Lightbox Background - Not what I was hoping for.....

Greetings Hivers!

Yeah, I'm still alive and kicking!

Last year was a crazy year for all of us. Here in the UK, Lockdown and Tiers 1,2,3 & 4 have had a detrimental effect in our corner of the Underhive. Rob and I have had very little opportunity to get a game in last year and because of this my motivation has plummeted when it comes to painting. The release of the new Escher Codex called the Book of Blades hasn't helped (it's crap!), especially when it invalidated several models in my Voodoo Dolls. Add to this that Blogger decided to change its interface (what used to take me 5 minutes to upload photos from my phone is now taking 30 minutes.....I'm sure I'll get used to it but I can't help thinking that this is change for change's sake rather than anything beneficial). This has been the reason behind my lack of posts recently.

Hopefully, things will improve this year, but until Blogger makes its interface more mobile friendly, my posts will be noticeably less than the beginning of last year.

Enough of the moaning, What can I do to motivate myself?

"I know, terrain! We likes terrain"

"Hmm but I have more than enough terrain."

"How about a terrain backdrop that fits inside that lightbox you never use. Build one that allows you to fit a full gang in without models obscuring each other?"

"You sir, are a genius! Lets knock something together."

Don't worry, Lockdown hasn't sent me mad....I've been talking to myself for years 😊 

Because this will live inside my lightbox I didn't need to worry about building something that looked ok from 360 degrees. I used a FW floor casting that I'd made a couple of years ago and cut it in half. With a hot glue gun (a must have for terrain builder) I glued the two pieces together at a 90 degree angle.

Initially I was just going to use nothing but the stairs as a platform for the gangers to stand on but then I realised that stairs leading to nowhere looked odd, so I added a door......

...and a hatchway underneath. I kept the painting subdued so as not detract too much from the models using weathering powders to dull it down further and add a more matt finish.

The piece fits perfectly inside a 12" lightbox and adds some stability to its flimsy plastic structure.

Overall I think it helps set the scene and is an improvement on the usual black backdrop.

I tried it out with my Escher Ambot and I'm more than happy with the end result.

Similarly, I like the blurred effect (think it's called Bokeh?) that focuses on the model and blurs the background. Alas that effect appears to be limited to single models only.

And here is where it all goes wrong.....Bugger! 😞

While the stairs are more than adequate for showing off a gang, the models merge with the background too much. I think it's because the camera is further away to encompass the whole gang and the background becomes part of the camera's focus.

I think if I move the stairs further away from the door I might be able to increase the definition between model and background but if I do that I then have to make a new floor because it isn't deep enough. If I do that, I will then have to create sides because the sides will creep into the shot. 

I could try darkening the colour of the background so that it's almost black but I think the camera will still pick up on the details.

So I'm calling this a bust. I started this at the backend of 2020, so it shouldn't surprise me that it's turned out like this 😂

At least it got me painting again and I've learnt a couple of things. I did enjoy the process though, so not all is lost.

Until next time.....may the Hive Spirits watch over you! 😉