Little Lost Worm

For the weekend, a blast from the past.

This is one of the first props I ever did that garnered any attention. It's creation grew out of a discussion on the old Cthulhu Live mailing list of H.R. Giger's construction techniques for the original xenomorph in "Alien". Two tidbits of behind-the-scenes information spurred it on. The first, Giger's use of shredded condoms to create the jaw membranes of the creature. The second, a pre-production concept that the alien was translucent or partially transparent (Giger would later recycle the idea for the design of Sil in "Species").

That conversation, and the liberal application of Sambuca, lead to the idea of a transparent creature made using condoms.

To make a long story short, I banged out a pretty decent little parasitic worm* with translucent flesh and visible internal organs. Both my writeup of it's creation, and pictures of the worm itself, later appeared in the 2001 edition of "Cthulhu Live: Delta Green". Sadly, I didn't. There's no credit given in the book and to this day I'm still waiting for my contributors copy. Heh.

Here's a scan of the prop and it's accompanying text provided by a friend.





*I'm pretty sure my parasitic worm fixation goes back to being infected with the little bastards during a vacation trip, but not discovering that fact until several weeks later. It was a horrible experience, but the doctor's reaction was pretty funny- "The good news is you don't have cancer. The bad news is your intestinal tract is a combination buffet and nursery."

The King in Yellow

From artist Joe Broers, a nicely done plaque depicting the King in Yellow. All hail the king!

Teeth

I've been on a "things in a bottle" spree for about a month, cranking out Halloween decorations for friends looking for something to add to a shelf display or mad scientist's lab. In the process I've picked up a few more refinements to the "Making a Thing in a Bottle" tutorial and its followups (here and here). Eventually I'll get around to redoing the whole tutorial, but for now I just wanted to add a few short notes.



The parasite pictured above has teeth made from epoxy putty, but the rest of the body is a latex skin over a silicone core. While the skin does use some maskmaker latex the rest of the body materials are right off the shelf of the local home store- waterproof silicone caulk and latex carpet adhesive. The latex was brushed on a master form made from hardened polymer clay, allowed to dry, and then another layer was applied. Once the skin was thick enough it was dusted with talc and gently pulled off the form, getting turned inside out in the process. The skin was then filled with silicone to give some firmness.

Why go with soft materials instead of sculpting the whole thing from Sculpey or epoxy putty? Because it's more survivable. It's inevitable that your thing is going to bang up against the inside of the bottle while it's being handled. If the body is soft the force of that impact dissipates harmlessly. A hard, brittle material like hardened polymer clay will eventually get damaged, especially if you have fine projecting detail.



You could, of course, use a real casting silicone to fill the body, but that's needlessly expensive. Besides, you need the caulk to run a bead along the bottle lid to make sure it stays sealed forever.



This section of the parasite came out phenomenally well, and it's all thanks to Tom Banwell. Last year he did a post on how to make a quick and dirty slush casting of a tentacle. This entire section was made using that technique. The end of a pipe was pressed into a glob of clay to get the general shape and then dental tools were used to sculpt a negative impression of the detail. Layers of latex were then brushed in and allowed to dry, forming the skin. The latex "mouth" was then removed from the clay and cleaned. The epoxy teeth were added by hand punching holes in the skin, inserting the teeth from the inside, and then brushing a layer of latex to hold them in place. Once that was dry the mouth was attached to the body with another application of latex.

Almost all of the coloration for the critter is integral to the latex- light washes of ivory, yellow, and brown were applied between coats of latex, locking the pigment into the skin and producing a very organic, translucent effect.

I'm sure I've made this seem overly complex, but it's actually a pretty simple process. Best of all, you can do it using inexpensive materials before investing in more expensive alternatives. If you just want to bang out two or three specimens it shouldn't cost you more than $15 to pick up latex carpet adhesive, a tube of bathroom silicone, and some epoxy putty. If you're happy with the results you can look into upgrading to mask maker's latex and maybe pick up a tub of Aves Apoxie sculpt (an awesome putty you can find over here).

Finally, there's always the Ebay option if you just want a nifty bottled specimen and don't want to do it yourself.

Ritual Gone Wrong

Anyone involuntarily committed to a padded room at Arkham Sanitarium has a natural desire to escape. That task is considerably easier when you're aware of rituals that allow movement between the spaces of normal reality, but the consequences of making a mistake would give pause to anyone who wasn't already insane. Cybrasty sent over these shots of an unfortunate inmate patient who suffered the results of one of those mistakes.

I've attached the tentacles (made with your tutorial) to the bought straight jacket with duct tape. Mask was made of plaster bandages and normal bandages, and the Cthulhu medallion was hand sculpted. The biggest inspiration for this costume, apart from Lovecraft, was the main character from the game Sanitarium."

You'll find more of Cybrasty's work at his DeviantArt page.

The Call of the Wild

Artist "nashoba-hostina" brings us this intriguing "Lycanthrope Case". I was a little torn about posting this, since there are some elements I outright don't like. There's just a bit too much Furry influence for my taste. On the other hand, some of the individual elements are outstanding.



I'm sure my mixed feelings about the case are from my personal preference for a more realistic approach toward faux occult props. I want some grunge and grime mixed in with a naturalistic depiction of werewolves. The artist clearly prefers a more anime/Furry influenced approach, and from that perspective they knocked the ball out of the park.

Cthulhu Walks the Earth on All Hallows Eve

"Fredirycklaatu" brings us this very well done Halloween Cthulhu costume. It's undeniably silly, and I have an aversion to Mythos silliness and the whole Cute-thulhu thing in general, but the level of craftsmanship is impressive.

Miskatonic University Prop Project

Based on your feedback from last week's post I've revised my ideas for the project. Although the composition book is a good concept the harsh realities of postage mean it's something to tackle down the road.

The proposed package will build on the one offered last year, pictured here. It featured the Miskatonic University patch, brass lapel pin, a postcard, and one of three different pocket journals.



For the new package I'd like to include a set of three journals. There are two options for what's included in the set- it can either consist of either three MU logoed journals or one each of the MU, Antarctic expedition, and Australian expedition. Whichever option is more popular is the one I'll go with, but be aware that getting one of each will slightly increase the printing costs.

The lapel pin will be upgraded from plain brass to full color cloisonne.

For the postcards I'd like to include three different designs, adding two new ones to the existing Orne Library card.

I have some other ideas for printed material and I'll have more information about that tomorrow. Part of today's to-do list includes putting together some mockups and seeing how much I can cram into an envelope without sending the postage through the roof.

As to the time frame for the project, I'm scheduling three weeks for another fund drive through Kickstarter, two weeks for the funds to clear through Amazon, and then five weeks for getting everything produced. Based on the production times for the Arkham Sanitarium project that's a realistic timeline, but it unfortunately means there's no way to guarantee everything will be done before the holidays. Assuming the fund drive starts next week the completion date falls around January 14th.

As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Update: Based on the comments so far it looks like three MU journals with the black on black style of the Arkham Sanitarium books are the way to go.