[nosferatu]

I think the coffins are magnificent and look preety damn cool. The wood grain enhances the look yet is a cost free effect. I would be very pleased if I had anything remotely that good

[paddy_babe]

Very nice! The full size coffin looks great! it reminds me of Tim Burton
once it's done it will be a great scene, scary shadows, dripping water somewhere (could that be done? maybe a bucket or something hidden behind the scenes with a slow drip into another body of water?)

[mesmark]

I got my foam sheets and work started today on scene 1, the three panel coffin picture spot. i'm going to use this to test the idea out and see what I might need to do for the bigger castle scene.

I laid three large sheets out and cut one sheet into thirds to give me a 2.7mx2.5m backdrop. I placed them on the ground and drew all of the stones. This way I could hopefully reduce the effect of the seems by having stones effectively cross the boundaries





Here's a look a them carved out





It took about 2 hours to do all of that, prep to clean up. I'm going to paint them tomorrow and I hope the paining process takes just about an hour.

I'll post those pictures tomorrow or when it's dry


One snag is the torches. I can't seem to get anything that looks very good. I've tried cloth as is. I've bought mini fans and tried to get them to blow plastic sheets. I've resorted to construction paper as my last hope. That looks the best so far but it might just be so cheesey that I go without torches.

I did use the strobe lights in my cups and that does add a nice effect, even in bright light.

Any ideas on how to make decent looking torches/fire. And this party will be in the afternoon with bright lighting ...

[GUS]

If you google images, for a how to the best I've seen is by a roadie for some tours, (look for a square oblong box in the pictures)..
best i can do right now as am out soon.

www.ehow.com/how_4847824_make-realistic-flame...

not the one BUT quite good

[GUS]

came across this...

http://www.minionsweb.com/urns.htm

[mesmark]

came across this...

http://www.minionsweb.com/urns.htm

Gus - Thanks for that! I hadn't thought about something so big and just setting it on the floor. I was trying to make something small to put on the wall.

The fan blowing fabric seems like the best way to do it. I bought some small hand held fan toys. I wanted to put them in the popcorn bucket and blow strips of plastic. Well, the fans will blow the plastic but not in the cup. Something about the cup makes it so that the fan doesn't blow well (even if I cut the bottom of the cup off to allow air to flow freely.)

Anyway, back to the drawing board and hopfully I can find a reasonably cheap alternative ....

Here's the first scene painted and set up with models These first pictures are just the wall pannels after I painted them.




Also, I must have been crazy when I estimated the time it would take to paint these. It took around 4 hours to do just these.

And, here's the scene with coffin but not torches ...



and with people.







That was kust a quick set up with a little tape to get everything to stand. On the day, I'll do a better job getting the pieces together nicely (I hope.)

I need to do a little touch up work on some of the stones as at least one on the left didn't get any water effect added to it and it's on the pannel boarder with the top having streaks.

I went a little overboard with the aging water streaks, but in the past I've been subtle with those and the effect didn't show in the pictures.

If I can make a pot with flames, it will look really good just a bit in front of the people when they have their pictures taken.

[SaneInsideInsanity]

:O i am in aww dungeon master. These look great mark keep us posted.

[mesmark]

:O i am in aww dungeon master. These look great mark keep us posted.

Thanks!

OK. Better news on the torch front.

I went shopping and couldn't find anything I'd be able to use with the pot idea. So, quite discouraged with wasting the morning, I went back to my cup.

I cut out a big section of the back to see if then I could get air through with my fan.





Turns out it worked! ... a little.

The red and yellow fabric i had was too heavy so my wife gave me a bit of see-through meshy type fabric and it worked! ... a little

It actually photographed better than it looks, but since it's really for the pictures who's complaining?








I cut out those fabric pieces freehand just to test, so they're not so great. However, I found out that larger (that is thicker) flames are better than long thin whispy ones. Height and materials weigh all need to be calculated (in my case guessed at )

The cup just has construction paper around it for now. Once I'm happy with the project I'm going to paint the cup, inside and out, black and it should look a little better.

Anyway, the good news here is the hole in the cup and the right kind of fabric, plus right design will work! ... maybe

[Nightwatchman]

The wall looks great!

[GUS]

Well done mark, another hurdle overcome,if you have time try looking at (& google) a woodsman gasifier stove, the way the air is drawn through that might help with airflow with minimal modification to how it is now!

(I have one myself, it's an interesting curveball to airflow in order to maximise burn time in a stove, but may result in a more concentrated flicker, (not being able to see how it works currently by photo's alone) ..just a thought

[nosferatu]

The wall and coffin are awesome and the sconce looks great too.

Nearly finished with over a month to go? That is preparation

[SaneInsideInsanity]

I am so behind the torches look like they are working great keep it up mark

[GUS]

http://www.target.com/3-1-Torch-Battery ... 20Operated

..if you get stuck or have no time & want more..

[mesmark]

Gus those torches look like they'd work but Target doesn't ship overseas ...

The big castle/dungeon wall begins!

Here are all the pieces laid out on my back deck.



Once they were all out I marked all the stone lines



I went with a round doorway instead of triangular top. I put square stones as a border and I think it turned out to be a good choice.






and painted ...





It's wicked hard to try to visualize such a big mural and get everything about the same level of shading. I sort of gave up near the end. That and my back was killing me

I have two more sheets to paint, but those are the sides, so I'm not so worried about how they turn out.

I'm rewarding myself with a few beers and a movie with the kids.

[GUS]

back ache? ..that'l be the polystyrene rocks then?

Are you doing it all on the floor or have you made up a trestle table?