This competition ran in June-July 2006 and was run by LuMi. We also owe a word of thanks to Eazy-O for writing up this summary from the information posted on the forum.
I had a difficult time in choosing whether to go with specific terrain type, or material. In the end I thought "what is common to all?": Death (even if you walk after that). It can sound macabre, but the fact is that every culture of every age has specific funeral traditions. Alien cultures probably will too.
So the theme for this competition is: funeral 'monuments'. From places to keep the dead, to places to honour them. Any age. Any race. Any culture. Any planet.
This unusual piece is built from foamcore and cereal packet card and is one of a series of art deco style pieces that Neal is using to populate his gaming table.
Perhaps the most unusual feature is the roof, a rather tricky feat of engineering which we do not see very often. In fact this was Neal's first attempt at such a roof so he asked for ideas on the forum. The results have been written up for our archives. Please click here for more information.
If the style of this building appeals to you, you should also check out the Art Deco Factory that Neal built and for our July/August competition.
The burial platform is found in a number of cultures where the body is placed to allow birds etc to remove the flesh from the cadaver. The bones are then left or placed in another ceremonial place.
This is an addition to my Hordes of the Things, Barbarian army. I intend to use it as a magician/cleric. The rules mean I am limited to a 60mm square base which is a bit restricting.
It's something I had in mind for a while and the competition gave me an ideal opportunity to do it without being too large an undertaking for my first entry.
The rocky outcrop is just a styrofoam cube trimmed with hotwire. It was then painted gray and drybrushed. The platform was built from bamboo skewers, balsa and thread.
A shaman was painted and glued to the top. Then I headed for the bits box and assembled a skeleton from assorted parts. Some repositioning was required using a sharp craft knife and superglue.
The last bits to do were painting the cadaver and glueing him into position, finally adding some static grass to break up the colour and shape of the rocky outcrop a little.
I decided on a tomb of the unknown warrior/eternal flame type of thing.
For the eternal flame I used greenstuff on an upturned 40mm figure base.
For the main structure I cut the "girder" from the side of two Cities of Death wall sections and glued a plasticard platform across the top, as well as two side pieces. Then I stuck four pieces of plasticard (2 top,2 bottom) to top and bottom to give a stepped effect.
I stuck two pieces of plasticard together. Onto this I drew an imperial eagle and cut/carved it out.
The figure on top is a GW Cadian standard bearer. I've made him look as if he's going slightly uphill on a small outcrop of rock, made of miliput. To get the rocky texture I pressed a small stone into it. I also fixed 3 pieces of mount card to top of the tower to raise the figure up a little.
I painted the standard bearer with GW Dwarf bronze and then gave it a wash with black paint. The base painted fortress grey while the skulls on side panels are white with the ornamentation highlighted in Dwarf bronze.
I am a huge, huge, Star Wars fan so I thought "what do they do with Jedi when they die and do not become part of the Force" (as Qui Gonn Jinn, for example)? They burn them on a pyre in a Jedi ritual. Jedi have statues of ancient Jedi, and memorials all over Coruscant, so I think they must keep the ashes somewhere!
I started to cut and glue the base of my Jedi Columbarium out of foamcore. Styrofoam formed the base for the statue, and used a Mace Windu action figure for the giant statue at the entrance. It needed some cutting and sculpting to make it appropriate.
The base was given a basecoat of grey textured paint.
I primed the figure, and gave it a very hard dark-green, mixed with German army green, dry brush. Afterwards I applied a very heavy bronze dry brush followed by a lighter pale green dry brush. The same process was used for the headstones.
While I was lightly drawing the logo on top, I realized I was using a permanent marker, and not a normal felt tip, and that it was slightly melting my foam, and it had made a small groove on it! I rectified it by gluing on some sand and drybrushing it.