DEATH SNAILS!

Some time ago I got a wild hair and decided to sculpt a snail with a miniature human skull for a shell.  Why?  Who knows.  That's never been a question I've been good at answering.

Anyhow, here's an early shot of the sculpt in progress:


I decided it would be easiest to split these guys into multiple parts to mold.  This gives me a chance to mix and match different shell skulls.  Here's the body without the shell before it was molded:


The molds for the body and shell were simple box molds:



Once the rubber was cast and working, it was time to start making copies:


The eye stalks were sculpted separately:


Then I set those up for molding as well:


I pull them before the resin is fully cured, so each pair of antennae have a different pose:


Originally I made one sculpt for the skull/shell:


The first handful of skulls had to be trimmed by hand to fit onto the snail bodies.  Here they are in primer:


The snail bodies were hydrodipped using a variety of different shades of brown, tan, black, and green in order to give them really great finishes, many of them turned out looking like burl woodgrain:





But the main goal was variety:





Eventually I got around to re-sculpting the skulls before re-molding them and casting them in a variety of different materials:


Mostly, they were painted white:


Then weathered:


Finally, my Death Snail army was assembled:


If you'd like to get your own fleet of Death Snails, I'm listing these guys in my etsy shop at thorssoli.etsy.com.  They sell fairly quick though, so don't hesitate.

Stay tuned for additional updates on this particularly silly project.  One way or another, there will be more:


EDIT: for a limited time, use the discount code "BLOGGER" at checkout for 10% off your entire order.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/thorssoli?coupon=BLOGGER