Once more into the Breach - The Sci Fi Pulp Diorama

I have had this concept for a Sci Fi Pulp Era diorama in my head for years now. I even have miniatures primed and ready to go but I just couldn't seem to make any headway on it. Those minis were scattered across my workbench or even repurposed for other projects. This one has really been in my head the last week or so. Enough that I decided that maybe I would make a couple of templates and mock up what it might look like.

With a ruler and an old circuit template I stared doodling some lines on a piece of cardboard. Grabbed the hero mini and decided how tall the interior of the rocket ship needed to be and I was off. In 30 minutes or so I managed to create the template for the ribs and bulkheads. Drew a couple of circles on it to represent where the cut out sections might go and things were on their way.

I also managed to find all the LED lights I bought and I pulled those out so I could figured out what I would need to do to fit the lights into place.

I need to use the template to make some ribs and bulkheads from thicker stock and I think I can mock things up pretty quickly at this point. I'm actually excited about it again! Enough so that I went in and purchased some more minis and paint from Reaper to play around with a couple of ideas for the alien menace.

I only drew on one half of the template. I cut that shape and then folded it in the middle to cut the other side. I didn't really need to, I will only be using a little more than half of it for the interior. Basically to the line to the right of the centerline.

I went ahead and cut out as many of these as I could from the piece of cardboard that I had. Don't know if I will need them but its nice to have them available.

Lights, Camera, Action! While a single 9-volt battery will run all of these lights and more, I want them on different circuits. So the plan is to have three nine volt batteries, one to run the "Sun" light, one for the main interior lights and one to run the condition red lights.

ReaperCon 2018 Projects - The victims

I really do intend to enter pieces in the painting competition at ReaperCon this year. I have one idea that I have been trying to get to for almost two years now and I think it will come to fruition. I have a couple of other ideas and miniatures that I'm still mulling over in my head so we will see what happens there. I'll bring along one of my FT-17s as well, I'm still pretty pleased with that work.

Here are the victims:
For the diorama "It Came From Outer Space" 

I think I have shown these all on the blog at one point or another over the past couple of years. This is the year to get this one done though!

The diorama will only feature one of the two female characters, which ever one ends up be better painted will be entered as a single.

The second diorama (if I can pull it all together) will feature these three familiar characters:

I think I need at least two more minis to pull this one off effectively. It would be my first truly multi-level diorama if I get this far.

ReaperCon 2016 Horror Themed Diorama

Okay, its time to start getting to work on my primary entry for ReaperCon this year. The convention was moved to October this year, primarily because of lack of space in the Denton area and the demands on the limited amount of space that there is. The new venue is going to be quite the challenge as its basically 30,000 square feet of empty space with pillars in it. I'm sure the crew at Reaper will be able to pull it off though.

The theme for this year is horror and I have had a number of ideas spinning through my head but I think I have settled on one involving these miniatures:

I'd like to get this miniature into an elevated position to indicate that the artificial gravity is shot.

I"m probably going to switch out some of these tentacles into something a bit more menacing.

The minions! Definitely need a blue and yellow color scheme for these guys.

The current plan will utilize a cut away look into a pulp style rocket ship complete with a space background and lights. We will see how far I actually get with that. I have a good idea of a minimum amount of work to pull it off and what the maximum effort would be. Time will till, October is coming fast!