Put simply, it's a great prop with a huge amount of potential for customization and accessorizing. The calendar is cast from hydrostone and has a very nice heft to it, appropriate for something crafted from real stone. It displays nicely as is, but storing it packed in excelsior or raw cotton in a weathered shipping box would kick it up a notch. If you're really motivated there's no end to the ephemera you could produce, from excavation photos to dig notes. For that approach I would heartily recommend the work of Florian Mellies as an inspiration.
The calendar stone is available for $100 +shipping from undertakingfx@gmail.com. I don't believe they have a website, but you can browse some of their other work in this gallery.
To say that I am envious would be an understatement.
ReplyDeleteThose look simply amazing. I remember trying to justify buying one then, and I'm still trying to justify spending the money now.
Seriously awesome work.
ReplyDelete@ Alex Kaeda
ReplyDeleteHave you considered making your own? I don't mean a wholesale copy of UndertakingFX's, but taking the same idea and crafting something similar. If you're comfortable sculpting a huge block of Sculpey or a like amount of epoxy putty runs around $15, and you can really let your imagination run wild. Or you could sketch out a design and then form it up by laminating fibreboard, another relatively cheap process.
I've really been tempted. Right now I'm working on a encyclopedia-to-necronomicon conversion. I tentatively have a doctors housecall bag lined up after that, and a vampire hunting kit, but something inspired by this might be in the near future - especially if I can talk myself into one of the mayan pieces from the hp lovecraft historical society.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how well foam would work? A couple people who have done repros of the indiana jones and the last crusade stone have used foam. Hrm
The two seem to compliment eachother.
http://www.indyquest.nl/tablettut.html
ReplyDeletehow the guy at Naamloos Document made a Indy Grail Tablet - I have a feeling this technique could be easily adapted to make a R'lyeh Calender Stone or other props.
I hadn’t thought of epoxy ribbon for years. When I worked for a game company (who shall go nameless) in the late 1970s, that also produced a sideline of metal figures, I was surprised to find the masters were made of epoxy ribbon on wire armatures or undersized figurines built up with epoxy ribbon. The master figurine was allowed to dry thoroughly and then a vulcanized master mold was produced. It was a fascinating experience, learning about vulcanizes and spin casters. You used these secondary masters to build up a matrix mold and then you could crank out thousands of figures.
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