From the Cross 'Box'

If you read my last post about the five box system you'll know that I played fast and loose with the Cross box.  I called it the hypothetical box, and its designed to give me the slack to do those last minute projects that I always seem to need for D&D.
I also said I didn't want to show what I had made, as I like it to be a surprise for the players (cos I'm still a big kid that way).  Well finally we have got around to the encounter, so here is a Chaos Dragon and a Weird Arcane Crystal Thingy.

The Chaos Dragon started out as a £1 plastic toy dragon.  I must have picked it up thinking it would come in useful sometime.  It did.  The arms were easily detachable (in fact one was missing), so I made a rough skeleton out of various thicknesses of wire.  Next time I'll wear gloves, the wire can be sharp.  A good dab of superglue and everything was sound.  I also pinned the legs and wings in place, as I didn't want them coming loose.  Then a good covering of greenstuff in several layers, with a touch up of liquid greenstuff to even up any really bad bits.  My greenstuffing (is that a thing?) skills are not great, but the rough finish sort of suits the chaotic nature of the creature.  

A black undercoat followed by a basecoat of dark purple, then increasing highlights (drybrushing mostly) of lighter purple.  We long ago established in the campaign that purple is the colour of "The Beyond".  A few details such as blue eyes and red chest scales, then I finished with lines of pink along the tentacles to suggest some sort of energy breaking out of its form.  It's actually a pretty good model for the price, and paints up pretty well as the detail is sharp.  I wish I had bought more of them.

Throughout the later part of the campaign I have used various crystalline constructs and control features to give the idea that one culture is responsible for all this (here and here for a couple of examples).  Hopefully the players will learn that there are certain traits that all such things possess, and use this knowledge in future encounters.

For this I wanted something big and impressive.  This is simply more of the acrylic 'gems' hot-glued around a former (the cap of an aerosol).  The best bit is that it is big enough inside for a colour changing tea light.  My suggestions of using it as a Christmas ornament were, however, rejected.