Rev. Marx has another installment in his custom Mythos-themed "Settlers of Catan" project. This time he tackles creating
the Mountains of Madness.
I started by basically carving downward from the peak and getting the very rough stack of blocks into a more conical, or pyramidal, shape. I knew I would need some practice to get the look I wanted, so I made about three times the number of block stacks that I would eventually need. Hey, styrofoam is cheap, and this was recycled packing material. I wanted crazy looking twisted angular crags, so I let the wire cut deep crevices and sharp chunks out of the blocks. After making about six or eight of them, I started getting ones I really liked. When it came time to glue them to the hexagonal bases, I just picked the ones that looked best together, and through the rest away.
The Organ Mountains of southern New Mexico always had a wild look that reminded me of H P Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness, especially seen from the White Sands side at certain times of the day or certain times of the year. A few Google images:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shltrip.com/sitebuilder/images/Organ_Mountains-IMG_3820_3_-998x759.jpg
http://drmrenfrew.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/organ-mts-new-mexico.jpg
https://contest.thesca.org/sites/default/files/DSCN3515.JPG
http://lascrucesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/organ-mountains2a.jpg
http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/1x9194632/bushes_in_a_desert_with_a_mountain_range_in_the_background_organ_mountains_new_mexico_usa_1772-236A.jpg
http://lascrucesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/organ-mountains-11-29-09.jpg
These are not my photos, but I have seen the Organ Mountains many times just they way they are shown, including the terrible view of them enveloped in a toxic yellow cloud of vile pollution from the Juarez Asarco copper smelter, some 30 miles south of Las Cruces, spewing filth into an inversion layer. It was winter so there was a yellowish slush as far north as Oro Grande on Hwy 54, a semi-deserted ghost town with a functioning gas station. There are lots of ghost towns in New Mexico. Thankfully the smelter has been closed for a number of years now.
amazing photos @CoatsConFan
ReplyDeleteas always, your comments are always amazingly instructive and interesting.
your comments and links to interesting sources always inspire me to search deeper in the subject on the internet and i end up enlightening myself about the most interesting mysteries and curiosities of this world and history.
i don't know how to say that without sounding really weird but...despite not knowing who you are besides your Blog i'm a great fan, and i always expect for you to comment something interesting on propnomicon's posts, you have like The Doctor's knowledge combined with Daniel Penac's didacticism. amazing!