Something a little fantastical

As part of a larger commission I was asked to produce some elements of fantasy terrain leaning towards the orient, not too fantastical but just enough to make pele go 'Ooo, that's different'... Well, that's the idea anyway.

The first idea that popped into my head was a Gateway to Heaven, but something that's seen better days and could have been lost in the wilds somewhere. Keeping it simple was the order of the day and I though of two dolman and some steps leading up to nothing but having the ability of being able to place a portal in-between them.

The photos show the progress in sequence and not in my usual format because I'm using 'Blogger' for the iPad, it means that I can post more posts without having to turn the desktop on (a struggle at the best of times) but at the moment it seems that the only choice for photos is to have them at the end, hopefully something that will be sorted soon.

On to construction. I started with a rounded base about 300mm x 130mm and two basic lumps of blue foam about 150mm high and 70 odd in diametre. These were carved into a pleasing dolman type shape and were distressed by dragging a small saw across at various angles creating cracks and fissures in the rock. When this was done they were coated first in a rough textured paint and then a finer one to bring the details together a bit.

The steps were carved from a material called foamex although I believe it's also known as foamed pvc. The carving of the stairs took some time as I wanted them to be random and weather worn, hopefully this has occurred.

The base itself was given a layer of filler to meet the stairs up the sides and at the back. A coat of Tamiya tan matt spray was sprayed over the whole model as a base coat. The rocks were inked and washed with various colours and drybrushed up to almost white.the stairs were just washed with a sepia ink and drybrushed the same as the rocks.

Then sand was applied to the base and treated in the normal way in which it's coated with a layer of dark brown ink and then brought up to quite a light earth colour with several drybrushes. Three different types of flock were added once this was all dry and some suitable plants and grass was also placed in various positions.

I did think of placing thick white rope around the dolman, similar to the type of rope you see around certain trees and rocks in Japan but I'll let my client decide that.

The final touch was the actual portal itself. Suffice to say I'm not 100% convinced by it but it does seem to work, after a fashion... I also highlighted the dolmen with a touch of blue/white to give the impression of a glow emanating from the portal. I might have another attempt and spray it at work to get a more subtle effect but again, I'll let the client decide.

On to the photos (the bit you've probably been waiting for ;-)