Captain Caveman on Ice

Season 10, Episode 5

At this point, with Captain Caveman assembled, a sensible chap should probably have tidied the workbench, cleaned their tools and moved on to painting our prehistoric protagonist.  Unfortunately, I still possessed spare peanuts, surplus Milliput and a single troll’s foot.  The outcome, in my mind at least, was therefore inevitable and a second Cavey was born.  This time I proposed a rather different outcome, one that paid homage to the opening sequence of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.  This famously sees our hirsute hero discovered frozen within a block of ice and it occurred to me that this might make a rather entertaining objective marker; what could possibly go wrong?   

Following the successful formula of the previous build, a second miniature was constructed and painted in suitably chilly shades of blue and placed within a makeshift mould constructed from scraps of plasticard and secured with a hot glue gun. Possessed of UV resin and a wholly unjustified degree of confidence, I began pouring the first layers.

The plan was simple, the execution, less so.  The resin was carefully tinted and layered as intended until a steady stream of bubbles began emerging from beneath Cavey's arm.  At first I was puzzled.  Then enlightenment dawned.  The peanut was hollow! The resin was entering the shell and the trapped air was escaping.  I am not ashamed to admit that this revelation arrived several minutes later than it probably should have.  Still, by this point, I was committed to the process and elected to persevere. A few bubbles could surely be explained away as imperfections within ancient glacial ice?  Unfortunately, the resin had not yet finished teaching me valuable life lessons.

Despite knowing perfectly well that these procedures should not be rushed, I removed the shuttering too early and promptly released partially cured resin across the workbench with consequences that can best be described as educational.  Following a brief period of reflection, several cups of Earl Grey and a stern conversation with myself regarding the virtues of patience, the resin was left alone to cure properly.

The resulting block required some considerable tidying up and at this point I encountered another of life’s great ponderables, how did all those impossibly talented social media resin wizards manage to restore crystal clarity after sanding?  The answer, it transpired, was more resin.  A final coating restored the transparency beautifully and although some bubbles remained visible, these were ultimately disguised with snow effects around the top and base where they now appear entirely intentional; sweet serendipity shines again. 

And so Cavey now exists in two forms, one ready to join the Teen Angels on their adventures and another patiently awaiting rescue after several millennia trapped in ice.  Frankly, given the amount of trouble he caused in his construction, I am beginning to understand why nature tried to keep him there in the first place!