Started |
: |
December 2012 |
Finished |
: |
February 1st, 2013 |
Base |
: |
- |
Parts |
: |
LEGO/compatible bricks, |
Materials |
: |
Apoxy Sculpt, Citadel Paint, |
Points of |
: |
- |
Character & Intent
This was a bit of an unusual project for me, as I didn't set out
to
replicate something that has been designed or imagined before,
but came up with my own design from the materials I had
at my disposal.
The idea for this project actually came from two different
places.
I had previously attempted to design a general-purpose "dark
throne"
with a corpus made from Styrofoam and failed miserably. Then, I
one day
realized that I could use LEGO bricks to come up with a
much more
even and symmetrical structure and decided to give that a shot.
When I started putting the basic structure together, I was
reminded of the fact that
Diamanda Hagan usually seems to enjoy posing for a quick &
menacing photo whenever
she gets the opportunity to use a throne for a prop. But those
were all thrones that had
been made for some other purpose and for someone else to sit on.
Sure, she made them
her own, but only by appropriation. So I started wondering:
What would the throne of the Lecher Bitch look like?
I quickly decided that it would have to be two things above all
other things:
1: Entirely fucked-up
2: Really fucking metal
As it turns out, working within these "constraints" is a lot
of fun and filled with many "heee heee heeeee" moments!
Also sanding. So much sanding.
Creation
Like mentioned above, I started out with a basic LEGO brick
built. But that sounds a little
easier than it really ended up being. It had to be both stable
and not to heavy, not to speak
of saving bricks - After all, even the knockoff brands aren't
entirely cheap.
I made various attempts at getting the core structure right,
and kept de- and reconstructing
bits and pieces even far into the process, after adding glued
and sculpted parts. For a while,
I actually considered allowing for it to be possible to be
disassembled into two halves,
for ease of transport. But that ultimately turned out to
be far too detrimental to the
sculpt and overall stability.
The earliest design elements that I came up with and figured
out how to include was also
the centerpiece and probably the most disturbing part of the
whole design. Of course I'm
talking about the va-spine-a dentata. (No, I'm not going to
re-think that pun. It is awful
and I love it!) I think that it works for a variety of reasons,
above all that something like it
it could easily appear in some of the worst movies that Hagan
reviews. Another reason is
that it implies both lesbianism and sexual aggression to the
point of mutilation, two traits
that are not unimportant to the character. I heated and bent
some no-name dinosaur skeleton
tails (or were it necks? The memory, it is frail) and hot-glued
them together, topping the
assembly off with half a dinosaur skill for the clitoral jaws.
(Which might be a term that has
never been uttered in human history up to this point). The
second jaw in there came from
one of the many tentacle-mouths of a Raenius figure. And it took
me until now to realize that
I effectively turned something very phallic into something
vaginal. Funny how that works out.
I later added the extra, snake-infested anal cavity below
because.. once you've gone this far,
it would be silly not to.
The wings were another element that I added very early on. I
found that they give the throne
a certain heft and demonic quality. When I experimented with
their placement, I found that they
could extend the centerpiece by being re-appropriated as twisted
legs, so I did the corresponding
sculpting and added feet.
The armrests were something I went back and forth on a few
times. Making them far too phallic
was too tempting to pass up on, but Hagan has never been known
to be much of a dickfan. For a
while, I considered having the tips be cut off and I had
already sculpted the details for that in, but
that seemed a little too stereotypical. I ultimately settled on
serpentine heads to make them disturbing
and continue the metal elements. Also, I made sure to make them
look somewhat uncircumcised
because it probably makes more people uncomfortable.
The animal head in front was another early addition. I was
amused by having a random, semi-
harmless looking animal head in there, and since Diamanda
mentioned in a stream that red pandas
were amongst her favorite animals, I tried to model it on that.
I can't say that I've really succeeded,
but it still fits in somehow. The shark and tiger on the side
are cast from Tomb Raider diorama pieces
and reference a video in which Hagan proclaims herself "Owner
of all sharks in the sea, all tigers on
land and all tigers at sea, should such a thing ever be
observed".
Near those animal heads, we see wooden beads painted up to look
like metal.
These are, of course A-NO-THER! RE-FE-RENCE!
The entire front of the throne was originally supposed to be a
little more ornate than it ultimately
turned out, which is due to me finding out that my detailing
skills leave a thing or two to be desired.
However, the stars next to the large "H" also have a truly
outrageous meaning.
The feet are a relatively late addition. Originally,the throne
ended at the bottom of the section above
them, but I found that the throne sat a little low in
general and could use some elevation. And I always
liked the concept of furniture with clawed feet to begin with.
The front-facing spikes to the side came into the design when I
tinkered with elements to fill space.
I have to admit that I added them a little while after I saw RandomArt01123's
design progress on a
painting of Hagan, and I might not have thought of them without
her work.
Lastly, a skull up top was something that I always wanted to be
there. However, I was unsure about
what skull to use. I didn't just want to nick an existing skull,
and none of the ones I had looked right.
On the other hand, sculpting a skull from scratch didn't quite
work for me at this scale. What I ended up
doing was to make a cast of Judge Death's head from the
Legendary Comic Heroes line and carving it
down until it was a unique skull, to which I then added horns
and a tongue. The placement of the
tongue is no coincidence, of course.
The paintjob was fairly simple, but required a lot of
drybrushing. I also made sure to include all
of the colors of the Haganistanian flag, as they would surely be
integrated into the empress' throne.
...And that is the story of how I made something entirely
awful and was not one bit ashamed.
(To main)