Tauster's tiles

After doing the Torog tiles, I did another large tile (measuring approx. 2 x 2 of the torog dungeon tiles).


We have a plastic thingy* for the kitchen sink that I have wanted to use as a 'clay stamp' for months.
* What's this thing called in english?

I figured this would make a great paved tile with a round structure in the middle that can be used as arcane / summining circle or just a nice-looking piece of pavement. I put the clay between to layers of clingfoil (= angry wife prevention) and rolled it out until it was thin enough, although I fear I have rolled it a bit too thin... I'll probably have to glue it to a stron carboard base to prevent it from breaking.

I will leave this until it is almost dry and then try to engrave some runes in it.



the additional irregular texture on the 'pavement' is from the clingfoil, but I like that effect - looks like ageing cracks.




Update: After ~ 2hrs, I gave it a try and see how well I can engrave some runes. Turns out that waiting wasn't a good idea - the clay gets rubbery as it dries and it is almost impossible to engrave fine structures like runes / glyphs into it. Lesson learned here: engrave fine details while the clay is fresh and malleable!

I still managed to impress some stuff into the ring; since this will be an ancient abolethic summoning circle that was dumped (i.e. teleported away to a random underdark cave) after a ritual gone awry, the glyphs are not supposed to look fresh and readily decipherable anyways. It will give my players a nice translation riddle to keep them busy, plus some foreshadowing for the main plot. (In case anybody is curious: We're playing the Night Below campaign.)

I'm really happy with the fleshy texture, and even more with the way to produce it. Just find a rough piece of bark (willow is great) that is round enough to be able to roll it around.

Very nice work, great idea. I made a fleshy tile for an upcoming encounter a few weeks ago out of toilet paper. I think yours is going to look much better.

It is not really a tile, but not a tentacle either... But since this goes together with the flesh-themed tiles, I'll put it in here...

Some time ago, I needed little (i.e. approx. man-high) 'mounds' as base for the dried lotus pods. I painted them really simple, just dark brown.

I made a few more because I wanted to use them later as 'egg-containers' - think Alien or Warhammer's Tyranids. I even kind of basepainted them with a very watered-down brown, which got soaked up by the leightweight sculpting mass, so that almost nothing remained behind. I tried finding some color scheme I liked, but nothing really convinced me, so all unfinished mounds went in a box. Fast Forward to yesterday, when I completed th four fleshy tiles and suddenly remembered the unfinished mounds. Bingo!

Long story short: I basepainted them fleshy and tried the washing effect on onw of them (watered down dark purple/mauve), adding a slight drybrush (scarlet/carmine red) after that. Half of the remaining mounds were drybrushed as well, but I will wash them later  - I want to see if there is any difference when you drybrush first and wash later. The rest is still only basepainted fleshy, as I want to leave some to experiment with other colors later.

I also converted one of the unfinished Gorgon Muds that had not seen any color so far, as I figured that they would look great with the flesh-theme. They have much less texture than the other things (no bark was used in their creation...), so I'm curious how they will look in the end...

Pictures:

Left ro right: 4x fleshy basepaint, 3x drybrushed scarlet/carmine red, a poor bard miniature for scaling, the converted Gorgon Mud with fleshy basepaint, the washed and then drybrushed mound
i.imgur.com/br1CgYF.jpg

Close-up of the washed and then drybrushed mound
i.imgur.com/mIUqVtk.jpg

Next: Applying glossy varnish to the mound (pictures follow)...

Those flesh textures are totally creepy. I would not go near that stuff if I was playing in your game.

The gloss varnish on the converted Gorgon Mud dried, so this is another finished piece for the Torog-Subplot of my underdark campaign.

Even though the brush strokes are still visible, I am really happy with the overall result. As usual, the gloss varnish is what brings it from "proper creepy" to "urgh, that is gross!"...

Seen from outside: i.imgur.com/W0HwQl5.jpg


During the sculpting, I tore a large hole in the wet paper and left it to harden. Then I carefully created a hotglue strand from one end to the other. After painting & varnishing, I find the resulting effect simply ...scary.

i.imgur.com/OfFjhGc.jpg
i.imgur.com/jruk2xh.jpg
i.imgur.com/2R9n9WT.jpg



While the outside of the thing has too many flat and almost smooth surfaces (which is why the brush-strokes are visible so prominently), the inside got plenty of texture:
i.imgur.com/VIDtc8w.jpg


Before I applied the gloss varnish, I worked on another project and did a black basepainting job. Some of the black color splashed on the upper pseudopod; I saw this only after the gloss varnish had dried...

i.imgur.com/IFdSNZC.jpg

I absolutely love this effect! These black spots look totally out of place, like a skin disease. If this flesh-thing had skin, this would be a black cancer. This adds to the general creepy-ness of the sculpt, which is already very high on the creep-o-meter.

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On related news, I started the 2nd batch of tiles: i.imgur.com/97R9Jbj.jpg

I concentrated on irregular tiles, i.e. not the 10x10 cm squares I did initially. I made two with 10 cm long sides that can be put next to the squares, but the others are completely irregular. I will do some more large (15x30 cm or even larger) rocky terrain cardboard tiles with metal scraps glued in between the rocks. Only this time I will leave some areas completely empty, so that I can put the irregular flesh tiles in there - and still use them without the flesh in future encounters without the Torog theme.


As you can see, I modelled in some folds and humps. I figured that this will not only look 'nice' (where 'nice' means 'creepy' of course), it also will cause the players all kinds of headache or goosebumps while they try to figure out what's below these raises. Or how to avoid anything bursting from it.

Finished the 2nd batch.

All tiles in one shot, plus one of the 1st batch and fleshy monster models for color reference:




Some close-up's, to show the whole glory, gory mess of this terrain:
i.imgur.com/Isug5Fp.jpg
i.imgur.com/wwkVP35.jpg

Color reference: 1st batch vs. 2nd batch vs. fleshy tentacle... I'm satisfied with how the colors match. It's not completely the same, but as written before, since this is an organic setting, variances are OK. The tentacle and especially the converted Gorgon Mud are a bit darker, but so what. I don't think it will diminish the horror.
i.imgur.com/5BBnNCY.jpg

Lessons learned:

1) Before doing the 2nd batch, I was a bit sceptical whether this is possible at all to 'go 3D' with it and add all those veins, humbs and bumps. Only after I accidentally pushed a little too strongly with the bark I use for stamping the texture (see postings above for details), I realized that this is ridiculously simple! You just take your piece of bark and shove the clay sideways into a hump until you like what you see. A cakewalk.


2) Thickness: The 2nd batch is considerably thinner (~ 2 mm, sometimes less) than the square tiles of the 1st batch (solid 3 mm strong). I even have ripped some holes in the clay where I pressed the bark too strongly into the clay, but this is OK since it creates a disgusting effect of open pustules (juck!). Interestingly, applying the acrylic transparent gloss varnish changed the thinnes areas: Before the varnish they broke very easily, after the varnish dried, these parts became a bit elastic. I still have to glue the larger ones on pieces of thing but strong cardboard to prevent them from breaking.


3) Color: ...surprises me every time. After I basepainted them with the fleshy color (sorry, no picture), I had some serious doubts whether I've mixed the right shade, even if it looks almost the same as the rest of the paint I had kept from the 1st batch. Only after whashing it with a watered-down reddish purple and seeing this color dried (takes several hrs), I was convinced that it's OK. Still I was unsure how it would look after varnishing it, and I had absolutely no idea if the color schemes between the batches would match up.


4) General lesson, a.k.a.: Pseudo-philosophical rambling
With all the doubts during the different stages, it turned out everything was totally OK and worked out very well. So the lesson learned is to be a bit more optimistic and/or confident in future projects. So far I haven't really ruined anything, and taking risks while crafting seems to be rewarded.

5) Safety & health considerations
Remember that 4) applies only to risking your project - risking your safety & health is another thing! Yesterday I got my first serious hotglue burn while making a toilet paper rocket for my son. I spilled a large swath of liquid hotglue over a finger. While I had some skin contact with hotglue before, it was a) never this hot and b) never this much. I could get it off my finger quickly, but it still took some large patch of skin with it. Lesson learned: Never work with hotglue (or knifes, or any potentialy dangerous stuff) if you are distracted or even potentially distracted. Having an 19 month old kid standing behind you without someone to reign him in is a distraction guarantee. It could have been worse - after all, it was only me who got this stuff splashed on. It could have hit my boy's face as well...



Next flesh project:
1) More tiles!
I still need more regular square tiles, and some large 15x30 cm cardboard terrain tiles with rock chips glued on and empty patches where I can flexibly put the small flesh tiles from batch two.

2) The Mother ...yes, with a capital 'M'.
My main motivation (and concern) at the moment is the centerpiece for this theme set: I want to do something like a deepspawn* that is about 10x20 cm large and at least 5 cm high. With multiple eyes and mouths and removable tentacles.

* Basicaly a monster that can create multiple clone of creatures it eats. The clones are intelligent, indistinguishable from their original and totally loyal to the deepspawn. Click here and here for more information.

Background story (not relevant for crafting)
It will be the mother of all the lizard tribes the party will have meet (and probably battled) in the sessions before. These lizardmen will be backed up by improbable allies: kobolds, even one or two svirfneblin (good or neutrally aligned deep gnomes), one or two giants, perhaps even some real monsters like ropers. As far as I know my players, they will already suspect that there is some unifying figure behind these combos.

My  players will be led to think that all this festering flesh growing in the tunnels and caverns is the ancient remnant from Torog's travels. After all, this is what they know as common underdark history. But Mother lairs in a cave set wherethe aboleths dumped ((i.e. teleported away from their laboratory, just to get rid of it) a failed summoning circle centuries ago (see 2nd posting of this thread, plus future updates). The arcane & psionic 'residual radiation' of the still-not-completely-inactive arcane circle (artifact-level power at the time of it's creation), combined with the longterm influence of Torog's residues on living beings, has created this monster. Mother has been down here for centuries. 'She' is very intelligent but with a healthy(?) touch of madness, unable to grasp or acknowledge her origins. However madness means that even if she is evil, she won't immediately attack the party. If they behave, they might even be able to forge a perverted alliance of some kind with her. After all, this thing can spawn creatures that are totally loyal to her... Sure, this alliance will end at the absolute worst possible moment (for the players of course), but that's exactly what I want.


..anyways, back to topic: I need to practice making maws and more important, eyes. The eyes really intimidate me - I still have an unfinished beholder waiting to be assembled and having it's central eye painted...

All I can think of is to cook burgers with this!

Thoroughly disgusting! Meaning, great job! You really pulled of the fleshy look.