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I finished my version of the She DM's cool tentacles. I purchased the same octopus after a search for it on various online stores. I cut the tentacles as she described, using a wooden base (I happened to have a bunch of these 1" round wooden bases from the craft store).

Here is the unsuspecting initial toy: Show

Here is the sad octopus. I will eventually place this on a huge base should I need it: Show

I used the hot glue gun as she described, but right after gluing I placed them in a small container and poured some small grit sand over them, pressing the sand down lightly into the glue. This meant the glue's surface was covered in the sand and hardened that way.

Picture of this stage, no paint yet: Show

I thought about adding a washer to the underside of each wooden base, but they actually stand up ok. A key to this was cutting them so that the weight was pretty centered. Depending on the cuts you might need to add washers.

Once dry I gave each mini a wet base coat of a somewhat dark brown, applying it liberally where the glue met the base to try to fill in any gaps (the hot glue tends to apply in a roundish manner... I probably could have pressed the sand in harder to shape it a bit).

Here is the initial paint job: Show

When that dried I gave it a few dry brush treatments with a sand/tan color and a more normal painting of the base. I was pretty happy with that. The color actually seemed to stick ok to the tentacle, but I imagine the rubbery nature would make it hard to paint the actual tentacle itself. They work fine in that pinkish color, I think.

Here is the finished version: Show

My thanks to The She DM, as this would not have happened without her. I highly recommend her blog. She's a DM in my town and awesome on too many levels to count!

Thanks, Chartauk. I thought it turned out well for $8 and some fun craft time!

I'll update if I get around to doing the base.

Some times... I just want to smack myself in the head. That is brilliant!! wish I had thought of that.

Thay look fantastic Alpha!

You might also consider using metal washers for the base. They add a little bit more weight than wood does.

No problem. If it works it works. Cacti look great as well. I have some cacti that I made from clay and then cast in resin, which was a bit of work and certainly not for everyone. I also discovered (while doing some acorn crafts with my wife and son) that you can take an acorn and hot glue it to a metal washer, paint it green, then dry brush it with some yellow, for highlights, it makes a fine cacti. Especially if you get some the gnarlier looking ones. So act now! before fall is over and the damn squirrels get 'em all!

I can't remember if I posted my table lands terrain in this forum or not? It's been a crazy few months and my memory is terrible. So if anyone is willing to slice and dice pink (or blue) insulation foam I can give you some advice on making some decent Radiator Springs....umm I mean Dark Sun terrain. I have shared custody of my Dark Sun terrain, two days a month it's mine, the rest of the month my four year old son uses it as part of his Cars play-set. On an interesting side note for anyone who plays any modern miniature games, the Cars die-cast cars are 1/55 scale, most D&D miniature are of the 25-28mm range and scale out at about 1/56. So, if you don't mind your cars staring at you, or smilin' at you, they work pretty good.

I actually got to use my Silt Horror a few weeks back. The PC's were crossing the silt via giant when the were attacked by a few tentacles. One of my players was absent while this was going down, when he came back to the table from the bathroom, and saw the newly placed Silt Horror tentacles. His word  were "Hey, it looks a bunch of cats turds just got shaken out of the sand box". I'm not vindictive or anything, it was merely coincidence that his character was nearly killed and eaten by a bunch of vicious cat turds. LOL