Ideas for display base

[DennisMech]

I\'m going to be entering an Inquisitor lord and retinue into next year\'s Golden Daemon, and I\'m wondering what ideas everyone has for what would make a good display.

At the moment I\'m thinking of them being in a corridor of some choas library. How should I make the books? What other details should I add? Remember, this is just a display base, not an actual scene, though I do want a sense of setting.

Thanks for the help!

 

[TobiWan]

Definitely have some open and damaged books strewn about the place.
Maybe have an open book lying with its spine to the top and a tentacle trying to crawl out under the book.
Or have one member of the retinue fight a tentacle emerging from a book.
Or have one of them holding a book and reading it and his eyes go all blank and he starts to look freaky (of course while the inquisitor has turned his back on him and therefore is oblivious to his heretical behaviour).
Maybe have one of the retinue trying to set flame to a pile of books, e.g. model him as if he\'s trying to light up his flamer or so.

Just a little brainstorming. lol

Have a nice day,
Tobi

 

[DennisMech]

Good ideas...

But how to make the damn books is my problem (and how to make a lot of them).

 

[TobiWan]

I haven\'t tried to sculpt a book yet but I think it\'s a slow process so that you should work on several of them simultaneously.
Maybe flatten out some green stuff (about 1mm thick), let cure a bit and cut out rectangular shapes (2*cover, 1*spine). Then you\'ll have to put them together in the appropriate way and let them cure till the gs is hard.
Next is building up the pages by successive layers of very thin and semi-cured green stuff - and try to get that curved effect where the pages connect to the spine.

I think the most important tool you\'ll have to work with here is time. If you rush it and try to sculpt it from a single lump of soft gs, you won\'t have much fun with it.

*edit* Here\'s a good example of a nice book: http://www.freebooterminiatures.com/myshop/miniatur-zau002.html

Have a nice day,
Tobi

 

[DennisMech]

I meant like, on shelves closed. Sculpting an open book would be far beyond me! I\'ll probably just order those. What I\'m thinking of doing is taking some 1mm thick plasticard, then cutting it to different rectangle sizes. After that I would glue them all in place, and sculpt on the spine and pages (by just making lines along the GS). Easy as that! I\'ll start working today...

I\'m considering having a couple torches on the wall, creating a light-sourcing effect similar to Victoria\'s \"rescue of sister Johan\", Where is doesn\'t actualy affect the minis that strongly (to make my life easier!).

Any other ideas how to add a sense of scene?

 

[DennisMech]

Here\'s a scetch I did to give an idea of what I\'m thinking of:

All the model\'s I\'m using are described on a seperate page.

 

[finn17]

Hmmm...

Could you not just cut out the entire plasticard rectangle stage?
Construct a bookshelf with plasticard about 2-3 mm deep. Coat the back of the bookshelf with GS about 1-1.5 mm deep and then use a thin edged tool to delineate between books. You could easily vary the thickness this way, add curvature to the spines and even make shorter books by removing a small rectangle of GS above some \'books. Be dead easy to practice as well...

 

[TobiWan]

Woah! Now I understand what you meant by \'a lot\' of books...
So there\'s only one thing left for me to say: Have fun.

Have a nice day,
Tobi

 

[DennisMech]

A problem...

I\'m beginning to wonder about visibility now, as the bookshelf stop you from seeing the side of the minis. I think instead i will get rid of the side bookshelves, and have the wall at the back be covered in bookshelves.

 

[TobiWan]

Why don\'t you simply get rid of all walls, thus creating an effect which can be likened to a stage in theatre: You don\'t see everything but can well imagine it\'s there because you have a few key items.
You could do a cobbled floor and go a little wild at lighting effects, e.g. your group in the middle with torches etc. and the perimeter of your base is completely lost in the dark. Then you could spend a lot more time on dynamic and special details instead of having to sculpt hundreds of books while also having to make them look varied and interesting, e.g. have some weird containers with freaky liquids on the shelves, or little demon-shaped book supporters (word?).

Have a nice day,
Tobi

 

[DennisMech]

ooh!

I think I\'ll keep one wall, just to give a bit of setting that can\'t be acheived with stuff on the floor, however I will use all you other ideas, I\'ll mix in all kinds of stuff into the shelves, and maybe a slightly smaller lighting effect, as it will be my first time trying it.

 

[frenchkid]

how about trying to make removable walls, so that you can have both setting and a view from every angle. I think just keeping one wall on the side would look kind of unbalanced.

 

[MaestroOfMayhem]

You could make a sortof mold for the books. Get a peice of plasticard and sculpt 2-3 books on it very carefully. Then let it dry and put a thin layer of vaseline on it, then grab a big peice of GS and push it into the books and wait for it to dry. Then pull it apart and you have a mold. Then put a layer of GS onto the plasticard you want for the books and push the mold into the GSto make a book imprint, then move and make another imprint besides it so it looks like the shelf is full of books really fast .