The Lost and The Damned › MINIATURES! › Fantasy Painting and Modeling

Scratch-build Beholder

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So, I've been trying to sort out all the photos on my external Hard-drive this week and I've come across folder after folder of pictures I've taken of miniatures and never got round to editing, writing about and posting. One such folder contained pictures of my scratch-build Beholder, I thought some of you might find it interesting, so here it is.

I made this way back in 2004 to use in a D&D game and it started out life as one of those widget-things you get in cans of beer, as such it's nick-named the 'Beer-Widget Beholder'. Quite a few of makes of beer have these in their cans and you can often hear them rattling around as you drink, to retrieve one simply cut open the empty can with a sharp knife (you'll need to wash the widget thoroughly before using it in a modelling project). I stuck the widget on the stalk from a GW flying base and mounted it on 40mm square base that I'd added a piece of plastic with a stone-floor type texture to. The eye-stalks were made from spare arms from plastic Termagants and Hormagaunts, which I added plastic beads to end for eyes and then pinned to the body. The teeth were made from bits of sprue whittled to a point using a knife and then glued in place. The central eye was sculpted from a smoothed out piece of Greenstuff and then I bulked out the body using Fine-White Milliputt and after that had set put on a layer of Green stuff to add skin details around the central eye and mouth like the eye-lid ect and to give the rest of the skin some texture.

The over all appearance and colour scheme for this model was based on the beholder on the cover of the late 2nd edition AD&D Monstrous Manual

^See it wasn't a type-o! the late 2nd edition version was called the 'Monstrous Manual' because it was compiled from several volumes of The Monstrous Compendium

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Fenryz

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

Splendid build Mr Mortis, bravo :)

Ive actually thought about trying to build one myself, might try it someday.

Scumdog47

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Cor blimey!

:)

Awesome stuff!

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Re: Scratch-build Beholder

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

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Marchomer

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

So many beers drunk in my life...
So many beholders I never gave the life...
So many PC I would have had to kill...

Sometimes the life of an hobbyst could be cruel.

BTW, great idea, great job and great subject!
I always liked the AD&D2nd edition beholder in MM, he's my favourite, 2nd place for the D&D green box one and the 3rd place for the 3rd edition one.

Some concepts of beholders in D&D editions really suck, let's face it:
(drum roll...)

4th edition
... The Texan Moustached Beholder:

2nd edition
... The Poor Coward Beholder:

1st edition
... The Laughing BeLOL:

old D&D
... and the best one! The One Eyed Annoyng Orange:

Sorry for the OT, but I must.

+ Other planes lie beyond the reach Of normal sense and common roads But they are no less real Than what we see or touch or feel. +

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

This post was updated on .

lol yea it's surprising how many artists have failed so badly to capture the awesomeness of a beholder in their illustrations

Marchomer wrote

So many beers drunk in my life...
So many beholders I never gave the life...
So many PC I would have had to kill...

Sometimes the life of an hobbyst could be cruel.

Go on! have a go at making your own 'Beer-widget Beholder', having seen you're Tarrasque and your Demogorgon I know your more than capable

I'm considering doing another one my self (I may even post a step by step!) and it's not just limited to Beholders, there are many other creatures you could make using a beer-widget as the core ...

^ Gibbering Orb

^ Cacodemons and Painelementals from the original DooM games

^ The Eye Stinger from Fighting Fantasy

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

In reply to this post by Fenryz

Fenryz wrote

Splendid build Mr Mortis, bravo :)

Ive actually thought about trying to build one myself, might try it someday.

go for it!

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Madame M

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

Well, I remember my first ever 'encounter' with a beholder - the one from Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, episode cannily named 'eye of the beholder'. Picture below displays the awesomeness of it. And yes - it was pretty awesome to a ten year old girl, which is the approximate age I watched the show.

Looks fairly tame now, but I was fairly impressed when I first saw it, having no idea that a beholder was actually a monster and not just some creation of the cartoon illustrators. Plus, it has some mega-vampiric teeth. Evil.

Though now I'm looking at it again for the first time in years I'm starting to wonder if Stephen King took this monster as the basis for his Langoliers in the book/film of same name.

Not quite the same I'll grant you, but close enough to be based on the beholder I think.

Marchomer

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

Madame M wrote

Well, I remember my first ever 'encounter' with a beholder - the one from Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, episode cannily named 'eye of the beholder'. Picture below displays the awesomeness of it. And yes - it was pretty awesome to a ten year old girl, which is the approximate age I watched the show.

And this beholder despite is from a cartoon is anyway better than some beholder concepts!

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

Go on! have a go at making your own 'Beer-widget Beholder', having seen your Tarrasque and your Demogorgon I know your more than capable

Yes, I will surely make something when I will be in the mood (and/or I will need a beholder army for some game). And thanks for the encouragement!

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

I'm considering doing another one my self (I may even post a step by step!) and it's just limited to Beholders, there are many other creatures you could make using a beer-widget as the core ...
^ Cacodemons and Painelementals from the original DooM games

My compliments, another great idea. Totally approved! I love the original DooM monsters, I will make some Cacodemons too (that my sister and me always called it "beholder").

+ Other planes lie beyond the reach Of normal sense and common roads But they are no less real Than what we see or touch or feel. +

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Scratch-build Beholder

In reply to this post by Madame M

Madame M wrote

Looks fairly tame now, but I was fairly impressed when I first saw it, having no idea that a beholder was actually a monster and not just some creation of the cartoon illustrators. Plus, it has some mega-vampiric teeth. Evil.

Actually, like Marco said, this looks better than most of the illustrations in the books!
Blue Beholders!

Madame M wrote

Though now I'm looking at it again for the first time in years I'm starting to wonder if Stephen King took this monster as the basis for his Langoliers in the book/film of same name.

Not quite the same I'll grant you, but close enough to be based on the beholder I think.

I don't really see it myself

the teeth look cool though

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

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