Post by tauster on Aug 24, 2013 6:47:16 GMT -5
I just found indig777's thread with his slimes, and since I didn't want to hijack his thread, I figured I'd better open another one here and just include link to his thread. If the admins think it is better to pool such related posts in one thread (easier to find tips about slimes in general if everything is in one thread), feel free to merge mine with his!
You can easily produce cheap and good-looking slimes and gelantinuous cubes with transparent acrylic / silicone joint sealer*.
* dunno if this is the correct English denomination; what I mean is something like that: www.amazon.de/Liqui-Moly-6184-Silikon-Dichtmasse-transparent/dp/B00295EXES
This stuff comes in all kinds of colors and grades of transparency, so if you want grey or black slimes, save yourself the painting work and just buy the desired color. I used transparent stuff, as you can see below. This are the best-looking results; I have about 3 or 4 times more which don't exactly look bad, but not as good as these. So if I ever want to DM an invasion of the slime god, I'm prepared...
To get the desired shapes for gelantinuous cubes, you can use old ice-cube trays or the inlays of a box of chocolate which sometimes have cool shapes for slime creatures. Just take care to brush them out with some cooking oil before filling in the mass, to avoid that the silicone mass permanently bonds with the mold (which happened to me once).
Also take care to pour the silicone mass not too deeply (i.e. do not fill the whole cube at once), as it needs moisture taken from the air to cure. If you fill an ice cube mold (say, 2 x 2 x 2 cm) completely with silicone mass, the upper 5-10 mm will cure in 2-3 days, but they will completely seal off the lower mass which will stay uncured – basically forever. So you want to built up the cube layer by layer. I'm not sure what happens if you mix the silicone mass with a bit of water or acrylic paint (which also containes water) - perhaps this will cause the complete mold to cure, but I haven't tried that one so far.
However you can still fill a cube completely and after a few days pry out the cured layer to get some interesting effect: The uncured mass below will adhere in parts on the upper layer and, if you draw it out of the sticky mess, you will get some interesting shapes that look very slimemonster-ish.
Also, if you have a thin film of cured silicone mass bonded with the icecube tray (or whatever you uses as mold) left, carefully pry it off and use this membrane as dungeon dressing: drape it over stalagmites and cave walls, or over the PC’s miniatures if you’re evil.
You can achieve some interesting results by mixing in sands, colored fake-gems, bits of miniatures, moss and lichen, small twigs or bark pieces in. Add some glitter to make slimes that are saturated by some arcane radiation or underdark radiation (called Faerzress in the Forgotten Realms).
I found the open eggshell of a blackbird and put it inside one cube – looks like the creature is digesting a dragon egg. …which immediately will make my players wonder what kind of creatures lives nearby - slimes will probably not travel very far, so whatever laid that egg must live somewhere nearby. Instant story hook.
Experiment with the mass a bit – you’ll find some interesting ways to make tendrils and forms that look like the slimes are sloshing forward. I hope it's visible in the shot below:
When molding, you can squirt so much silicone mass in two neighbouring cubes that it spills over, forming two linked cubes. Since these creatures proliferate by splitting, you get a double-sized cube that looks like it is about to split any time.
You can easily produce cheap and good-looking slimes and gelantinuous cubes with transparent acrylic / silicone joint sealer*.
* dunno if this is the correct English denomination; what I mean is something like that: www.amazon.de/Liqui-Moly-6184-Silikon-Dichtmasse-transparent/dp/B00295EXES
This stuff comes in all kinds of colors and grades of transparency, so if you want grey or black slimes, save yourself the painting work and just buy the desired color. I used transparent stuff, as you can see below. This are the best-looking results; I have about 3 or 4 times more which don't exactly look bad, but not as good as these. So if I ever want to DM an invasion of the slime god, I'm prepared...
To get the desired shapes for gelantinuous cubes, you can use old ice-cube trays or the inlays of a box of chocolate which sometimes have cool shapes for slime creatures. Just take care to brush them out with some cooking oil before filling in the mass, to avoid that the silicone mass permanently bonds with the mold (which happened to me once).
Also take care to pour the silicone mass not too deeply (i.e. do not fill the whole cube at once), as it needs moisture taken from the air to cure. If you fill an ice cube mold (say, 2 x 2 x 2 cm) completely with silicone mass, the upper 5-10 mm will cure in 2-3 days, but they will completely seal off the lower mass which will stay uncured – basically forever. So you want to built up the cube layer by layer. I'm not sure what happens if you mix the silicone mass with a bit of water or acrylic paint (which also containes water) - perhaps this will cause the complete mold to cure, but I haven't tried that one so far.
However you can still fill a cube completely and after a few days pry out the cured layer to get some interesting effect: The uncured mass below will adhere in parts on the upper layer and, if you draw it out of the sticky mess, you will get some interesting shapes that look very slimemonster-ish.
Also, if you have a thin film of cured silicone mass bonded with the icecube tray (or whatever you uses as mold) left, carefully pry it off and use this membrane as dungeon dressing: drape it over stalagmites and cave walls, or over the PC’s miniatures if you’re evil.
You can achieve some interesting results by mixing in sands, colored fake-gems, bits of miniatures, moss and lichen, small twigs or bark pieces in. Add some glitter to make slimes that are saturated by some arcane radiation or underdark radiation (called Faerzress in the Forgotten Realms).
I found the open eggshell of a blackbird and put it inside one cube – looks like the creature is digesting a dragon egg. …which immediately will make my players wonder what kind of creatures lives nearby - slimes will probably not travel very far, so whatever laid that egg must live somewhere nearby. Instant story hook.
Experiment with the mass a bit – you’ll find some interesting ways to make tendrils and forms that look like the slimes are sloshing forward. I hope it's visible in the shot below:
When molding, you can squirt so much silicone mass in two neighbouring cubes that it spills over, forming two linked cubes. Since these creatures proliferate by splitting, you get a double-sized cube that looks like it is about to split any time.
