'Water Feature' from MilesR: The Spawning Pool

After the disaster of the river resin pour, I abandoned my efforts on the water feature project and decided to resume work on my memoirs - it's something I know that I owe posterity.  I had left
off my writings during one of my famed jungle expeditions in the Amazon basin for the Royal Geographic Society.    Let's see where was I?, ah yes, queue harp music and......

My intrepid party was hacking its way through the dense jungle underbrush when I spied a strange structure through the vegetation...

As we exited the jungle the structure appeared both very ancient and somewhat disturbing.  The edifice emanated an aura of menace that made the less stalwart of my party swoon.

As I bravely approached the stairway which was cut into the rock, the air became heavy with a foul odor which grew stronger as I approached.  To be honest, it reminded me of my chief rival in the Society - Professor Challenger - good lord that man can clear a room after consuming a bowl of the Societies famous chile con carne.  In the name of all that is holy, NEVER fall for his "pull-my-finger" joke - but I digress.

Cresting the staircase, we discovered the source of the oppressive scent - a feted pool that was more slime than water and more alive than inert.

Yee Gads, we've* discovered some sort of spawning pool that still seems to be active even though the original builders have long faded into obscurity.  The water was teaming with deadly denizens of the deep.

* Of course when I say "we've", I really mean "I've"

Never one to be cowed by unspeakable horror, I quickly ordered my party to circle the spawning pool to get observations of all four sides.  I bravely elected to stay at the base of the stairway with the supplies.  It's a well know fact among jungle explorers that guarding the supplies is the most dangerous job there is - poking around the jungle teaming with unknown terrors pales in comparison.

They slowly circled the structure wary not to make any undo noise.  Who knows if any guardians of this foul pool lurk nearby.  I'm sure my presence way behind them provided the team with courage they needed to finish the survey.

As I was crouching behind a supply crate tying my shoelace, a member of the party stumbled on a loose stone, causing it to fall into the pool with a loud splash. That fool Took had always been a clumsy sort.  I thought maybe we'd be better off if he had just thrown himself into pool so we'd be rid of him.  The party froze for a few seconds and then began to breath a sigh of relief until the jungle was rent with the roar of a giant beast.

Those idiots! they've drawn the attention of one of the Guardians.  I was faced with a terrible choice - rush to the aid of my party or leave them to their fate and return to the civilized world with the precious knowledge I carried.  It was a difficult decision but I quickly realized the depriving the world of my presence was a far, far  more unjust outcome.  I retreated into the jungle and made my way back to the Amazon River content in the knowledge I put humanity first and that idiot Challenger would be buying the drinks when I got back to the Society's barroom.

I think that's enough work on the memoirs for a today....

 This was a bit of a rush project and started out as some scrap materials 7 days ago.

The pool itself was a very convenient way to sore the bricks while building.  I used a rolled up ball of tinfoil to texture the bricks so they looked like a rock face.

 Once everything was hot glued in place, I put another heavy bead along the bottom seem - there would be no leaks of leaching with this project.

I based coated the project dark grey and then painted the bottom of the pool bright lime green.

 5 rounds of dry brushing later I added some fibers inked green to look like vegetation.  I soaked them in matte medium to hold them in place.

 Moment of truth - the first resin pour - the resin is tinted with the same lime green paint.  There were two more resin pours with slightly lighter tints and I added a few swimming beasties.  All in all I'm pleased with how it came out.

The project this week was interrupted by an unscheduled trip to London - here's a shot of the new US Embassy - it's the lighted cube on the left bank above Vauxhall bridge.  I was in London for less than 36 hours - ughh.  I will be back the first week of April and will be going to my first Salute ever!  I had planned to paint some figures to go with the spawning pool but British Airways continues with their barbaric policy of prohibiting passengers from painting minis while inflight.  16 hours of prime workbench time out the window.

In terms of points the "Spawning Pool" is 12x12x2.5 inches in volume which works out to 360 cubic inches or 1.67 of our terrain cubes or 33 points.  The dinosaur and jungle terrain were made prior to this challenge.

Sorry for the long winded post.  I was feeling a bit silly as I started typing and well things got out of hand.