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Author Topic: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board  (Read 3432 times)

Offline Alxbates

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Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« on: June 25, 2018, 01:53:23 PM »
After seeing some super cool inspirational foam modelling work on Facebook, I decided to do something that I've been wanting to do for a long time now:  build a little Library of Skulls display piece that I could use for my Sleestak models. 



I don't really have any gaming use  for it, but I think it'll make for a cool backdrop for photos.  Also, I haven't done any foam modelling work in YEARS, so, I thought this would be a good excuse for me to get back into it.

For the temple, I just want a simple room with a tile design on the floor, and walls that aren't too busy but still have enough detail to be interesting.

I decided to start with a circle radiating out, off-center to allow for room for a door.



I initially thought that having the floor tiles be slightly asymmetrical and rough would make it look more natural, but, I was wrong.  I don't much like it, but I didn't feel strongly enough about it at the time to start over.



Once I had the whole floor marked out in either the radiant pattern or a grid, I used a handful of pebbles from the floor of my garage to make every other tile roughly textured, and to mark up the main floor tiles a bit, too.



By the time I was done with the main floor I was overall pretty happy with it, although the unevenness of the radiant pattern still bugs me a bit. 

Next up:  walls!

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2018, 04:36:53 PM »


And, walls it is!  It took me awhile to figure out how tall I wanted the walls to be - I wanted them to be high enough to look imposing in a photo backdrop, but, not so high as to be a hassle to store or to be easily knocked over.



I decided to add a strip across the top of the walls, indented to look like carved detail.  I plan to paint it in a contrasting color from the rest of the wall, something to make it stand out as a splash of painted color on an otherwise fairly drab stone surface.  The door is just a piece of plastic from a blister pack, scored at an angle off-center to look like a seam.



I decided to drop the third wall from it.  Even with the dry assembly at this stage, that third wall added such gnarly shadows that it would have made photographing anything in the library more difficult than I wanted to deal with.



I also drew in a staggered starburst sort of pattern around the center of the tile design.  In hindsight I was far too careless with this, too, I should have paid a great deal more attention to keeping is symmetrical... but I didn't.  Ah,well, I *think* it'll be OK painted up.  I plucked out bits of foam here and there to make it look like parts of the stones were missing.  Coincidentally, those places were also often where the cuts looked the worst.



I decided to add a little more detail to the walls, some stone bricks.  I textured these just like I did the floor tiles, but, more aggressively, really grinding that texture in.  I should have used tin foil, rolling pebbles over it with my fingertips was tedious!

Matching the bricks from the back wall to the side walls was a PAIN IN THE BUTT.  Holy smokes.  Measuring is one thing, but trying to get a line with an exacto knife to match up from one piece of foam to another?  You can see that I had to mark "top" to tell myself whether to cut below, in the middle of, or along the top of the edge of the lines that I drew with my pen.  Yeesh.  Fiddly work!

« Last Edit: June 26, 2018, 04:42:02 PM by Alxbates »

Offline Suber

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2018, 08:55:10 PM »
Wow, this is outstanding :o :o
I really like the direction this is taking.

Online OSHIROmodels

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2018, 11:43:29 PM »
Looking good so far  :)
cheers

James

https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/

Twitter account -     @OSHIROmodels
Instagram account - oshiromodels

http://redplanetminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/
http://jimbibblyblog.blogspot.com/

Offline Ethelred the Almost Ready

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2018, 02:37:41 AM »
Hhhrrssshhh shreee sheeeshhhh ssshsss. 
Sleestak for "bloody good stuff."

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2018, 12:09:24 PM »
And, there was more detailing to be done!



Still tinkering to make sure that the edges lined up as closely as possible.



Finally I decided that things were looking about ready for paint.



But, before prepping for paint, I just had to put the Library of Skulls plinths in place.  Just to see how they'd look.

I'm pretty OK with it at this point!

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2018, 12:10:27 PM »
Also I'm pretty sure that I posted some of those photos out of order, but, ah well, it's still close enough to get the idea of the march of progress...

Offline pacarat

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2018, 12:51:11 PM »
Very nice.

Maybe an easier technique for wall alignment - draw brick lines along one very long wall piece, then cut appropriately to give two short walls.

Interested in the aluminum foil technique- is that using a crumpled blob/ball of foil?

Offline joshuaslater

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2018, 01:30:32 PM »
Okay Alex, I'm pretty amped to see this come together! 

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2018, 03:20:08 AM »
Very nice.

Maybe an easier technique for wall alignment - draw brick lines along one very long wall piece, then cut appropriately to give two short walls.

Interested in the aluminum foil technique- is that using a crumpled blob/ball of foil?

Thank you!

You are 100% correct - that would have been WAY easier, but, I just had to go and do it the hard way...

As for the foil - yep, that's about it.  You crumple up a ball of foil, being sure to leave it rough and heavily textured, and then roll it over the foam or grind it in to create texture.  It works great and doesn't take much practice to get right.

But, again, I had to go and do it the hard way with pebbles  :D

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2018, 10:01:26 PM »
Time to start painting!

I painted the foam with a mix of white glue, water, and matte medium to start with, so that the spray primer wouldn't melt the foam.



And of course I started on the skull plinths, too:



I think it's important to mix up the colors a bit, real stone always has some variety in shade and tone, so I mixed in some other colors with the gray base color:





Offline LordOdo

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2018, 12:51:08 PM »
Such a cliffhanger...
''Its so much easier to build something new than work up the courage to actually paint some.'' -Wyrmalla (2015)


Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2018, 12:02:06 PM »
Such a cliffhanger...

HA!

Sorry to keep you in suspense!  The Kickstarter is keeping me pretty busy.

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2018, 12:09:33 PM »


It looks a little muddy here in the photo, but I think the various colors add some nice variety to the gray.



Here's everything with the flat colors all brushed together, again with the (still-unpainted) Library of Skulls plinths in place to be sure that they work OK.



And this picture here is a fine example of what happens when I upload a whole bunch of photos all at the same time.

I'm just not sure where it fits in!  The walls have color, but the floor doesn't?  How the heck did that happen?  Is it just super bright lighting??  Man, I dunno, I've been pretty stressed out and fried lately, so I'm just not sure!

Anyways, I wanted to be sure that the cracks and crevices were dark enough to stay distinct, so I did a smoke wash over the areas that had depth.

Offline Alxbates

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Re: Sleestak Library of Skulls display board
« Reply #14 on: August 10, 2018, 02:16:27 AM »
Getting very close here.

Sort of dappling color onto the white tiles, most everything else is drybrushing. 

I think I only need 2-3 layers of highlights after this to get it finished.