FINAL FANTASY IV
GHOST PROJECT #650 CREATED: JUNE 2020 The mysterious Sylvan Cave leading to the hidden realm of the Sylphs was protected by myriad creatures, from both the living world and beyond. Powerful non-corporeal Ghosts haunted the caverns, frequently traveling with the Molbol or DarkTree. While exploring the Sylvan Cave, Cecil Harvey and his group would frequently discover these Ghosts. The spectral monsters could employ mid-level Fire magic as well as effective Sleep spells that prevented their living foes from counterattacking. Cecil would even encounter six such Ghosts fiercely guarding a treasure chest within the caverns. By this time, Cecil was traveling with trusted and powerful friends, and they had little difficulty busting these Ghosts. (The Ghost was renamed Evil Dreamer in the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy IV.) I built the Ghost (and his non-living monster brothers, the Spirit and the Soul) from a Fire Elemental figure from the old Dungeons & Dragons series of tabletop role-playing miniatures. The thing was made of solid PVC plastic and was very heavy. Very high quality stuff. The problem was that if I turned it into a floating ghost, a figure stand wouldn't support all that weight. I had to cut into the toy and hollow out as much of it as I could. I also carved out a new mouth, sculpted a new nose, and changed the shape of the bottom half. The Ghost appears only in the Sylvan Cave, as far as I know, so I built a special figure stand intended to resemble the flooring of the caverns. The original game sprite was made up of multiple contrasting colors (shades of yellow and orange and dark purple and magenta) and I wanted all of these colors represented in this project. Airbrushing the toy gave me a nice orange-to-yellow gradient, and I went back afterwards and hand-painted the dark purple and magenta highlights. (The game sprite has been interpreted in various ways in the numerous remakes of Final Fantasy IV, but I tried to capture the colors of the monster as he appears in the original Super Nintendo version of the game.) |
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