creating an 'exploding' base

[strewart]

I've had a bit of a look around and can't find much inspiration or ideas so far.. I have an idea for the base of a miniature where I want it to have just burst out of the ground. So it will be a tiny bit above the base and the stone panels that were originally there are scattered all over the place. It is very difficult to capture this kind of dynamic feel and I have got as far as cutting the stone up into fragments and seeing if I could reglue it 'broken' and at angles but it doesn't seem right just dry fitting. Any ideas or is there any similar base around that I could possibly use as inspiration? Even shell craters would be close if they were in the process of exploding rather than already done but anything I do find is basically loads of 'smoke' which I don't really want and not much else.

Am I trying something too ambitious? I'm not sure what to put directly in the middle either, will have to convert first then see if painting the middle black like a hole would work.

 

[Zab]

It can be done, but you have to be patient and place each piece radiating out. You can give the impression of implied violence without showing it- like the aftermath - by how you pose the figure and base. Take Harely here:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/385672
She smashed stuff good You don't see bits flying, but you know what happened and your mind fills in the rest.

 

[Sicks]

I recently saw some kind of army truck are to look like it had hit a land mine or something with an exploding base that looked pretty awesome but I can't find it now or even remember where I saw it. I think for this kind of base you need to decide if the mini is bursting or has already burst through, I think the first option would be harder but look more awesome (think flying debris) I'm not sure how you could achieve that effect though, something like pieces of wire as a long pin with various rocks and stuff strung along it arranged in a circle, not sure how well it would work though

 

[Dragonsreach]

Been thinking about this on the way to work this morning.
Thanks to an old time chemistry teacher {*}(and myth busters) I've seen a couple of explosions (pre health and safety days).
Now explosions are spherical, force travelling equally in all directions from the initial point of explosion until they meet an object or surface of greater resistance than the force itself. At which point the explosive forces behave in a way similar to fluid dynamics, flowing around or reflecting back from the surface of resistance. (That's how firearms work.)

Now to depict an explosion is going to be a right bugger, so I'd suggest considering looking a clear beading wire from a hobby store to act as your flying debris support. You can then add tendrils of cotton wool, cushion stuffing, kapok or what ever to emulate the vapour trails. As for the central mass of the explosion you could use clumps of "Lumpy foliage" ( Wow great description Mike!) glued into a hemispherical shape.

{Old time indeed he'd actually been one of my Dad's teachers as well. He managed to engross my class by putting a hole in the ceiling of the Chem lab by a demonstration of explosive properties and the resultant transfer of energies to an inverted eggcup.
Yeah he was also the reason why the Lab assistants had safety equipment well before the rest of us and why we also had a couple of visits from the local Constabulary.}

 

[nels0nmac]

It'd be a tough one to pull off for sure but get it right and it'll look really cool. For my 2 pence worth - type 'exploding room installation' into Google images. There are a few artists out there who have created explosions frozen in time by using wires to suspend bits of room /wall etc. The end result is quite dynamic - although to be fair I'm not entirely sure how to translate that onto a mini base, but at least it gives a good idea of what it should look like, and it's somewhere to start.

 

[Sicks]

Heres the truck diorama was on about, I can only seem to find it on Pinterest and obviously it's alot bigger than a standard base but maybe it can give you some ideas
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/438045501234052345/

 

[kendarus]

Terrafirma did a sculpt of an amazing explosion over in his WIP thread. It's tucked in amongst many of his other projects on page 23. Look for the flying Space Marines.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?59737-Terrafirma-s-upside-down-thread/page23

 

[strewart]

Thanks for the thoughts and inspiration! I'm overseas for a couple weeks but keen to get back to it and have a crack at creating it.

I said exploding but I don't really want like flame/smoke explosion, more shockwave and impact from something bursting out of the ground.

 

[Webmonkey]

Have you considered using fire-crackers,.. and actually exploding them on the table?? :tongue: