You'll find a little of everything here. Genres covered in this blog include (so far) prehistorics, fantasy, old west, swashbucklers, pulp, Blood Bowl, Ghostbusters, gladiators, nautical, science fiction and samurai in 6mm, 15mm, 28mm, 40mm, 42mm and 54mm sizes. You'll also find terrain, scenery, basing, gaming, modeling, tutorials, repaints, conversions, art and thoughts in general about the hobby.


Sunday, November 21, 2010

Ghostbusters: Treyentacle! (What? Yeah, that's what I thought, too.)

And sometimes, you just have that random Sunday morning with nothing to do, so you break off a gob of greenstuff and go to town. I actually rolled out this tentacle a few days ago for no reason; I just wanted to roll out some greenstuff (But, Carmen, isn't that a little expensive? Not when you buy it in 36" strips from Troll Forged Miniatures for $12 and some change.)

"Listen! Do you smell something?"

Little pats of greenstuff place into a cured tentacle.
This morning, I was looking at the tentacle, happy with my simple work, and I decided to add sucker cups, as all should tentacles should have. The cups were easy; I just rolled bits of greenstuff into tiny little balls and pushed them onto the tentacle. Then I used one of my clay pusher tools (I have the soft versions; I'd really like to get the firm versions) and I pushed into the squished ball and worked the greenstuff around a bit to create the concave hollow of the sucker. I used my finger first, then a greenstuff tool (the one with the wide "spoon") and pulled and blended the edges of the squished ball into the tentacle. Sucker!
Using a clay pusher tool to form the hole;
work it around to widen the hole
Well, I had to take it a little further, so I rolled up even tinier balls of greenstuff and dropped them into the suckers and made eyes! Yuck, I love it.

I have another tentacle curing; I'll add three more eyes to that one in a few hours and call it a day. I may yet sculpt up a quick chaotic beast of some sort that the tentacles attach to (a beast who burrows his tentacles underground to surprise its prey from behind or beneath.) Of course, I could go further and add sucker cups, more eyes, maybe some mouths, but I'm just too damn lazy- Hey- whaddya expect? I just sculpted three eyes- that's all I can handle at once! :)
Drop in tiny balls of greenstuff for eyes. Use a needle
or other sculpting tool to add some wrinkles. Done!

The body I'm thinking about adding (as a separate piece) will have a giant mouth and large round bits that look like eyes, but will actually be "sonic" organs that I will paint in either bone or a crystal color. The two tentacles will extend from the "front" of the body into the ground. The ends of those tentacles are what I've sculpted today; they will be separately based for gaming purposes (Which game? I dunno.)

There are also plans for a third tentacle extending from behind/beneath the body. It will not have eye. Instead, it will have some sort of opening in the end. For what? Hey, even monsters have to poop.

For colors, I think I will go with a nice cliche storm green with some smooth-blended patches of purple here and there. Eyes will be black, though, I may paint them as you would paint a gem, instead of going solid black with gloss varnish.  In the end, I may also cover this thing in slime. To make the slime, I will probably just mix some green paint into some epoxy resin before it sets, then drip/drain/pour the resin all over the tentacles and other bits.
On second thought, I might paint it using caucasian flesh colors; when you paint something with human colors, we connect to it more. But since its form is in no way human, we are even more revolted by it. For example, if I painted this in marine colors, you would say, "Oh, I am reminded of an octopus or a squid." But if I painted it in human colors, you would say, "Dear God, that thing wants to make out with my sister!!"

So, why "treyentacle?"
Three eyes = "Tri" and "Eye."
Tentacle = "entacle"
Put that all together and you have "Treyentacle."
Feel free to pronounce it whichever way is easier for you. I pronounce it two ways: Tri-n-ta-kul (long "i" sound), and Tri-yin-ta-kul (first "i" is long, second is short.)

Or we can just pronounce it, "Bob."

3 comments:

  1. Can't wait to see the finished product. And I totally agree about the color; doing it in flesh (maybe with some patches of mouldering gray) will give the beastie a very nice "Dunwich Horror" vibe.

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  2. Yeah I'm more thinking this is Cthulhu than Ghostbusters. As for the greenstuff I'd recommend that instead of strips (which where the middle, where to two sides meet, tends to cure over time) to pick up the "tube" variety. you should be able to find it for about $13 bucks. I wouldn't pay more than that and you actually get more than what you get in the tape form. just search for kneadatite blue/yellow. Its similar to procreate in packaging.

    -david
    http://www.d4d6d8d10d12d20.com - My Game Blog

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  3. Yeah, definitely more Cthulhu- but I'm combining the two themes for gaming purposes (using a modified version of the Tusk hunting rules.)This will give my paranormal investigators more things to hunt...or be hunted by.

    I know the tapes usually cure in the center, but I haven't had too many problems with this brand (Polymeric Systems,) though, I do trim out the center of the tape where the two sides meet. But, for those who would like to try it, Polymeric does, indeed, make the tube variety.
    I want to try the tube, too. I just have to get through my current batch of tape :)

    Thanks for the heads up, David.

    Note: Treyentacle is almost finished- body an all! Needs a little more curing, then painting. In the mean time, I sculpted a basic shoggoth which I'm happy with. I'll try to post that later this evening.

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