Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: PhilB on March 27, 2016, 06:15:33 PM
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I've been playing a Pathfinder Adventure Path called Rise of the Runelords for a year and a half now, and we've just gotten up to the epic battle with Black Magga, a funky sea monster type critter which looks something like a cross between the Locj Ness monster and a giant octopus. But how to represent it at my gaming table?
(http://chroniques-kara.dehel.fr/wp-content/blogs.dir/5/files/creatures/blackmagga.png)
I've been agonizing over this dilemma for months. Finally broke down and ordered a plastic elasmosaurus and octopus off Amazon. I was worried about how to get them in the right shape, but some guys on the Pulp board gave me good advice.
(http://gdurl.com/B287)
Step 1) After 2 minutes in boiling water, the figures were quite pliable, and after being plunged in cold water, held their new shape quite well.
(http://gdurl.com/FZ0X)
Step 2) A few slices with the Dremel, and everything was suitably dismembered.
(http://gdurl.com/du9t)
Step 3) The elasmosaurus head was superglued to an old CD, and the 8 tentacles to standard 1" washers - so that they can be moved, or even used separately.
(http://gdurl.com/DZFz)
Step 4) I decided to throw caution to the winds and do my standard black spraypaint as undercoat.
(http://gdurl.com/QRBt)
After a quick paintjob, it looks OK. Thought of going for a more involved scale effect, but chickened out. Maybe later.
(http://gdurl.com/Owga)
Here is Black Magga with a sample victim...
(http://gdurl.com/CeDH)
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Nice work. Take it the individual tentacles can maneuver around during combat rather than just being part of the head/main body's reach melee attacks? Are they tipped with eyeballs in the concept art? How does that happen? "Well son, when an Eye of the Deep, a sea serpent, and an octopus get involved in a drunken three-way..."
Seems like it'd be easy to do a single-piece conversion using the same parts and some putty. Not useful for fighting opponents on the surface, but be nifty in Deep Wars or some other aquatic combat game.
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Very cool, nice execution.
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That is awesome work.
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I love that.
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Awesomely creative!
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Nifty work.
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Brilliant work on the Black Magga. Your solution is amazing, and accurate. Great painting too. When I ran that scene last year I cheated it into a whole bunch of tentacles. One of the tentacles had an eye on the end of it, because I thought it would be creepy. I like your version much better.
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Yes, it turned out quite well, and I suspect the tentacles will get more mileage than the central lochness monster part.
Also, I'm now looking at the central part of the octopus, from which I severed all the tentacles. If I cut it off about 1/3 level, at an angle, to make a waterline, then sculpt a kind of beak-like maw, it could be a watcher-in-the-waters critter... using the same tentacles.
Looks like the dremel is going back into action!
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That is a FANTASTICALLY IMAGINATIVE creation, BEAUTIFULLY modeled, painted, & based. WONDERFULLY WELL DONE!
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The black magga's looking great, but...
it could be a watcher-in-the-waters critter... using the same tentacles.
Looks like the dremel is going back into action!
Ach, no! That thing was dreadful. :P I'd say go book-Watcher and just use the tentacles you've already painted up. They'd be brilliant for it.
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The black magga's looking great, but...
Ach, no! That thing was dreadful. :P I'd say go book-Watcher and just use the tentacles you've already painted up. They'd be brilliant for it.
The real trick would be converting the tentacles so they end in Mickey Mouse gloves holding gardening shears.
Have a cookie if you get that obscure reference, and two cookies if you know where the author's house is. :)
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I'm not familiar with the source material, but I love the look of the critter!
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Can I ask who made the original dinosaur and octopus?
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Cool!
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Fantastic. Simple but effective and beautifully executed.
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Can I ask who made the original dinosaur and octopus?
Looking back on my Amazon orders, the octopus was a Schleich figure and the elasmosaurus was from Bullyland. Each was 12 euros and change.
The most important thing to me was getting good tentacles. I had thought of trying to make them from green stuff, but whacking the tentacles off this toy gave far superior results. As you can see in the last picture, each tentacle was on its own washer base. I'm still thinking of making the octopus head into a sort of "watcher in the waters"... but that'll take a bit of sculpting.
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I agree with the others: very effective conversion!
-Michael
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Have a cookie if you get that obscure reference, and two cookies if you know where the author's house is.
A: One of the "Samurai Cat" books...
B: Delaware
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A: One of the "Samurai Cat" books...
B: Delaware
Double cookie!
Nice to see someone who appreciates the classics. :)
I've found the octopus fig at good prices online, but the blasted elasmosaurus is harder to come by cheap. Maybe another manufacturer would do as a sub, but it's hard to be sure of sizes and the local craft/toy stores never have any on the shelves for a firsthand look.
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I've found the octopus fig at good prices online, but the blasted elasmosaurus is harder to come by cheap. Maybe another manufacturer would do as a sub, but it's hard to be sure of sizes and the local craft/toy stores never have any on the shelves for a firsthand look.
The one I used is on Amazon.com as "Bullyland Elasmosaurus Museum Line Action Figure", although I ordered mine from Amazon.fr. Min cost €12.77 but now it's listed for €17.90, so I guess the prices are as elastic as the figurines. It was perfectly sized for this project based on 28mm figures, even if it wasn't a 28mm-scale elasmosaurus, if you get what I mean. Unless it was a juvenile. <g>
I also ordered a Sarcosuchus from the same source, which will make a dandy giant crocodile one of these days. Those Museum Line figures are quite nice, for pre-paints.
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The one I used is on Amazon.com as "Bullyland Elasmosaurus Museum Line Action Figure", although I ordered mine from Amazon.fr. Min cost €12.77 but now it's listed for €17.90, so I guess the prices are as elastic as the figurines. It was perfectly sized for this project based on 28mm figures, even if it wasn't a 28mm-scale elasmosaurus, if you get what I mean. Unless it was a juvenile. <g>
I also ordered a Sarcosuchus from the same source, which will make a dandy giant crocodile one of these days. Those Museum Line figures are quite nice, for pre-paints.
Agreed on all counts. I've been keeping an eye out for bargains for a while now, will get one sooner or later, as well as some other stuff. Like you said, they're pretty well detailed for "toy" prepaints.
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Black Magic Craft on youtube has a video, I think, that would have an alternate option for the tentacles.