Gamers call these things “Dungeon Dressing”. That is the wrong term. They are really doll house sized pieces of decor. Since all these pieces are made from project scraps, I am now calling them “Scrap Decor”.
Many years ago, I had the idea to build a Used Spaceship Lot in 1/35 scale. Stickframe’s stuff put me back on that path. I am giving myself a year to build a big science fiction diorama.
My first piece for that diorama is this little computer console. It is a little shorter than Otto, who I forgot to include in these pictures. A computer screen decal will go on the sloped surface. I still need to design that in Inkscape.
These are really hard to photograph! All three pieces use the layering technique described a few entries back. Each one took about three hours to sculpt. Most figure painters would create bases like these in a couple minutes using something like Celluclay. The upside of using Milliput is that these squares are completely inorganic, very tough, and way more detailed than other kinds of tiles. Since I am making these for dioramas and figures bases, not gaming, this seems like a worthwhile tradeoff.
This picture shows how the pieces will eventually come together to form a much larger work. The tile on the lower left is the one from above. This angle shows how the tiles are designed to convey depth even though they are very thin in profile.
As may be obvious based on the color, these are more terrain pieces sculpted using basic Milliput. The left one is an attempt to sculpt a really elaborate stalagmite like ones found in Carlsbad Caverns.
These are my first completed terrain pieces in the sense that they are painted. It is now possible to see all the sculpting effort that went into them. Completed is something of a misnomer because they are intended to become parts of larger displays.
All decor and terrain pieces are modular by design to work at 1/35 scale.
They can tile and stack to become terrain for a role playing game or wargame.
They can tile and stack to become a diorama base for a model.
All tiles can serve as figure bases.
All decor items can serve as stowage for models.
I can make the decor and terrain items easily enough but painting held me back for a long time.
The short term plan is to keep completing terrain pieces and building painting skill. When I am good enough at figure and model painting, I will arrange the pieces into dioramas and dungeons.
My quest to complete old projects continues. The two columns date from October, 2023. The two islands date from October, 2024.
In my opinion, with regards painting, these are a slight improvement over the previous batch. Two new oil paints were not as helpful as hoped. Painting the many little stones slightly different colors did not work as hoped.
As usual, two of these “finished” pieces require a little more work. I forgot to prime the bottoms of the columns. Mistakes like this are a consequence of pursuing too many projects at the same time, causing them to drag out over years. Small details are invariably forgotten. Do not fall into this trap.
