The Snallygaster

Artist Evan Tortorelli brings us this amazingly detailed recreation of a snallygaster for the Hellfire Sculpting Club's Folklore Bestiary project.  If you're not familiar with this particular cryptid, Wikipedia says:

The snallygaster was described as half-reptile, half-bird having a metallic beak lined with razor-sharp teeth, occasionally alongside octopus-like tentacles. The snallygaster was rumored to swoop silently from the sky to pick up and carry off its victims. The earliest stories claim that this monster sucked the blood of its victims. Seven-pointed stars, which reputedly kept the snallygaster at bay, can still be seen painted on local barns.

 

 

Nostromo Emergency Helmet

 Happy Aliens Day!  

In honor of the occasion, here's one of my favorite Alien prop projects- a complete recreation of the emergency crew helmets from the ill-fated Nostromo.  They're visible above and behind each of the officer stations on the bridge of the ship, most notably in the wake-up sequence at the start of the film.

The originals were made using 70s era found items, including a hockey helmet, vintage pilot helmet, and period greeblies.  Finding those items today is almost impossible.  Deetz over at the RPF forum sidestepped that problem by painstakingly creating a digital model of the helmet, then 3D printing each component.

 

Githyanki Silver Greatsword

I love seeing tabletop roleplaying items turned into physical props.  This massive Githyanki silver greatsword comes to us from Olympian Props.  I'd class this as a videogame prop as well, since it's obviously modeled after the similar item in Baldur's Gate 3.

 

Fallout Propapalooza

If you haven't seen it yet, I would highly recommend Amazon's Fallout series.  It's not perfect, but on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it an 8.5.  I'll avoid any outright spoilers, but I hopped on the hype train for the second season based solely on the ending of the final episode.  *That* location, and the cameo from *that* character, were a very pleasant surprise.

Thanks to the series, interest in the props from the franchise has hit a new spike.  Luckily, Much Props has a whole series of DIY videos, including this one on crafting a T-45d power armor helmet from foam.  What's wild is that this video is one of just 45 (!) Fallout props he's done and collected into this playlist.

Book of the Skull

Ukrainian artist Sladjana Vukelic returns to our pages with another of her signature distressed tomes.  Part of the fun of propmaking, at least for me, is speculating how a prop was created.  For the longest time I didn't have a clue how she was creating the detailed embossed designs on her tome covers, but I think I finally figured it out.  

 

Portable Cannon

 Artist Tomas Barcelo is the man behind this insanely great portable cannon LARP prop.  Not only is it a beautifully crafted piece, but the level of thought and detail that went into it is mind boggling.  Just look at the gallery of shots documenting how the backpack is positioned to actually fire the beast.  Mr. Barcelo is a shining example of incredible creativity combined with technical ability.

 

 

Unholy Icon

The gifted Maarten Verhoeven returns to our pages with this fantastic piece, Corrupted.  The adornments and spiky halo really give it the feel of an evil religious icon.