I wanted to do a project that would be easy for anyone to do and wouldn’t break the bank as far as materials. I have always been a fan of terrain making and thought this would be a mix of my two passions, sculpting and terrain.

You will see that everything is actually very basic...flat ovals and long tubes. All the pieces are reinforced by wire or foam. This serves two purposes, one, It gives you the basic form and two it saves the cost of GREEN STUFF. So, let’s get started.

First thing is to gather your tools and materials. Here is a list:

1. Games Workshop sculpting tool (I love this thing)
2. Block of 1 ½ pink insulation 2 inch by 2 inch for the model, but a 6 inch by 6 inch piece is nice for holding your model while you work
3. Needle nose pliers
4. Thin wire (not shown)
5. X-acto knife
6. Large cutting blade (for cutting the foam down to size)
7. Sharpie (for drawing on the foam)
8. 2 small ceramic sculpting tools (with little balls on the end)
9. Modeling clay (non-hardening); light colored makes it easier to see you work
10. Toothpicks – to hold your piece upright as you work and tips for teeth
11. I almost forgot...GREEN STUFF







The next thing I did was to make a model of what I thought I wanted. I made this model from regular modeling clay, the non-hardening type. By doing this I was able to make a model the exact size I wanted and I could make changes until I was happy with the project. This also allowed me to use my tools to see what textures they would create. The picture below shows you the modeling clay sculpt I made…using extra bits from my fire warriors as “plant food”.





Happy with the results I started the prep work for my man-eating flora. I started by carving a small “egg” from the pink insulation. BE CAREFUL! Due to the size of the foam “egg” your fingers will be very close to the knife blade.





Then I used the X-acto blade to cut the top of the egg off. I angled the knife toward the center at about 45 degrees…this gives you a nice funnel shape where you will be inserting the wires for the arms and head of the plant.



I then made some little V cuts to distinguish where the leaves would be.



Now it is time for the fun part. I made 4 flat ovals to make the 4 leaves around the pink Styrofoam “egg”. It is starting to resemble a plant or pod.





I didn’t have any torso pieces for my Tau so I made a GREEN STUFF torso…I figured you wouldn’t see a lot of detail on this part anyway because it would be wrapped in the tentacle of the plant.





Tentacle time! Remember I said flat ovals (leaves) and tubes…here we go. Cut a piece of wire whatever length you want the tentacle to be. Bend the wire to the shape you would like. Roll out some Green Stuff and place the wire on it, and then work the GREEN STUFF around it. Leave about ½ inch of the wire sticking out, that ½ will go into the foam. Taper the GREEN STUFF towards the end, kind of like an octopus tentacle and stick the bare wire end into the foam egg.

The picture below is of the tentacle that got cut off by a pulse blast before the Warrior got ripped in two. The technique is the same for both the tentacles.







The picture blow is of the large tentacle. Once the wire was inserted into the foam I placed a small piece of GREEN STUFF into the center and textured it using the tool with the round heads. Pressing the round tool in the GREEN STUFF and pulling it out made the “pores” in the tentacle.

Depending on the angle that you look at this piece you can see the Warrior’s “guts” where he has been torn in two. You know what they say, “ only bite off what you can chew”.





In the following picture the second tentacle is placed into the center of the “egg”; if you wait too long you will have to drill a small hole to stick the wire brace into.

I didn’t want to waste any of my GREEN STUFF, so whenever I had a little piece left over I made something with it…you can see the spine coming out of the space marine helmet, the arm with bones sticking out and a leaf (sensory device for the plant).



The following picture is of the head of the plant. I took a small 3/8 inch wooden ball and drilled a hole in it for the wire brace. I molded the GREEN STUFF as shown – an open mouth and stuck the Tau’s leg in there.



Once again I shaped the wire how I wanted it I then covered it with GREEN STUFF. I had to drill a hole in the center to run the brace wire through and smoothed out the GREEN STUFF in the center of the egg to make it blend.







A plant that stays in one place is just too normal so I rolled out a long piece of GREEN STUFF about 1/8 inch in diameter and created small tentacles that make the plant mobile…how cool is that. You can see these below.



I added some GREEN STUFF into the upper and lower jaws and cut the tips off of toothpicks to use as teeth.







And that's it...this was a simple project that I think almost anyone can tackle. This was my first time using GREEN STUFF, but it won't be my last. I loved the "working" time and texture.

Well, now I'm off to base and paint my new creation. If you have any questions drop me a line.