Infinity
Haqqislam Backdrop.
I wasn’t happy with my Photo’s and took some test shots to make this better, this was phase one.
Phase two was to push this concept further and make a mini photo studio for each faction. To put the miniatures in a more natural surrounding for them. I had tried this before but was to focused on the base.
The idea is to place scenery as a backdrop and then use this to take photo’s You can see this in some company’s photo shoots. Also, if you have ever seen some of these models behind the scenes you will have seen it’s like a set for a film, it’s all fake.
Haqqislam are a particular issue. I don’t play Haqqislam I just paint them for my friend so I can play vs painted models. As it’s not my army (wish it was sometimes), I want to be able to record these models before I hand them over, but also I would never have a desert board for them to go on or a futuristic agriculture board. Though these would be interesting I prefer generic sci-fi boards as they don’t need to have a purpose.
I decided I was going to make a small display board to take photos with them on. Originally, I was going to do this A3, but I don’t have a lot of wood just now (not a euphemism). So, I needed to get this in as little martial cost as possible. A4 was the overall choice.
I started off with a futuristic desert bazar, I had even 3D sculpted some horrific but realistic looking death camels. I made them stand up and then it went wrong and couldn’t fix them to be sitting (need more practice) I had thoughts of producing stands, fast food sections, Brothels with silhouetted dancing girls in the window and before I knew it I had enough terrain in my head for 2 tables worth and even had some designed.
I paired this thought back and thought I needed to make this simpler. The focus should be the model and not the terrain, so placing the models between scenery and taking photos would not do! I started reading about Haqqislam for inspiration and they are at the night of biomedical research and most of this comes from horticulture.
Desert and plants don’t often go with each other. But what would bridge the gap… Technology. What better place to experiment with plants than in the desert? Anything that escapes could be killed by the desert.
I decided to look up modern Islamic architecture. Tried to replicate elements of that and just add a few sci-fi elements to do with the plants. I still liked my bazaar design with overhanging fabric to shield from the sun. I loved a picture I found and seen a decretive fake ceiling again to break up the sun and create nice shadows. I decided to incorporate these elements into the design. I also liked the gold blade runner oversized doors. I didn’t want to look at these and try and recreate this from a faint memory (still haven’t looked).
I took to Fusion and CAD to create this.
Laser cut design. Red for cuts and blue for scoring. 
Some 3D Aircon units. Done so they are one piece. They will just push in from the back. Got to keep those plants and people cool inside. I just mirrored these to give the doorway symmetry. 
Outdoor planters used to give it that horticulture feel for the use of the building. The large case style with some sort of rotating feeder / care structure and the troughs with a care overhead structure. These should hopefully look like they are cared for plants in the harsh desert climate. I have tall grass for the Vase and large red flowers for the trough. After I designed everything and had this in my head. I 3D printed those partners and then went to use my laser. My laser made a sparking sound and when I turned it on, I seen the power supply sparking. Got a replacement power supply and broke my tube fitting it. Got a replacement tube and seen I damaged one of the mirrors taking the tube out. After everything was done however it’s back in working order. Better than it has ever been.
I cut everything out and after a few small changes due to errors in my drawing everything fit and worked. 
The 3d printed vents were a little tight so needed to file these holes a little.
I tried to use my airbrush as much as possible. I chose yellows reds and browns for the building and used some crackle paint, desert texture and some chalk pastel shavings along with sand to make the base. I chose yellow light gathering Perspex for the windows but back sprayed this white. Again, to aid the sci-fi feel. I deliberately didn’t put anything in the foreground to make this area available to models. Everything was painted quite quickly as I didn’t want to spend much time on this. It’s a set and shouldn’t ever be in focus in the pictures.
This is what I ended up with. The finished photoset. I could have not bothered making the balcony section as I doubt it will ever be used unless it’s sitting in a case.
Here is my current setup, don’t need a large table. What I do need to do is use the spare time I have to focus on focusing. Some interesting focus choices are ahead.It’s all done. A little bit longer than I had intended due to laser cutter issues. I think I should have left the columns white but still quite pleased with the result. It should take my photo’s to a place that I want to take them.
I have redone two of my photo sets with the new setup you can you can compare them to before and also added a new set.
Leave a Reply