Post #487453 by ZuluMagoo on Sat, Oct 10, 2009 10:03 PM

Thanks for the comments TorchGuy. I was leaning away from the silk fire flames myself, trying to come up with something a little different.

So I have finished painting him with some black latex interior house paint.

I have named him (quite unoriginal) 'Kahuna' and he is the God of Surf. The name came from Cliff Robertson's beachcomber character in the 1959 classic surf film 'Gidget'. Because he is the God of Surf, I painted a blue highlight color over black and added a hint of blue glitter to simulate shimmering waves. It came out very nice.

(close up of the finished texture)

Then I added some orange and red colored foil gift wrap inside the mouth to add to the reflection.

So..............Now for the fire effect. I decided to try to come up with a realistic looking lava effect to put into the mouth. Something smoldering, without flames.

So I started with a piece of white foamboard covered with the same colored foil gift wrap.

Then I bought some plastic wine and champagne (needed different sizes)from the dollar store. Cut the bottom stems off with my Dremel tool.

Got some orange colored lights from Big Lots. Two types. One small string of 50 constant orange and one string of flickering bulbs to add some movement to the display.

Then started attaching the lights to the foamboard using a hot glue gun. I put the flicker bulbs under the glasses (upside down). The glasses are intended to be bubbles. The other lights are just glued directly to the surface.

Then get out old reliable 'Good Stuff' (now my favorite crafting material) and cover the entire surface.

Plug in the colored lights and turn down the room lights....

...and you have lava. The flickering bulbs in the larger bubbles really bring the whole thing to life. It really looks like smoldering lava.