A Dragon Egg!

Something Eggy (and Dragony)

In my last post, I showed off the Book Nook I made for my niece Lizzie - this time I'll be documenting the gift I made for my second Canadian niece Anastasia. 

As Anastasia loves Dragons, I decided to make her a Dragon egg that she can hatch revealing a tiny baby dragon!

Kinder Eggs have improved since I was a kid

The Egg

Making an egg shape from scratch is annoyingly difficult - even more so when it needs to be rugged enough to be handled and cracked open without destroying it!

I decided to use the Worbla / Isopon combination technique that I pioneered during the Imperator Titan build as it allowed me to shape complex compound curves by heat shaping the Worbla over a jig (in this case, a Christmas pudding pot) then reinforcing it with the resin filler.

I really need to invest in some heat proof gloves for working with Worbla as it gets a bit... burny.

I didn't bother documenting these first steps as I've covered it several times in the past - once I'd sanded the entire surface to the rounded shape I was looking for.  Next, I added more surface detail with Worbla - it has a really nice nobbly surface when heated and cooled which was exactly the texture I wanted!

I wanted to make a stylised surface like the dragon eggs seen in Game of Thrones as they quite visually interesting compared to a smooth modern bird egg.

Daenerys 'WHERE ARRR MY DRAGGENZ?!' Targaryen and the pine cone-esque dragon eggs I used for reference!

To make the surface detail, I cut Worbla into scale shapes (with a circular cap for each end), heated them and carefully moulded them to the surface. Worbla is pretty sticky when heated, so it adhered nicely to the porous surface of the resin filler.

The scales were placed in overlapping circles around the surface of the egg using more heat to ensure a good seal

You can see the surface texture in this picture - it's almost like thick animal hide like a Rhino

The egg fully covered with scales

  I intentionally gave the egg a flat hollow bottom in anticipation of future shenanigans. I then carefully cut the egg into two pieces along the scale joins so that it could be easily opened and closed.

Cutting the egg in half need me to use just about every cutting tool I own. I probably should have found a way to perforate it in advance of the final layer. If I ever make another one, at least I've learned a valuable lesson!

The Nest

In order to make the egg nice and secure, I wanted it to sit on a base which I could dress as a sort of incubation nest.  As nobody has ever seen a Dragon nest, I felt I could get away with some artistic license - I started with a thick piece of Foamex which I carved into a rocky shape, then added lots of additional rocky shapes with more Foamex until I was happy with the overall look.

I made sure to leave a roughly egg shaped area in the centre to ensure a good fit.  I also created plenty of channels in the rocky surface as I could be adding some LED string lights later on.

The basic rocky base shape carved in Foamex and spray undercoated

Test fitting with the egg

I carefully laid the copper LED string into the rocky channels after painting the base

More test fitting to make sure that the egg fit over the LEDs

LED test - they're very bright at this stage - the light will be diffused once they've been covered

The Baby Dragon

I started by measuring out the size of the egg to ensure that the Dragon would fit inside it.  I then sculpted the basic shape of the dragon over an aluminium wire armature.  I used Super Sculpey as it's very quick to work with and after an initial baking, I had a good solid shape which I could add detail to.

The rough shapes are there even if it does look a bit like a chicken!

I started covering the original sculpt with a 1:2 Greenstuff / Milliput mix, bulking out the musculature and face shapes

At this point I didn't add much in the way of detail besides some scale shapes along the spine to keep everything even

I sculpted the basic face but left the surface detail for later

Building out the ribs and pectoral muscles

This putty mix is pretty tough, so coating the whole model made it much tougher

While bulking out the muscle groups, I also refined the pose of the legs slightly

Now that I'd hardened the whole sculpt, I could start adding detail.  Before I did this, I lightly sanded the entire surface to improve adhesion for adding detail, avoiding the risk of future delamination

I worked details into the surface with more putty, refining the face and starting to add scales

This carried on from the head right down to the tip of the tail.  It took several evenings to complete the detailing stage as you have to wait for the putty to fully cure overnight to avoid squishing detail when handling it!

I decided to sculpt the wings separately so I cut them off, laid them down on some grease proof-paper and made a basic shape using a bat wing as reference

I added some light texture to the surface of the wing membranes

The Wire lengths on the wings were there to make indents - once the putty was part-cured I removed them and folded the wings into shape

I glued the wings back in place once fully cured and put some more putty over the joins for added strength

I added a nice big sail to the dragon's tail for a bit of added interest

I'd sculpted some talons and claws which were set in place while I sculpted the final details

You can see in this image that some of the scales were etched into the surface rather than sculpted as they didn't need to be too defined

The back and neck spines / scales were the most prominent areas so got a lot of attention

The finished baby dragon after around 15 hours of sculpting

I sprayed the whole model white then gave it a really thick coat of red ink

Once the inks were dry, the scales and details really showed up nicely and made for a good base coat

I painted the while dragon in reds and oranges apart from the wing membranes which were purple

Once I'd finished the rest of the dragon, all the claws and spines were painted with gloss black and highlighted with grey before receiving a gloss varnish coat for extra toughness 

What a little cutie!

Finishing up

Once I'd painted the egg and the base, all that was left was for me to seal the baby dragon inside the egg.  I carefully wrapped it in shredded orange tissue paper and... found that the egg didn't quite close properly.  This was a highly irritating issue and I realised that I had accidentally increased the size of the Dragon by adding the sail on its tail.

Luckily I already had a solution.  I had procured some neon orange splash gel from Greenstuff World to fill in the LED channels on the rocky base.  I was a little disappointed when I realised that the stuff wasn't self-levelling, but there wasn't much else I could use as I needed something that wouldn't bleed through and the viscous splash gel is about the consistency of spreadable margarine.

Once I'd covered all of the LEDs (the splash gel is semi-transparent so diffused the lights as mentioned earlier) I used the remaining splash gel to close up the gaps in the egg.  My original plan was to use a thin layer on the inside to tack the egg together.  Now, the membrane was thicker but functionally the same.

I added some nesting material (lichen) and white tufts to the rocks for some extra detail and voila!

The gap in the egg looks 'yolky' but once it's been hatched, the extra splash gel can be removed, allowing the empty egg to be closed up again

The little black drawstring bag has the light control box inside

All lit up, the lava base looks pretty cool!  There is a pulse setting on the lights which looks great!

I was quite pleased with the nest bedding - it hides the connection to the base and looks nice too!

I even included some more lichen bedding so that the Dragon can 'sleep' inside the bottom half of the egg!

And finally, here's a little video of the Dragon Egg with the lights in action!

A Book Nook!

Back in the swing

After a lengthy posting hiatus, I'm finally back with some content!  I haven't been completely idle over the last 6 months and have built up a bit of a backlog, so I'll be trying to post at least once a week for the next couple of months in order to get caught up!

My first project from the backlog is actually one I finished quite recently, taking the form of a gift for one of my two nieces who live across the pond in the faraway land of Canada.  My next post will feature the gift for my second niece, but for now, I'll focus on Lizzie's gift...

It's a Book that's also a Nook.

Book Nook

My eldest niece wanted a Book Nook which was a project I'd been wanting to tackle for a while but never had a particular reason to make one until now.  As my niece loves Mermaids, the theme wasn't difficult to decide on!

Early on I decided that I wanted an oversized book which would open out into both a nook and a larger scene which incorporated lights so that it could function as a night light and decoration.

Once I'd decided on the contents, I went out and bought an A4 sized wooden jewellery box from The Works (a discount book and craft seller in the UK) and started planning out the contents and materials I'd need to make the inner details.

The basic wooden box that I started with

A quick sketch of how I wanted the Book Nook to open out

Outer Book and Structure

Even though I knew I'd need to re-use the hinges, I removed them and the original catch from the box so that I could make alterations without them getting in the way. I then carefully marked up the side of the box which I'd need to cut off in order to make the front of the Nook swing open on a new hinged joint.

As the wood was both soft and thin, I carefully made the cuts with a sharp knife and steel ruler

The end of the box removed and glued back together to make an end 'cap'. FYI, Alan Carr was no help during this process.

In order to make a convincing book spine, I added two sections of Foamex to the outer edge of the end cap which would form the spine

Next, I cut thick backing board to simulate the hard back of the book and measured out a section of faux brown leatherette which was large enough to cover the outer book in one single piece and fold down over the small inner ridges

The components measured out with a little extra leatherette for adjustment

Once I'd added some heavy duty wood glue to the components, I carefully laid them out and added some weight in the form of books and a dice tower, leaving it all to dry overnight (I'd highly recommend the two books in this picture for anyone that has an interest in sketching - 3D Total Publishing do some fantastic books for inspiration and encouraging new drawing techniques!) 

Once everything was dry, I cut two Wooden Skewers to help mould the spine separators - these were inserted between the foamex and leatherette 

Once I was happy with the separator placement, I used superglue to Stick the leatherette into the spine indents and sides of the end cap. I used a rounded sculpting tool to press the material into the indents with the glue before it dried

It was then back to the heavy duty wood glue and weights to stick the remaining book skin to the outer box surfaces

Once the wood glue was dry, I trimmed the leatherette, folded it in over the cover ridge and super glued it in place. I also attached two sets of hinges and a new catch

The spine of the book swings open smoothly once the catch is taken off

The double hinges worked perfectly, revealing the inside of the nook

The Book Nook was finally looking more like a convincing (if large) book!

From the start I wanted the spine to have an illustration and some nice gold lettering to sell the look of the Book Nook when it's all closed up.  Given the theme, I decided to make a Mermaid stencil for the spine image - I carefully drew up a single piece silhouette in my sketchbook, reinforced it with masking tape then carefully cut out the shape with a craft knife.

The mermaid stencil was fairly straightforward - before drawing it, I marked out the area for the picture to make sure it fit in between the spine ridges

I taped the stencil down and sponged gold paint on to the surface - I tried to keep it a little irregular to imply age and wear

I carefully painted gold onto the separating ridges to accentuate the divide

Finally, I had to make sure that the top edge looked like book pages.  I originally tried to do this by cutting an absurd number of paper slices glued together but I just wasn't happy with the irregularity of the cuts.  I eventually settled on a simpler method which just involved a pen and ruler...

I drew hundreds of lines with a very thin grey fine liner to simulate pages. It took a while but gave a much nicer result than trying to use paper slivers. Once complete, I cut these out and used paper glue to stick them to the outer box surface

Inner Structure and Details

The first step was to create an insert for me to build the inner details onto.  I opted for Foamex as it was light and quick to assemble - once I'd made an inner box surface, I was able to start building the rocky cave surfaces that I intended to use for the underwater scene.

I formed the basic shapes of the cave walls, rock shelves and stalactites with a craft knife, gluing them together but not into the outer casing so that I could remove them to add details

I constantly tested the fit of the rock shelves to make sure I knew exactly where the parts would cross over when the Book Nook was closed up

The Nook looked like a complex underwater cave system once closed up 

The next step was to remove the inserts and texture them.  Super glue with sand / gravel or an epoxy putty mix may be my go-to methods for miniature work, but would be too difficult to use on this project. I used Sculptamold for this instead as it's good for covering slightly larger surfaces than I normally work with. It is a versatile material, but I find it isn't particularly resilient if not properly sealed or reinforced. I also find drying times for Sculptamold vary wildly depending on the water ratio and room temperature. I prefer the immediacy of other texture methods, but for this project I needed the material to be light and easily cut back if necessary for any last minute adjustments.

The smaller panel for the outside edge

The inside of the cave took a while to texture - I'd marked out the areas which needed to remain clear for closing the Book Nook in advance so that I didn't need to waste time on clean-up later

I used a large plaster bowl to mix up the Sculptamold in handfuls - mixing up too much in one go just leads to wastage as curing time speeds up as you increase volume due to the heat from the exothermic reaction.  The smaller silicone pot was filled with water which I used to smooth and shape the compound once it was in place.

Once the Sculptamold was completely dry (I let it fully dry out over 2 days), I painted on a coat of mod-podge to seal the surface. I watered it down slightly to try and improve penetration into the porous material.

Once the first layer of mod-podge had dried, I mixed up more mod-podge with fine sand and grey paint - I gave the entire surface a nice thick coat with the exception of the smooth areas as I needed to keep them as smooth as possible (they had to be in contact when the Book Nook folded to allow friction to hold it shut when the spine cap was open and adding texture would hinder that).

Before gluing the inserts into the outer casing, I drilled holes for the lighting and cut channels into the back of the main panels for the light cabling.

Once the holes were drilled, I cut channels for the wiring

I created continuous loops around the surfaces and glued in a single LED string

I sculpted a number of tiny sea creatures and anemone bases to place inside the cave

Once sculpted, I glued the creatures to a base plate and made a silicon mould

I cast up some additional copies of these fishy friends and used masking tape to hold them in place while I sprayed them

Then it was just a case of painting them up and sticking them in place with UV Resin!

With the addition of the sea creatures, plastic plants, some anemones made with fibre optic cable and a mermaid, the main cavern was complete! 

I added blue acrylic crystals over the holes I'd drilled for the lighting and tested everything before gluing the caves into place

I didn't actually photograph the process, but I had traced the cut-outs in the cave walls onto the inside of the casing and painted ocean scenes straight into the surface to add a little extra depth to the scene prior to sticking the caves into place.

I drilled holes all around the battery casing then sewed a black patch onto the back

I screwed the casing for the LED batteries into the case so it could be easily hidden. The on/off switch is easy to see on the top while the ugly batteries are hidden behind the black cloth patch (the plate slides up and off to replace the batteries).

I fixed a red ribbon to the spine and fed this through the book split

Finally I carefully glued some gold lettering to the book spine and with that, the Book Nook was complete!

Finished Book Nook

This mini project took a few weeks to complete and was actually a nice departure from my normal projects. I liked having a shell to work within as it meant I was forced to use every bit of space as effectively as possible! Working out how everything would be visible open and closed was also kind of fun - it was a really interactive build compared to a static display piece!

 

The outer cave wall with its ocean scene. Note the flexible fibre optic cable that I had to feed from the main cave section to carry light to this section 

The main cavern with the mermaid and treasure chest

The Book Nook closed up - note how the rocky shelves slide in across each other to complete the scene

The cavern all lit up!

I think it looks beautiful lit up in the dark!