Sissel's Project Corner
The Crystal Chalice
[November 2nd 2025]
One of my biggest collection grails has been to add the Crystal Chalice from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. I found out a couple years ago that Square Enix had a Twitter lottery where you could win one of three mini chalices as a promotion for the remaster back in 2020 (pictured below on the left side of the image, alongside the promotional chalice made for the original game's release), but as mentioned, only three were made, and the lottery was limited to Japan at that.
Unfortunately, all three are in private collections (and the original promotional chalice I believe to be in Square Enix's possession), so I endeavoured to make my own. I've run into a fuckload of roadblocks: 3D printing services unable to print it, my inability to scuplt from scratch (despite being somewhat artistically inclined), lack of 3D modelling knowledge, etc.
So I went out and [bought my own oversized 3D printer], but have been unable to set it up for over a year due to lack of space and the fact I'm currently in the middle of moving, and have since enlisted the help of some friends who own a few printers and have more knowledge in the 3D space than I do (I am also, unfortunately, Blender illiterate outside of knowing how to import/export stuff)
So far, the biggest roadblock has been the bit that holds the crystal up top of the chalice; it prints too thin, leading to a lot of issues. My current idea is to use epoxy putty to manually sculpt it out, on top of using said epoxy putty to thicken the walls on some parts of the model. I also either have to manually sculpt the fins on the chalice or fiddle with the actual model itself to give the fins some form of depth so they can be printed, and I think I'm leaning more toward the latter at the moment.
Thinking more toward the future with this project (because the current roadblock frustrates me and I like focusing on other things when I'm frustrated to hell and back), what I want to do for the crystal and the myrrh ball is to use [Smooth-On's Crystal Clear series of resins], [Tim Holtz alcohol inks] and possibly [Jacquard Pearl-Ex pigments] for colour and effect. Unfortunately, the Crystal Clear series resins aren't meant for home use, so until I figure out how to go down that road I'm stuck using epoxy clear resin instead.
As for why I'd want to use something meant for industrial use, it's because the Crystal Clear series resins allegedly don't yellow overtime unlike other clear resins; something I personally have experience with as I sometimes order garage kit figures, it's very annoying wanting to build a figure that comes with clear parts only to find out when you get around to working on the kit, the clear parts have severely yellowed.
Currently, as far as I've gotten with this project is a couple of prints to screw around with. The latest print (sitting at around 8 inches tall) still needs to have the rest of the supports trimmed off and and the overall model cleaned up and prepped for resculpting/thickening, priming and test painting. I have a smaller model that sits at barely 3 1/2 inches tall that I also want to clean up and prep, and possibly turn into a shot glass.
