Minimaking: SKIP

I play a fair amount of Dungeons and Dragons, usually as a DM.  It's one of my favorite hobbies, so I wind up doing a fair amount of extra stuff to make the experience that much better.  From interesting handouts to custom miniatures to giant maps, I like to make it all.  Assuming I can't find it already made for cheap, that is.



In any case, here's a miniature I made to go with a character I play. It's the arcane familiar of my hard-line, alchemist artificer Wil Stearn.  He constructed this little guy out of a box of scraps, however he is not quite genius inventor enough to have done so in a cave.  So without further ado, I present the making of the mini for S.K.I.P., the mechanical velociraptor.

Step 1: First, I got out some air-dry clay.  This stuff is pretty handy, but not quite as good as Sculpey or Femo.  I acquired a bunch of Crayola brand clay, and use it for small projects now and again.  Fun to work with, but pretty messy. Luckily mine was still nice and moist, so I didn't have to wet it at all to begin with.

Step 2: The first shape I made was an approximately one-inch circle for the base.  Most D&D maps I've encountered are on one inch grids, so this seemed kind of obvious. 

Step 3: Continuing the plan from the ground up, I started with the claws.  S.K.I.P. is supposed to be a velociraptorbot, so giant claws were a must-have.

Step 4: Here's where things get interesting... sort of.  A pair of simple cylinders makes for easy legs, and everything sticks quite nicely because of how fresh the clay is.  With that in mind, after getting everything nice and stable I.... leave it all alone for a while!  How exciting.

Step 5: After a half-hour or so (this Crayola stuff dries fast) I came back and got to work on the body and tail.  I tried to make the body as stable and squat as possible, with the idea that it was basically an alchemical storage device.  That walks.  And roars.  The tail is nice and raptor-ey as well, being all straight and long.  I'll admit, I'm a little proud.






Step 6: Aha, the head!  This is getting interesting.  I sculpted a vaguely raptor-like head on the table, and using a syringe wet the body and the head seperately, mushed them up a little with a tool, and then stuck them together.  It worked out surprisingly stable.

Step 7: Well, SKIP has enough raptorness I think, so at this point I started adding some weird, artificer style accoutrements.  First up were a gear-inspired set of leg-covers.  Do they rotate to provide extra tension on jumps?  Do they store alchemical items or reagents?  Are they just there to look cool?  Probably.

Step 8: SKIP has a handy little feature wherin he stows and retrieves small items for Wil. A fun example of this was when he was carrying the Sceptre of the Winter King in that king's particular adventure.  When the king set off a massive attack through the scepter itself, he failed to notice the tiny robo-raptor next to him with the scepter tucked inside his back.  The king did not survive.

In any case, that's what that strange hole is on his back.

Step 9: More detailing! Arms make their cute debut, the skull gets a... line... thing.  And a hole. Maybe he wants a nose ring?

Taa-daa!  There you have it.  Once he dries out a bit more, he'll be ready to hit the table.  The painting table.  Because he needs paint.  Maybe next week.

Apparently I went a little off-scale.... oops.

In any case, I had a great time making SKIP, and I can't wait to get him painted and running around wreaking havoc for whatever DM will have me.