Dragon Priest Mask for ChimneySwift11

A mask to accessorize with

This was purely a gift project for one of the great YouTube personalities I’ve had the chance to work with with, ChimneySwift11. He always shows up with a smile, puts up with hours of our BS, and rocks some very distinctive neon green shoes. 

For E3 2013, I figured he needed something to go along with those jammin kicks, so I stenciled out his logo over a mask to match em. 

I started off with a pull from my existing mold, then base-coated it with a rattle-can chrome. Before putting on the green, I used mustard around the edges I wanted to flake and peel. It is water soluble and doesn’t adhere to the piece so when you spray over it, you can easily peel and flake the paint off to get a neat chipped-paint effect. 

The clear-coat over the top may have been a bit of a mistake since it tends to cause metallics to go dull. I need to research if there are any ways to put protectant over a metallic finish that keeps it’s original look. 

Apartment Lawn - Indulging a tortoise.

We may spoil our animals a little. Our Herman’s tortoise has been hibernating and we thought she deserved something nice to wake up to.

This is more “assembly” than crafting, but turned out well nonetheless. The basic parts are:

• Edging stones
• Drop Plastic
• Potting Dirt
• Sod
• Lettuce plants
• Seeds

We first laid out and measured a piece of plastic to go under the whole thing, then cut it to size. Then the stones were laid out to make room for the sod. A layer of dirt was put down for the grass to grow down into, and to fill a little “planter” spot next to it. Sod next, and lettuce plants put in. Various seeds were then scattered over the whole thing to spring up as “weeds” for her to chomp on. 

I may have “mowed” this with a pair of scissors at some point. 

Nerf Sword Repaint

This was a Christmas gift for my nephew. He was 5 and really getting into swords. I was tired of getting whacked with the plastic ones he had, so I decided it was time to upgrade him to Nerf. 

The darker “metal” is a cool trick I learned from crabcatindustries. I masked off the blade and hilt, then sprayed it down with some 3M High-strength 90 spray adhesive. It comes out a bit stringy and builds up a cool texture, but stays flexible. I followed that up with a rattle-can silver and a black acrylic wash. Extremely easy pitted metal. 

The hilt is actual leather from some scraps I had laying around. I cut away the existing foam, then wrapped and dyed the leather. Last was some hot glue and costume gems, and we were done!

I’ve never seen him use it. 

My Workshop

We split our spare bedroom in half. Her side filled with animals, mine filled with resins, paints, and other toxic chemicals. A match made in heaven! Here are some shots of my workshop.

Features of note:

• Standard-issue peg board
• Re-purposed grow light (failed hydroponics attempt)
• Shelf full of fire-hazards
• "I bet you I CAN spray paint in the house" spray tent 

DIY Standing desk

Sometimes I build work stuff as well. $600+ for a standing desk? Try a sub $30 Ikea special. It’s pretty much an end table with a shelf stuck to it. Simple, but effective.

Book of Hundar close up

More shots of the Book of Hundar WIP. I took these to share with my brother, who also enjoys crafting. He was curious in the burn-like texture for his interpretation of the Phantom of the Opera.

The method used was to create overlapping “Y” shapes with the clay, then blending together. I used a tool with a rounded tip to get more of a stroke pattern, as well as curve out the recesses.

Overall, I don’t think it’s a very exciting piece, it’s just an example of what a lot of time putting detail down can get you.

WIP - The book of Hundar 

This was from the beginning of my sculpting experimentation. It’s polyurethane molded pieces under plasteline clay. The intent was to make a mold for sketchbooks that are easier to mass produce. This one is still collecting dust on my shelf. 

The First Book of Joel

This is the absolute first book I made. It was a sketchbook for a friend to use as he was getting into a rather serious “sketch a day” habit. 

Materials were LiquidNails caulking from HomeDepot. It’ is a sculpt-able material that sticks to whatever you put it on, When it dries, it’s extremely durable, so good to use for props that will get a lot of wear and tear. I found by accident that hitting it with a heat gun to speed drying actually causes cool wart-like bubbles to form. 

Color is a saddle-tan leather dye gooped on, then wiped off. 

My first real casting materials.Polyurethane casting plastic poured into ghetto silicone-caulk molds. Seriously, straight from Walmart. 

Home Crafting - Rain Gutter Garden

Just a quick weekend project on creating a windowsill garden with a length of plastic rain-gutter and a little drainage. Spaced out the pots, filled with Hydroton, and put a drain box below it. 

$2 Corpsed skull - Anastasia

I tend to find tips and techniques online and I like making props for friends. This was a super cheap, really quick prop I made for our after-work Vampire PnP game for Hundar. It’s a styrofoam Halloween head that I shrunk-wrapped plastic grocery bags around. Hit it with some black paint for that “charred” look.

The back story is that Brett’s character had come across a charred corpse in game and being insane, had struck up a friendship, then guardianship with his new ward, Anastasia. 

Oh man, so much nostalgia. This is a BTS for the Realm set build done by Holly Conrad from crabcatindustries. I had a hard time staying out of the room while she was working on these. I appreciate her patience with me hovering the entire time it was being done. She helped show me the power of Styrofoam. 

Making Troll Fat. This was a fun little kitchen science sort of thing, that turned out really well, really fast. It’s from a series I used to produce for Realm that did… ok. I think it could have really performed better had it been on its own channel, with only this kind of content. Ah well. 

I think this was the… 2nd… prop that I was commissioned to do for Machinima. And by commissioned, I mean just paid for materials. I was reading a lot of the 405th at the time and picked up some cool weathering and painting tricks I wanted to try out. 

This was from a time where we weren’t putting hosts’ faces on camera and inside gaming was machinima. He’d obscure his identity with the helmet. Figured it could use a face lift. 

My first real prop for anything of note. Machinima was nice enough to pick up my materials for the PimpBoy. Oh man… so much foam core, plumbers putty, and duct tape. 

Bone Dice! My first real attempt at mold-making. 2-part silicone mold to press out the shape. Used a mix of clear, white, and yellow Sculpy to get the right shade with a slight translucence. Finished with a bit of red and black shoe polish.