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
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