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I cooked these up for the captain of our Adepticon team to give away to opposing captains as gifts. He's the Eldar player in the group so I thought it would be fun to make some "life-sized" soul gems that could be worn on one's person. I needed to make it cheap, easy to make & look respectable.


I started by needing to find something that was a suitable soul-gemmy shape. This turned out to take some doing, but I finally found something that fit the bill. Some cheap (99-cent) plastic scoops that I found in the Wal-Mart kitchen section.

Step 1: I took the scoop out to the shop and used my cheap, Harbor Freight, $45 table-top band saw to cut a slab off the back that will be the body of the gem.


Step 2: Sand the rough gem edges, then glue to a plasticard backing.


Step 3: Trim. Sand again until smooth on the edges.


Step 4: Prime black.


Here's a pic of the black gem back in place with the rest of the scoop, so you can see where the original cut was.


Step 5: Paint & add several layers of high gloss varnish.


Step 6: Attachment. Originally, I thought about some kind of pin arrangement, but I've done that with actual mundane jewelry and it can be a real PITA to work out. Instead, I'm going with simple, adhesive velcro strips. I'll place a long "hook" piece on the back of the gem, then have several matching adhesive-backed strips to give to the recipient. They can put it on their shirt, bag, whatever. Here is only the second "selfie" of my life. You'll notice there's not much of me in it... that's on purpose. The gem is being held up by my pocket at the moment... but you get the idea of the final product.




That's it. I didn't go into detail on how I painted them. Just used an airbrush to do a giant version of what I'd do on a normal sized gem or soul stone. There are many tutorials on gem painting. I use the "black gem" technique. Look up vent's tutorial here on Dakka for a fantastic and simple method for doing gems.

OH, time... I did all five of these in one day (did not take the entire day, just flurries of activity here and there).

Thanks for reading!


Thought I'd update the OP with a pic of the smaller gems I made. These are made from plastic spoons. Same technique as the big ones except that I used automotive pinstriping tape to give me a clean edge on the airbrushing.

Some WIP shots on the "spoon gems", this one with magnets embedded for refrigerator magnet or for a magnetic badge-type attachment.




You can see the gem easily holding up a "heavy" cardboard door hanger. Should hold a piece of paper or photo with no problem.

Wow, those look amazing! I'll definitely have to try that. Is that spray or brush on gloss varnish?

Lucarikx

These are pretty cool! Seems like it is pretty quick would be a cool prize for a flgs as well!
Did you airbrush the colours on? It might have been cool to do various coloured gems but the black and blue looks really cool!

Added a selfie of me wearing a gem (just being held up by my pocket).

@Luc: I just used Testor's Gloss Coat spray-on. I think a single coat of a brush-on might work better as it would be thicker and fill the texture of the plastic better, I just don't have any at the moment. One seems to be shinier than the rest... I think that was the one where I did a couple of layers of gloss coat right after priming, then painted & re-coated it.

@cbr: Yep, airbrushed. You could very well do any colors you wanted, it's just that blue is our captain's primary color for his Eldar so I went with that. Plus being teardrop shaped, I wanted to avoid red so they didn't appear too Blood Angel-like.

You have another way to make money .... How about dangaly earrings???

Seriously cool! Most impressed mate.

I could do earrings. Might even have the hardware for it.

You have a history of jewelery making, don't you?

I do. I'll have to fiddle around. Maybe I'll make a few extras and see if I can peddle them at Adepticon. Might make lunch money for a day or so.

I could even make soul gem refrigerator magnets!

Those look like empty soul gems. It would be good to have “full” ones containing a tasty Eldar soul. Is the plastic thin enough that a light built into the scoop could shine though? Bonus points if you could have a mask on the inside, so the light looked like a face making a shadow on the surface.

What you have looks cool, but I always have to ask if it’s feasible to take it to the next step...

Feasible, yes. Practical, no. There's actually quite a lot of space in there and while the structure is very sturdy & rigid, it's also very light. Plenty of room for someone to experiment.

And... isn't the main soul gem worn on your person *supposed* to be empty?? So it can serve as a receptacle for YOUR soul when you die?

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Feasible, yes. Practical, no. There's actually quite a lot of space in there and while the structure is very sturdy & rigid, it's also very light. Plenty of room for someone to experiment.

And... isn't the main soul gem worn on your person *supposed* to be empty?? So it can serve as a receptacle for YOUR soul when you die?

It’s supposed to be empty, but fills on death. If an eldar is handing one to his opponent after a game, it could go a few ways:

"Good game. I am slain, <turn on gem> but as long as my soul remains locked away from She Who Thirsts, there is a chance that I may find my way back to the craftworld to rejoin my kin in the infinity circuit. Take this and guard it well”

Loss to a demon/chaos player:
“Snack time! <hand over lit stone>”

Victory:
You fought well today, it would be a shame for She Who Thirsts to devour a soul such as yours, take this gem to safeguard against an eternity of torment <hand over unlit stone>

So you basically give it out when lit to when you are dead, but off when you win; one as a trophy, the other as a gift. Different armies require a little wiggling as to why you are handing over the stone.

Just some random thoughts...

Appreciated them Nevelon, thanks!

If you do do the earrings ill have a few pairs

Few pairs!!

Well, we'll see what I can come up with.

I'm working on a set if smaller gems, some magnetic and some pins. Going to try and refine my painting technique a bit so it's a bit easier, faster and more consistent.

Rather then Velcro, what about magnets? You could put them on the inside before the plasticard backing is attached, and then put a magnet on the inside of your shirt or whatever.

Just did that. Have also gotten some safety pins specifically made to go on the back of things like this.

Gits that is awesome!!!!

Making all kinds of progress and discovering new things as I go. I'll have to completely re-do the tutorial before I'm done.

Gitz these look great.
However I vote you go with Whalemusic's idea.
You can get some here.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/328001/Magnetic-Badge-Fastener/

That way you don't have to poke a hole in your shirt.

$3 each is a good investment. Would effect the final price (if I sold any of them). Nifty system though. I can see the advantage.

I'd rather have one of the original ones - much more collectable

Continued the gem making experiment. These are about 1.5" from top to bottom. Half are magnetized, half will get pins.

Props to whomever can guess what they're made of.



As you'll note I did not add an artificial top highlight mark. With some input from the Mrs. I decided that the gloss coat provided adequate natural top highlights all on its own. (of course there's no top highlight from this angle... but you can clearly see the room lights reflected in the gems, which is what I'm referring to) I further refined the building and painting techniques so it's very repeatable. Unfortunately while the materials cost is very low, it took a lot more time to do these than I anticipated. Not sure I can put a high enough price tag on them (that people would be willing to pay) to make them worth my while. Still, if I get bored between now and Adepticon I may turn out another set in a different color.

It would be interesting to see some in green or red.

I’ve impulse purchased things that were overpriced at cons before. It’s like your brain turns off and your wallet turns on. You aren’t buying a painted plastic spoon, you are buying a Soulstone, and can you really put a price on not having your soul eaten?

Of course, the last con I went to was GenCon, when it was still in Milwaukee, so my opinion is a little dated. As always

I think red is the next likely color . Got a line on a slightly different spoon shape too.

Thanks for the tut! I was hoping to make an eldar cosplay for my younger brother, but the soul gems had me stumped. Thanks for helping an older brother out!

My god that brilliant. I’ve done large glass effects on tiles and large scales but never thought about making a soul gems. I’m going shopping for spoons tonight.

Thanks guys...

The trick that makes the airbrushing of the spoons so much more crisp than on the larger gems...

Automobile pinstriping tape.

Even on this small, tightly curved surface, I could run a line of tape to define the outer edge of the lower highlight. Makes a huge difference.

These look great!

Wow one of the coolest thing I've ever seen!!!!
Well done