No, I only did a pair of them - one for me and one for a friend.
The Hellboy/BPRD comic book props of "Grim Tim"
- Thread starter The 48th Ronin
- Start date
So I received the rest of the bronze castings shortly after I had last posted, and I ended up deciding to sand and polish a set of parts that had fewer casting flaws and use those instead. After drilling and pinning, and then tack welding the pieces together with the laser welder at work, I had a friend do the final silver soldering, since he is much better skilled and experienced at it than I am. Afterwards, I had to go through most of the steps of sanding and polishing everything for a second time.
Since then I've been patiently waiting for the pommel to passively oxidize to a nice shade of yellow. Right after polishing, the bronze is too bright and kinda' coppery - almost like a brand new penny. I want it to look like it could possibly be made out of gold.
Here's a comparison to show how the color changes - the socket piece is my "control," which I keep sanding/buffing with superfine sanding sponges and steel wool to maintain its bright, just-polished finish. The completed pommel has been sitting for about 5 - 6 weeks now, and has taken on a yellow hue. The first pommel piece that I polished is now well past the point of being "gold" and definitely has the look of tarnished bronze.
And in the meantime...
Since then I've been patiently waiting for the pommel to passively oxidize to a nice shade of yellow. Right after polishing, the bronze is too bright and kinda' coppery - almost like a brand new penny. I want it to look like it could possibly be made out of gold.
Here's a comparison to show how the color changes - the socket piece is my "control," which I keep sanding/buffing with superfine sanding sponges and steel wool to maintain its bright, just-polished finish. The completed pommel has been sitting for about 5 - 6 weeks now, and has taken on a yellow hue. The first pommel piece that I polished is now well past the point of being "gold" and definitely has the look of tarnished bronze.
And in the meantime...
Ever since I first started making Hellboy comic book props (about 22 years ago now) I've had a tradition of making an additional copy for an old friend who recommended the Hellboy comics to me back in 1994 - 1995. As the years went by, one friend and another ended up being added to "The List," and now I'm at a point where I'm making roughly a half-dozen pieces.
So in continuing with that tradition, I needed to mold the blade so that I could make a few more of these. And here's a technique that I picked up from a guy who I frequently worked for many years ago...
When making a two-part silicone mold, whatever object you're molding gets divided in half (give or take). Where this dividing line falls will usually depend upon the geometry of the object - often it will be a straight line, but sometimes not. With this blade, the cutting edge was the logical location for the parting line.
Rather than laying out an entire bed of clay, and then trying to get the surface perfectly flat and smooth after pressing the blade down into it, here's a much faster, cleaner, and easier way...
After measuring the thickness of the blade, I found a piece of material that was approximately half that dimension - in this case 1/4" thick MDF. I cut a silhouette out of it that was slightly larger than the blade itself and then tacked it down onto a piece of 3/4" plywood with blobs of hot glue.
I then placed the blade in the cut-out and filled in the space around it with Klean Klay, packing it in and smoothing it down with a sculpting tool. Presto - one half of the blade was now isolated.
I then drew some guide lines where I would place the walls for the mold box, which also helped with arranging the mold keys - for those I used resin castings made from molded Plastruct 1/2" diameter acrylic hemispheres. After gluing the mold keys down I also made two halves of a pour sprue shape out of pieces of Ren Shape, and tacked the first half down.
Then I fixed the walls in place with hot glue (they were also pieces of 1/4" thick MDF). With the mold box in place, I sprayed everything inside it with mold release and then poured the first half of the silicone.
The following day I pulled the mold box walls off. Then I chiseled the hot glue blobs off of the base MDF spacer and flipped it all over. I pulled the MDF spacer away and scraped the Klean Klay off of the blade. Unfortunately I found that some of the oil from the clay had seeped into the stone along the edges (must have been microscopic fissures/layers within the stone).
I tacked the second half of the pour sprue shape down onto the first half, and then replaced the mold box walls, once again securing them with hot glue. I sprayed it all down with mold release again - this is super-critical when making two-part silicone molds, since without it the silicone will bond to the first half (and you would then have to cut the mold open). I then poured the second half of the silicone.
The following day I pulled the mold box walls off and pulled the mold open, peeling the two halves of silicone apart. I popped the blade out and I had my finished mold.
The final step was to cut two pieces of MDF to act as a jacket for the mold - when it's all rubber banded together, the MDF panels keep the mold flat and straight when the mold is standing upright for pouring resin.
So in continuing with that tradition, I needed to mold the blade so that I could make a few more of these. And here's a technique that I picked up from a guy who I frequently worked for many years ago...
When making a two-part silicone mold, whatever object you're molding gets divided in half (give or take). Where this dividing line falls will usually depend upon the geometry of the object - often it will be a straight line, but sometimes not. With this blade, the cutting edge was the logical location for the parting line.
Rather than laying out an entire bed of clay, and then trying to get the surface perfectly flat and smooth after pressing the blade down into it, here's a much faster, cleaner, and easier way...
After measuring the thickness of the blade, I found a piece of material that was approximately half that dimension - in this case 1/4" thick MDF. I cut a silhouette out of it that was slightly larger than the blade itself and then tacked it down onto a piece of 3/4" plywood with blobs of hot glue.
I then placed the blade in the cut-out and filled in the space around it with Klean Klay, packing it in and smoothing it down with a sculpting tool. Presto - one half of the blade was now isolated.
I then drew some guide lines where I would place the walls for the mold box, which also helped with arranging the mold keys - for those I used resin castings made from molded Plastruct 1/2" diameter acrylic hemispheres. After gluing the mold keys down I also made two halves of a pour sprue shape out of pieces of Ren Shape, and tacked the first half down.
Then I fixed the walls in place with hot glue (they were also pieces of 1/4" thick MDF). With the mold box in place, I sprayed everything inside it with mold release and then poured the first half of the silicone.
The following day I pulled the mold box walls off. Then I chiseled the hot glue blobs off of the base MDF spacer and flipped it all over. I pulled the MDF spacer away and scraped the Klean Klay off of the blade. Unfortunately I found that some of the oil from the clay had seeped into the stone along the edges (must have been microscopic fissures/layers within the stone).
I tacked the second half of the pour sprue shape down onto the first half, and then replaced the mold box walls, once again securing them with hot glue. I sprayed it all down with mold release again - this is super-critical when making two-part silicone molds, since without it the silicone will bond to the first half (and you would then have to cut the mold open). I then poured the second half of the silicone.
The following day I pulled the mold box walls off and pulled the mold open, peeling the two halves of silicone apart. I popped the blade out and I had my finished mold.
The final step was to cut two pieces of MDF to act as a jacket for the mold - when it's all rubber banded together, the MDF panels keep the mold flat and straight when the mold is standing upright for pouring resin.
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Thanks Hank.
I did do a few small runs of the corpse resurrection amulet many years ago, but it's been quite a while - the last run I did was over 10 years ago.
I have no plans to do any more and I don't sell any of my other pieces. Sorry about that.
Oh, that's too bad, I would have been interested by the amulet as well. especially if this is the same that was provided for the movie!
A long overdue update...
Once the bronze had reached a shade of yellow that I was OK with, I gave the pommel a coating of clear wax to seal it to prevent further oxidation, and then buffed it after it had dried.
The next step was to "dirty up" the blade a bit, with airbrushed Tamiya acrylics and a spray bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol. I did this not only to make it look a bit "used," but also to camouflage the area where the stone transitioned into the epoxy putty (even though it would be mostly covered by the cloth wrap). I also wanted to hide the spots on the back side where the oil from the clay had seeped into the stone during the molding process. I started out with a medium grey... and then mixed in a little brown... and then went to straight brown (only a bit), lightly spritzing it all with the alcohol as I went. I didn't really clean out the airbrush that well between color changes either. Then I did a pass with transparent Tamiya Smoke, and finished it off by mixing in a little Transparent Red and applying that to just the tip of the blade to give the impression of some subtle blood residue. Then I sealed it all with a matte clear coat. The final step was to attach the pommel to the blade with a bit of JB Qwik epoxy.
Way back at the beginning of this build one of the first things that I did was prep the cloth wrap for the grip. I picked up a yard of coarse "cotton duck" fabric at a Joann's craft store, and once I determined the width for the strip of cloth, I doubled that dimension and cut a piece at that size. I then folded over two halves and secured them with Tacky Glue - this became the back side of the strip.
At this point I also needed to dirty up the fabric, so I began by mixing a thin wash of yellow ochre gouache and applying it in random blotches, mixing in a bit of Van Dyke brown as I went. After it was dry, I secured the end of the strip to the blade with a bit of Devcon 5 minute epoxy, and when that had cured I proceeded to wrap it... and then unwrap it when I wasn't completely happy with how it looked. I must have wrapped and unwrapped the cloth strip half a dozen times, trying to get something that looked right. I finally realized that I hadn't actually checked the reference images in a while - consulting them helped, but the problem once again was the disconnect between the way that Guy Davis drew the cloth wrap, with its extreme criss-crossing, and real world physics, where it was difficult to get the wrap to actually do that (and stay in place). After a couple more attempts, I got a wrap that looked halfway decent and that I was happy with. At this point I continued to age and stain the fabric by saturating it with multiple thin washes of oil paint in turpenoid - I started off with yellow ochre and then mixed a couple darker shades as I went by adding a bit of burnt umber.
And once that had dried I called it done! Another piece crossed off the To-Do List.
Once the bronze had reached a shade of yellow that I was OK with, I gave the pommel a coating of clear wax to seal it to prevent further oxidation, and then buffed it after it had dried.
The next step was to "dirty up" the blade a bit, with airbrushed Tamiya acrylics and a spray bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol. I did this not only to make it look a bit "used," but also to camouflage the area where the stone transitioned into the epoxy putty (even though it would be mostly covered by the cloth wrap). I also wanted to hide the spots on the back side where the oil from the clay had seeped into the stone during the molding process. I started out with a medium grey... and then mixed in a little brown... and then went to straight brown (only a bit), lightly spritzing it all with the alcohol as I went. I didn't really clean out the airbrush that well between color changes either. Then I did a pass with transparent Tamiya Smoke, and finished it off by mixing in a little Transparent Red and applying that to just the tip of the blade to give the impression of some subtle blood residue. Then I sealed it all with a matte clear coat. The final step was to attach the pommel to the blade with a bit of JB Qwik epoxy.
Way back at the beginning of this build one of the first things that I did was prep the cloth wrap for the grip. I picked up a yard of coarse "cotton duck" fabric at a Joann's craft store, and once I determined the width for the strip of cloth, I doubled that dimension and cut a piece at that size. I then folded over two halves and secured them with Tacky Glue - this became the back side of the strip.
At this point I also needed to dirty up the fabric, so I began by mixing a thin wash of yellow ochre gouache and applying it in random blotches, mixing in a bit of Van Dyke brown as I went. After it was dry, I secured the end of the strip to the blade with a bit of Devcon 5 minute epoxy, and when that had cured I proceeded to wrap it... and then unwrap it when I wasn't completely happy with how it looked. I must have wrapped and unwrapped the cloth strip half a dozen times, trying to get something that looked right. I finally realized that I hadn't actually checked the reference images in a while - consulting them helped, but the problem once again was the disconnect between the way that Guy Davis drew the cloth wrap, with its extreme criss-crossing, and real world physics, where it was difficult to get the wrap to actually do that (and stay in place). After a couple more attempts, I got a wrap that looked halfway decent and that I was happy with. At this point I continued to age and stain the fabric by saturating it with multiple thin washes of oil paint in turpenoid - I started off with yellow ochre and then mixed a couple darker shades as I went by adding a bit of burnt umber.
And once that had dried I called it done! Another piece crossed off the To-Do List.
breen2057
Sr Member
This looks stunning, always love seeing your work.
Thanks! I'm pretty happy with it.
Thanks guys!
Yeah, sorry I can't remember who that was - that was MANY years ago. Plus, who's to say if they're even still around.
Something you might want to ask him—
See if this pattern looks familiar to him:
Another step towards practical quantum computers
Researchers from the University of Sussex and Universal Quantum have demonstrated for the first time that quantum bits (qubits) can directly transfer between quantum computer microchips and demonstrated this with record-breaking speed and accuracy. This breakthrough resolves a major challenge in...
Damn if that doesn’t look Amerindian.
Maybe get a computer chip guy to look at similar Native American patterns and see if they make chips.
With Hellboy being re-imagined along the Folk Horror motif, you could say such symbols out west came from a cargo cult of Yithians who fell from the sky…their circuit-boards translated as totem/glyphs.
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Heyo!
I'm back with a long-term project that I've been tinkering with for quite a while now...
A few years ago, Mike J. started a thread partly to discuss the amulets, talismans, charms, and medallions seen in this image:
Some of the supplementary material on the DVDs for Guillermo del Toro's first Hellboy film are interactive "branching DVD comics" that were drawn by Mignola - this particular one is "Hellboy's Belt: The Talismans." Ten different images of items in/on the belt open up when you click on spots that light up on it. Strangely, the descriptions of the items differ a bit between the 2-disc Special Edition and the 3-disc Director's Cut Edition. Here are both versions of the descriptions:
I've always loved that main image, and I've always thought that it would be fun (though ambitious) to replicate all of the various items surrounding the gunbelt. Just a little over 2 years ago now, I decided to revisit this image and attempt to acquire as many of the pieces as possible, and then create the rest. It turns out that many of the objects in the illustration are actually old coins - a few of them were identified by Mike J., The Schlitzie, and youngpaddy1. Thanks guys! I also identified several more of them myself (though a couple are "best guess"). For a remaining few, I resorted to posting on a numismatic website forum to ask for help with possible IDs. Unfortunately, my post didn't seem to garner much interest, and I only ended up identifying one coin (maybe?), with the help of a tip. I was able to find replicas of many of the coins, and a few are actually the real deal (which were thankfully inexpensive).
So after many, many months of slowly chipping away at it, here's where I'm at with the project at this point, going counter-clockwise from left to right...
Widow's mite:
The "widow's mite" refers to either a Judean lepton or prutah. They're bronze coins from around the 1st Century BC, and were the lowest and smallest denominations of that era. They are tiny!
Athenian dekadrachm:
A Greek silver coin from the 5th Century BC. Real examples are rare, and are therefore quite expensive.
Irish pocket token?
Looking at this one, the only thing that I could see was a shamrock. I didn't find any old coins with anything that seemed similar, but I did find this "Irish pocket token":
It looked to me like in the drawing there might be a number one (or an i?) in the center, so I made a Roman numeral 1 out of a slice of styrene I beam, and added it to the token. I then molded it, so I could pour a casting in a low melting temp. tin/bismuth alloy:
While I was working on this one, it jogged a memory... in a very early appearance, Hellboy had a patch on the sleeve of his trenchcoat, which featured a club with a 1 in the center:
And then a bit later on, there was at least one instance of a small shamrock patch seen below the standard BPRD patch:
Byzantine follis:
A bronze coin of the eastern Roman Empire, first issued in 498 AD. The M is the Greek numeral for 40 (denoting a 40 nummi coin).
Egyptian ankh:
An obvious and easy one. What wasn't so easy was trying to find an example that was the same exact shape that Mignola drew - the subtleties of style and proportion are myriad. All of the examples that I ended up acquiring were sterling silver. Instead of going the expensive route of gold plating this one, I decided to just airbrush it with Tamiya Clear Yellow mixed with a few drops of Clear Orange. I then clear coated it with Alclad Aqua Gloss.
Saturn pendant:
The glyph is the ancient astronomical symbol for the planet Saturn (as well as the ancient alchemical symbol for lead). I made the pattern out of Ren Shape and styrene, molded it, and poured the final piece in the low-temp. tin/bismuth alloy:
The Great Revolt shekel:
A silver coin from the first Jewish revolt against the Romans (66 - 70 AD). The shekel that Mignola drew is dated to the 2nd year (the markings directly above the chalice). This example is dated to the 3rd year.
Silver temple token:
For this one, I originally ended up finding images of a nearly-exact real world example on an auction site, in a listing from many years ago - it was listed as a "13th Century Islamic silver coin." I initially had a friend do a digital model of it for me, based upon the auction images, and a colleague had recommended a company that offers 3D printing in wax, with final casting in various metals. I hadn't quite gotten around to that when I eventually ran across a similar piece on eBay - it was listed as an "Islamic religious token" and the seller was located in India. I subsequently discovered several examples that were referred to as "temple tokens," both "Islamic" and "Hindu," and they were apparently fashioned in the style of 16th Century Indian square rupees.
Xianfeng yuanbao:
A brass coin from Qing dynasty China during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng (1850 - 1861). Not sure if this example that I acquired is a "charm" (replica) or not - the prices on eBay varied quite a bit and I went for cheap. Also, this thing is enormous!
Abraxas pendant:
The figure of Abraxas was traditionally carved into stones/gemstones for use as a signet, as well as for use as amulets or charms. Yes, the example that I acquired has the figure facing the opposite direction. With its traditions as a signet, I believe that this would account for reference images of the design having both left and right facing figures (and any confusion about which way is "correct") - the carved stones would have a reversed/negative image, to create a positive image seal.
Eye of Providence?
This one also appears in this image, which was originally featured on the first Hellboy metal lunchbox, in 1999:
While on the tangent of the lunchbox art...
I identified the coin down on the lower left as possibly a Greek silver tetradrachm, from the mid-3rd Century BC. The portrait is of Alexander the Great and the "horn of Ammon" on the side of his head is what helped to ID it:
And there's another year 2 shekel up in the right corner.
But back to the eye...
Through sheer dumb luck, I happened upon this image while doing a web search for a different project:
As it turns out, the illustration is from the book The Black Pullet, which was one of several books that surfaced at the end of the 18th century. These books were purported to be magical grimoires, containing ancient, hidden knowledge.
The Black Pullet contains illustrations of 20 talisman and ring pairs - this is pair number 11, and with the recitation of six particular words, they are supposed to "transport you into whatever part of the world you judge appropriate without running any danger."
I acquired an écorché bust sculpture (an anatomical bust, showing the musculature of the human head and neck without the skin) and pulled a mold of the right eye with a blob of Knead-a-Mold silicone putty. I then made a resin casting of it, and modified that a bit by adding some Bondo and doing a little resculpting for the eyebrow. I created the rest of the amulet out of styrene and added the eye casting to it:
I then molded the finished pattern to produce a wax version for casting in bronze. I didn't make it into a ring though - had I not run across the illustration and investigated further, I would have had no idea that that's what it's actually supposed to be. I would've just made it into a simple flat-backed amulet, which is the plan that I stuck to:
I'm back with a long-term project that I've been tinkering with for quite a while now...
A few years ago, Mike J. started a thread partly to discuss the amulets, talismans, charms, and medallions seen in this image:
Some of the supplementary material on the DVDs for Guillermo del Toro's first Hellboy film are interactive "branching DVD comics" that were drawn by Mignola - this particular one is "Hellboy's Belt: The Talismans." Ten different images of items in/on the belt open up when you click on spots that light up on it. Strangely, the descriptions of the items differ a bit between the 2-disc Special Edition and the 3-disc Director's Cut Edition. Here are both versions of the descriptions:
I've always loved that main image, and I've always thought that it would be fun (though ambitious) to replicate all of the various items surrounding the gunbelt. Just a little over 2 years ago now, I decided to revisit this image and attempt to acquire as many of the pieces as possible, and then create the rest. It turns out that many of the objects in the illustration are actually old coins - a few of them were identified by Mike J., The Schlitzie, and youngpaddy1. Thanks guys! I also identified several more of them myself (though a couple are "best guess"). For a remaining few, I resorted to posting on a numismatic website forum to ask for help with possible IDs. Unfortunately, my post didn't seem to garner much interest, and I only ended up identifying one coin (maybe?), with the help of a tip. I was able to find replicas of many of the coins, and a few are actually the real deal (which were thankfully inexpensive).
So after many, many months of slowly chipping away at it, here's where I'm at with the project at this point, going counter-clockwise from left to right...
Widow's mite:
The "widow's mite" refers to either a Judean lepton or prutah. They're bronze coins from around the 1st Century BC, and were the lowest and smallest denominations of that era. They are tiny!
Athenian dekadrachm:
A Greek silver coin from the 5th Century BC. Real examples are rare, and are therefore quite expensive.
Irish pocket token?
Looking at this one, the only thing that I could see was a shamrock. I didn't find any old coins with anything that seemed similar, but I did find this "Irish pocket token":
It looked to me like in the drawing there might be a number one (or an i?) in the center, so I made a Roman numeral 1 out of a slice of styrene I beam, and added it to the token. I then molded it, so I could pour a casting in a low melting temp. tin/bismuth alloy:
While I was working on this one, it jogged a memory... in a very early appearance, Hellboy had a patch on the sleeve of his trenchcoat, which featured a club with a 1 in the center:
And then a bit later on, there was at least one instance of a small shamrock patch seen below the standard BPRD patch:
Byzantine follis:
A bronze coin of the eastern Roman Empire, first issued in 498 AD. The M is the Greek numeral for 40 (denoting a 40 nummi coin).
Egyptian ankh:
An obvious and easy one. What wasn't so easy was trying to find an example that was the same exact shape that Mignola drew - the subtleties of style and proportion are myriad. All of the examples that I ended up acquiring were sterling silver. Instead of going the expensive route of gold plating this one, I decided to just airbrush it with Tamiya Clear Yellow mixed with a few drops of Clear Orange. I then clear coated it with Alclad Aqua Gloss.
Saturn pendant:
The glyph is the ancient astronomical symbol for the planet Saturn (as well as the ancient alchemical symbol for lead). I made the pattern out of Ren Shape and styrene, molded it, and poured the final piece in the low-temp. tin/bismuth alloy:
The Great Revolt shekel:
A silver coin from the first Jewish revolt against the Romans (66 - 70 AD). The shekel that Mignola drew is dated to the 2nd year (the markings directly above the chalice). This example is dated to the 3rd year.
Silver temple token:
For this one, I originally ended up finding images of a nearly-exact real world example on an auction site, in a listing from many years ago - it was listed as a "13th Century Islamic silver coin." I initially had a friend do a digital model of it for me, based upon the auction images, and a colleague had recommended a company that offers 3D printing in wax, with final casting in various metals. I hadn't quite gotten around to that when I eventually ran across a similar piece on eBay - it was listed as an "Islamic religious token" and the seller was located in India. I subsequently discovered several examples that were referred to as "temple tokens," both "Islamic" and "Hindu," and they were apparently fashioned in the style of 16th Century Indian square rupees.
Xianfeng yuanbao:
A brass coin from Qing dynasty China during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng (1850 - 1861). Not sure if this example that I acquired is a "charm" (replica) or not - the prices on eBay varied quite a bit and I went for cheap. Also, this thing is enormous!
Abraxas pendant:
The figure of Abraxas was traditionally carved into stones/gemstones for use as a signet, as well as for use as amulets or charms. Yes, the example that I acquired has the figure facing the opposite direction. With its traditions as a signet, I believe that this would account for reference images of the design having both left and right facing figures (and any confusion about which way is "correct") - the carved stones would have a reversed/negative image, to create a positive image seal.
Eye of Providence?
This one also appears in this image, which was originally featured on the first Hellboy metal lunchbox, in 1999:
While on the tangent of the lunchbox art...
I identified the coin down on the lower left as possibly a Greek silver tetradrachm, from the mid-3rd Century BC. The portrait is of Alexander the Great and the "horn of Ammon" on the side of his head is what helped to ID it:
And there's another year 2 shekel up in the right corner.
But back to the eye...
Through sheer dumb luck, I happened upon this image while doing a web search for a different project:
As it turns out, the illustration is from the book The Black Pullet, which was one of several books that surfaced at the end of the 18th century. These books were purported to be magical grimoires, containing ancient, hidden knowledge.
The Black Pullet contains illustrations of 20 talisman and ring pairs - this is pair number 11, and with the recitation of six particular words, they are supposed to "transport you into whatever part of the world you judge appropriate without running any danger."
I acquired an écorché bust sculpture (an anatomical bust, showing the musculature of the human head and neck without the skin) and pulled a mold of the right eye with a blob of Knead-a-Mold silicone putty. I then made a resin casting of it, and modified that a bit by adding some Bondo and doing a little resculpting for the eyebrow. I created the rest of the amulet out of styrene and added the eye casting to it:
I then molded the finished pattern to produce a wax version for casting in bronze. I didn't make it into a ring though - had I not run across the illustration and investigated further, I would have had no idea that that's what it's actually supposed to be. I would've just made it into a simple flat-backed amulet, which is the plan that I stuck to:
Hatrian 1 as coin:
A bronze coin from the ancient city of Hatria in the Italian region of Picenum, from the 3rd Century BC. An "as" was a Roman coin from both the Republic and Imperial eras. This one took a little while to ID, as I had originally gone down the wrong rabbit hole, at first believing that the animal depicted on the coin was something which it turned out not to be. In re-examining the creature after a lengthy period of uncertainty followed by serious doubt, I noticed the long tail and guessed that it might in fact be a dog. I googled "sleeping dog coin" and sure enough - almost instantly I found an image that matched Mignola's drawing exactly. I commissioned laellee to create a digital model of it for me, based on images of a real coin, and I used the 3D wax printing and metal casting company to create the final piece in bronze. I gave it a chemical patina and then a couple washes of oil paints thinned with turpenoid.
I actually had this one done at half scale - their true size is surprisingly large.
Sator Square pendant?
The rows of uniform markings on this pendant made me think of the Sator Square, which is an ancient Roman word square - it's an arrangement of five, five-letter Latin words. It's a two-dimensional palindrome, which means that it reads the same left/right and up/down. While the origin and true meaning of the square remains unknown, later cultures used it as a charm against illness, evil, and bad luck.
Hebrew letter Chet:
I jokingly thought to myself that this could be a Scrabble tile. It turns out that there actually IS a Hebrew version of Scrabble:
The thought of Hellboy carrying around a Scrabble tile as an amulet is pretty funny to me.
Anyway, the foremost question in my mind was what material could this possibly be made out of? Paper, fabric, clay, wood, ceramic, bone/ivory, glass, stone, or metal? I decided to go with ivory - Ren Shape for the pattern and tinted resin for the final piece, in reality:
I gave it a pin wash in the glyph with oil paints thinned with turpenoid:
And yes, I made it the same size as a Scrabble tile.
Round hole coin:
In my mind, I've always associated coins featuring holes with East Asia, but it turns out that they could be found in many different countries throughout the world:
I picked up both a 1 piastre coin from Lebanon and one cent coin from colonial British East Africa (now Kenya), since they seemed to have the proportions most similar to Mignola's drawing:
Stone figure:
Seems kinda' similar to the pre-Sumerian figure in the pop-up image, but it looks more creature-like. Perhaps it's a frog monster? I had a friend carve this one for me out of soapstone.
Ancient Italian 1 sextans coin?
This looked like possibly an arrow or a spear head to me. There were a few different ancient Greek and ancient Italian coins featuring spear heads, but this 3rd Century BC coin - from an uncertain city of Central Italy - seemed like a close match, particularly with the two dots. I had laellee do a digital model of this one as well, using images of a real coin, and had it wax printed and cast in bronze. I gave it a chemical patina and then a couple washes of oil paints thinned with turpenoid.
Tyrian shekel?
At first glance, this seems like it could be any one of a multitude of Greek or Roman coins. In searching through coins for a profile on a plain field, I ran across the Tyrian shekel or "Judas shekel" - you know, that whole "30 pieces of silver" thing from the Bible. Considering that the Tyrian shekel kinda' resembles the coin in Mignola's drawing, I decided to just go with it. Plus, I also sort of wonder if maybe this might have been what Mignola had in mind - perhaps Hellboy has one of the *actual* 30 pieces of silver. That could make a potent amulet.
Astronomical symbol for Jupiter/alchemical symbol for tin:
Again, there was the question of what material this could possibly be. I decided on clay for this one, based upon the dotted border around the perimeter (holes poked into the clay with a tool). I sculpted the pattern in Klean Klay, molded it, and poured the final piece in tinted resin (I was going for "terra cotta"). I gave it a couple washes of oil paints thinned with turpenoid, hit it with Testors Dullcote, and then dusted it with a bit of fuller's earth.
Mystery pendants:
Masonic ball fob?
I've actually been interested in these for a while now (unrelated to this project), and I decided to finally acquire one. Plus, it also seemed like something that Hellboy just might have in one of his belt pouches, amongst all of the other things - I wouldn't be surprised if he had been a Freemason. Looking at it from the right angle, the seam lines do kind of resemble some of the details in Mignola's drawing. The cool thing about these is that they open up into the shape of a cross, and have arcane symbols engraved on the surfaces of the pyramidal segments:
There's also an Order of the Eastern Star variant, which opens up into a star shape:
Norse runes charm?
This one made me think of Norse magical staves, like the Icelandic Ægishjálmur and Veldismagn:
I picked up a simple Ægishjálmur pendant, but then found this one, which was even more similar to the pendant in the drawing.
This one could be virtually anything:
In doing a search for "orb pendant" I didn't really find anything similar, but obviously the drawing is rather vague in its details.
It could possibly be something along these lines:
Or maybe it could be a Victorian pomander pendant (which are shockingly expensive):
Or perhaps it could be an Islamic prayer bead:
I settled on an antique silver chiming orb pendant from Thailand. Maybe the sound of the chimes dispells malevolent spirits?
A bronze coin from the ancient city of Hatria in the Italian region of Picenum, from the 3rd Century BC. An "as" was a Roman coin from both the Republic and Imperial eras. This one took a little while to ID, as I had originally gone down the wrong rabbit hole, at first believing that the animal depicted on the coin was something which it turned out not to be. In re-examining the creature after a lengthy period of uncertainty followed by serious doubt, I noticed the long tail and guessed that it might in fact be a dog. I googled "sleeping dog coin" and sure enough - almost instantly I found an image that matched Mignola's drawing exactly. I commissioned laellee to create a digital model of it for me, based on images of a real coin, and I used the 3D wax printing and metal casting company to create the final piece in bronze. I gave it a chemical patina and then a couple washes of oil paints thinned with turpenoid.
I actually had this one done at half scale - their true size is surprisingly large.
Sator Square pendant?
The rows of uniform markings on this pendant made me think of the Sator Square, which is an ancient Roman word square - it's an arrangement of five, five-letter Latin words. It's a two-dimensional palindrome, which means that it reads the same left/right and up/down. While the origin and true meaning of the square remains unknown, later cultures used it as a charm against illness, evil, and bad luck.
Hebrew letter Chet:
I jokingly thought to myself that this could be a Scrabble tile. It turns out that there actually IS a Hebrew version of Scrabble:
The thought of Hellboy carrying around a Scrabble tile as an amulet is pretty funny to me.
Anyway, the foremost question in my mind was what material could this possibly be made out of? Paper, fabric, clay, wood, ceramic, bone/ivory, glass, stone, or metal? I decided to go with ivory - Ren Shape for the pattern and tinted resin for the final piece, in reality:
I gave it a pin wash in the glyph with oil paints thinned with turpenoid:
And yes, I made it the same size as a Scrabble tile.
Round hole coin:
In my mind, I've always associated coins featuring holes with East Asia, but it turns out that they could be found in many different countries throughout the world:
I picked up both a 1 piastre coin from Lebanon and one cent coin from colonial British East Africa (now Kenya), since they seemed to have the proportions most similar to Mignola's drawing:
Stone figure:
Seems kinda' similar to the pre-Sumerian figure in the pop-up image, but it looks more creature-like. Perhaps it's a frog monster? I had a friend carve this one for me out of soapstone.
Ancient Italian 1 sextans coin?
This looked like possibly an arrow or a spear head to me. There were a few different ancient Greek and ancient Italian coins featuring spear heads, but this 3rd Century BC coin - from an uncertain city of Central Italy - seemed like a close match, particularly with the two dots. I had laellee do a digital model of this one as well, using images of a real coin, and had it wax printed and cast in bronze. I gave it a chemical patina and then a couple washes of oil paints thinned with turpenoid.
Tyrian shekel?
At first glance, this seems like it could be any one of a multitude of Greek or Roman coins. In searching through coins for a profile on a plain field, I ran across the Tyrian shekel or "Judas shekel" - you know, that whole "30 pieces of silver" thing from the Bible. Considering that the Tyrian shekel kinda' resembles the coin in Mignola's drawing, I decided to just go with it. Plus, I also sort of wonder if maybe this might have been what Mignola had in mind - perhaps Hellboy has one of the *actual* 30 pieces of silver.
That could make a potent amulet.Astronomical symbol for Jupiter/alchemical symbol for tin:
Again, there was the question of what material this could possibly be. I decided on clay for this one, based upon the dotted border around the perimeter (holes poked into the clay with a tool). I sculpted the pattern in Klean Klay, molded it, and poured the final piece in tinted resin (I was going for "terra cotta"). I gave it a couple washes of oil paints thinned with turpenoid, hit it with Testors Dullcote, and then dusted it with a bit of fuller's earth.
Mystery pendants:
Masonic ball fob?
I've actually been interested in these for a while now (unrelated to this project), and I decided to finally acquire one. Plus, it also seemed like something that Hellboy just might have in one of his belt pouches, amongst all of the other things - I wouldn't be surprised if he had been a Freemason. Looking at it from the right angle, the seam lines do kind of resemble some of the details in Mignola's drawing. The cool thing about these is that they open up into the shape of a cross, and have arcane symbols engraved on the surfaces of the pyramidal segments:
There's also an Order of the Eastern Star variant, which opens up into a star shape:
Norse runes charm?
This one made me think of Norse magical staves, like the Icelandic Ægishjálmur and Veldismagn:
I picked up a simple Ægishjálmur pendant, but then found this one, which was even more similar to the pendant in the drawing.
This one could be virtually anything:
In doing a search for "orb pendant" I didn't really find anything similar, but obviously the drawing is rather vague in its details.
It could possibly be something along these lines:
Or maybe it could be a Victorian pomander pendant (which are shockingly expensive):
Or perhaps it could be an Islamic prayer bead:
I settled on an antique silver chiming orb pendant from Thailand. Maybe the sound of the chimes dispells malevolent spirits?
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Another Black Pullet piece:
This is another one from The Black Pullet, that also appears in the lunchbox art. It's part of pair number 5, and with the recitation of three words they enable you "to discover all the treasures which exist and to ensure you the possession of them." I decided to do the lunchbox version - with its slightly different details - since the reference was sharper and easier to work from. I made the pattern out of Ren Shape, and again, I simply had it cast as a medallion (in bronze), rather than as a ring:
Lemurian talisman:
I took another crack at the Lemurian talisman and made this "plain" version. I made the pattern a bit larger and lower in profile than the original one that I did. I also made the pattern for this one out of Ren Shape and had it cast in bronze:
Byzantine coin?
Apparently a facing bust was only common during the Byzantine era. I didn't find any examples with such a large visage though.
Yet another Black Pullet piece:
This one is part of pair number 15, and they "will give you all the virtues, all the talents, and the inclination to do good by changing all substances which are of a bad quality and rendering them excellent." The M shape with the "devil tail" is similar to the astrological symbol for Scorpio, which is also the alchemical symbol for the process of "separation." The 3 shape corresponds to the alchemical symbol indicating a dram, which is usually a unit of mass, but is both a unit of mass and volume to apothecaries. I made the pattern for this one out of styrene, and had it cast in bronze:
Magical nail?
Something similar to the Bog Roosh nail? I decided to interpret the domed head as a lotus blossom, just to make things interesting. I sourced a few different lotus blossom beads... after I settled on one to use, based on size (not too big, not too small), I molded it to cast the upper dome portion of the nail head:
I then glued that onto the rest of the pattern that I sculpted out of Ren Shape. The final piece was cast in silver:
Bone:
At first glance, I thought this might have been referencing Davy Crocket's finger bone... but obviously the shape is significantly different. I did a search through various Etsy stores, to see what sort of animal bones were available, and ran across the hyoid bones of a deer - the shape seemed strikingly similar. This bone is just one component of a more complex structure, and interestingly this structure (the "hyoid apparatus") is what suspends the tongue and larynx in animals. With that in mind... perhaps as a talisman, could it possibly facilitate communication? Maybe with... the dead? For the wrap, I decided to string some seed beads onto a piece of aluminum wire.
Mystery coin or medallion:
I couldn't quite make heads or tails of this one. But this is what I think I see in it - could it be a sheep?
I was unable to find an exact match among ancient coins, but I did find something similar in a Greek Ionian hekte:
The design motif is described as "ram standing right, scratching its head with its right hind hoof."
I guess I could have just gone with that, but I decided to go ahead and do my own thing, and make it into a medallion. I wanted to go loose and abstract with this one, since it's a bit hard to say what it's supposed to be, exactly.
I made the pattern out of styrene, with a combination of bits of styrene and blobs of J-B Kwik epoxy for the details, and did the usual molding and casting in the tin/bismuth alloy. Then for a little variety, I decided to airbrush it with the Tamiya Clear Yellow/Orange mix. After clear coating it with Alclad Aqua Gloss, I gave it a pin wash with burnt umber oil paint thinned with turpenoid:
19th Century Portuguese Angolan macuta:
In Mike J.'s thread, The Schlitzie posted that he thought this one read "Magu Tao." I googled "Magu Tao medallion," but it didn't return anything of note or interest (other than Mike J.'s thread). I then tried "Magu Tao coin" and THAT was a revelation - it very quickly became obvious that Mignola's drawing actually says MACU TA. There's even the ring of dots around the lettering and a vague indication of the flowers. Mignola didn't indicate the denomination of the coin though. I found the most common and affordable denomination on eBay (in a wide range of conditions and prices) to be the 1 macuta coin, so that's what I bought.
Another mystery pendant - "celestial orb"?
In searching for orb pendants, I struck upon the related term of "celestial orb." I tried that in a search, and it returned a couple of interesting results - I found some antique gold pendants with engraved asterisk-like star shapes that were similar to the drawing, but just not as numerous. Unfortunately, these pendants were crazy expensive:
I found a couple different modern pieces, which were a little more reasonably priced, but they were still more than what I was willing to spend. Plus, they weren't quite what I was looking for. I settled on an even cheaper modern piece that opens up like a pomander pendant - inside was a quartz crystal sphere:
It was too shiny and cheap-looking, so I decided to work it over... I started by sandblasting it, expecting to find brass beneath the silver plating, but copper was revealed instead. Not what I was hoping for, but it was still something that I could work with - I ammonia fumed it for a couple hours to give it a nice dark patina, and then buffed it with superfine steel wool:
I replaced the quartz with a sphere of Gibeon iron meteorite - I wanted to keep the whole "celestial" theme going. Plus, all manner of malevolent things seem to have an aversion to iron. And meteoric iron is also quite special:
Eric Bloodaxe Viking silver penny:
A 10th Century AD York-type hammered silver coin. The sword and REX are obvious in Mignola's drawing (though his looks a bit more like "PEX"), and if you look closer, you can make out most of the R in ERIC above.
West Noricum tetradrachm?
A 1st to 2nd Century BC silver coin from the Celtic Kingdom of Noricum, which was a Roman province located in what is now Austria. I also had laellee do a digital model of this one, and had it wax printed and cast in silver. I aged it with a diluted acid patina solution and then gave it a pin wash of oil paints thinned with turpenoid.
This is another one from The Black Pullet, that also appears in the lunchbox art. It's part of pair number 5, and with the recitation of three words they enable you "to discover all the treasures which exist and to ensure you the possession of them." I decided to do the lunchbox version - with its slightly different details - since the reference was sharper and easier to work from. I made the pattern out of Ren Shape, and again, I simply had it cast as a medallion (in bronze), rather than as a ring:
Lemurian talisman:
I took another crack at the Lemurian talisman and made this "plain" version. I made the pattern a bit larger and lower in profile than the original one that I did. I also made the pattern for this one out of Ren Shape and had it cast in bronze:
Byzantine coin?
Apparently a facing bust was only common during the Byzantine era. I didn't find any examples with such a large visage though.
Yet another Black Pullet piece:
This one is part of pair number 15, and they "will give you all the virtues, all the talents, and the inclination to do good by changing all substances which are of a bad quality and rendering them excellent." The M shape with the "devil tail" is similar to the astrological symbol for Scorpio, which is also the alchemical symbol for the process of "separation." The 3 shape corresponds to the alchemical symbol indicating a dram, which is usually a unit of mass, but is both a unit of mass and volume to apothecaries. I made the pattern for this one out of styrene, and had it cast in bronze:
Magical nail?
Something similar to the Bog Roosh nail? I decided to interpret the domed head as a lotus blossom, just to make things interesting. I sourced a few different lotus blossom beads... after I settled on one to use, based on size (not too big, not too small), I molded it to cast the upper dome portion of the nail head:
I then glued that onto the rest of the pattern that I sculpted out of Ren Shape. The final piece was cast in silver:
Bone:
At first glance, I thought this might have been referencing Davy Crocket's finger bone... but obviously the shape is significantly different. I did a search through various Etsy stores, to see what sort of animal bones were available, and ran across the hyoid bones of a deer - the shape seemed strikingly similar. This bone is just one component of a more complex structure, and interestingly this structure (the "hyoid apparatus") is what suspends the tongue and larynx in animals. With that in mind... perhaps as a talisman, could it possibly facilitate communication?
Maybe with... the dead? For the wrap, I decided to string some seed beads onto a piece of aluminum wire.Mystery coin or medallion:
I couldn't quite make heads or tails of this one.
But this is what I think I see in it - could it be a sheep?I was unable to find an exact match among ancient coins, but I did find something similar in a Greek Ionian hekte:
The design motif is described as "ram standing right, scratching its head with its right hind hoof."
I guess I could have just gone with that, but I decided to go ahead and do my own thing, and make it into a medallion. I wanted to go loose and abstract with this one, since it's a bit hard to say what it's supposed to be, exactly.
I made the pattern out of styrene, with a combination of bits of styrene and blobs of J-B Kwik epoxy for the details, and did the usual molding and casting in the tin/bismuth alloy. Then for a little variety, I decided to airbrush it with the Tamiya Clear Yellow/Orange mix. After clear coating it with Alclad Aqua Gloss, I gave it a pin wash with burnt umber oil paint thinned with turpenoid:
19th Century Portuguese Angolan macuta:
In Mike J.'s thread, The Schlitzie posted that he thought this one read "Magu Tao." I googled "Magu Tao medallion," but it didn't return anything of note or interest (other than Mike J.'s thread
). I then tried "Magu Tao coin" and THAT was a revelation - it very quickly became obvious that Mignola's drawing actually says MACU TA. There's even the ring of dots around the lettering and a vague indication of the flowers. Mignola didn't indicate the denomination of the coin though. I found the most common and affordable denomination on eBay (in a wide range of conditions and prices) to be the 1 macuta coin, so that's what I bought.Another mystery pendant - "celestial orb"?
In searching for orb pendants, I struck upon the related term of "celestial orb." I tried that in a search, and it returned a couple of interesting results - I found some antique gold pendants with engraved asterisk-like star shapes that were similar to the drawing, but just not as numerous. Unfortunately, these pendants were crazy expensive:
I found a couple different modern pieces, which were a little more reasonably priced, but they were still more than what I was willing to spend. Plus, they weren't quite what I was looking for. I settled on an even cheaper modern piece that opens up like a pomander pendant - inside was a quartz crystal sphere:
It was too shiny and cheap-looking, so I decided to work it over... I started by sandblasting it, expecting to find brass beneath the silver plating, but copper was revealed instead. Not what I was hoping for, but it was still something that I could work with - I ammonia fumed it for a couple hours to give it a nice dark patina, and then buffed it with superfine steel wool:
I replaced the quartz with a sphere of Gibeon iron meteorite - I wanted to keep the whole "celestial" theme going. Plus, all manner of malevolent things seem to have an aversion to iron. And meteoric iron is also quite special:
Eric Bloodaxe Viking silver penny:
A 10th Century AD York-type hammered silver coin. The sword and REX are obvious in Mignola's drawing (though his looks a bit more like "PEX"), and if you look closer, you can make out most of the R in ERIC above.
West Noricum tetradrachm?
A 1st to 2nd Century BC silver coin from the Celtic Kingdom of Noricum, which was a Roman province located in what is now Austria. I also had laellee do a digital model of this one, and had it wax printed and cast in silver. I aged it with a diluted acid patina solution and then gave it a pin wash of oil paints thinned with turpenoid.
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Portuguese cruzado?
It appears that in Mignola's drawing there's a shield/coat of arms topped by a crown. It turns out that a coat of arms could be found on a LOT of coins, from many, many different countries. The Portuguese coat of arms seems to be a match to what's depicted in the drawing. It was featured on many different coins for over 400 years... however, I couldn't find any examples of coins that were so devoid of other markings. Certainly some with a lot of the markings worn down, but nothing like that which is seen in the drawing. This is a sterling silver replica of a coin that was sold as jewelry - I just reworked it a bit and refinished it.
Rune pendant?
I didn't find anything similar among astronomical/astrological/alchemical symbols, so I looked at ancient letter forms. Nothing in Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, or Hebrew. It does kind of resemble the Norse rune "Fehu" though, which literally means "cattle," but could also imply "wealth."
It's also apparently the rune of "luck." So I guess that would make it a lucky charm.
I made the pattern out of Ren Shape, styrene, and aluminum armature wire. For the main body of the rune, I used a piece of Plastruct styrene sheet in N Scale "polished stone" texture (if you use your imagination, it could also pass for reptile skin). I just wanted to use something that would add a little more visual interest. I molded it and poured the final piece in the low-temp. tin/bismuth alloy:
Bar Kokhba Revolt shekel:
A bronze coin from the second Jewish revolt (132 - 135 AD). Mignola's drawing appears to depict the medium-size coin (24 - 26mm) from 133/134 AD, judging by the Hebrew inscription. This example is that size, but the Hebrew characters are rearranged - not sure if it's supposed to be a variant, or if it's a way to help ID it as a replica.
It appears that in Mignola's drawing there's a shield/coat of arms topped by a crown. It turns out that a coat of arms could be found on a LOT of coins, from many, many different countries. The Portuguese coat of arms seems to be a match to what's depicted in the drawing. It was featured on many different coins for over 400 years... however, I couldn't find any examples of coins that were so devoid of other markings. Certainly some with a lot of the markings worn down, but nothing like that which is seen in the drawing. This is a sterling silver replica of a coin that was sold as jewelry - I just reworked it a bit and refinished it.
Rune pendant?
I didn't find anything similar among astronomical/astrological/alchemical symbols, so I looked at ancient letter forms. Nothing in Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, or Hebrew. It does kind of resemble the Norse rune "Fehu" though, which literally means "cattle," but could also imply "wealth."
It's also apparently the rune of "luck." So I guess that would make it a lucky charm.
I made the pattern out of Ren Shape, styrene, and aluminum armature wire. For the main body of the rune, I used a piece of Plastruct styrene sheet in N Scale "polished stone" texture (if you use your imagination, it could also pass for reptile skin). I just wanted to use something that would add a little more visual interest. I molded it and poured the final piece in the low-temp. tin/bismuth alloy:
Bar Kokhba Revolt shekel:
A bronze coin from the second Jewish revolt (132 - 135 AD). Mignola's drawing appears to depict the medium-size coin (24 - 26mm) from 133/134 AD, judging by the Hebrew inscription. This example is that size, but the Hebrew characters are rearranged - not sure if it's supposed to be a variant, or if it's a way to help ID it as a replica.
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So that's all of them, with the exception of the few less-detailed smaller pieces, and a couple others which were difficult to make out.
I've had this pic of Mignola's original inked art, which appears to show more detail, but unfortunately the image size is so small that zooming in on it doesn't help at all:
I did a google image search to see if I could find a higher resolution version, but I didn't have any luck - other examples that I found were all this same size. However, I did try enlarging the screen display in my web browser, and then did a screen grab - while this still isn't perfect, it did a little bit better job without as much pixelation:
With this "good enough" reference, I set about creating these minor pieces. I made all of the patterns out of styrene with a bit of J-B Kwik for some of the details, and cast them all in the low-temp. tin/bismuth alloy (with airbrushed Tamiya Clear Yellow/Orange on a couple of them).
This square piece is interesting... it looks like it could be "AOE," and AOE is something that appears on Athenian owl coins - even the one that's right next to it:
This looks like possibly three small letters (kinda' looked like "OAT" to me):
A couple Omegas:
Possibly a crown or a letter?
A simple beaded ring:
And a Maltese cross shape:
From the very beginning, my plan was to lay the collection out like the original image to photograph it all together. It quickly became obvious that the pieces in Mignola's art were not drawn to scale though - with each item that I acquired, it was surprising to see the size discrepancies. A lot of these old coins are much smaller than you might imagine... and a couple were much larger than I would have ever guessed.
Anyway, that will be the next step...
I've had this pic of Mignola's original inked art, which appears to show more detail, but unfortunately the image size is so small that zooming in on it doesn't help at all:
I did a google image search to see if I could find a higher resolution version, but I didn't have any luck - other examples that I found were all this same size. However, I did try enlarging the screen display in my web browser, and then did a screen grab - while this still isn't perfect, it did a little bit better job without as much pixelation:
With this "good enough" reference, I set about creating these minor pieces. I made all of the patterns out of styrene with a bit of J-B Kwik for some of the details, and cast them all in the low-temp. tin/bismuth alloy (with airbrushed Tamiya Clear Yellow/Orange on a couple of them).
This square piece is interesting... it looks like it could be "AOE," and AOE is something that appears on Athenian owl coins - even the one that's right next to it:
This looks like possibly three small letters (kinda' looked like "OAT" to me):
A couple Omegas:
Possibly a crown or a letter?
A simple beaded ring:
And a Maltese cross shape:
From the very beginning, my plan was to lay the collection out like the original image to photograph it all together. It quickly became obvious that the pieces in Mignola's art were not drawn to scale though - with each item that I acquired, it was surprising to see the size discrepancies. A lot of these old coins are much smaller than you might imagine... and a couple were much larger than I would have ever guessed.
Anyway, that will be the next step...
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