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I'm looking for a marble/s about 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter, translucent, colored as close as possible to the green Necron plastic rods. Not seen anything like it in the local stores, and while I found a nearly perfect one online, I don't really want to spend $35 shipping from the UK to the US for a $2 marble.

Find a nearby bead shop. They'll have something suitable.

Dumb question... Have you tried looking @ some of those "New Age" type shops? You know those people use crystals for healing & that type O'thing. Or people who make home made jewerly. Just a thought hope it helps.

A craft store like Michaels should have something along the lines of what you are looking for. Though I might suggest plastic over glass as glass is silicate and you'd probably need to use epoxy to keep it firmly in place.

I've checked Michael's, Wal Mart and Target. They all tend to just have the flattened glass marbles, maybe a few tiny round ones, but no large round ones.

Aduro, you can use the plastic sprues or extra necron glowy bits to make one by warming it up and molding/sculpting it into a ball. Someone here's done it before in the P & M blogs to make res orbs and it looks pretty cool. Same bloke made a mold of a necron skull and chest and used the plastic to mold glowy versions. Neat stuff.

Barring that, a bag of marbles has the standard cats-eyes, with larger shooters (usually 1-2) thrown in, but they're glass and not the same color as the glowy bits. Of course, using the above technique, you could mold the plastic around one of the larger marbles. You might want to keep the marble in warm water to keep the plastic from stiffening up on contact though.

Yeah, I've decided to just try and make one. Made a small, 1"ish one last night to experiment. It's ok, for sure not big enough, so I'm going to take what I learned on that one to make a bigger one. Picked up a couple of things at the store to help out with that. You get an odd look at the check out when all you've got is knitting needles, PAM Grilling spray, a butter spreader, and some Twizzlers.

As far as that bloke who's made the small res orbs and molds and stuff... Believe me, I'm very very familiar with his work.

For the actual colored glass sphere, try:

pet stores (aquarium goodies)
hardware stores (gardening departments sometimes have crazy glass bird feeders, wind chimes, etc)

But if you still haven't found the perfect glass bit, perhaps an alternative? Rubber balls come in all sizes and opacities, you might find a good color match, you'd just have to deal with the molding seam. Or perhaps a light bulb, some ceiling fan/desk lamp bulbs are nearly spherical and could be painted or inked, you'd just have to model around the stem to hide that bit.

2cents, hope you find it! We have all felt that frustration before, keep hunting and it will show up in the place you least expect it.

You might want to talk to our british colleagues on this board and see if someone can't get it for you and ship for less than $35.

So I've got an idea. Use a ping pong ball as a mold, and mix some water effects with green food coloring.

you could just melt down the left over sprues from the necron greenstick things, heroin style and mould them with oiled fingers. i did that to make a rez orb and it worked great

Tried that, doesn't work at this size. It's weight keeps it from forming into a nice sphere.

Gave up on my normal meathod completely for the above reasons, and tried out making a two-sided mold. The mold didn't work out the way it was supposed to, because the plastic didn't get liquid enough to pour thru the hole. It was bloby enough however that I was able to stick it with my skewer and pick it up, plop it down into one half, and close the other half on top of it.

Cleaned off the mold lines, and held it over the stove again to temper it down to a nice shine, and it came out rather well in the end. It's got more carbon burns than I'd like however. Now that I've got the technique, I may try to do another one, though I wonder if the glass thing I melted the plastic in the first time can take it, since it grew a large crack down the side when it was cooling off.

Anyways, here's the picture, with a size comparison next to a normal Monolith crystal, which kind of hints at what this is intended for eh?

Here we go, much better color. It's got one flaw in it where a big air bubble was left inside the mold and I filled up afterwards. You wouldn't notice it without closer inspection, though the nice close up and size of the photo you can see it along the top in the picture there. I'm going to have to find something better to melt the plastic in, as both of the small glass pots I've used have destroyed themselves when cooling back down. Also thru together a very quick and rough picture of what this is going to be used for.

Is that 'lith meant to be upside down or is it just the WIP position?

Blast that thing with some matte varnish and it will fog up, hiding the air bubble quite nicely.

Have you looked around for any Glass blowers in your local area? There are still a number of people who do that. Also check any Renaissance fairs, they may have a glass blower as well.

Alright, I found a local site finally that has some good looking marbles of the right size. None of the colors are perfect, but they're nice, and all the troubles I've had with trying to make my own, I think I'm willing to take the compromise. Which one do you like the best, or think blends in with the Necron green the best?

Jungle Marble http://www.rainbowturtle.com/jungle-35mm-marble-pi-1414.html

Oily Green http://www.rainbowturtle.com/oily-green-35mm-marble-pi-2227.html

Fiber Optic http://www.rainbowturtle.com/40mmfiber-optic-cats-marble-emeralddark-green-pi-5479.html

Iguana http://www.rainbowturtle.com/iguana-42mm-marble-pi-6813.html

And while I love the color on this one, it's so perfect, the ball's too large, and runs in at ~$17 for one, compared to the ~$2 for all the others. http://www.rainbowturtle.com/50mm-emerald-green-quartz-crystal-ball-pi-7610.html

LOL
It's $17 because it's quartz, vs cheap glass marbles.


As for the marbles, I prefer Fiber Optic, then Jungle.

Eric

Yep, my votes are the same - Fiber Optic, then Jungle. That quartz one does have pretty much the right color you need, though!

my vote is for fibre optic then oily green.. or splurge and go for the 17 dollar one then the fibre optic..

I was leaning towards the fiber optic one, and then I thought "You know, it's not a glass marble either, I wonder what it costs..." Comes in at $8 for the one fiber optic, where if I got the glass ones I'd probably get their ~40 for ~$37 deal. I doubt I'd ever need that many, but with their disclaimers of the exact size and color and sometimes visible folds in the glass, it would let me pick out the best looking ones.

Currently I'm thinking Forest. If it didn't have that orange swirl mixed in there, I'd jump on it. I do wonder what the oily one would end up looking like if I shown an LED up thru it though.