Painting Competition Displays - Another Prototype Mockup

The vast majority of the painting competitions take your entry and put it into a display case. It doesn't come back into your hands till the show is over and of course you can't make sure that its really properly displayed. But for the most part that doesn't matter, a judge (or two or three) is going to pickup your entry to make their decision so we really don't need any fancy displays. However, at least in the US, the historical painting competitions are all about the display, showing off your figures to their best advantage and creating a cohesive display. While the individual figures are still going to be judged there is an award for the best display plus it can really focus the attention on your own pieces in a room filled with hundreds of miniatures.

I was working on a concept for a competition entry and I needed a way put the mini in some kind of context for the viewer. So I was doodling around with a paint scheme and trying to figure out a way to show off the mini in context for viewer. The mini needed to be easily removable for judging and transportable to boot. Then this little concept hit me:

So I finished my chores off today and decided to see if this concept is going to work or not. So here we go:

 A repeat picture, my classic mockup materials

Laying out the pattern

First cuts, looks good so far.

Starting to assemble the pieces

Two more of the set of four

The initial assembly is complete. Everything looks to be coming together

Here is one of the cubes I use for my display bases. Here we see the display base in the cut out in the bigger display.

Adding in the background pieces. With these in place I can paint in some backdrop scenery or make some 3D additions.

This is the complete setup

How the four pieces look like from above. I could but this in a little spinner and let folks rotate it. But primarily I'm thinking that this will be how I transport it. Maybe rare earth magnets in the sides to help hold things together for transport.

What I'm really thinking of for display purposes. The background displays will really put the mini in context for the viewer.

And the remains of the construction.

I pretty happy with how this came out. Now I just need to figure out how to make it out of something a lot sturdier. I may be spending a lot of time with my hobby chop saw and some hard wood.