possible gibberings written at 6a.m this morning....

Howard Phillip Lovecraft. Without doubt the greatest writer of cosmic-pulp horror of all time(I should put so far, but I doubt he’ll be beat.) I’ve read, reread and re-reread his stories so often I should go on Mastermind with my knowledge. Actually I shouldn’t as really I couldn’t tell you a whole bunch of dry facts about him or his stories. What I do know is that the fictional town of Arkham, the Great elder ones, the colour from out of space, live in my mind daily.
However this blog ain’t just about me and what I like, its about LITTLE MODEL MEN…. And so I am writing to inform of the work I have been doing with regards to this. This and H.P.Lovecraft. Actually this post is really more about the roleplaying game inspired by Lovecraft’s work, ”Call of Cthulhu”, sort of…..Not being to clear here am I … a fact list always helps!

1) I am building a series of dioramas based on H.P.Lovecraft’s work.

2) This is a progress report on this work

3) Throughout this process I have been broadcasting this work from the more page here within this site.

For basing I got an off cut of MDF, this is then built-up with chicken wire, paper mache and a final layer of flock and detail. When building dioramas in this way it is always handy to have a miniature of the scale the diorama is for, to place about the scene to check every thing is to scale. I always paint with acrylic paints, although I think a wise investment would at some point be an airbrush. Okay so far I have done 2 (INSERT SIZE), one based on the blasted heath, a location outside of Arkham that Lovecraft mentions on more than one occasion. The diorama however is of an area to the side of the heath, a hill with a well trodden path leading down to the heath. The are of the heath itself only takes up about a third of the model.

Lovecraft calls it the blasted heath, stating that no tree or plants will grow here, so the actual heath itself in the model is a barren desert like place. However Never one to keep things safe, I have built a tower that will slot into a rounded area, (that looks like a strange magic circle.) This changes the landscape Totally. I have been building a fence across the hill from cocktail sticks. Building this fence has been an utter horror down to the fiddly nature of the job and superglue.

SUPERGLUE….there are an awful lot of types of superglue out there, I own five different brands. Four of these are not actually superglue at all. They do not stick, if they do they take too long to dry,and if they do stick and dry they’re weaker than an earth worm in an arm wrestle. One brand however is pure utter brilliance. Can you think which one it is?… can you?…go on guess…? No? Well I’ll tell you then. It is none other than Sainsbury supermarket’s own brand! Yes you heard right, unless you can prove me different Sainsbury’s home brand (cheap as chips) blows all the rest totally out the water! Which is actually nuts when you think about it…This stuff seems to dry on spot contact, is extremely strong, durable and has no trouble gluing metal to metal. One thing I’d like to add though is that getting super glue all over your fingers is a bleeding pain. Now I heard somewhat that nail polish remover is good at getting it off so I’m going to try that little trick, I’ll report back on the results….

So I used this glue along with tweezers to build a fence I am a little proud of….
……Now the other diorama is not directly based on an exact location in any of Lovecraft’s own fiction, although it could be from (INSERT TITLE) It is a central hill with hidden cave entrance and a few standing stones on its peak. The flock/model grass/ scatter used in this model is much brighter, giving the model a more Summery look.
Now I am researching the best way to build architectural features, not however on the internet, but with actual books, which unlike the internet, I can take into my work area (kitchen table at present!) and spill paint, plaster of paris and wall filler all over. Now you can’t do that with the feckin internet can you!
Now then, the third diorama I build I will take photos along the way and attempt to create a sort of tutorial… how thrilling!

IN OTHER NEWS I am so exited about THIS model I just want to build it right now!

Our cat has a habit of bringing in leaves as cat style gifts, well I think that’s the reason, she always looks very proud of her self when she does it. I let her out about an hour ago and the floor in here now resembles the ground of an autumn forest… our cat’s madder than me!