My Second Multi-tool Monster
Last year, Michelle and I used a Roxon Flex Multi-tool to build The Flexenstein Monster and his castle dungeon environment. Why did we do this? Because I have an unhealthy obsession with gadgets. It's okay. I've accepted this, and I'm working on it.
In fact, I thought I had gotten it under control, but this year Roxon released the Titan — a versatile tool that most people assume is used only for screwing on switch plates, tightening washers on your kitchen faucet, cutting open boxes, and popping open bottle caps. I bought the Titan, and thus, the madness consumed me again. This time, I challenged myself to make yet another monster using the Titan, and set even more stringent rules dictating my process.
The base would, of course, try to evoke the mysterious interior of an ancient mummy's tomb. Something you'd find yourself wandering through in an old Boris Karloff movie. Crumbling stone walls, canopic jars containing organs, only fiery sconces mounted to the wall to light your way.
One of the reasons I purchased the Titan was the inclusion of a full-sized utility knife —a tool we use often in the workshop, and one not often seen in your standard multi-tool. I used that new utility knife attachment to cut the XPS foam for the base of our diorama. And when it came time to add detail to the base, I replaced our usual scalpel or craft knife with the long scalpel blade attachment on the Titan.
This is why I'm obsessed with multi-tools. They're amazingly useful for so many things. And many of the functions in this Titan match those in the tools we have scattered around our workshop in various boxes, bins, and buckets.
The pliers and wirecutters of the Titan easily handle the job of cutting and shaping the armature for our mummy. Later in the process, I used those same pliers to tighten the nozzle on my airbrush before painting our ancient Egyptian friend.
The large scissors (one of my favorite additions to the toolset) can handily cut the bandage strips that wrap the undead pharaoh.
Inspired by (what I perceive as ) my success with Flexenstein, I wanted to make the challenge a little harder on myself this time. So, instead of defaulting to my normal sculpting tools to create the head, hands, and feet, I allowed myself to use only the tools that are part of the Titan system to work with the clay.
It wasn't simple. It wasn't easy at all. And the finished product was a little rougher than if I'd used silicone smoothing tools and actual sculpting implements. Good thing I was sculpting a walking corpse straight out of a Hollywood horror movie and not a handsome leading man.
As usual, we'll be posting more behind-the-scenes stuff from this project to our Patreon. And if you'd like to see how the mummy and his environment turned out — and help me prove to Michelle I'm not just throwing away my money on gadgets—you can watch this week's video at the link below.