Tuesday 29 November 2016

My entry for the Temple of Morikun Challenge !


"Why on earth are you showing us an empty base JB ? Are you that lazy you're not even painting your models now ?"

Pleaaaase, let me explain a bit.

You might remember in August 2015 I made a space ashigaru for an online competition to celebrate Morikun's 300000 viewer. Well this year, he's decided to celebrate his 600000th viewer (he isn't losing time as you can see) and he's therefore organised a new competition.

Since he's spent quite a lot of time and energy preparing something huge, I thought it was only natural to submit something this year, especially since I managed to grab something last time.



Obviously with more than 2 months to make my entry, I only started a couple of days before like a good proper idiot...

Since the purpose of this competition is to build a base evoking a temple, I had to think a little.

- I don't like busy bases with too much stuff on them
- I want practical bases
- I wanted to give a little twist to the theme

I didn't want to fully depict a temple but suggest it, so I decided to place the action at the entrance of one by adding the floor boards surrounding many temples. The floor boards also remind me of the floors in dojos (where I practice Kendo) so this seemed a good idea. 
Given the 1st two points I didn't want a big base so evocative more than depicting was the idea.

Enryaku-ji Temple
So..., floor boards..., well, the coffee room at work is full of coffee stirrers so I took a fistful of them (bad I know) and started making a floor out of them. With that done, I've cut a circular shape in it to fit on my base. I made it a bit bigger to be able to choose the best part and the one with the most strength too.


The other part was then to make the ground structure so I added technical metallic boarding with girders to evoke the post-apocalyptic style I wanted.


At the end of day one, I had come to that result :


Cut and sand everything coming out of the base, paint everything and throw some pigments in et voilà :


In the end, I'm quite happy with it and it's just the kind of base I like. I know mine are very simple because I want them


Honestly ? This process has seriously made me consider partially rebasing my 40k models. This is no small task I'm talking about here. I'll do tests to se if I still wanna do that in a while, time efficiency would have to be the critical point but we'll see...

For now, here's a picture of my entries for both of Morikun's competitions next to each other.


By the end of the week, I should have some really fancy stuff with actual painted models, a whole band actually and with some unusual ones on top of that so stay tuned.

29 comments:

  1. Cracking job JB, that is a lovely base - good to see I'm not the only coffee stirrer thief in the world ;-)
    I thought for one wonderful minute that you had perfected the mythical invisible painting technique!

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    1. God I've taken a big fistful of them and I could be making quite a lot of medieval houses and floorboards with these !
      Glad you like it mate !

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  2. great work on that base, and it's acompanying figure.

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    1. Well, since I never make fancy bases, this was a way to learn a few things in the process. Thanks !

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  3. Mouahahahaha !!!XD

    Excellent ce socle !! J'aime beaucoup l'ambiance qui s'en dégage au travers du bois, du métal et de la terre ^^

    Ravi de voir que tu as pu finir à temps ^^

    Serviteur,

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    1. Bn, c'est le principal ! J'espère que tu auras noté le Mon du temple (pas très discret j'en convient). C'était un challenge sympa je dois dire et ca change.
      J'attend le challenge du million !

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  4. Salut !
    Le socle est bien avec ce mélange entre le métal, le bois et la terre, j'adore la figurine aussi ^^

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    1. Merci, je voulais vraiment avoir un mélange de matière pour montrer la fusion des époques et cultures.

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  5. J'aime beaucoup, un travail créatif, inspiré...un travail de passionné!

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    1. Oh merci, c'est gentil, pour être parfaitement honnête, j'ai regretté de ne pas m'y être pris plus tôt car j'ai beaucoup aimé l’exercice et ça m'a franchement fait reconsidérer mon approche minimaliste du soclage...

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  6. Excellent work mate, I love some coffee stirrer base work. I have a 2x2' board for Bushido pretty much made out of them!

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    1. I think they lack some texture to make drybrushing effective but the result is good nonetheless and the scale is just right for the purpose.

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  7. Wow. Simple yet brilliant. I don't have time to take part in the contest but your take on the Mori-base is very graceful. Congratulations.

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    1. Ah cheers, I said I would do something so I kinda felt compelled and he's taken time to organise a big event so you know... ^^
      Thanks mec, I was out of my zone here but it felt good nonetheless.

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  8. Replies
    1. Cheers man, glad this first pleases people !

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  9. Lovely looking base, although lacking in purity seals!

    Regarding the lack of texture (same issue with similar Popsicle sticks or tongue depressors), you can drag a razor saw along the surface to add a bit of grain. You can see how it looks here.

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    1. Damn, what an idiot, I even commented on this one !
      Now I'll remember the tip !
      No purity seals or skulls here, I wanted something simple and not too grimdark for once. ;)

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  10. Wow, you knocked me down here. Absolutely amazing. Besides, you made it look so simple. So cool, man!!

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    1. I made it look simple by making it simple really !
      Cheers dude.

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  11. Base is very pretty. Love the design process and execution to get the exact look you hoped for. Rebase! :P

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    1. neat and simple, I don't want a base to atke the attention from the model. That said i'd like to paint a model for this one now !

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  12. Really gorgeous work, JB. Thanks for the step-by-step guide. Very useful!

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    1. Most of it was improvised but it worked well, I'll try to put what I've learnt to good use. Glad you like the step by step. ^^

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  13. Did you win anything A-Man?

    The water effect is so good.

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    1. The results aren't out yet but time will tell. I was greatly inspired by your own water effects so that's the highest praise I could hope for.

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