The craters on Ebay

Heh, heh, heh. I love my craters. Seriously. I love them.

First of all, these are not the first, nor the best craters that I have built. That much will be clear once I put up my other craters on ebay, but that's not the point. I spent three days working on a prototype for craters and then realized that the craters I had built weren't necessary. I could make the things out of clay, which I did. So, I made two prototype craters out of Sculpi and then bought RTV rubber from...geez, I don't remember any more.

Let's say this: there are different qualities and such to RTV rubber. For instance, I bought some stuff from a company that produces miniatures made out of lead, and thus, the rubber in my mold is extraordinarily heat resistant. Well, that's fine, except that it's about double what it should cost.

Long story short. I bought enough RTV to make a mold of one of my craters. I decided to start with the average sized and less involved of the craters. That sounds bad. The crater I might have otherwise made the mold of is bigger around the sides--the O is thicker, but it is also better looking. Trust me, if you're paying attention to what I sell, you'll see. But the starting bid isn't going to be $3. I will say that.

I digress. The point is that I wanted to make something that was comparable to the discontinued Armorcast line since I was tired of trying to buy them only to find that they were going for 3x what they were worth...and I think I have made a comparable product. They are not made of resin (which isn't that sturdy, let me tell you), but they are made out of Excalibur, which has held up against my fairly innocuous attempts to destroy it. In other words, pieces dropped on my hardwood floor don't break.

The only real question for me was whether I should sell these craters painted or unpainted. Truth be told it doesn't exactly take that long to paint them. Paint them dark brown, dry brush the a lighter brown, highlight in a different shade of light brown and you're done. The numerous details allow for effort if you feel up to it, but it certainly isn't necessary. If you so desire, however, just take a dark grey, paint the various pebbles, and then go over them again with a lighter grey. It took me about 30 minutes to paint one, once it had been spraypainted.

The problem is that it does take time. I want to sell these things dirt cheap, which means that I don't want to take time. I have other things that I sell that I paint. This need not be one of them. Furthermore, it limits the options. These craters could easily double for blown out tree trunks, or ice fortifications for an ice planet. I don't know. I figured I'd leave it open.