Ogri (Doctor Who - Stones of Blood - 1978)

The Ogri were a species of silicon-based creatures that featured in the 1978 Doctor Who story: The Stones of Blood.  They were native to the planet Ogros and at least three of their number were taken by the alien criminal Cessair of Diplos and used as her murderous, all be it slow and lumbering, henchmen... Henchstones?  Stonehench?!

 

I was about 10 when these episodes first aired and coupled with the previous year's cult classic; Children of the Stones, it made quite an impression on me and left me deeply suspicious of any monolithic stones that may in fact have been something altogether more surreal and otherworldly.  And of course it was only a few years after this that ITV resurrected Professor Bernard Quatermass, for one final adventure in which every ancient stone circle on the planet was shown to be a place for "harvesting" humanity in its thousands.

 

And so, with all of the above in mind, the idea of capturing the Ogri in miniature remained forever appealing, and to its great advantage, phenomenally easy as it turned out.

 

 

I think I built these over a couple of days of the 2018's Christmas holidays, inspired by several sheets of stone coloured tissue paper that had come as packaging with a pair of running shoes. I had initially presumed it would make a nice foundation colour for a bit of dry brushing but as it stands at the minute, it has had not a flick or dab of any additional paint upon it and I remain as happy with the final appearance now as then.  Plus there is a reason not to coat it in unnecessary layers of acrylic but we'll pick that point up later.

 

 
 
So, I think its fair to say that the Ogri, as built by the BBC effects crew at the time, are not a complex or over worked creation.  I'm going to guess there was a rough timber frame, sat on castors, which was then covered in chicken wire and fiberglass.  As a prop it was either pulled along or pushed from below camera level. And it probably has a powerful light inside that shines through the stone "skin" of the beast, although if memory serves, some additional effects were added on in post production.  Which is more that enough information to make a start on a scaled down version.

 

I cant find it now but its usual for me to make a sketch on graph paper, to establish the right size when positioned next to one of my various Tiny Tom figures.  After that I cut some thin strips of stiff card to substitute for the wooden elements of the original.  This was creased, bent, stapled and sticky-tapped until it captured the specific shapes of two of the screen Ogri, all the time checking back with ref photos and my original sketch.  Once I had that framework in place I tor the tissue paper into small, two inch pieces and began to PVA glue them across the supports.  I was mindful to cover all areas and probably stopped to speed dry it with a hair dryer so I could handle it sufficient to finish it off in one session.  Once done I gave it another good all over coating with more PVA and let it dry over night, curious which tone of grey it would have settled on by morning

 

Interestingly, despite doing an initial drawing on graph paper to capture the correct size, it wasn't until I looked at them the next day that I decided I had made them both too tall.  Happy that they were nice and dry and that the structure would hold, I figured out the excess height difference by standing them next to Tiny Tom and cut it from the bottom. Then it was no trouble to cut off the unwanted sides and reattach the base to the now shorter Ogri body by simply papering over the cracks with more tissue paper and PVA glue

And that's about it, except to say that the holes you can see on the square base are just the right size to go over one of those small battery powered tealights you find in most craft shops and because the walls are not over painted, they allow sufficient light to shine through to suggest the same alien effect as witnessed on the TV originals when they powered up to absorb the blood of their human victims!

And as a bonus I find the overall "cheap and quickness" of the build to somehow reflect their source material.  Come on, there's no point making them look too realistic, they need to look like the BBC made them, otherwise what's the point!


...and now the gallery

 

 

Steve

Greetings from the Workshop

So, this thing that I do, now has its own blog.

 

I've been posting pictures of my creations on a number of Facebook pages for a couple of years and generally getting some very positive reactions.  I also get asked a lot of questions about how I've made various creatures.  I've always been happy to share those processes and I'm slowly taking more and more WIP pictures to help illustrate the stages of development.  The end result of which is that I now have far more words and pictures than might fit into your average Facebook post.  To which ends, it's time to find a more permanent and substantial place to house Tiny Tom's Midnight Creature Workshop.  And this is it.  Welcome!

 

In future posts I'll try and cover each of the creatures already made in order of their birth and hopefully in increasing detail.  There's a slight caveat to that statement though, which is that its not entirely clear what order that is because the first started was not necessarily the first finished and some creations are happily paused upon the pending shelf while I fathom a particular problem or process.  For example; the Fendahleen (far left) was begun because I stumbled over a way I might make one and I wanted to see if it would work.  Also, it was worth my time because Character Options, who made the Classic Doctor Who toy line, were never going to make that particular alien monster themselves....right up to the point when they did!  And when they did, I stopped because it then already existed.  Half formed, it went to live up the loft where a lot of my stillborn art resides.  And anyway, it was just an experiment rather than a deep desire to build one so nothing was lost. By the time it saw daylight again, the Ogri (the grey stones) had come into being and by the time it had been repainted, structurally touched-up and given tentacles / tendrils (?) it shared a shelf with a Wrarth Warrior (not pictured) as well.  Anyway, one way or the other, its worth noting that there are extended gestation periods and times when I'm reliant on an inspirational spark to kick start a stalled creation.  I guess I'm also saying that patience is the unseen key ingredient in everything I've ever built.

As well as the; how, I think we are also going to be looking at the; Why.  I don't know about you but why somebody does something has always fascinated me far more than what they have actually done.  As this thing has slowly developed into something I suppose I will have to be honest and label as a hobby now, my selection process for the choice of what to make next has also grown to include a variety of criteria.  I'll build something because I want it on my shelf or simply because the idea of bringing it into being amuses me. I'll also build something because I want to have a go with a new material or try a new process that I haven't used before.  And sometimes I'll just stumble over some found object that I'll look at and instantly see some as yet unreleased creation, hiding within it, like a statue lurking in a block of stone.

And on that note, I'll leave you with the image below and let you ponder as to which of the many possible inspirations fathered its genesis!

Until next time...


Steve