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A Minoan Throne Room and a Throne of Bones

PostPosted: July 3rd, 2018, 5:05 am
by DC1346
A few days ago I saw an absolutely gorgeous picture of an ancient Egyptian style room on this site that featured lovely tiles and a pool with two fountains.

Since I've been slogging away making corridors and rooms, I thought it'd be nice to make a "nice" room as a change of pace from ruined keeps, crypts, corridors, and decaying rooms that I've been working on.

I opted for ancient Minoan. The Minoans were an an Aegean Bronze Age era civilization that was centered on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands. The kingdom flourished for about a 1,000 years from about 2600 to 1600 BC. I chose the Minoans because I wanted to try my hand at making some Minoan style "frescoes."

This is what I came up with. It took me two days and I still have touch up work to do. I also need to add water effects to the fountains.

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The tiles were made from laminate flooring tiles. I picked up a few samples from Home Depot and cut them into 1 inch squares. Although cutting them was a pain, the nice thing about laminate flooring tiles is that they have adhesive bases. All you have to do is to peel off the paper covering the base and to then put the tile wherever you want it.

Having worked with decaying rooms like the one pictured below, I spaced the tiles slightly apart.
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While this added to the decrepit feel of my other rooms, I didn't like the effect on my Minoan throne room. Since I didn't want to pull up the tiles, I decided to make some grouting by mixing paint, wood glue, and Woodland Scenics fine ballast. I chose a sand colored acrylic paint and after mixing the grout, I applied it first by using a paint brush and then by using a finger to push it into the gaps between the tiles.

The silver tiles came as a set from eBay. For $3.00, I bought 15 hammered silver class tiles. Hammered silver apparently features a silver like decorative metal over which clear glass has been poured. I don't know what other people use this for. I used them as specialty tile pieces for this particular model.

Since I wanted a fountain, I crafted two sandstone "flowers" using a pair of silicone chocolate molds.
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The fountain effects were made using Woodland Scenics water effects. I basically glued a piece of transparent plastic from the center of the flour to the fountain and then poured some water effects over it. The pools were made of PVC signage. After gluing it together, I applied sealant to the bottom. After letting the sealant dry, I poured in the water effect. It's been 24 hours and it's still not entirely dry. Once it's thoroughly dry, I can add some splashing ripple effects.

The golden statues above the fountain were some hideous plastic pieces I bought on Amazon. The manufacturer was offering 100 assorted monsters for less than $20. The ad said that these would be perfect for fantasy gaming. The ad was wrong. I don't know what scale size they were, but they were a lot larger than 25 and 28 mm. On top of that, they were made with soft plastic.

Soft plastic is awful because if you paint them and use the figures a lot, the paint will literally start to flake off. The soft plastic also means that the details are "soft."

I couldn't return the figures because I ordered them during the school year and got so busy that it was a couple of months before I even opened the package. Since I missed the 30 day return policy, I was stuck with them. I decided to turn 2 female archers into statues.

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The round shield in the background also came from the plastic collection. I actually cut it off a skeleton. The figure was so poorly made that although it was standing with a foot on top of a pile of skulls, it was leaning backwards at a 45 degree angle.

This got me to thinking about the throne. I didn't want a regular throne. I wanted a fantasy throne. I went to bed at 2 AM last night and at 3 AM woke up with the idea of making a throne of bones. Since I'm on summer vacation, I got up and spent the next 3 hours working on this throne.

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As you can see the bones are poorly defined. I would have preferred a sharper definition but didn't feel like cutting any of my good skeleton pieces apart. Since I really don't have much use for the plastic ones I bought, I cut apart 4 skeleton spear men. I started out with a throne made of modelling clay and three ours later wound up with this throne of bones.

Rib cages form the base of the seat. The arm on the left hand side is a leg bone. The arm on the right hand side is literally an arm bone and hand clutching a spear shaft. As decorative accents, I added two skeletal hands holding spears on either side of the chair. Surmounting the top was the rib cage of another spear man. The skull was taken from another kit.

As a whimsical touch, I added a pillow with fringes.

Here's the court with a villain who appears to be screaming, "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!"

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Just in case things don't work out for him, he's got a private exit from the side of the dais.

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Whoever built the Egyptian room with the pool has a much nicer looking room. This one was okay. If I had to do this over again, I wouldn't have spaced the tiles apart. I would also have used a bigger board.

On the brighter side, this board is quite playable and it will make a nice addition to my growing collection of tiles. I am reasonably pleased with the fountains and the frescoes.

Re: A Minoan Throne Room and a Throne of Bones

PostPosted: July 3rd, 2018, 1:01 pm
by DC1346
The water feature dried overnight, so I was able to add splash effects this morning.

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Here's an overview of the Minoan throne room. It's 10 inches square. The room features a double wide entrance with a single back door for the ruler.

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As with later Greek architecture, Minoans used columns. Unlike Corinthian columns with fluted sides, Minoan columns would have had smooth sides. While Greek columns tended to be white, Minoans used red.

I thought about including a couple of columns but given how much space has been taken up by the fountains and the dais, I decided not to do this.

Re: A Minoan Throne Room and a Throne of Bones

PostPosted: July 3rd, 2018, 4:05 pm
by Daedalus
I like that fresco. The Minoan theme works with the Robert E. Howard side of Hero Quest.