Terrain Training Tuesday: Hostage DIY

Yep, once again I have been distracted from my outfit (we all know I'm going to go for the military look anyway)for the joys of a good hostage situation. You can take anything hostage and still get all the thrills and excitement. Recently I had the opportunity of taking a certain minions precious thing,in this case a small vial of gold (see below) hostage.

Now it's a pretty small vial, and yes, that is the gold in the bottom sparkling away, so pretty.... Due to the size I'm thinking a Gulliver's Travels theme is in order. Theming your hostage situation also adds to the drama and humour of the situation, after all just because it sounds nasty doesn't mean it has to be, a bit of humour can go a long way. Now go take something hostage. Once you have, to complete this you are going to need:

String, brown is the craft classic.

Tacks or small nails

An army, these ones are about two cm tall and are ace! I found them at Sorell Market and nearly wet myself with excitement as my hostage plans all came together!

Ok. SO from here all you need to do is arrange your scene showing that you have the hostage and that, while it is still safe and sound, your image needs to show that it is in REAL danger. Take my example:

As you can see the hostage is clearly visible in one piece, with the army quite menacing as it surrounds our victim. It's a beautiful thing. The string adds to the scene where the vial could be in a bit of physical pain and anguish. Mental anguish is also assumed and increases our bargaining power. From here we need to record the scene, I find polaroids are best:

They give off a certain charm, don't they? The blurriness also adds a certain desperation to it all. These were taken with my Diana f+ using the Instamatic back and the Close-up lens. Admire your genius and then pop them into a plain envelope:

Next we need to write a note. Show good faith by saying your hostage is well, put in a condition of its safe return and then place a thinly veiled threat in there somewhere too. Below is my example:

The note reads: "AS YOU CAN SEE YOUR GOLD IS ALIVE AND WELL, I HOPE TO RETURN IT TO YOU IN THIS STATE. BUT THIS ALL HINGES ON THE SAFE RETURN OF MY BELOVED COMPASS...WE WOULDN'T WANT THIS TO TURN NASTY NOW...WOULD WE?"

As I previously commented, there is no cost to being polite about the whole thing. Unfortunately this situation has escalated due to the minion taking one of my compasses hostage (look at what happens when you give a minion just a little bit of leeway, they just stab you in the back...unfortunately that's also why I like them). And I've added just a little bit of a malicious comment at the end that things could go bad if they do not comply. Usually I wouldn't recommend using your typewriter as it can be easily traced to you, however as this minion knows I am in possession of the vial, it doesn't really matter. Nothing beats letters cut out of the newspaper though. It's a classic combination. And then TA DA! All ready to go! I'm going to deliver this later in the week and will let you know how it all turns out.

*An important thing to remember with hostage taking, you MUST be prepared to carry your threat out. NEVER make threats you do not intend to carry out when provoked. That is NOT the HiiRagi way. We are people of our word...most of the time...Good luck my little minions!