Death Elf - Skull Staff

I used mostly the same techniques as before (wood elf and Kraken staff) when making this staff. But it is fun to see the process, so here it is: My Skull staff (I need a better name).

Start of with... surprise surprise.. a card board roll, the core of a paper table cloth roll. 

Then I bought several fake skulls at a novelty shop, one for the staff and two for the pauldrons. Attached with hot glue. 

And then the head was blended in with paper mache (glue and newspaper).

Then I made a plaster cast of a small skull and made replicas for the top of the staff out of paper clay. 

First painted white and then weathered with light brown. 

Meanwhile on the other end ;)

On the end of the staff I added a plastic ball and made a claw out of paper clay. 

Paint and feathers

Other details were added using only hot glue gun.
Since this is a magical staff I wanted to use Norse Runes as the source of magic (and I chose Elder Futhark version, since they origin from Scandinavia) 

It says Chrix Design

Spine inspired details along the back. 

Then I added a colored satin ribbon and feathers. And spattered it all with "blood" - watered out acrylic paint.

Ready for quest

Photo by Artano Photography

Photo by Artano Photography

Chrix Design

Photo by Artano Photography

ADAM syringe for Big Sister

I'm making a retrospective write up this time, as I got several questions about how I made the Big Sister ADAM syringe. Sadly I don't have any photos from the build it self, but I will try my best to explain what I have used. Also when looking back this could have been done much better.

First things first, you'll need reference images.

Photo: www.slashgamer.com

bioshock.wiki.com

loyalkng.com

Also Lab604 made an incredible Big Sister and documented every thing on flickr. 

How I made my Syringe. 

I started with a piece of Styrofoam carved into shape and covered with filler. Details were added using foam mat and hot glue. 

The end product was painted brass and copper and then weathered. 

One of the valves were bought on Etsy.com and spray painted red, the other was just made out of foam. Both were just screwed right onto the Styrofoam body and can be twisted. 

The needle is just a long pvc pipe, and it is possible to detach it. I used the mechanism of a small shampoo bottle for this. 

The needle tip should have been angled and the blood a little darker ;)

Then we have the red ADAM container, which is just a plain water bottle. The cap is screwed into the Styrofoam. The bottle is not filled with liquid as I thought it would be to heavy on my arm, so I just covered it with red cellophane and added a light inside. As a last detail I added a baby bottle nipple to the end of the bottle, secure it good though, mine fell off several times. 

And then we have the pressure gauges and the attachment to my arm. I just bought cheap gauges on ebay and weathered them. Here you can see how my sloppy work resulted with the use of gaffa which I have not bothered to fix afterwards. 

I have used a piece of a soda bottle as part of the arm guard (see picture below). And a faux leather belt to attach it securly to my arm. 

Strap it on and you are ready. On a different note, I will make a Little Sister Syringe very soon ;)

Photo: Annah Lång

And since I could take off the needle I had to use it as a cane for my dance runtine in 2012. I could not see a thing, but it is still a little funny :p

Morrigan feather brooch

Well of course I have to add a small tutorial for the feather Brooch Morrigan wears in the trailer. And I was happy when I saw this, I almost never get to work with feathers. See tutorial for the dress, necklace and corset here.

 bioware.social.com

And I tried to take a close up of the brooch, but as you might know, there are very few reference photos. 

I am going to make this one mostly out of worbla, and I will only use scraps and leftovers from other projects (you can use all pieces of a worbla sheet you know)

Step one is still to cut out the general shape in cardboard (ah, my trusted cardboard)

And simply cover it with worbla and adding details. 

Following the low tech road, I have just attached two safety pins (using worbla and not glue)

When I'm satisfied with the shape I prime it with gesso. 

(gesso must be sanded down)

Now we jump ahead a few steps, the brooch have been sanded, spray painted gold and the feathers are added using hot glue gun (six of them, three black and three with a shiny green tint).