tauster
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Post by tauster on Sept 26, 2013 2:07:10 GMT -5
I already posted these pictures in apokism's Treants thread, but last night I realized that there are many different ways of crafting tentacles. So I figured that I'd better do a separate thread for all kinds of crafting pseudopods, as with the mushroom discussion. I continued yesterday with the pseudopods, but before posting these pics, I'd better re-quote what I wrote in the Treants thread to show you how this project started:
Best* way of creating bark texture is, ...well... using bark:
Grab a nice rough piece of bark and use it as a stamp. This is super-easy and creates a realistic-looking texture that would probably take longer than clay needs to dry (which can be several days) if you try to model it with a tool. At least with my modeling skills...
* 'Best' in the sense of 'fastest and most realistic'. I know there is no one right/best way...
I started with pseudopods yesterday (see Scottie's turorial), so I took a few shots to show how bark texture can look. Of course it can look very different, depending on the type of bark you use as a stamp. I used a willow bark that I had already painted for use as a piece of rock in my games, but I was too lazy to rummage through the box with the dried bark pieces. I can recommend willow bark in general - it has a great texture for stamps and with black basepaint and some drybrushing looks very much like rock. anyways, here's the pseudopod WIP:
i.imgur.com/dtQxlpj.jpg
i.imgur.com/uKKWotq.jpg
i.imgur.com/uyjB2Pd.jpg
i.imgur.com/iYknuX6.jpg
Originally, I wanted to sculpt the upper parts of the things* out of lightweight sculpting mass (LSM), but it turned out that a) it didn't want to adhere to the clay and b) wasn't as easy to work with as before (I sculpted some little hills out of this stuff before that were done in seconds rather than minutes). I tried to form a roll with the LSM, but this time it sticked to my hands rather than itself or the clay, so I quickly gave up and continued with clay. * I'm not sure 'creature' is the right word to describe a pseudopod...Anyways, below are the update pics:  Blurry picture with less light, but you can see the texture better: ![http://i.imgur.com/n4TlcGf.jpg]()  Balance:If you work with tentacle-like shapes, taka care to have the miniature's balance in mind. As you can see, these critters bend around, looking like waving / swinging back and forth. While this is exactly what I wanted, it's also required for balance because center of gravity has to be close enough to the mini's base to avoid tipping. Teeth:I didn't add teeth so far because I rather like the looks as they are at the moment, but I think once the clay dried, at least one of them will get little stones glued on... Paint:I'm still unsure whether to paint these up like Scottie's fleshy tentacles (see link above) or as Purple Worms. Which tells me that I should probably do some more.  |
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Post by bloodchoke on Sept 26, 2013 2:45:56 GMT -5
Great work as always, tauster! Those look very otherwordly and vicious. Tree bark is a great tool. I've been using it to make rock texture in foam lately.
Oh, and perfect AV, btw.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Sept 26, 2013 4:00:56 GMT -5
thanks for the praise! (what is AV?) I found some time to glue on the neodyms, and it turned out that I was right about the importance of balance - but it also turned out that while glueing the magnets on, I could easily toy around with the direction of the tentacles - glue the 'dym on with a little spot of hotglue and put it on parchment sitting on a flat ground. Then, while the glue hardens, balance it until it stands from alone or almost alone, since the neodym will compensate for a little unbalance. If you did well, later on when you out it on a magnetic base, you can use even a pretty small base without the pseudopod tipping over (but the bigger the base, the more stability the thing will have, obviously). Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Sally Summoner and her nine Tentacles!  i.imgur.com/uwul9Lh.jpg Another thing I realised during all this balancing stuff: When you have these waving and twisty-looking things balanced out, they look right when standing on the base - 'right' in the sense of ' believable' or ' realistic'. And this makes sense: Everybody tends to balance her-/him-/itself out, even an otherworldly tentacle from beyond space and time. Because even if you're a neigbour or Astaroth and exist in an non-euclidian space where stuff like gravity and balance make no sense (to mortal minds, at least), once you visit the PC's homeworld, you are subject to the rules of the material plane (apart from some really weird planar campaigns... *g*), so you have to find a way of keeping yourself upright. And even if I paint some of them black and use them as conjured/summoned tentacles made out of weightless shadowstuff, it still looks better if the balance is right. I tried (and sometimes succeded) to add some glue strings, giving them a more organic look: i.imgur.com/bEVY6S4.jpgOne of my favourites that has an eye (glue dribble) at the end of it's tip. I must have seen this kind of thing on some cthuluesque picture because this look has an extremely familiar ring to me, but I can't remember where... imgur.com/PAIa2N0Looks like a snake: i.imgur.com/O523OyV.jpgThis one accidentally got a larger head than the others (I didn't intend to make heads or head-like ends, but some looked good so I kept them). I added a 'ridge' on the top and one below with a hole going trough, making it look like an external vein... i.imgur.com/yg4iYeE.jpgMy original motivation to do these things differently from Scottie's way was that I didn't want to wait for the papermaché to dry and harden, so I figured that with a stabilising thread in the middle and aluminum foil or dry paper wrapped around it, I could save time. It turned out that while this may be true, it's not very important if you are not in a hurry. Crafting is done mostly in the evening, so stuff has all the nifght (and most of the following day) to dry/harden. I will try Scotties method next and see how both compare. I guess his version will be a bit lighter, even if the mojority of the mini's mass is hotglue (something that I hadn't thought of before). Other things I learned: 1) ...ouch!Aluminum foil is an excellent heat conductor. This is important when you work with hotglue. 2) Paper vs. Aluminum foilTwisted paper is an adequate ersatz for aluminum foil. It is cheaper and more sustainable, since aluminum is produced with an awful lot of fossile energy and it makes no sense to waste that in a mini if there are alternative ways of reaching your end result. You will see that paper will re-twist a bit after you have wrapped it around the thread, but you will stabilise it with the hotglue later. Also, if you don't wrap it around the thread very tightly (which tends to happen with aluminum foil), you get more interesting textures later on. The texture of the aluminum foil will mostly dissapear below the hotglue, so paper leaves you with a tentacle that has more... character. Or lets just call it ' interesting bits'... 3) Hot glue magicWhen applying the hotglue, don't until it is dried completely - touch it (when it not searingly hot anymore, of course), draw some whisps and press them again on the glue. You'll end up with some interesting texture that will come out greatly once drybrushed (similar to the mushroom stems, I hope). Also, if you have some glue dribbles, re-use them and glue them back on. Hot glue dried normally in round shapes, but if you have already dried dribbles, you can cut or rip them to et some edges and pointy ends. Tentacles love pointy ends and spikes. |
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Post by dm1scotty on Sept 26, 2013 9:48:32 GMT -5
I love experimentation!
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Post by bloodchoke on Sept 26, 2013 15:24:45 GMT -5
Oh, sorry, AV is your avatar, the cool mushroom pic.
In the Madness at Gardmore Abbey adventure, there is a watchtower tainted by the far realm, with some black puddings and a beholder. Seeing how Lovecraft-ian these look, I think I'm going to add a couple there. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Post by belatucadras on Sept 26, 2013 19:15:31 GMT -5
Oh! It says TENTACLES!
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Post by bloodchoke on Sept 26, 2013 21:40:39 GMT -5
Hahaha...  |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Sept 27, 2013 2:05:37 GMT -5
I added the red basepaint and man do they look scary now!  I had some color shade leftover that I used as an alternative, but it turned out that it dried to a matte, non-glossy finish. The glossy one was crimson / carmine red and it looks very much like raw , angry flesh. I'll have to experiment a bit to find a god shades for drybrushing, the 'eyes', the pustules and the sucker caps. These guys will be proper nightmares, I almost take pity on my players!
And on related news, I started the 3rd generation of tentacles, this time Scotty-style: i.imgur.com/54BlWZf.jpgI have no idea how long it will take for them to dry... Maybe I can continue to work on them already in the evening. |
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sgtslag
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Post by sgtslag on Sept 27, 2013 17:13:14 GMT -5
They look like something out of a B-horror flick. Great work! They really are disgusting -- I mean that in the best of ways... Cheers! |
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tauster
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Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Sept 28, 2013 3:37:18 GMT -5
They look like something out of a B-horror flick. Great work! They really are disgusting -- I mean that in the best of ways... Cheers! out of a B-flic? Damn, I was aiming for an A... But I guess it's OK for a prototype series that's not even completely painted. |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Sept 29, 2013 3:10:19 GMT -5
(...) And on related news, I started the 3rd generation of tentacles, this time Scotty-style: i.imgur.com/54BlWZf.jpgI have no idea how long it will take for them to dry... Maybe I can continue to work on them already in the evening. It took several hours for the wood glue to dry and the 2nd layer finished drying yesterday. I wondered what happened if I stray from Scottie's tutorial and skip the hotglue part. You can see the result below:  Well, I'm definitely not satisfied. Skipping hotglue results in the things not looking like tentacles but like twisted paper. Serves me right: Skipping the hotglue - oh the blasphemy!  The upper batch is painted with straight (matte) black, the lower ones with a mixture of black and metallic silver. I was aiming more for 'starry night' effect, but it came out like glossy black with the silvery specks being visible only when you hold the tentacle right before your eye (and who would want to do this...). Lessons learned: 1) Don't skip the hotglue. At least not when it comes to tentacles made of twisted paper. 2) Work on the metallic black shade again, probably mix in less black and more silver. Next steps: Apply hotglue to the basepainted 'tacles, paint again. |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Sept 30, 2013 16:04:27 GMT -5
I rectified my mistake and hotglued all tentacles, plus added neodyms at the base as usual: i.imgur.com/EfTWeAe.jpg [edit 2013-10-01] glueing & neodym-ing 2nd batch is finished : i.imgur.com/FnNvpN2.jpg [/edit 2013-10-01] I definitely like the ' curlyness'. It doesn't really show in the picture, but man do these things squirm! Ialso added suckers by pressing the still-warm tip of the gluegun into the hardened glue, which partially melts it and leaves you with a crater-ish texture that looks like a sucker, a pock mark or something worse (I used that already on some of my mushrooms. poor things.) Next step will be painting... - Probably basepaint pure black, but perhaps I try out some metallic shade. Black with silver didn't work before, unless I try much more silver and less black. - Black with gold maybe? - Or basepainted black, with metallic purple stippled in the black while it is still whet (similar to Scottie's spell template)? Looks like I need some experimentation before I find a color scheme that looks as I want these things: reminding you of shadowmagic, necromancy and/or things from the outer dimensions. I'm especially at a loss as how to paint the sucker tips, so I'm open for your ideas and opinions! At least I have enough ... specimen to experiment with. * evil doctor's laugh* |
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tauster
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Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 2, 2013 3:41:05 GMT -5
I finally got around to continue working on the two things from posting #1. I decided that instead of making two identical builds, I'd make one a fleshy tentacle with hotglue veins (as per Scottie's tutorial) and one similar to a Purple Worm, glueing on small stones as 'spikes'. 1) Fleshy Thing i.imgur.com/SKVSdEr.jpgi.imgur.com/Qiazftz.jpgWeird thing: I took a picture against direct sunlight and guess what: A fleshy tentacle from hell can look like a heavenly tentacle, made from pure alabaster, complete with a holy halo and veins pulsing with divine goodness!  i.imgur.com/jCBVrSA.jpg 2) Purple-ish Worm I like how the mouth turned out: i.imgur.com/DOw0aMF.jpgbut I had to discover that hotglue doesn't bond well with the clay I used - the stones fall off with the slightest touch. *grumbles* I tried to secure the remaining stones with copious amounts of superglue (locitite, if you care for the brand) and hope that this will be enough. i.imgur.com/iF7MBOi.jpg |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 4, 2013 5:21:09 GMT -5
I basepainted the veins of the fleshy thing from the post above: i.imgur.com/BCLdV55.jpgLesson learned: Some colors look extremely different (darker, in this case) when dry! I hed to repaint some places where the color was stretched too thin; you can see the difference between the wet and dried color in the foto above. It's not that I don't like that extremely dark shade of purple, but still... In the future I'll first try out new colors, either on a blank sheet or a material similar to that of the crafted thing, before potentially ruining the object to be painted. On the positive side, now that tha basepaint is on, the textures on the veins stand out better and I'm quite happy with the little 'veins' that I drew with the gluegun nozzle over the already dried glue strands. I think these will look greatwhen drybrushed, though I'm not sure how difficult drybrushing these small spaces will be - so far I had always use the drybrushing technique on large areas where I didn't have to take care on neighbouring areas... |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 6, 2013 3:27:40 GMT -5
There is already another purple worm thread, but I'll add my purple worm dice tower to the other projects gathered in this thread (even if it is not exactly a tentacle) since the general shape is similar and since I already have one small purple worm WIP here. Credit for the original idea goes to DM Scotty; I think his Purple Worm Tutorial (it earned it's capitals) is the best video he has done so far. The first pictures. The WIP so far: i.imgur.com/ut5BSh0.jpgAs this thing will be a dice tower, I have to strengthen the structure externally. I used a long cardboard kitchen paper roll, cut some sliced out of it and bent it around several times. Instead of applying hotglue for securing/fixing/fastening these bends, I used a thin but brioad (5 cm) adhesive tape; this is way faster and does the job just as well. Even better, in case you need to readjust, just rip the tape away - if you used hotglue, you would be out of luck. i.imgur.com/slKvgms.jpgI cut a hole near the base where the dice will be falling out and glued in a sloped cardboard chute. the rounded cardboard lid will close this hole (even though I have to make a new, larger one). I'll glue small neodyms (5x5x2 mm) on the inner edge of the hole and some thin metal strips (scavenged from old twist-off caps). I hope that I'll be able to cover & camouflage this lid enough with hotglue and paint so that it won't be too visible when finished. In the bottom below the lid you can see a chunk of massive hotglue and small pebbles. They add mass to the lower part of the worm, keeping the sculpture (as others said before, this is too large to be called 'miniature') from becoming top-heavy. One of my last working steps (after painting) will be to glue the whole thing in a magnetic twist-off cap, so that I can change the bases (as described in the quote above). The maw: i.imgur.com/jrHYyva.jpgI had some problems with the material I used: some kind of light structural modelling mass which unfortunately becomes a bit brittle when drying, so I added two layers of PVA glue so far. The maw is considerably larger than the body, so I'll have to add quite a lot of paper maché later on. Which is not a serious problem, because as is, the worm's body is much to slender for my taste. |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 7, 2013 8:59:26 GMT -5
The maw has received a basecoat and the 1st washing: i.imgur.com/8m1v8TU.jpg I haven't used the washing technique very often so far (if anyont can point me to a good online tutorial, I'd be happy!), but I'm qzute happy with the effect so far. I'll probably apply another washing, using the lighter shade of the basecoat (which is what Scotty did with his worm, as I understood). Now my only mawpainting concern is how I'll get the stones (inner teeth) back... With my sloppy paintjob, I have pasted over the stones and their texture, which I don't think I'll be able to correct...  |
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Post by ashrothedm on Oct 7, 2013 13:37:02 GMT -5
This is a fairly comprehensive wash tutorial. Looking forward to the dice tower!
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 10, 2013 5:07:00 GMT -5
Update on the Fleshy Thing: This model has been sitting on my shelf for a few days now because being a painting noob, I was a bit intimidated by the next steps - highlighting the extremely fine 'subvein-ey' structures on the purple veins and basecoating the flesh (I had no idea how to mix flesh shades...). I found approx. 1-2 hrs to finish both steps and I am quite happy with the results, even though I botched it in a few places. But for a first piece, not too bad.  Detailed shots: i.imgur.com/BjvfPnf.jpgi.imgur.com/Cz9Cu37.jpgi.imgur.com/DQTwHAK.jpg (please ignore the not-so-great-looking large blue smear...) ashrothedmthans a lot for the url, this will really help in the next steps! |
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sgtslag
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Post by sgtslag on Oct 10, 2013 9:37:20 GMT -5
Regarding the veined Worm monster... It's a monster from the imagination. Artistic License is not only allowed, it is understood, expected, and even demanded! In other words, "There is no wrong way to do it." Looks good.
On the Purple Worm Dice Tower, I wonder if the maw will be a challenge to dump dice into? You may need to make a super-sized Worm to easily chunk dice into its maw. No matter what, it is really cool, as a dice tower -- it never occurred to me to do such a thing. "A+" in the creativity category! A really fantastic idea. Thanks for sharing all of it! Cheers!
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 11, 2013 4:08:53 GMT -5
Update: I washed the model two times. Seems like washing isn't too difficult, even if I made some mistakes like first using color that was too much thinned and stretched it over an area that was too large (I thought I'd have to prevent the larger puddles) and even if I'm not completely happy with the color (too purplish, wish I had a redder shade). i.imgur.com/mKzqoTW.jpgi.imgur.com/ujtIiH9.jpg(sorry for the crappy lighting; first pic is with flash to show the details, second pic is with natural daylight (very cloudy outside) to show the color shades. Now I wonder whether a drybrush would be the way to go, to add some pus-yellow. ...or maybe another layer of yellow-ish wash? So many possibilities, so many ways to ruin it...  And the most important question: Gloss varnish or not? I'll probably apply some to a small area near the base, just in case it looks awful, and see how it looks... And speaking of pus, slime and gore: I'll experiment with the following technique, looks very promising! Has someone ever tried that? Regarding the veined Worm monster... It's a monster from the imagination. Artistic License is not only allowed, it is understood, expected, and even demanded! In other words, " There is no wrong way to do it." Looks good. Regarding imagination: I have long since aquired the reputation for loving monsters with tentacles because for a number of sessions (years ago!), the party encountered grell, ropers and illithid and slimes - every monster seemed to have a pseudopod or tentacle, and made good use of it (i.e. I went over board with the battle descriptions). Somehow that reputation has stuck and just for fun I began to cultivate it (T-shirts with retro motives involving tentacles etc.). If my players would see this thread, they would just nod knowingly...  Of course, when they encounter the two sculpted tentacles/worms, then the dozen tentacles I made out of paper/aluminum foil and then the giant purple worm, I won't get rid of that reputation even if I wanted. *grin* Thanks for the praise. It seemed totally obvious for me, but maybe only because I have another unfinished dice tower waiting on my crafting table. I leave all my unfinished projects standing around, so a) I don't forget to finish them and b) they give me inspiration for current projects. The maw was indeed a problem. I sculpted it large enough for the largest dice I use regularly, but when the mass dried, it shrank a bit so I had to bend it quite a bit before fixing & finishing it with several layers of whiteglue. I won't be able to throw my dice in, but I think that even though I will have it standing beside me DM stuff, I'll only use it for important dice checks, so (hopefully) no problem here. |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 12, 2013 6:13:28 GMT -5
Update on the fleshy tentacle: I passed on additional pus and drybrush and went straight to gloss varnish, but not before I tested it on a small area of the model. This test area looked really disgusting after the varnish dried: Not only did it look wet/slimy, but the colors suddenly looked extremely vibrant. I was totally surprised how much the gloss varnish had improved the fleshy aesthetic and decided that the model didn't need any additional disgusting slime, pus or whatever. The only thing that's missing at this stage is the maw area. I have already done some work on the teeth (probably have to redo that, as I don't like the result) and then varnish it. i.imgur.com/1KyVILd.jpgi.imgur.com/HfVbPmq.jpgi.imgur.com/W2z4XQb.jpgi.imgur.com/eeGSecP.jpgSince that fleshy look was so nice and disgusting, I immediately started with the next project: I need terrain tiles with the same texture & color scheme. But this will be featured in a new thread: Tauster't tiles. |
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 30, 2013 6:37:54 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 8, 2013 5:31:30 GMT -5
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