Roadside Shrine Printer Friendly Version   By AURORA_BOREALIS - Dec. 31, 1969 The roadside shrine is built entirely from Tomb mold pieces (#56). A grand total of… drum-roll please… 24 pieces in all. 4 large decorative floor tiles (1”x¼ ”) 2 small decorative floor tiles (½”x¼”) 10 half-spires (4 cut/6 uncut) 4 buttress arches 4 decorative capitals (½”x¼” versions) This is a piece that can easily be cast, built and painted in an evening. Just pick a night where you’ve got a bit of patience to fiddle with getting the decorative pieces right. I'll start with the base of the shrine, and work my way up. The base is very simple. Using the 1”x1/4" thick floor pieces from the tomb, I laid four decorative floor tiles side-by-side. This made a nicely patterned base for the inner shrine. Two smaller decorative floor tiles were glued flush with that base, at the mid-point of the base, to add some interest to the piece's lines. The sweeping arches of the shrine are equally simple to make. Each side of the arch is made up of paired buttress arches glued back-to-back (two arches per side). These arches are laid flush with the edges of the two outer floor tiles and meet at the apex of the shrine to form a flat surface. The decorative projections to either side of the arch are a bit trickier to pull off. The challenging part in assembling these pieces comes in cutting the basic spire pieces to mesh with the sweep of the arches on the back-side/inner-facing half. The back/inner spire pieces must be cut (I used a fine-edged saw) at a steep angle to match the sweep of the arch. Once one half is cut, it can be glued to a full piece to form a complete spire decoration. That completed piece is then glued to a decorative capital. To mesh the decorative projection with the arch, slide the piece along flush with the front of the arch till the cut angle on the decorative piece meets up with the curve of the arch. The only really tricky part in assembling this piece comes in getting the mirror piece on the opposite side to match the spacing/position of its mirror image on the opposite side of the arch. You may have to play around with cutting spire pieces to get the right angle to complement the opposite side. The upper decoration is much simpler to assemble. Simply glue to spire pieces back-to-back to form a complete spire and glue that to a decorative capital. The whole thing then gets glued to the top of the piece where the buttress arches meet. When it came to painting this piece, I wanted something with a vaguely sandstone or granite feel. The base coat was done in black for a deep texturing and to give the illusion of weight to the stone. Once the whole piece was base-coated in flat-black, I applied three dry-brushings. The first, and heaviest dry-brush was done with dark brown. The second, much lighter, dry-brush was done with mocha brown. The third, lighter still, dry-brush was done in a medium beige. I added further pigmentation to the stone by dabbing small amounts of red and yellow here and there across the whole of the piece. (For those wanting to replicate the shrine colour, I used Delta Creamcoat paints for most of the painting). This piece wasn't inspired by a picture, or by any architecture in particular. I've been told, by a couple of people, that it has either an Egyptian or a Middle Eastern feel to it. I'm still not sure where the idea sprang from, but I like the simplicity of the design. It's straightforward to build, but makes a nice piece that can be used stand-alone or integrated into a bigger project. (I'm toying with the idea of using the basic design as part of a roof structure, but that project will have to wait.) Overall, I am very happy with the result. Simple, elegant and versatile. Give it a try yourself!   0 Ratings     12345      Public Comments Please log in to post a comment    You must be a registered member to post comments. You may sign-in Here.

Shortcuts

Voidgamers Home

Back to Home Page.