Stop Trollin’ Dude

Welcome back to Reasonable Creations! You know the spiel, I make minis and terrain for the tabletop from junk and popsicle sticks. And in this case dollar store sculpting clay.

This time around is a monster that my party has faced several times over.  A big, warty, kill-it-with-fire-or-it-regens troll: 

Gross.

‘Ello.

Now, I’m clearly not a sculptor but I think it turned out pretty well. Trolls are supposed to be awful, disgusting creatures anyway. It’s all intentional, feature not a bug, etc.  But let’s dive in since this build has quite a few steps.

Grab some dollar store air dry clay.  To start, you’ll need to sculpt your body parts. I used a toothpick inside the clay for more support and sculpted each bit separately: head, torso, legs and arms. You also want to poke a hole in each arm, and possibly the legs, so you can use more toothpicks as an armature of sorts. This should hopefully prevent any limbs from simply falling off.  ALSO learn from my mistake and don’t forget to poke a hole in one hand for a weapon. 

Now let all your pieces dry (usually overnight so they’re dry all the way through) and while you’re waiting you can create a base. If you’re using a pre made base, skip this step. I won’t go into basing details,  you can use whatever you’d like. I made one from cardboard covered in cut popsicle sticks and I put a strip of card stock around it to look “cleaner.”

Once the pieces are dry you can attach them using superglue. The clay is porous and dollar store super glue works very well, plus any skeleton you made from toothpicks helps hold it all together. Fill in any gaps with more clay, let that dry, an attach it to your base.

If you want a weapon now is the time to add one. I went with a basic troll, so some crude weapon made of a bbq skewer and cardboard was easy and appropriate. If you want a variation in the troll or their weapon, that’s your choice.

Next I made a loincloth to...cover things. I did actually sculpt some rudimentary junk behind that. It seemed polite to do. The cloth is just card stock or cardboard shaped and stained with some string superglued onto the troll. Easy.

His claws are more toothpicks and his greasy hair is just strips of card stock glued on. For the rough skin and warts, maybe where he grew back damaged parts, I used dollar store craft sand stuck on with a pva glue. Feel free to make as smooth skinned a troll as you like.

After that it’s just paint and sealer! I recommend a gloss sealer on the hair and anywhere else you want a greasy look. I think that’s it. Let me know if I missed anything!