This competition ran in October/November 2006 and was run by LuMi & DarthJason. We also owe a word of thanks to Eazy-O for writing up this summary from the information posted on the forum.
There were two of us to decide the competition theme this time, so the decision was hard to make. I was thinking about modularity and Jason prefered a beer can competition, so the perfect theme is arena: one man fights against another for differents things: war, survival, money, training, boreness, sport, showtime, deciding a competition theme...
Something common to most of the civilizations, races and economical conditions is the construction of places only for fighting, for any of the above reasons.
When I first saw the posting announcing this competition I immediately thought of the pit fighing mentioned in the Necromunda rule book. After a quick search around my home I found a old round bowl that would make a nice arena and it became the central piece around which the rest of the project would be built. The rest of the piece is a mix of found and purchased items I have collected such as plastic sheeting from food trays, leftover pasticard, HO scale railroad track, tank wheels for the valve handles, and 1/2" plastic PVC pipe with copper fittings.
This piece has been written up as an article for out archives. Please click here for further information and pictures.
This entry represents a small training gym - the sort of place the swarthy, serious people come because they believe that they 'coulda been a contender'. Like all the other buildings destined for my Cities Of Art Deco Death table, it is, well, strongly art deco in design. Or perhaps streamline moderne. I'm not really that hot in telling them apart.
The building is made from foamcore (walls and floors), cardboard (the roof, door and window frames) and balsa (the training floor and upper floor surfacing).
The posters were downloaded and printed out on normal paper then weathered once they had been stuck on. The posters are mostly soviet propoganda posters from 1920 - 1940.
The menhirs are made of white polystyrene, shaped with a hot wire cutter and covered in filler. Gaps between the menhirs were filled with randon bits and pieces. The bases are double-layered corrugated card, covered with filler, then painted and flocked, and some details (plants, bushes, etc) added. The audience platforms and associated 'elevators' and walkways are all constructed of balsa wood strips (about 150 pieces in all), and the ropes for the elevators are twisted paper-covered florist wire (thick ropes) or twisted copper wire (thinner ropes). All of the painting was done with acrylic poster paints.