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| The Ruins of the Medusa. |
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| Ancient Japanese mountain forge. |
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The above piece was a ruins I made for a MageKnight small figure of the Medusa. The entire piece was made
from my discard pile of cut floral foam, some leftover foamboard, and a small amount of leftover "Kornfeld" static grass paper,
from a wonderful German manufacturer. I decided since I cannot see the small figures without great magnification, I
would use it instead for my larger 1:24 figures.
The piece below was originally for a diostory I had planned set in Japan, around the time of Oda Nobunaga. I
had to set that aside because some key figures I was waiting for, fell through. Lack of space sadly dictated
that I had to dismantle it. Though, unlike other projects that went into the compacting dumpster whole, this one I at
least saved the forge itself. It took months of research to actually find illustrations of a Japanese mountain forge
(inspired of course by Chinese craft smith design in antiquity) that was true to the period. I saved the kindling and
coal pile as well.
| The Message Post in Shadowdale. |
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| The message post is not the item from scratch, but all the posts themselves! |
Nuts about the Details.
As I mentioned earlier, when it comes to making dioramas of any kind, I get nuts about the details. When
I was doing Shadowdale for the miniatures (which were metal at the time I undertook the project), I thought that it would
be pretty interesting to make the message post just like our modern day cork boards. So I loaded it with miniature parchments
of all manner of items, and in their respective languages with everything from Drow, to Dwarven runes, to Elven Quenya, to
Common tongue. It was fun walking into Office Depot with my master sheet of barely 1/2 inch parchment signs asking them
for a printer that does actual toner, and not inkjet which could be ruined with a wet sneeze.
| My take on a "Red Light District". |
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| It was actually loosely based on an area of Queens, NYC I used to freqent decades ago. |
This piece I took a lot of flak for. Mostly due to the Adult Theatre. It was basically a gauntlet thrown
down almost ten years ago, when someone said if I had the ability to make modern terrain in 1:18, or as we refer to it, "Joe
Scale". I not only went to make the corner of a little piece of the NYC I remember, but the entire diorama is functionally
lit. The bar lights work, as do the awning lights. The Japanese "take-out" place has interior lighting, and the
vintage Adult Theatre, has not only lights about the building and the ticket agent's booth, but it has both upper and lower
chase lighting that follows around the marquee.
The smaller adjacent newstand, has premium dollhouse periodicals, as well as 1:18 scale candybars that I fashioned
from scratch.
| The Torture Room |
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| This was a commission that went unpaid. One of several sad to say. |
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The Fountain of Life.
| The Fountain of Life. |
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This piece was made from a craft box I picked up at Michael's Art store on clearance. It was originally
covered in the most eclectic quilt pattern. After priming it white, for strength, I made a template of an Arabian door,
and proceeded to cut out the arches on each side. The lid of the box, as well as the entire thing was standard
cardboard. It made a decent roof when I added the cut out top from a plastic container that protected a head of
lettuce. The entire roof received the same priming, and then a brush of Winter White.
I took a Celtic Knotwork stamp, and with Metallic Copper paint, made the pattern around the roof. I then
used a great paint called Patina over the Antique Gold to give it the appearance of age. The accents and fountain itself
were all loose odds and ends in the sewing and woodcraft area. The floor was a great product from Dept. 56, called "Roman
Road", which was sadly discontinued. The tiny blue crystal accents came from my beloved's collection of "bindis" she
got from her sister.
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