Ruins of Alph Ho-Oh replica
I was yet again approached by one of my friends to create something from Pokémon, namely the Ho-Oh puzzle from the Ruins of Alph from Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal. I did such a good job with my previous Pokémon creations that they felt compelled to have something too. This time I was compensated fairly.
I used a screen shot from the Game Boy Color game, traced it in Adobe Illustrator. Instead of trying an exact copy I tried to imitate a look of a ragged outline that resembles the pixelated look without being too on the nose.
Then the file needed to be converted into a SVG in Inkscape (because of some wonkyness importing it into Autodesk Fusion 360), and then imported it into Autodesk Fusion 360, where I extruded the areas into a 3D-printable giant cookie cutter model. With that giant cookie cutter printed out I put that immediately into action and stamped an equally-sized slab of polymer clay (about 15cm x 15cm) and textured it with a balled-up piece of aluminium foil. After 30 minutes of baking and a little bit of cool-off time the most arduous part began with the painting process. It took me about 6 hours of carefully building up (and messing up) the paint job with the crappy acrylic paint that won't get used up fast enough. I messed it up a few times trying some color experiments and using my miniature painting washes. The last part was that gave me the most head ache as they are hard to fix when applied. Washing or rubbing it off meant that the crappy acrylic paint would also be removed. I felt stuck at some point using the wash as it made the surface too glossy and the brown darkened a ton. I was disheartened for a bit but rolled with that mistake. All I wanted was to have some minor darker variations. The majority of the time painting on it was to create a more coherent look by switching between dry brushing and applying very thinned layers of more washes. I got to a point that made me happy again with the outcome (also a little bit of sleep helped too).
For the photo I used my Canon EOS 350D (Canon EOS Rebel XT), for which I needed to buy a new battery. The old battery couldn't hold a charge. Next to my house there is a big patch of moss I find quite appealing to look at and I thought it would complement the golden-brown paint job very well. I propped it up with a small box so the whole thing wouldn't sink completely into the squishy moss bed.
