For the Emperor!

David Kirkby is no stranger to these pages. He's produced a number of excellent Cthulhu sculptures, one of which I'm very proud to own. He returns with this nicely done Imperial Inquisitor rosette from the Warhammer 40k universe. It's available in a variety of finishes.

Battle Axe

The PropCorn prop house brings us this foam LARP axe.  The level of detail is incredible for something cast from soft, combat safe foam.

Making Monsters

 The very talented Josh Hardie serves up a detailed look at sculpting a mutant fetus specimen.  One of the biggest takeaways from the video is how amazingly useful ball stylus tools are for producing flowing organic shapes.

The [REDACTED] Gem

I'm a sucker for goo and glowing props, so this piece from Astanael is a real treat.  I don't want to spoil it, but he created it for a run of Chaosium's classic "No Man's Land" WWI scenario.  The "gem" itself is made from an airsoft gel target.  Click through the link, or even hover over it, to find out exactly how it fits into the adventure.

Master of the Craft

This massive medieval style tome comes to us from the immensely talented Alex Libris.  Hand bound in leather and brass with an outstanding antiqued finish.

The Box

Mr. Zarono returns to our pages with this curious occult artifact and scroll.  The box has a great paint job.

Burnt Offerings

This is why you need to use a thermometer every time you bake Sculpey.

Last night I finished this specimen off and put it in my dedicated polymer clay toaster oven for a final baking.  Unfortunately, I relied on my previous temperature readings and didn't check if there was a hot spot inside the oven.  There was, and this is the result.

The translucent clay teeth actually scorched, not only disfiguring the piece but producing some nasty toxic compounds in the process.  The high heat index also darkened the previously baked main body, making the join between it and the newer upper body painfully obvious.

It's not a totally disaster, but I wanted to finish this off with some color washes to bring out the details.  Now it's going to need a full paint job. 

Update:  Thanks for the kind words.  One thing I did want to mention is that the bubblegum pink "gums" would be considerably toned down once they were washed and drybrushed.  Heh.

Licensed to Curse

James Pocklington has created an entire suite of props based on the Harry Potter off-shoot "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". It includes a nicely done set of Agent/Auror credentials, spell components, and magical supplies

Mayan Cthulhu Stelae

Hard Waz didn't take any shortcuts creating this Mayan-themed Cthulhu stelae.   After creating the design he transferred it to a pair of stone slabs and then went at it with a hammer and chisel.  Now that's authenticity.  Browse through the linked gallery and you can see the entire process.

Update:  My apologies for the broken link.  All fixed now.

The Sapphire Knight

Artist Samuel Lee brings us the armor of the Sapphire Knight.  I've seen a lot of cool LARP armor sets, but he's at a totally different level. 

It's Coming for You

There aren't many props capable of scaring someone to death, but this may well qualify.  Deiter Barry Creations brings us this insectile head inspired by "The Thing".   It's a nice sculpt, but what makes it absolutely terrifying is the fact it can chase you- the prop is actually a remote controlled vehicle.  Imagine this thing scuttling across the floor at you in the dark. Just click on the embed to play the video clip.

Now in Grose technicolor #monster #troll #creaturedesign #puppetryarts #propmakers #creaturedesigner #props #eventstyling #events #theatre #studio #creature #monster #demon #spider #whatintarnation

A post shared by Deiter Barry (@deiterbarrycreations) on Apr 28, 2016 at 12:06am PDT

Portable Smoke

A few years ago I was browsing a magic shop and came across a nifty little portable smoke machine.  It was about the size of a pack of cigarettes and strapped to the inside of your forearm.  A rubber tube lead from the smoke emitter to the base of your palm.  With a flick of your wrist you could trigger the unit and produce a puff of smoke from your hand.  It was a cool effect, but at $125 it was something only a professional magician could justify buying. 

Now you can get the same basic technology for $10 thanks to the explosion in vaping and e-cigarettes.  High temperature coils and powerful lithium batteries are cheap and readily available, cranked out by the millions in Chinese factories.  Wayne's Workship has posted a detailed tutorial on turning a cheap vape pen into a full blown micro smoke machine for about $25.   Browse his other videos to see how he uses a similar unit to produce exhaust plumes and weapons effects in his amazing Iron Man costume.

Via Eric Hart's Prop Agenda.

The Purge

My apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend. 

The good news is I've found a quick and effective way to lose weight.

The bad news is that it involves food poisoning.  Heh.

To put it delicately, I woke up late Friday night with the classic symptoms of contaminated food and spent the next 48 hours suffering.  I was on the road last week and eating out for every meal, so there are plenty of potential suspects.  That said, despite some dehydration everything seems to be back to normal now. 

Scales of the Dragon

Artist Diego Rodriguez brings us this collection of scales collected from various species of dragon. 

Engraving Runestones

Our interests rarely cross over with mainstream crafting sites, but it does happen occasionally.  This tutorial from Colorful Crafts on engraving runestones using a rotary tool is a good example.  With a diamond tipped bit you can turn a pile of glass gems, shells, stones, or wooden chips into some nifty props.

Smoking Smaug

Sweet fancy Moses, this Smaug pipe from SV Pipe Designs is amazing.  The carving and themed accessories are cool on their own, but check out the linked video of smoke streaming from the pipe.  Browse through the rest of the Instagram stream for some interesting work in progress shots.

The Mask of Cthulhu

Oipollooi1010 brings us this well done Cthulhu mask.  It really looks like something that was dug up at an archeological excavation.

The Mark of Cthulhu

Despite all the evidence to the contrary many so-called "experts" insist that Cthulhu and his worldwide cult are fictional.  They deny well documented evidence like this Cthulhu petroglyph inscribed in the stone of Little Petroglyph Canyon in Ridgecrest, California. Luckily, investigators like Byron Craft are willing to throw off the shackles of conventional "science".

Pages from the Necronomicon

Madun Two Swords brings us this selection of pages from the Necronomicon, based on the imagery from the "Evil Dead" version of the infamous tome.  Instead of doing a simple tea staining he gave each sheet multiple ink washes.  The results are quite impressive.

Fallout 4 Pipe Pistol

Kamui Cosplay has an interesting buildup of a pipe pistol from Fallout 4.   At first glance you would think this is a relatively straightforward project.  After all, the pistol is constructed from very basic shapes- cylinders, blocks, hexagons, etc..  The kind of stuff that's tailor-made for hand fabrication from simple, readily available materials like MDF and PVC pipe.

Instead, they print out all the parts on a high-resolution 3D printer.  I don't even want to imagine how much that cost in filament.

Don't get me wrong.  The end product looks great.  It just seems like the project is using 3D printing  for the sake of using it when more traditional modeling techniques would be both faster and cheaper.

The Goddess

Masks Mastery returns to our pages with this pagan goddess idol.

The Tome of Azathoth

Mille Cuirs returns to our pages with the Tome of Azathoth.  Bound in hand tooled black leather with an inset glass stone.

Tkon Font

Over the years "Star Trek" has spawned dozens of alien languages that only appear for a few seconds.  It's a credit to the show's designers that they go to the trouble of cranking out alphabets for all of those scenes, and to the fans that they painstakingly fontify every one.

Tkon is a golden oldie from the TNG days.  The font appears on relic computer monitors from the  "Tkon Empire" in the first season episode "The Last Outpost".  The character set has a nice visual weight and would make convincing lettering for all sorts of fantasy scrolls and grimoires.

Update:  There appears to be a potential exploit on the original hosting page.  I've uploaded a copy for download over here- Tkon Font from Omega Designs.  Just click the download arrow in the upper right hand corner.

John Carter Gate Medallion

Disney's "John Carter" had a multitude of issues, but bad design wasn't one of them.  This recreation of the gate medallion comes to us from BlackGoblet. 

Shrunken Head

Artist Patrick Magee brings us this very well done shrunken head.  I really like the translucent skin.  Traditional tsanta gaffs have a matte finish that replicates the look of the originals, which were smoked over a fire as part of the preservation process. 

Cthulhu Plaque

Long before the current explosion in Lovecraftiana Stephen Hickman sculpted an amazing Cthulhu idol that was available from Bowen Designs.  It's now become a highly sought after piece and remains one of the best depictions.

That's what makes this piece so unusual.  It's flagged on Pinterest as a Cthulhu plaque sculpted by Hickman.  Oddly enough, this is the only mention of the plaque I can find.  Google doesn't come up with anything else, at least in the first hundred listings, and Mr. Hickman's own site doesn't have any information on it either.  I suspect it's been mis-attributed, but would welcome correction from anyone with more information.

Cthulhu Fhtagn! Andorina Edition.

We've had many a Cthulhu,
here on display,
but one of the best,
pops up today.

Victoria Andorina,
is the artist's name,
and it's definitely not,
more of the same.

No cosmic horror,
to blast away your wits,
no foetid flesh,
no cruel spiky bits.

Just a furry Cthulhu,
with polka dot skin,
big yellow eyes,
and a be-tentacled chin.

It's a terrible fate,
I thought I'd never see,
the feared Elder God,
is totally kawaii.