Oh, Snail?: Building A World With Models

If there’s one thing I love more than building models is worldbuilding.

The act of creating whole fictional realms is often therapeutic to me. Building worlds, destroying worlds (I’m not a nice creator), and weaving in fine threads of narratives leaves me calm. Content. Serene.

I began to weave these threads in my youth due to my vast obsession with the worlds of Hellboy, AvP, and new dives into science fiction/fantasy.

It started small with fanfiction and cringe RP group chats but soon delved into original creations. Map after map. Creature concept designs. Crudely formed languages with nonexistent words and syntaxes.

By the time I had graduated from high school, I had a mountain of loose paper maps, sketches, and notebooks. I don’t have much left due to impulsive cleanouts but I wish I had kept more.

Unfortunately with the hassles of university, I got pulled from my fictional loom for a time. It got left behind to strangle by vines of academic knowledge. World’s left to crumble, ditched by their not-so-divine creator.

It wasn’t until the end of the year that I had the realization of how I missed it.

I was delighted by another realization that followed shortly after.

I could use my models to build a world.

This was an exciting thought and one that I quickly jumped at.

The world I’m currently building is simply dubbed Prismacore. I don’t have an official title and the story isn’t deep enough yet for me to title it anyways. So right now it’s simply named after the colors and theme.

The base plot point so far is the unsettling cosmic terror simply dubbed the Prisma. A hivemind that consumes both organic and non-organic material.

The evolution of this is slow as it started simply with the use of paint. Then the lumps and good. Colored lichen was bought from the model store. Resin pools that glow in the dark. Animals that help to spread Prisma. Snails for now but I am trying to brainstorm more hosts.

When I get more resin I will be printing and adding coral to future builds. They come from the Smithsonian from their free access files.

Of course, Gundam Models aren’t a natural part of the story but it’s a good stand-in for what I’d like.

I love the fungal/infection look to it. Lively and bright but desolate. One future plan is to show an infestation in progress. One in its early stage. Buildings being overtaken and such.