Ømen Tide Spume Caster

 

Yesterday the local Indie community organised an Ømen Tide event in the region called 'Grill the Kraken'; Those who are active in the German indie scene will most likely have heard of it as a bunch of the 'big' creatives attended. Since I work in retail and yesterday was our Star Wars Unlimited Pre-release event I was not able to attend the event in person. Since I still wanted to be somewhat involved I offered to assemble a little critter to be added as a little extra prize at the event. One of my friends would take the miniature with him to the event for me. Naturally though I procrastinated until the evening before handing off the miniature to that friend in question; But you know what they say about pressure making great diamonds or something! 

The Lore:

My first idea was inspired by some of the attendants on discord; they suggested I make an Undying Spirit so I would be there in 'spirit' with them. I did read a bit about what this meant in terms of rough lore; The description states it is a kind of prophet who when dying can wait for their spirit to raise them up again. I wanted to interpret that as a spirit that controls the body similar to a puppet; The Mantic Games plastic zombie kit had a lovely torso for that and the WGA Zombies provided a fitting nautical hat. The main issue presenting itself was how to convey the strings attached to both master and puppet. Given how little time I had I slightly reconsidered; Instead of a spirit raising the body, I thought what if this was a Necromancer instead. Given the themes of water and oceans I thought they could summon the washed up corpses and spirits of people who had died at sea. To add to the flair I wanted to show this summoning as a torrentuous event. The spume of the ocean rising in a storm to catapult a now re-invigorated corpse to fling at the enemies. The tattered look of this Spume Caster added to the scavenging nature of his magics; Instead of prim and proper skeletons like a classic Necromancer he summons what washes up on the shore, flinging them like a weapon itself. 

Sculpting:

This was my first time trying to sculpts a magical/water effect; The most I have done are signs of mutations such as flesh stretching between two attached faces. So this was a bit of a challenge, but one I welcomed since I did want to learn. At first I made an armature out of paper clips and attached it to the priest at the foot and his back to give it some proper connection; Then I Wrapped parts into aluminium foil which I learned from Modernsynthesist. I sculpted at first thinking of a whirlwind, with streaking lines circling around the cone of the torrent. Halfway through I did decide to add puffier elements, this torrent is a mix of Spume and waters after all, raging and bubbling alike. In the end it turned into a bit of a mix between the two of them with parts where there is visible motion and others where it seems more like plumes of smoke/foam. I also decided to add some tentacle like extensions wrapping around the revived corpse as the magic of the depths courses into their body, filling them with unholy energies. 

After finishing most of the sculpting I went back the next morning before work to add some finishing touches, packed the model up and handed it over to my friend at work. I heard the event went well and they managed to grill the Kraken in the end; I am glad I was able to participate in some way despite circumstances and am happy it went so well.