"A real bug hunt..." Topic

Was out doing some yard work today and found some opponents for my Felids.

Now I know I cannot mold these or preseve them for gaming use, so who produces something that looks like them. Not looking for proxies I am looking for as close to the original as possible here.

Thanks
DZT

get a can of sealing foam insulation and inject them with a little bit. once cured they should be sturdy enough to paint.'

DZT,

If I had known, I cleaned out about two dozen of those around the yard about two weeks ago. I could have saved them for you.

Dan

bogleech.com/rubbermisc.html

Heh, my trees are full of the darn things too. You know… glue them to a penny and hit them with a coat of primer and a coat of matt varnish. They'll either hold together, or they won't… what's the harm in trying?

Chris K.

What about some clear nail polish on the outside..or a lacquer. Kind of along the lines of what food photographers use?

I'd spray them with clear varnish, and then flat, as desired.

Evil looking beasties.

How'd you get them to hold still for the photo?

Promises of some nice, tender, aged and dried balsa wood?

I can't believe someone hasn't done figures that resemble them.

If the legs were sculpted based on the real thing, I think that the front legs could easily hold some sort of alien-looking weapon.

Dan

Dropzone I treated over 500+ for a taxidermy shop to use.

No foam, they will blow up :(

For gaming I would find light weight bases, like thin wood from the craft store…I bought a bag of 300 a couple weeks ago for $3…use a hot glue gun mount to the bases…use hot glue to fill in the hollow bodies (in layers, come back and fill more later)…once filled spray with polyurethane spray (again, layers…line them all up in the sun if possible, spray, dry, repeat.

They will hold up surprisingly well.

Go collect as many as you can.

Good luck.

I'll have to take a better look outside but the 3 seemed to be all I had so far. I will play around with them tomorrow and see what I can do with them.

Well, that will give me the screaming heebie-jeebies now. What the hell are they?

Discard Cicada skins.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

I like them. Good luck keeping them intact for gaming. Also, props to the "Battle Cat" paint jobs on the Felid troops.

Well, that will give me the screaming heebie-jeebies now. What the hell are they?

Yeah, they are grim.

Eeeeeeeeeeew

I've always loved cicadas. Their song starts at the beginning of summer and lasts the whole season. They're completely harmless to people and pets; they don't bite or sting.

I picked up a cicada gashapon on Ebay a few years back that included a life-size adult version and a nymph. You might still be able to find them online somewhere.

I'll have to look for it. I spent the last hour hunting for them and I found only one. Off to try and work with the few I have. I will post back here once I have something to show.

DZT

I gave the hot glue a chance… and it was perfect for the torsos. They are hard as rocks. The legs however are a different matter. most of them got a hit of hot glue to put them back together after falling off the body.

I gave them about 4 thick coats of Krylon clear gloss and it seemed to clean them up on its own. I did a light black wash to define areas a bit, and one more coat of gloss.

This is what I got.

One lost too many legs and was falling apart in the build so I decided I now have a casualty/objective marker

Now if only I could get my hand on like a couple dozen more…

This time of year in the southern US you can find them by the dozens on trees and fences. And of course there is the cacophonous song going on all day long especially as it gets hotter in the day.

I must really be crazy.

I find the cicada buzzing sound soothing:

YouTube link

Just as soothing as the coqui frog* chirping in Puerto Rico (which is driving crazy a lot of Hawaiians, now that they have gotten a foothold there).

Dan
* I can fall asleep to that loud chirping:
YouTube link

This whole thing both intrigues and disturbs me…

Good work though.

I find the cicada buzzing sound soothing

Same here, Dan. Pop open a beer, climb into my hammock, and let the cicadas serenade me. It's a great life – unless the mosquitoes find me.

Loved listening to them in Japan

Okay, I like the idea so much I went and found 18 of them. Saving them for a rainy day. They kind of look like Garthim.

Malleman,

Just make sure to add some hot glue to the belly area to help support the legs.

Dropzone and others…I have a glue pot, which is just a hot glue plate rather than gun, try dipping the lower section with the legs before filling the upper section.

Dip and then set onto the base.

Now that sounds easier than it actually is because the glue pot is full of hot glue…which is sticky, makes lots of strings, and did I mention hot?

But there is a trick to the strings of hot glue that trail off; have a tooth pick or other like item mounted (hot glued :) some where close to the glue pot and pointing straight up…touch the strings to the stick, wrap around quickly, and pull away…and in this case stick to the base.

This will give a coating of hot glue to the whole underside including the legs.

Once all are mounted then fill with hot glue :)

I had to do this for my big lot but I had just forgot that detail…after all that gluing I think I blanked it out.

I stuck all mine to pine bark shingles.

Any crafts store…around $8-10…worth it…no more dribbles :)

Your efforts look great by the way…the over all is sweet and the damage marker with off color green goo.

I have seen you suggest those in the past and it would be good for mounting them but you would still need a normal one to fill up the body. I It would be good for the basing.

Disturbing but very creative never the less…