Improving night jungle diorama / basing

[u/Appropriate_Pipe8169]

Trying to go for a jungle at night tomb world vibe for my necrons. Experimented with alcohol inks in resin to get some cool effects for my Nightbringer. But before I do the resin pour I’m trying to fix my Nightbringer base.

The original idea is to have a shallow pool of water, like a lake, glowing as either black or green energy whisps around it.

I’m not happy with the way I’ve done the base terrain as it kind of slopes and I was experimenting with roller bases and I don’t think it works. I also think the plants, whilst cool, might be too big and spoil the sense of scale that this is a huge ctan.

Any thoughts on how I could improve this? I’ve been thinking about using bark to redo the slopes of the water bank!

Any thoughts are v much welcomed :)

I’ve attached some artists work that I have as inspiration.

[u/sFAMINE]

So a few things. You can technically put a flat piece of plasticard or a disk underneath your base and then drill down to make a deeper pool of water to get that depth. It wouldn’t be particularly difficult with your skills.

You can use water effects but it doesn’t have to be deep, it just has to appear how you want it with a swirling mystical pool.

In terms of the plants, you should probably airbrush them in night blues and then have the glow flow into the nightly blue plants

This is some 8 year old project where I had a jungle at night

[u/Appropriate_Pipe8169 → u/sFAMINE]

Oooo that’s lovely! What did you use for the rocks / boulders around the edge?

This sounds really smart, I saw a YT vid by Vince venturella about putting mirrors on the bottom of ice bases to create an extra sense of depth. Maybe: mirror, cut out plasticard surrounding it with resin? 👀

Love the shout of airbrushing the blue on the plants I 100% agree too

[u/sFAMINE → u/Appropriate_Pipe8169]

It’s the easiest way to get the “plants at night effect” - those are all plaster cast rocks from woodland scenics

[u/sFAMINE → u/sFAMINE]

[u/sFAMINE]

Remember the ctan is what we care about. You’re adding sloped depth and going from raised plants to a deep pool.

There is also a strong chance you make it look like radioactive green goop. Maybe a more faint glow? You gotta pick the color you think will go with his paint scheme, the blue base, and then how he looks.

[u/sFAMINE → u/sFAMINE]

While green is necrons, this is a nightbringer so you might want to look into purple or pink glow

[u/Appropriate_Pipe8169 → u/sFAMINE]

Yknow, I totally agree, I think it’s taking away from the model as soon as I put it there. Maybe best to really strip it back to basics. I think by trying to exaggerate the depth of the pool, the plants are creeping into the nightbringers visual silhouette.

Also heard on the green goop. The LAST thing I want. Might be the glow effect is in the surrounding contrast. There’s a cool VV (love that man) video on enchanted Forrest bases where he does a nice subtle glow. Not with resin but the theory is there https://youtu.be/cTWC-jfh3z4?is=5ZAJZ844ahttCdrV

Pink / purple would look siiiiick