Mosiac Bases

cookster

New member
So i bought an Inquisitor Model a while ago (50% off!!!!). Preacher Josefus, and was planning on doing a Mosaic Ornate type base thing. Any suggestions or experience?
 

QuietiManes

New member
Hm. Well the 2, actually 3 options I can think of are:

1-lay out a thin layer of putty, use a pin or hobby knife to carve out the mosaic bits/grout lines. Not so much carve as create a slight indent.

2-cut out a bunch of little square and triangle pieces out of cardboard/plasticard/hardened putty and glue those down making sure the edges follow the design.

I think the putty would be the easier method but the 2nd method would yield better results for most of the non elite sculpters like me.

3-Also there\'s many good mosaic floors in many buildings, perhaps even seperate plastic sheets, you may want to look into purchasing or taking a greenstuff mould of a friends terrain piece or something.

Then to paint them up, regardless of how you get the mosaics done, start with the colour of the grout, cover everything, then paint the individual tiles their colours. Might be a good idea to look up some pictures of the real world mosaics you want to simulate.

I love that preacher fig, g\'luck with it, hope you post some pics when you\'re done.
 
You might also try laying down a layer of plastic sheet or whatever on the base, then doing the mosaic pattern with a very thin roll of putty or, better, glued-in-place platic string (plastic guitar string should work fine). Gives less of a mosaic, more of a stained-glass - look, though.
 

vincegamer

Active member
Depending on your comfort level, you could just paint it to look like mozaic.

This would be cool!
I think a name in Greek is key.
mosaic-in-Antakya-Museum_lg.jpg
 

MClimbin

New member
I saw a mosaic base done somewhere on CMON about a year ago where the painter rolled out a thin layer of GS, then used a spare patch of screen (like from a screen door) to imprint a very small pattern of squares.

I\'m not sure if it would work for a mosaic portrait or picture as shown above, as the lines between the \"tiles\" would be pretty thick in scale. It worked nicely for what this person did, though, which was an abstract pattern.

I\'ll see if I can find it again.
 

MClimbin

New member
Here it is---By Wren!

It\'s still quite cool to look at:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/39582

I sent her a pm at the time and she said that she used supersculpy (I had misremembered it as GS), put down the screen, then covered it with a sheet of parchment, then rolled it over with a rolling pin.

I\'ve always wanted to copy this technique myself. Be sure to post pics with your finished mini!
 

Verm1s

New member
Hmm. I\'m going to have to be a pedant and say that while it\'s an interesting effect, it\'s not really mosaic. Each piece of tile should be a single colour, like vincegamer\'s example.
 

cookster

New member
Hmm. I think i\'ll try doing like Wren did but like Verm said im going to have each square a single color. Now to research some good designs! Thanks! :)
 

Wren

Member
Wow, someone actually remembered looking at my little mosaic, very cool! I always meant to go back and do glazes over the squares to vary the individual colour of each square a little, but for some reason that fig is really prone to chipping, so I just never touch it. Verm1s is right, the screen door technique is not a perfect match to an organic curvy scene like what I attempted or the pic posted in this thread. It would work better with a geometric pattern, I think.

After finishing this, I found some plasticard formed into tile squares (from Plastruct, I think), which would be much easier and more professional looking than my screen door business. Though again, it works best for geometric. Comes in a variety of sizes of squares.

This Dirz temple is a fantastic looking more traditional mosaic. Though as it\'s a terrain piece, the individual tile squares might be bigger than would look good on a base. I asked Tobal about this when I first saw it. His steps were to first draw the pattern on the floor, then fill it in with squares of 5mm by 5mm cut from a cereal box. He highlighted each square individually, and did a gloss varnish.
 

Wren

Member
Oops, forgot to mention this. Whatever method you use, I definitely recommend painting the \'grout\' area of the mosaic, even if the plasticard/sculpey/whatever is an appropriate colour. I didn\'t do that, which meant having to be extra careful painting the \'tiles\', and annoyance trying to cover up a few boo boos.
 

Einion

New member
Originally posted by QuietiManes
1-lay out a thin layer of putty, use a pin or hobby knife to carve out the mosaic bits/grout lines. Not so much carve as create a slight indent.

2-cut out a bunch of little square and triangle pieces out of cardboard/plasticard/hardened putty and glue those down making sure the edges follow the design.
Sounds good to me.

Einion
 
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