billn53 Posted February 11, 2019 Author Share Posted February 11, 2019 (edited) Not to worry, everything will grow back. Remember, "That is not dead which can eternal lie" Edited February 11, 2019 by billn53 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 This update is a short "creature feature". The giant blind albino penguins are done. I wanted these guys to look rather mangy, after all, they've been living underground with only shoggoths for company: Speaking of shoggoths, mine is also finished (except for tentacles, which I'll add after the shoggoth is safely tucked away in its lair): The multitude of eyes were made using aftermarket decals for the irises, and UV-activated acrylic gel to form the corneas: Next up: finishing the shoggoth lair. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 Those are some fine-looking giant albino penguins. And that's a beautiful(?) Shoggoth! I look forward to the pseudopodia! Regards, Jason 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 13, 2019 Author Share Posted February 13, 2019 This evening's objective was to finish construction of the shoggoth lair. I added columns framing the entrances, made from rolled Milliput that I shaped with a file after the Milliput had hardened: I used CA gel to glue the columns in place, then filled and blended the gaps with Apoxie Sculpt: I believe this compares favorably with my reference model: Mr. Shoggoth seems pleased with his new digs! Keep coming back, there's still lots more to be done. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 Aww, the little Shoggoth looks so cute in his little hidey-hole! On a more serious note, very nice work on that structure. This is really shaping up into a unique diorama. Regards, Jason 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major_Error Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 The nightmare will become true! This will be scarry! 8-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 Progress on my diorama seems to be being made a few small steps at a time, but at least everything is moving forward, and eventually I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. I textured the shoggoth's abode using a rattlecan sandstone-texture paint from the local hardware store, then weathered it with washes and dry pigments. Although it wasn't my intent, the resulting structure reminds me of a spider, which is appropriate for this horror-based diorama: It's hard to see the detailing on my shoggoth inside its lair, so I installed a LED: which was a great improvement: The shoggoth's bottom did not conform to the irregular floor of the lair. I fixed this by putting a layer of black Milliput on the shoggoth's belly, which also served the purpose of fixing the shoggoth in place. All that's left now to complete my shoggoth is add a few tentacles: 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 So far i would say excellent work. Sadly im not familiar with Mr. lovecrafts works. I have to say i followed this build by connection to your beautiful Ford Tri-motor. The walls look the part of a haunted insane city ? And from the description your Shoggoth is bar none. The light in its lair truly adds to the effect. Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallBlondJohn Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 (edited) On 2/15/2019 at 5:20 AM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Sadly im not familiar with Mr. lovecrafts works. Treat yourself - if that's the right word - to some of the works of the eldritch master. Mountains of Madness is good place to start, or The Call of Cthulhu. There are some good audio book versions on Youtube to help the modelling hours pass. And don't worry about the sanity thing, that's quite... normal. Edited February 17, 2019 by TallBlondJohn 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 At the risk of hijacking my own thread, I must admit that At the Mountains of Madness is not a favorite of mine. Lovecraft's prose can sometimes be a chore to read -- I can tolerate it in a short story, but Mountains of Madness is more novella length. That said, my favs include The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space, and Haunter of the Dark (along with its prequel, "The Shambler from the Stars", by Robert Bloch). 🐙 I also recommend checking out the offerings from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, http://www.hplhs.org/ My votes for best Lovecraft-inspired films include "Dagon" (2001) and HPLHS's "Call of Cthulhu". 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 1 hour ago, billn53 said: At the risk of hijacking my own thread, I must admit that At the Mountains of Madness is not a favorite of mine. Lovecraft's prose can sometimes be a chore to read -- I can tolerate it in a short story, but Mountains of Madness is more novella length. That said, my favs include The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space, and Haunter of the Dark (along with its prequel, "The Shambler from the Stars", by Robert Bloch). 🐙 I'm pretty fond of AtMoM (though not, it must be said, of the Call of Cthulhu RPG's Beyond the Mountains of Madness adventure, which is just execrable); it, The Dunwich Horror, Whisperer in Darkness, and Shadow over Innsmouth are probably my favourites. In any case, the good news is that most of HPL's originally published work is now in the public domain, though the definitive versions, ably-edited by the insufferable S T Joshi, are not. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) I believe my two favourites are two of his longest works - 'At the Mountains of Madness', and 'The Shadow Out of Time'. The ones PC mentions are all excellent. To be honest, I like/love all of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's work, purple prose and all. In a moment of madness (several actually, helped along by a truly heroic intake of bourbon), I wrote a sort of pastiche/homage short story in the style of Mr. Lovecraft. 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.', and all that. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programme... Regards, Jason Edited February 16, 2019 by Learstang Slight change. Really just a trifle. Hardly worth mentioning. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 Lest anyone think I've been idling chit-chatting away, the tentacle transplant is finished and the operation appears to have been a success: 15 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Truly eldritch. Regards, Jason 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenoz Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Been a while since I came here, but nice progress, that construction of the pillars is just great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 As I viewed the unspeakable horror of the hideous eldritch creation, my skin crawled from the blasphemous terror of the image before me... Sorted! 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 It is indeed an unimaginable terror torn from the unfathomable depths of space and time, of forgotten aeons and dimensions which should not exist... Actually, that's some nice Lovecraftian prose there Kallisti! Old Howard Phillips would be proud, or perhaps even driven insane from the foul hints contained in your mad mutterings. Regards, Jason 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 (edited) Well I have ventured down the terrible path that leads to madness and hysterical purple prose before, during my endeavours as a craftsman to the Great Old One himself! I speak, or course, of Great Cthuhlu under whose blasphemous influence I produced a work of unspeakable horror depicting the sleeping god in all his eldritch glory I am perpetually haunted by this presence which observes my every movement and invades my subconsciousness with the whisperings of nightmarish insanity which forces me to visit this site on a daily basis to witness the horrors therein! I am beyond redemption, cursed to continually talk boll... rubbish and expose my perfidious gibberings... Oh no the geometries are transforming.... Edited February 18, 2019 by Kallisti 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 That is an amazing rendition of the Great Tentacled One! I can well imagine that terrifying survival of ages long gone, limned under a gibbous moon. I am overcome by sheer horror, and the walls and floor of my humble abode are changing and transmogrifying into inexplicable shapes, insane non-Euclidean geometries from a forbidden dimension... I have to say, I think I may have met my match in pseudo-Lovecraftian prose, bettered only by the Master himself, H.P. Lovecraft, or perhaps Abdul Alhazred, in his more opium-fueled musings. Best Regards, Jason 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 On 2/17/2019 at 9:19 PM, Learstang said: That is an amazing rendition of the Great Tentacled One! Looks to me like the big “C” has a bit of a beer-belly. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 34 minutes ago, billn53 said: Looks to me like the big “C” has a bit of a beer-belly. Watney's Red Barrel, I think, if the Unaussprechlichen Kulten is to be believed. Regards, Jason 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 (edited) I was following the Trimotor but I've missed loads of this because I don't come over to the Diorama forum very often. Lovely work. I can just see the full sized article glistening in the Mexican sunshine, I'm sure there's some form of bio weapons program that will provide the real Shoggoths and frankly with the state of the global ecosystem it ought to be easy to find some ratty looking mutant penguins. I have also invested (I say invested but afair it was £0.49 on Amazon) in the complete works of HP Lovecraft and will at least read the Mountains of Madness once I finish off the Pip and Flinx series (I'm up to number 8 of 14 (I think) ) averaging one a week so that would make it some time in April by the time I get to it. I do remember reading Lovecraft as a teenager and being somewhat unnerved by it Edited February 19, 2019 by Marklo 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 It's been a few days since I last posted progress on my Mountains of Madness project. Let me bring you up to date. With the wall and shoggath lair complete, I turned my attention to the snowy base. The foundation consists of a 14" square wooden platform, over which I added a layer of rolled-out Das air-hardening clay. From past experience, I know that this product shrinks when drying, so I made my layer larger than the frame, intending to trim it to size once it had dried out: I used wood glue to ensure the clay would adhere to the base, and weighed it down while drying. After the clay had hardened, I trimmed the edges and cut out the backside for my wall and shoggath lair: A test fit shows everything going together well: I've also started working on the various "props" that I'll need. Here you can see the expedition's tents. I've wired the tent on the left with a flickering, yellow LED to simulate a lighted lantern: Watch this space for more madness! 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Inspired madness, I must say. Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 I've made some good progress on my base over the past couple of days, and it's now nearly ready for the snow & ice effects. First, I firmly attached my big, beautiful wall to the base using Gorilla glue and copious clamps: Gorilla glue foams up when working, and clamps are essential to prevent the foaming effect from separating the parts being glued together. Here you can see where the foam found its way to the join between the wall and the base: Normally, I would have cleaned the foam off, but in this case I took advantage of situation to simulate wind-swept snow accumulating at the base of the wall: I also carved a rock face from a piece of foam sheet to fit over the shoggath lair, and used expanding foam to blend in the rock face with the wall: With a little paint and weathering, everything is falling into place: I also finished up the expedition's tents. PE table and chairs, and a few 3D-printed bottles add interest: As I progress with this build, you'll see a theme develop... namely, that these professors from Miskatonic University are real lushes! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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