some dark brown camo spray paint.
It was then just a matter of giving everything a drybrushing of progressively lighter shades of tan. Afterwards, I glued some foliage to the base, and bit of vine to the top of the arch. I then sprayed the piece with some matte varnish.
I'm really happy with how this turned out, and look forward to next Fall when the rules are released and I will get a chance to use it in a game!
Casting with Schneider Molds for a 19th Century Project
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Through a fortuitous alignment in work and holiday schedules I was able to
get five days off at the cost of one vacation day last week. Unfortunately
f...
5 months ago
Outstanding looking terrain piece!
ReplyDeleteThank you, BLACKSTAR!
DeleteVery cool!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bob!
DeleteThat's very clever! Cheers, Karl
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karl!
DeleteNow you just need to find something to use the top halves for!
ReplyDeleteOh, I have plans.... Muwahahaha! :)
DeleteYou could maybe use the top halves to make very large zombies emerging from the ground or a HAZMAT barrel. Now what one could do with them after that is beyond my feeble imagination!
ReplyDeleteChris J.
That's not a bad idea. Kind of like Attack of the 100ft Woman!
Delete"Attack of the 100' Undead Woman"--practically begs to be shown on the soon-to-be-resurrected MST 3K!
ReplyDeleteActually, Dollar Stores always seem to sell a lot of these faux-Barbies. One could upscale a simple game like "Zombie Plague", using them. It would be a hoot converting them into the undead......oh great, now I'm thinking about running over to my local Dollar Tree and buying a bunch more stuff I don't need. Damn!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the dark side. My work here is done. :)
Deletethat is a great piece of terrain. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you Joakim!
Delete