FINAL FANTASY IV
FANGSHEL PROJECT #610 CREATED: JULY 2018 Most aquatic mollusks are reclusive and docile, but this is not the case with the vicious FangShel. Propelling itself across water and land with its powerful tongue, which it also used to attack perceived threats, the FangShel was a lamellibranch to be reckoned with. Like its close cousin, the EvilShel, it was found only in aquatic locales, such as the Old Water-Way that led underneath Castle Baron. Cecil and his friends would encounter the FangShel while taking this abandoned, unused path through Baron. The creatures were frequently accompanied by an Aligator or Crocdile, bolstering their numbers in battle. Though they were measurably tougher than the EvilShel, any strong magical lightning or ice-based attack was usually sufficient to destroy them. (In the Game Boy Advance version of Final Fantasy IV, the FangShel was renamed Death Shell.) I built the FangShel at the same time I made by EvilShel, using the same parts and techniques. I wanted to fill up the inside of the hollow plastic sea shell, but thick Sculpey doesn't cure fully, so I built up a false bottom using aluminum foil, making a thin layer of clay for the outer layer. I prefabricated spikes in specific sizes, trying to make the EvilShel and FangShel as close to each other in design as possible. (I consulted the PlayStation Portable game sprite for placement of the spikes, which was somewhat more precise in design than the original Super Nintendo game sprite.) ngous marine bivalve, the EvilShel populated the underground Watery Pass leading to Castle Damcyan. It could frequently be found with Pikes and WaterBugs, which also patrolled the subterranean rivers flowing beneath the castle. As a water-dwelling creature, the EvilShel was particularly susceptible to lightning magic; by the time Cecil reached the Watery Pass, he had been joined by the elderly wizard Tellah and young Rydia, both capable magic-users who could dispense with these creatures quite easily. (In the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy IV, the EvilShel, whose original English-language name was limited to eight alphanumeric characters, was renamed Vile Shell.) I wanted to use a plastic sea shell for this project so that I could just glue the spikes and things directly to it (though I did, at one early stage, consider using actual sea shells to build these things). In the end, I used a sea shell that came with a Splashlings brand figure set. I built the tongue out of Sculpey modeling clay, bulking it out with crumpled-up tin foil so that the tin layer of clay baked thoroughly. The spikes adoring the creature's shell, as well as its teeth, are clay as well. |
|