Bones II: Gelatinous "Ice" Cube

   This week I also completed the Gelatinous Cube figure from the Bones II Gelatinous Cube add-on set.   I traded a friend for this figure as he was disappointed with its lack of "cube-ness". I have to agree that it doesn't match my idea of what an old school D & D  Gelatinous Cube should look like either.  I had always pictured something more geometric and cube-like, with more well defined shape and sides (like a Jello cube!).  However, I saw the possibility of using this as some sort of ice monster for Frostgrave...a living ice cube if you will.  Maybe a product of some ancient magic, or something to evolve in the froze wastes of the magic-riddled city.  From what I understand ice, actually can move on is own, so it's locomotion isn't beyond the realm of reality.  Being sentient and scavenging for food, however, puts us back into the realm of fantasy. :)
   I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking its parts in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying.  I then glued the base of the cube to a 2" white-primed fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue.  I didn't need to glue the washer to a tongue depressor, as the big 2" size gave me a good surface to hold onto while painting.

      The first thing I did was give the Cube's base a wash with some Iron Wind Metals "Mid Blue" ink using a wet brush, to help bring out the details.   I then painted all the various skeletons, clothing, weapons ,and shields that litter the base.  I'm not going to go into much detail about this, as it turns out you really can't see any of this when the Cube is placed on top of it anyway.  If I had realized this, and had it to do over again, I probably would have just painted it all brown and called it a day.

    I finished up this step by giving everything sculpted onto the Cube's base a wash with GW "Agrax Earthshade" wash.

      When this was dry, I glued the two halves of the cube together, and the halves to base, (all at the same time) with Gorilla gel superglue.  I used rubber-bands to hold it all together and in position while it dried.   When the glue was dry, I filled any gaps in the seams, and helped blend them together, with Woodland Scenics "Water Effects".
     I must say at this point I was a little disappointed that you can't really see the interior details once the cube is applied to the base.  I wasted a lot of time painting all the base details, when I could have just painted the whole mass brown and it wouldn't have looked much different when viewed through the cube walls.

     When the Water Effects were dry, I gave the entire cube a wash with some Iron Winds Metals "Mid Blue" ink using a wet brush.  When this wash was dry, I drybrushed the cube with some White and then painted some areas here and there on the top of the cube with White, to represent some areas of settled snow.  I then painted these areas and the base with some white glue, and applied some snow flocking.  Lastly, I extended the drip hanging from the tall corner using some Water Effects, to make it look more like an icicle.

     I like how this Ice monster turned out.  Now I just need to find a way to work it into a scenario.