REVEREND SPOOKY

Knocked this out the other night.  For anyone unfamiliar with the Hand of Glory, here is the description from Wikipedia:

"The Hand of Glory is the dried and pickled hand of a man who has been hanged, often specified as being the left (Latin: sinister) hand, or, if the man were hanged for murder, the hand that "did the deed."
According to old European beliefs, a candle made of the fat from a malefactor who died on the gallows, lighted, and placed (as if in a candlestick) in the Hand of Glory, which comes from the same man as the fat in the candle. This would render motionless all persons to whom it was presented. The candle could be put out only with milk. In another version, the hair of the dead man is used as a wick, and the candle would give light only to the holder. The Hand of Glory also purportedly had the power to unlock any door it came across."

Seemed a useful thing in the House of Seasons world.  Currently using a 2 pound coin as the base of the bell jar, but may swap it out if i find something more appropriate.  

​As I've started working on backgrounds and environments for 1/6 scale figures, I've been looking more and more at miniature furniture, what's available, and what I could make. A bed seemed like a good place to start. 

Made with wood and insulation foam (which is quickly becoming one of my new favorite things to work with). 

A few days later, I ran into this person's work online, and this tutorial on making scrolls that kinda blew anything I was doing away.  Just gorgeous.  So now I'm taking a few ideas from what they did, and upping my game for round 2.

I started making crowns.  It started as an idea for my custom Predator.  I thought it would be cool if the reason he was called the Red King was that one of his trophies was a king's crown, and started figuring out how to make one.  I was so happy with the result, and was having fun making it, I knocked out a second one.  Which, oddly, triggered a bunch of new ideas for the House of Seasons. It's bizarre and amazing how ideas generate other ideas, and chain off each other like dominoes.  I've been really active with projects lately, and I find the more I work on stuff, the more new ideas I seem to have.  

So, crowns.  I kind of want to make a few more, even though I don't have a specific figure in mind for them.

I've been working on Krysa for a while now, and still feel like I have a ways to go before she's really finished. She's a big part of the House of Seasons story line, and I'll do a more detailed write up on her when she's done and I make a full gallery for her.  But a little background.  She's Violet Rose's Roommate and oldest friend, not a witch or magic user of any sort, but possibly one of the most dangerous and deadly characters in the House of Seasons story line.  

​Even though there's a ways to go on the figure, I couldn't help but include her in the Christmas photo shoot, and immediately after, she was the first figure I tried my hand at wigging her head from scratch. Which I learned is kind of a pain in the ass. 

Oh, the Red King is coming all right.  Work on my 1st 1/6 scale custom predator has begun.  And it's going to be epic.  

A few work in progress pics from my first background.  I wanted to make a sort of industrial space I could see using for a few different scenes.  The floor is a piece of bead board, roughly sanded and stained, to get a really weathered, uneven color.  The wall is made of insulation foam.  I thought it would be a quick project, but it took me almost a full day to carve out all the bricks and by the end, my hand ached just from holding the knife.  I painted it using a really watered down black to get into all the crevices, then a watery gray to get the mortar effect.  Finally, I finished it with a sponge and 2 different reds.  

​Eventually, I want to add more details, like a tall window, but this will do for now.  I figured these pics would be a fun teaser.  You'll get a much better look in some upcoming photo shoots I have planned.

Another step closer on Violet Rose.  I swapped out the flat plastic eyes that came with the head for some fancier ball joint doll eyes, added her lip ring, and painted on her make up with some matte clear-coat and black weathering powder.  The powder gave it a nice diffused smokey look that I'm really happy with.  Honestly, I think it was a little better before I put the new eyes in, and I'm afraid roughly handling the face while I situated the eyes (which are really tough to move around in these heads) might have smudged it a bit.  But I'm still really happy with the final result.

​If my 57 Chevy driving apocalyptic death cult are the villians of my 1:18 scale Mad Max inspired wasteland epic, then we need a group of heroes too.  Here's a quick work in progress shot of my heroes of the wasteland, a group just trying to stay alive when the whole world has gone mad.

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I'm also working on a modified RV to be their home on wheels.  I found this online.  It's a kids toy from majorette, and possibly one of the coolest toys I've ever bought.  The amount of detail is insane, doors and windows all open, and there's tons of odd hidden functionality.  And it's a perfect 1:18 scale.  Seriously, it's ridiculous how excited I am about this.

​The 1st modification was adding the fenced in area on the roof.  I plan to add a ton inside the fence, including an elevated sniper stand.  As I continue to add on to it, I refuse to touch the ridiculous 70's paint job.  I want it to look like they found this thing, and added on all the wasteland functionality they needed, with out any concern to aesthetics, and ended up with patchwork armor and airbrushed dolphins.  It'll be amazing.