Week 17 (3 Nov - 9 Nov 2002)
Ooze monster
The man shuddered again, pale and stuttering with shock.
"It got Calamon then. Sucked him straight under. He cut at it. Nothing. He cast spells. Nothing. Last thing I saw was his hand, reaching. . . ."
The man's wide eyes rolled down at the stump that had been his own hand, then slipped backwards in his head as he passed out.
This week's mini is an extensive conversion of a Ral Partha (now Iron Wind Metals) Crucible Mud Elemental. The idea started as I sat at my desk, translating for my Old English class. The work was really, really slow, and the still-packaged miniature was sitting there looking very interesting. Ideas began to grow, as they often do when I'm supposed to be doing something else.
I began by bending the left arm of the mud elemental (an ooze monster from here on out) forward until it was pointing almost straight in front. I then based the monster on a GW cavalry base. I cut a slot out of one end with a hobby knife and used some 2-part liquid epoxy to hold him in place. I sealed up the slots in the base with a piece of paper towel soaked with white glue. After that had dried, I drilled out the shoulder end of an arm from my Mordheim set and fitted it with a piece of thick wire. I drilled two holes in the base and bent the wire down through one and back up through the other, ensuring a fairly solid attachment. I glued it in place with some Zap-A-Gap.
After that had dried thoroughly, I cut off the monster's hand and drilled another hole in the front of the base, about where the poor victim's head would be. I fitted the monster's arm with a piece of wire, used Zap-A-Gap to fix that end, then glued the other end into the hole.
Finally, the time had come to start adding green stuff to the base. I started out by filling out the gaps under the monster, then began to build individual lumps. I tried cutting out the shapes, as is sort of visible in the shot just above (just below the metal), but didn't have much luck with that. I focused on just sculpting individual waves or lumps or drops. . . whatever little flowing bits of ooze monster are called. . . as whole pieces.
I made sure to add enough putty that it looked like a body was underneath. I wanted the long left arm to have a flowing look, as though it were being quickly pumped forward, so I sort of sculpted in comet-shaped divisions. I pondered adding in holes for the facial features, but didn't like the look and so resculpted it while the putty was still soft.
It took a while, with lots of waiting in between for everything to dry, but finally it was all done and ready for paint.
I primed him black, then gave him a coat of Vallejo Yellow Olive (which is a pretty dark green). That looked too dirty, so I gave him a couple coats of old GW Goblin Green. It was brighter than I originally wanted, but I liked the effect. I highlighted up to GW Bilious Green, then lined the deep areas with thinned Yellow Olive, then with a mix of GW Purple Ink and GW Imperial Purple, heavily thinned.
I painted the arm using my standard methods for the steel and red, and a mix of Vallejo colors for the skin. He's got a few gold rings that I think look cool on the mini, but look a bit cheesy blown up.
The last shot is for the sake of completeness -- nothing much to see on that side, since the angle's a little odd.
I had a lot of fun, and learned a good bit about smoothing green stuff and sculpting large areas. The other mud elemental is still in the package, waiting for some other mischief. He may be safe, at least for now -- this project took up most of my putty.
Back to week 16, part 2 (27 Oct - 2 Nov 2002)
Forward to week 18 (10 Nov - 16 Nov 2002)