Eldritch Desert (diorama)

[SparrowMarie]

So! I'm back. I haven't finished any of my other WIPs lately but I figure one more won't hurt. 

 

I'm planning on doing a film noir style desert expedition whereupon our investigators find something not of this world. 

 

I'm really excited for this one(not that I'm not excited for all my projects) but I have some hurdles to cross. 

 

1. I want a wall between the white and grey bones, preferably crumbly looking. Not sure where to start with that. 
2. Figure out the best way to magnetize things.
3. And the really big one: figure out how to actually paint in the style I'm trying to do. 

 

This will involve a lot of work and time. As well as some (maybe a lot of) practice minis. 

 

I'm currently in the mock up stage. I've got the minis I want and I'm trying to stage them how I think will look good as well as imagine the wall where I want it.

First stages of mock up.

 

 

[ManvsMini]

Oh, this looks like it'll be good! Eager to see how it comes together.

[SparrowMarie]

Trying to decide whether I want to cut individual bricks out and assemble a wall or just paint the suggestion of stones...which might be hard... I want the wall to look like it's crumbled over time. Finding a shape I like is not proving easy.

[MoonglowMinis]

38 minutes ago, SparrowMarie said:

Trying to decide whether I want to cut individual bricks out and assemble a wall or just paint the suggestion of stones...which might be hard... I want the wall to look like it's crumbled over time. Finding a shape I like is not proving easy.

What are you planning on making the wall out of?

If you want something a bit in between those options, you can try foam board.

I never finished it, but was trying out some ides for crumbling wall scatter.

 

 

It's just two pieces of foam board glued together.  Tin foil ball method for texturing, mechanical pencil for detailing the space between stones.  My rubble here was just the cutaways from other pieces, but if you wanted to save yourself the trouble of making the entire wall from cut out bricks, you could just cut out a few to represent the rubble?

Anyways.  Cool project!  Excited to see the results!

[SparrowMarie]

25 minutes ago, MoonglowMinis said:

What are you planning on making the wall out of?

If you want something a bit in between those options, you can try foam board.

 

I was just planning on using the foam board I have. I have quite a bit hanging around that needs using. I'll play around with it, probably won't go individual bricks after seeing this. Thanks!

[ManvsMini]

You could try to make the wall look like it's part of one giant slab of stone, like from one of the Egyptian pyramids (drawing on the desert expedition for inspiration). You could then carve some cracks, put some crumblies down. Depending on if this is an indoor vs outdoor scene, the wall could be smooth from wind erosion, or apply whatever texture you imagine.

[SparrowMarie]

3 minutes ago, ManvsMini said:

You could try to make the wall look like it's part of one giant slab of stone, like from one of the Egyptian pyramids (drawing on the desert expedition for inspiration). You could then carve some cracks, put some crumblies down. Depending on if this is an indoor vs outdoor scene, the wall could be smooth from wind erosion, or apply whatever texture you imagine.

 

Definitely an outdoor thing. I did some looking at ancient Egyptian ruins to get an idea of how stone breaks down in that sort of environment. Turns out, from my searches, not much. I'll have to double up on the foam board, the stuff I have is like...1/4" thick. Looks like a pretty flimsy wall currently.

This is my current wall shape (the outline). I'm pretty happy with it this far. I'll be revisiting this shape in the morning when I've had more than 4 hours of sleep.

 

 

I wanted the evil minis to be hidden by the wall partially which is why they're standing behind it. I needed a shape that showed off enough of it to be relevant.

[SparrowMarie]

The wall pieces aren't totally even but they show off what I want it to.

 

 

 

[SparrowMarie]

Tomorrow I want to accomplish these things:

- Wash minis thoroughly

- Mold line removal

- Start to figure out magnetization with the teeny tiny magnets I have

- Decide how or if I want to prime due to the nature of the paint job

- Decide where I want light to come from

[SparrowMarie]

I've removed, what I believe to be, all of the mold lines. I'm now contemplating brown or blue liner. Might go with blue since it is a little darker in my experience. I would forego this step but I want to make sure the paint sticks. I don't really want to fight with my Bones. Now off to soak, scrub, and give them a good rinse.

[AussieAusborn]

I like how you have your mock up staged, and I'm excited to see what comes next!

[SparrowMarie]

Not much was done yesterday because I was sick. But I'm onto washing things. Just barely got everything in my wash container.

 

[SparrowMarie]

Things have been liner-ed.

 

[SparrowMarie]

I need to figure out the best way to remove the bases. I'm leaving the base on the obelisk but everything else is questionable. The lady in the dress is probably going to be most problematic since her dress flares out over most of the base. It isn't that big and doesn't look too much unlike sand so I may just leave hers on. I don't want to use like a ton of my flock to cover it up so...we'll see.

[Inarah]

I find a brand new blade for the hobby knife to be best for cutting Bones. Cut the base around the feet, then level off the bottom of the shoes. Or use the remaining base material like a peg to hold them into whatever your display base is.