"The Cicadas are coming!!!" Topic

That's right. Fore those of you on the east coast of the U.S. (and maybe other parts of the world, I don't know) we have about 2 weeks until the Great 17 year swarm of cicadas emerges from the ground to coat just about everything in their black and red bodies. Completely harmless, except for defoliating the outer branches of quite a few trees, they emerge only to mate and die. It would be poetic if they weren't so loud, and romantic if one never got caught in your hair.

And for our hobby? My hope is that this will be the greatest narural resource boon to the sci-fi/fantasy gamer since we began using sticks for downed logs.

I'm not talking about our flying friends themselves - I BEG everyone to please not kill our little ugly friends who just want to get a little something-something and then pass on - but the skins they shed. Within two weeks, every tree and shrub will bear tens to hundreds of brown, dry shells of the cicada ground stage. One inch/3cm long, wingless, bug-eyed, and funky as hell, they would make perfect "Bugs" for starship troopers, perfect monsters for bold dungeoneers, perfect mounts for chaos hordes. Imagine your opponent's face as he sees an army of forty cicadas armed with plasma guns or polearms placed on the tabletop! (And in 6mm, the Behemoths, oh the Behemoths!)

But we bear significant challenges. The crispy shells are fragile and hollow and bear a slit down the back where our black, red, and yellow insect friends emerged. They are also hairy little buggers, and may defy a good painting.

But I feel up to the challenge. I plan to update this thread with my reports, and hope others will do the same.

And one last thing. This event is a natural wonder. In the name of sanity and conservation, I beg everyone to treat these frisky little guys with tolerance if not respect. While we can't help backing over them in the driveway, please take action if you see some ten year old whacking them with a raquet. And as for the ones that show up in your 4 year old's pants pockets after you've washed them - well survival of the fittest; they should've out flown little Jimmy.

I experienced the double whammy of a 17 and 13 year uprising a couple of years ago. It was not to be believed. How could there be this many? The noise drove you inside, which was a little quieter. Deafening. I have it on tape, pictures of outside walls covered in them, trees laden with strange fruit, the air swarming with flying buggies. And every step you took was crunchy.

Turning their discarded shells into wargame material has got to be the creepies thing I've ever heard of on a table. Something about those empty husks makes me skin crawl. To have them on a battlefield would have me failing my morale test fairly early.

Warwick

I saw an art show one time with scores of the shells painted silver. I think he just sprayed them and attached them to the wall. I must have been interesting since I remember it quite well.

Interesting idea, at least on a quiet Sunday morning over my first cup of coffee. The discarded shell is a transluscent amber color, I wonder about using the slit back to inject something that would suggest the "see through, with guts" look? Something like silicone aquarium cement, only the kind with a slightly milky cast, with some swirls/blobs of gray and red to suggest icky vital organs. The interior filling would also help support the fragile shell. Then, how about an outer coating of a resin, like the kind used to "pour" lakes and streams for model railroad layouts? It dries clear, and a thick enough coating would add strength without detracting from the ugly bugly appearance of the critter. A shot of Dulcote, if you must, but who's to say that mutant alien bugs from Neptune can't be glossy?

We did the same thing recently with cows and sheep for our 1-1 scale WWII Normandy backdrop scenery for our reenactment group, thoug we drew the line at French civilians.

Ah the wonders of these wonderful little beasts...I have 4-5 hundrded stored away in my invert locker.

As to how to seal, protect, build-up, and paint...it is a slow process.

This is what I did last time I made an army of insects to battle a battle tech type game with me manning the bugs:

to fix a thing you must understand a thing...the insect creeps out a slit along the back, if there has been no major trauma to the casing then it will be sealed except for this section. Items that I find useful for this process are gel superglue, basing, a fine grit sand like bead blasting material, and a clean sharp tipped bottle/container to put the sand.

A drop or two into the body through this slit, roll the casing in your fingers until all areas inside are coated. Pour in a fair amount of sand through the slit. Move on to another allowing it to dry....continue until you have tired of this process.

Now the super glue will seal all edges and seams, while the sand gives a strength and filler. You can use a white glue form this point (which is a good idea with hundreds of creatures). Follow the same routine to build up the body from the inside...glue sand glue sand, etc.

Once you have your army built up you will have noticed how clingy their forelegs are...this can be a pain in the ass so before you go that far perhaps you should consider how you will have them based.

Basing after the first gluing is a good idea, especially if your are not careful with the application of the super glue.

Beyond that, the painting a fun issue. The hairs are cool, but do not worry about them. There will be plenty of details left when you are done.

Seal the bodies before you paint with a cheap spray sealer. This will prevent the glue from making the primer craze. Then prime and paint.

With that first superglue layer in the body it will offer a bit of strength to the frail legs as it creeps through.

Good luck and if you want I would love to jump in on a challenge. If interested we could have our own LCCS (last cicada converter standing) contest.

lol

Ray Boemler
www.peanutbutterjellyfish.com

Candy boxes make good storage containers for cicada armies. I poured diluted Malt-o-meal (a hot breakfast cereal) into their back slits to fill up the cavity, the MoM dries pretty hard. Then I dipped them in clear lacquer to toughen them up, I used a satin compound because I like a slight shine on bugs. Then I painted a bright stripe down thei backs to both hide the slit and act as unit/hive identifier marks.

I'm sure there are other things you could pour inside to act as fill, like superglue-but that gets expensive. Having a fill makes it easier and sturdier to put in a bit of wire through their torsos so you can mount them on a base in more dynamic poses than just crawling forward. I'll have to find a website where I can post some pics.

Eric

Ewwwwwwwwww

This is the first time in a long time that I've been ashamed to be a gamer. Cicada shells? EWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! Although I dug the message of love and respect, Lupus, this seems a bit too squicky for me. I'll be holed up in a hermetrically sealed house till they're gone.

Gamers... what can you say?

How clever! We don't seem to get the cyclic cicadas down here, sadly. At least, not in those numbers. Kind of a shame, really, since they'd be wonderful critters for a fantasy game!

Good luck to all you who are trying preserving them. I'd choose something other than malt-o-meal, since down here the other bugs'd be after them in no time.

Tacha, who's jealous

Nashville will be overwhelmed. You're welcome to them.

I'd give the project a shot, except my wife would revolt.

I remember finding a dormant one of these underground while digging in the backyard as a kid.
You think the airborne ones are ugly... the dormant stage is pus white with huge blood-red eyes... it didn't move but it still creeps me out thinking of them, out there, under the ground... dreaming... dreaming...

Thanks for sharing that Venusboys. Now we both have that image locked in our brain. lovely

GRUBS! GRUBS!

*Frantically tries to stamp out the ground, while the blood just seeps away from the face...*

(you would too if white grubs had completely devastated the whole region's soil last year...)

What made them decide on 17 years? A Derbyshire-like obsession with prime numbers?

Just sent my in-laws home to Nashville. Must email Dad and see if he'll save some cicada carapaces for me. Or maybe I could hire my nephew to get some.

Should be a banner year for whatever organisms eat cicadas, too. I wonder what they are, and if they could also be incorporated onto the gaming table...

Hmm. Well, "to each his own", I always say.

Next thing you know is someone posting a use for dust bunnies.

:-)

What freaks me out is the incesant howling going on while the cicadas are attracting mates. It literally sounds like the phaser sound effect from the old Star Trek, but it's constant. Quite unnerving.

Walt

What an absolutely amazing and creepy idea! I want to see pictures of the completed process. Please!

Nathan

Thank god I live in Blighty - we just get the yearly migration of pikies - hang on - thats a million times worse!

I love these big guys. It ain't summer to me until I hear the first cicada drone. And when I don't hear them anymore in the fall, I know summer's definitely over.

How did I miss this thread until now? Sick minds think alike ;-)

"Darling , I need something to inject hot porridge up an insects arse "

No . There is a limit .

Truly, truly inspired. Injecting porridge, coating the inside with superglue, haunting nightmares about their subterranean dreams. You guys are great. I can't wait to get my hands on the first set of google-eyed crispy shells.

Article in the newspaper says that some of the midwest and most of the east coast will get them. The sound volume is comparable to a lawnmower. And by the way, it mentions that they are non toxic, and that pets love to gorge on them.

Put that in your nightmare pipe and smoke it: Booboo kitty suckin' down a couple dozen crawlers.

I plan to start with injection of superglue and 2 part polyurethane resin as my first experiments. If working from the inside is unsuccessful, I will move on to laquers and sealers.

I plan to horde a great bunch and work from there. For the cicada deprived in other parts of the US (note Neotacha's post above), I might be willing to send a few to the first few interested parties to post (4 or 5) folks. Of course, it will depend on the number emerging and how well they'd ship.

And peanutbutterjellyfish - did you say 4-500? All sitting in a box in the closet? The insect undead? Yeah, even gives me the willies (in a good way).

As for those creeped out - sorry, but it all for the love of the sport.

I was hoping someone would have a picture of a finished Cicada miniature, but I went and found this picture of the raw material itself:

link