Eye of Light and Darkness Unboxing

The last in this trilogy of posts on the Sedefkar Simulacrum Kickstarter that arrived last week, and this time, it is less to do with the Horror on the Orient Express, and all to do with that other stupendous campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Initially, when the box came through, I had completely forgotten that I had added this prop, so it was genuinely surprised when I opened the envelope.

Contents of the envelope

Inside, was a well wrapped resin prop in two parts. The two halves of the Eye were individually wrapped in foam paper, so that they did not chip against each other in transit. That is some well thought out packaging! There was also a signed certificate of authenticity for the eye. Of course I will do my best to heed the warning about reading of spells in close proximity to the Eye, so as ot to cause any unnecessary trans-dimensional disturbances. 

I found the line below to be very cool.

If you can't get the first off the production line, at least there is some small cache in getting the last!

So, on with the Eye. I unwrapped the two halves, and stuck them together, as shown. here:

The finish on the item looks good in the above pictures, but the varnish gives it a bit of a whitish tinge, that can be better seen in the below photograph. This isn't really a gripe, as the item is beautifully finished, and the varnish is there to protect it, but the shiny finish on what is supposedly a sandstone item is a bit anachronistic I feel.

The finished item

From the Kickstarter:

A lot of thought went into the making of this item. It is supposed to be a piece of the red pyramid, the first true smooth-sided pyramid located in Dashur, built to repulse the Black Pharaoh. But this is puzzling, if the pyramid is smooth-sided, there shouldn't be any carving on it. So I did some research; the red pyramid was not always red, it used to be cased with limestone but only a few of these stones now remain at the corner of the construction. I imagined that the Eye of Light and Darkness was hidden somewhere behind the limestone and when the limestone fell apart, the relief was revealed but still covered with a layer of coating composed of small stones brought by the desert. I tried to reproduce the results, the reddish aspect and the effects of time. Thinking of the reddish granite stone beneath the limestone, burning and drying under the sun for ages, I knew then how to show the burning secret of the red pyramid covered by the smooth limestone.

The prototype

If you look at the prototype above, this does have the white coating i the cracks and engravings, and without the gloss finish, this looks like sand and accumulated grime, so maybe all I need to do is knock off the sheen.This does suggest, however, that the prototype in terms of carving and casting is identical to the final version, the finish is not quite there.

Apart from the glossy finish, I am in love with this artefact/prop. Now I am torn between running Masks or Orient Express first. Unfortunately, due to the collapse of Ben Patey's Masks props KS, I think HotOE wins out by a nose.