Quotes

Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile. - Samuel Longhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Science Fiction Diorama - Base Mockup

Its been a while since I have posted anything that I have actually worked on. I have taken to carrying around a little notebook that I can jot down my thoughts in so I don't forget them. This has been working out fairly well and today I decided to see if one of my ideas was going to work or not. I had this vision of a little sci/fi diorama featuring British troops from the Colonial Period (Zulu War kind of feeling) trying to ambush a "patrol" of aliens. All the minis are going to come right out of the Reaper Miniatures Chronoscope line and I had them already in the pile of unpainted lead.

I grabbed my favorite material for creating a mock up and off I went.


Matt Board, Ruler, Mechanical Pencil, some Titebond Glue sitting where I won't spill it.


The Sketchbook I have been carrying around


Deep into construction at this point


Coming together


"The Interior", I think I'm going to work in two windows instead of one.


The interior with a floor now!


On the outside the stairs in the alley




Street side which mostly features the sidewalk and a bit of the street

I think this will be the main viewing angle


So how the miniatures in the alley might fit. Some conversion work is going to be required


Two in the alley and one inside


The aliens make their appearance. You can see the alien shadows on the wall. When I paint this I'm going to try out a lower light coming from directly down the street so that the aliens will be casing shadows in front of them. That's what the British officer will be watching, timing his moment to strike.


Another view with all the minis in the scene
At the moment I'm pretty happy with how things worked out with this mockup. I can see some places I will need to make adjustments and where some conversion work will be required. I think its going to work out pretty good. The story seems pretty solid at this point.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! That's not what I'd call a small dio. Are you putting it in the Reaper Summer Sci-fi challenge?

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    1. It really is pretty small only about 3" on a side. I didn't realize there was a Reaper Summer Sci-Fi challenge. I'll have to go through the forums better and take a look for that.

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  2. Nice start. Interesting to see your choice to use 'Mat Board', I have used this once or twice but find it very tough to cut... looking foward to seeing how this turns out.

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    1. A good sharp knife cuts right through it. This is the same stuff they use to frame pictures, are we talking about the same thing? Its really just thicker cardboard.

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    2. I think I might have got a sheet that was too thick - yours looks about 2-3mm, mine was more like 5-6mm - it took repeated scores with a stanley knife to get through it...

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    3. The thickness does very. Hobby Lobby sells off their scrap pieces from framing. The thickness might be as thick as 3mm but I would guess that most of it is about 2mm. I have never seen stock as thick as 5mm. Hit the local framing shops and see if you can pick up their scraps.

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