It's what's on the inside that counts... Armies on Parade

When you last saw your intrepid painter, he was slaving away (ha!) on the upper level of the Tomb Complex.  Here are some views as that evening drew to a close, and I set out some of the figures that will reside up there.





Since I had more light to deal with during the day, I mixed in some interior painting with the rest of my work.

I started by getting most everything black:




Once I got things one color, I glued on some pastel paper to indicate where my rows of shields will go.  I also started painting some of the icons I had glued to the board.



I wish I could have painted them before gluing them, but that was just not possible.  I also started to add some color to the walls, similar to what is on the floor...


I also began to paint the image that was saved specifically for the back wall, using my fluorescent paints.

More definition on the icons and the back wall design...


There will be more details added to these walls in July.  Lots of glyphs and other neat stuff!


There seems to be wuite the planning meeting going on here.  Now you know where I get all my ideas!

Ground War: painting the upper level above ground

Yesterday saw the painting of all the landscape work, as well as some of the structure.  Here is the set up, with the 4 basic colors out on the palette:



I worked using the Screaming skull catapult and the carrion bases as a color guide.  I had a black, and ochre, a pink, and a terracotta shade ready to go.  I worked rapidly once again, moving across the surface as quickly as possible to make sure there was enough variety in the colors, but keeping it cohesive as well.



Once most of the basic surface was covered, I worked on the little details.. the piles of bones, the Dais, etc.



I tried to bring out more and more forms with each layer of paint.  I was working quickly enough that I was still able to do some wet into wet blending...



Here you can see the dais included.  I also began getting some paint on the rest of the structure at this time:


The colors on the back wall will have to match the pastel paper I am using with all my drawings, so I needed to go even lighter on those sections...



This was the last of what was done yesterday, as it was getting very late!  Today I am doing a lot of work on the interior side of the upper level!

Turning sketches into Tomb Art: Armies on Parade

As the upper level of the display board moved on, it was time to turn the rough sketches I had made for the back wall into something usable.  At first, I thought it would not take very long to make finished. to scale drawings at full size.  I realized this was not the case!  It took much longer to make drawings that had enough detail to cover the two sections of the back wall.

I wanted to give the viewers at least a general idea of the story behind the Tainted Pharaoh and his new patron.  Lots of research was done using my 900 page reference book on Egyptian Tomb Art.  I knew that size matters, and that the most important characters had to be bigger, and so on down the line.  I tried to reflect this in how I drew the main protagonists. 

I also wanted to see some of the Tomb King units represented in pictorial form, so that it would not simply be a mimic of ordinary Egyptian art. :-)  Here is waht I came up with...

Making holes look like holes: Tomb Kings Armies on Parade

Now it is time to do the landscaping on the "ground" level of the Tomb complex.  First, I had to see if I could make the hole which our sneaky grave robbers made look anything like a real hole!



You can see how I started, using the miracle blue tape in thin strips to connect the hole on the outer layer to the smaller on the ceiling of the Tomb.  I then used my new miracle substance, red oxide paste.Actually, the color does not mean anything, it is the paste itself.  It is just like flex paste, except it already has sand included.  This meant that all I had to do was take a brush and layer it onto my tape lattice!



Now you can see the sprinkling of light sand and gravel to make it look a bit more real...


These  next pictures show me applying this to the rest of the board, trying to leave some flat areas for miniatures.  I love the way I can take my bitz and sink them into the wet paste, rather than having to glue them and smash my sand and gravel in there later!  I can even brush a tiny bit of the paste over the top, to make it look like it is even more sand covered.






I had to work somewhat rapidly, making sure that all my bitz were secure in their sandy beds.


Here is an unfortunate casualty, a victim of a Bretonnian arrow?




Now you get a peek at the next stage... the images on the obelisk and back wall!


More to come...

Solving an Engineering problem: A Necrotect's dilemma

Here is the engineering issue that I brought up yesterday which needed to be solved.  As I mentioned, the "ground" of the upper level ended up much shallower than originally planned, leaving by big spotlight hanging down into the interior of the tomb in an unsightly way.  I also needed a way to get at that light easily in order to change the batteries, etc.

It was obviously crucial to keep it where it was :



When assistant Necrotect Cathy looked at the board, she suggested that I raise the "ground" in some way... perhaps creating a dais.  That proved to be a fantastic idea.  As you can see, not only was I able to raise up the level of the light, it became incredibly easy to get at!



You can see that it also makes a very nice "centerpiece" for the upper level, as the Casket had been for the interior of the tomb.  I had been searching for some element such as that.  I will be putting a design on there that is repeated in the tomb, as well as lots of scarabs that I had been saving.  Prince Apophas will go in that area.  I was also searching for a good place for him.  He was simply lost in all the visual frenzy of the tomb. :-)

The next problem to solve was how to keep the LED lights from looking like... LED lights!  I had purchased translucent sculpey (FIMO), in the hopes that I could cast some kind of bas relief that would allow light to come through, but hide the lights.  I still needed to get at the light, both to change batteries and press the front to turn them on...



I used some thin plexiglass to cover over the hole, and then glued the cast sculpey pieces onto that sheet.


Then it was time for the part I had been dreading the entire time, and that was the curved ceiling.  Yikes.  I knew no matter what material I used, it would be tough.  It had to help support the upper level, and provide a place for some artwork.  To make it even more difficult, I chose to string fibre optic lights into it!



Here you can get a glimpse of what they look like with all the other lights off...


They really don't show up, but you can still see a map of Khemri!  It was very difficult to string those lights, let's leave it at that.

After that nightmare, I had to dig 2 holes.  One for the big light, and another for the grave robbers.


More on that later today!

Above ground: constructing the upper levels of the Tomb Complex

Here is a series of images that show the upper levels of the tomb as I built the upper, or ground level.  This part had all sorts of challenges!

Now that the basic structure was figured out, it was time to figure out exactly how to configure the various lights all throughout the tomb.



These views of the interior show the 4 main lights.  I needed to figure out a way to have these lights show maximum brightness while hiding the fact that they are under cabinet lights!





Now it was time to build up the back wall as well, as that will be a critical area for telling the story of the Tainted Pharaoh!




It was also time to start planning out where things will go on the upper level, making sure that it will still fit under the glass cases...


Here you get a sneak peak at the scratch built Titan and Screaming skull catapult!


I also had to do some weathering on the obelisk and the back wall...


I thought at this point that I had things settled.  However, I still had to do something about the big light that was above the Casket.  It hung down way too far, but there was not a lot of depth to the horizontal surface on the upper level.  I had to worry about the whole structure being too tall, so that part was 1/3 as thick as originally planned.


Tomorrow I will post the solution to this issue, provided by the apprentice Necrotect Cathy!