Once again, I entered myself into the Crafting Contest at Mythic Charlotte. We were all given a random miniature to base our craft on. I chose one and prayed to the crafting gods that it wasn’t a fantasy miniature – and it was. It was some kind of merchant with a huge backpack full of wares looking at a map. Ugggh!! As others were milling about with their miniature, I heard one guy complain that he had a sci-fi mini. That was my opening. We traded. I was much more inspired by the one he had. Unfortunately for me, he was way more inspired by the one I gave him and much more talented.
As I looked at it though, it was more of a sci-fantasy character but I still went with the sci-fi theme. To enhance that theme I found 2 buddies in the extra miniature bin in the crafting supplies for the contest. They were unpainted and I knew I had to make time to at least attempt a decent paint of them. Unfortunately, they were both the same miniature, but a very subtle idea started in my head.
We also had to use something from this bin of containers. I grabbed something that looked like a bunker and went for a battle scene. And that is what I ended up with. I tried my hand at making a crater in foam and added a dinosaur head in the ground just to add flavor. Last minute I added smoke and debris to the crater to tell the story that it just happened. Added a mangled tree out of pipe cleaners but I think that ended up taking away from the whole look. The miniature also came in a bottle that was covered in black tape to hide it, and I ended up using that bottle as well.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough. Not even in best story or best use of materials. Honestly, I think I know my problem. I make my piece table ready where as other people put together true dioramic art pieces. Those that won were well deserving and I obviously just do good enough for the table, whicvh isn’t enough to win an art contest.
I am debating on trying again. We’ll see.