This is off topic to WWG (well only kind of as, this mini is the reason that the Airship Maiden is getting broken out again) but there are a few people who play Deadlands around here and they might like this. If you think it should go to build gallery I am fine with a move.

On to the "mini".

I have since i first started playing Deadlands wanted a "mini" to capture the spirit of Rattler.
The Purple worm from reaper is pathetic, and so is the Purple worm from Wotc. The Rattler is Massive in size, described in some sources as having a cross section of 20 ft across and up to 300 ft long. Now I can't put the whole mini on the table (though I have thought about it and I could make a 4 ft one no problem... ) The little 5ft worms from reaper and wotc don't cut it.

So for a year now as I have been gearing up for my deadlands game I have been thinking about what I could use to make a rattler.

My first idea was a house from like a vacuum or such but they were expensive and wasn't happy with them. Then two weekends ago I was at a dollar store looking around for cheap toys to turn into minis, when I saw Funnoodles, the water floats, it had the width i wanted (well close would have like a bit wider) but it was also cheap $1 for two of them

I grabbed one, went off to the craft store for a base for it and a few squids and made my plans.

The head section (which needs a little more work) is made up of some chopped up squids, and a few Dungeon Crawler minis to give variety in tentacle size.

Some Pictures




So far a papermache body and base over a funnoodle, sculpting of more detail comes later, and still waiting on the parts i want to use for the legs.

Excellent start. I am excited to watch the progress on this.

For reference the base is a 6 inch circle.

Here are some shots of another one that is in progress.

Nice! I like the use of toy squid for the tentacles.

This should be interesting...

I haven't had a chance to work on it other than some conceptual, since Wed was the night of the game it is for, and Thursday is "night off from RPgaming".

A night I don't think about either of the 2 RPG's i am involved in at all.

But tonight I will likely do some work on it.

I have my "green stuff" and will do some work on bulking up some of the really thrashed tentacles (ie the parts that are squid body) to make them a bit more robust and not so much like a chopped up looking squid. Then over the weekend (after i find my sculpting tools) will begin work on the body. But since I have the funnoodle and papermache core this will take SOOOOOO much less green stuff

I was going to suggest getting some of the Kraken arms from Reaper, forgetting that the Kraken is limited edition.

Back when the horrible Dune movie was in theaters there was a model/toy of a sandworm that might have stood in good stead - though yours does look a bit bigger, the toy was quite a bit larger than either the WoC or the Reaper worms.

And, for inspiration.... I saw this a whiles back on .

A like the chitinous look of the thing. You can use it as an excuse to eat some lobster....

The Auld Grump

I did some work on the texture of the outer skin.

I started playing around with the other one with out tendrils, I wanted some thing more wormish, or smaller scales.

So I played around with a few things and came up with a texture I like.

Sadly what I had planned on using for the "legs" fell through. I will have to either fully sculpt them or find another source.

I also have to get more of the DCM Tentacles to finish off the three i have.

Good texture - very leathery. Looking forward to seeing it painted up.

Alrighty... I spent a decent chunk of last night, sussing out how I wanted to implement the "locomotion" system, and then proceeded to actually implement it.

So the under side of one of them is done, and it is heading towards being almost complete.

The original items I had wanted to use for the locomotion system were left over legs from a set of bug models, but after waiting 3 months for the legs, and them still not showing up I have given up on using them. I was thinking about a new source when the cReaper Bones Kick start gave me a good idea for a source of loads of cheap and plentiful legs to use. The drider/spider centaurs reminded me I have some plastic dollar store spiders. Each one nets you eight legs, and at 10 spiders a bag that is 80 legs to work with.

I was going to use them, but when i pulled out the bag, i had based most of them so I only had two left...

So I went out looking for spiders, in the end I went with Giant Ants, the new DCM minis will work nicely with them, for large ants and medium ants...

I may have to work on an adventure around that idea.

I chopped up some of the ants to get the legs off them, and started attaching them.

I like how they look, will take pictures tonight during the the game.

I also started putting on the upper side to make 1 complete "mini".

Ok here are the pictures

That's looking awesome! I love how the ant legs look. That thing is really creepy.

Yes, that's suitably creepy - great effect with the legs. Looking forward to seeing this in its painted glory.

Ok Finished, but un primed Rattler...

I primed it after these pictures were taken (they were taken on my deck where I prime stuff) but the paint on the tentacles as of late last night had not dried, if it is still not dry 24 hours later will try to wash it off and use a different paint....

A few more