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Hey crew,

I did two mycetic spores for my nids a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty pleased with the way they came out: big and nasty-looking. Note the sneaky li'l Wolf Guard lurking in there for size comparison:



These were stupidly easy to make. I went to Michaels and got a couple of foam craft eggs, largest size they had, and then hacked away at them with my foam cutter and hobby knife. The organic looking interior is a lotus pod, available in pretty much any craft shop that sells dried floral arrangement pieces. It was a little tricky getting the pod to set correctly inside the egg, but diligent use of knife and air-dry clay worked. Once everything was in place, I absolutely saturated the model in Mod Podge, letting two coats dry completely.

I modeled the tentacles out of copper wire, with a greenstuff coating, and leftover Carnifex tusks/Trygon tails/grandmother's secret stir fry for the pokey bits. Covering the lotus pod with paper, I sprayed the whole thing white. Then the outer shell was painted with Americana Acrylic (avocado, to match my Knarloc Green carapaces). Finally, the whole shebang was given an extremely generous spraying with a two-in-one wood stain and varnish.

Sadly the varnish took five days to completely dry, so I had to use garlic bulbs. Embarrassing. But they are ready now, here we go:

Top view:



Anybody hungry for eggs now?

These are really nice. Very organic looking. I like the use of the lotus pods. Quick question, what the hell is Mod Podge? Also, good job with that sneaky Wolf Guard. Very Bev Doolitle of you. I didn't see him at all until you mentioned it.

looking good

Very innovatative use of materials, sounds like you raided your craft store! The spores themselves look great (disgusting...?) and have a real organic look to them, when I start my nids, I will definitly check back on this thread (unless GW makes a spore sprue *crossfingers*)

Thanks for the regards, all!

@jimsolo, Mod Podge is great stuff. It's a fairly quick-drying mucilage that cures clear and glossy. It's primarily used by people doing collage work, or fixing jigsaw puzzles permanently. Works great for sealing a foam piece against the spraypaint nasties!

Absolutely fantastic. Those really do look brilliant.

That looks AWESOME!!!!

I want one...
But i can't be arsed to make anything my self like that...

Thanks.

Wow, the terrain you have your Spores on looks GREAT! It really looks like real gra... oh, wait.



Wow. Those are completely gross and disgusting and I am so wanting to try my hand at it. The lotus pod was an ingenious idea. It's so completely perfect because of the asymmetrical organic compartments and everything looks like it just burst when it hit the ground.

Looking forward to seeing them on a tabletop soon! Well, not really. I hate them, to be honest.

Thanks guys, glad you like 'em!

Skalk, I'm going to need to make some more of these, so maybe we should have a Spod party some night soon.

I think that would be cool. I would recommend we research options for initial coating and final gloss finish. I'm not waiting 5 days for something to dry.

Those look quite effective.

I would recommend adding bases, and scattering the remnants of the top of the shell around it just to finish them off.

Job's a good 'un, though.

Spot on advice, insaniak. I'll have to make a custom base of masonite, though, these things already have a bigger footprint than a dread base. More to model debris and extra goopiness than anything else, really.

I have some smaller pieces of masonite for you, we can cut them up here as well if you like.

I will never eat fruit again... looks realy good!

Simple but very effective! I'm tempted to make a few of these just for terrain. The fact that they're so lightweight is also probably a huge plus for transport!

Looking good!

Re glossy varnish. I use Humbrol varnishes - they're usually used on model aircraft and the like - that are dry to the touch within 24hrs after I apply them by brush. They have satin and matt ones that can be used to add different textures. Only problem is they take the pearlescent sheen off metallics.

Err, yakk..... guess thats a good thing!