What if you go to the place of departure every day waiting for them to come home?
You Never Came Back
Scene created with a hand painted 3D printed miniature in 28mm scale on a hand crafted pier using cardboard as water and sky. The miniature scale intensifies the unease: a small world frozen at the exact moment before realization sets in. Paint and texture mimic decay, suggesting salt, rot, and long exposure to grief. Nothing moves, yet everything implies what once did. The scene captures the cruelty of hope when it outlives reason—a quiet, sinister stillness where the act of waiting becomes the final connection to those who will never walk back along the pier.
Forced Perspective
The issue with taking photographs of miniatures in miniature terrain is that the terrain won’t stretch to the horizon. It will always stop when the terrain ends which is usually below the eye level horizon when you take the photograph horizontally. A way to hide this is to hide the true horizon behind scenery of any sort. Which can ruin the illusion. In the 28mm scale a terrain piece of 120cm depth would translate to roughly 60m. When you are taking photographs of people outside (as in Long Shots, Wide Shots or Establishing Shots), try to find a spot where your view is blocked everywhere within 60m.
As I wanted to create a scene by the sea I needed a horizon on roughly the miniature’s eye level to create the illusion. It was beneficial that I didn’t plan to have much water texture/ movement in the photograph because I wanted to maximize the negative space around the object.
In the end I’ve worked with two paper sheets. A black one which lay flat on the table and which I slightly bent at the far side so that it simulated the horizon. And a grey paper sheet to simulate a cloudless sky.
With the help of three lights everything was set up for the photograph.
Simple studio setup
Miniature Design by Rescale Miniatures – painted by me.
Before Bestiarum launched their Kickstarter for the modular Penitent Crusade miniature range, they reached out to me and asked me to create something. They even encouraged me to combine their range with other bits for kitbashing.
For transparency: I didn’t receive any money for my work but got the pre-launch stl files, which I’ve used in this piece, and the full range of stl files of the final Kickstarter for free.
I won’t describe my full process how I’ve created the piece here because you can watch it in the video below. What I can already say is that it contains crafting a large piece of miniature landscape, 3D printing multiple bits for the miniatures, painting the miniatures, a failed resin pour and a hike.
For further support you might want to use #craftingforhope whenever you share the campaign.
the inspiration
While I was recovering from a surgery I was watching YouTube videos. What happens when you‘ve been watching for too long is that you start scrolling through the feed without finding any new videos of interest. So I’ve watched this Peter McKinnon video. Not that I watch his videos regularly but YT does suggest them as I‘m generally interested in photography content. Anyhow it happened to be about the Widelux camera which provides you with a really interesting perspective due to its super wide angle.
And then he showed a couple of pages of one of Jeff Bridges‘ photo books. When he flipped a specific page and once my brain processed what it saw I was immediately super excited. It was so inspiring that I stopped the video and started searching for the photo on the web.
But it seems that exactly this photo is not to be found. So I searched for the book which is out of press. And I found it. For a price I couldn‘t afford. But I wanted to make a photograph with miniatures inspired by this very photograph made by Jeff Bridges.
In the end my only reference was a screenshot from Peter‘s video. I don‘t know from which film the photograph is and I don‘t know in what kind of construction the scene takes place. Maybe inside a tunnel, a plane maybe?
screenshot from Peter McKinnon’s video showing Jeff Bridges’ photograph
the process
This screenshot, my reference for my work, was the starting point for my analysis. What story was told, why was it so intriguing to me? How did light and shadow play along? How was the camera placed? What details in this very dark photographs were visible? What was the composition? And why – again – was it so appealing to me?
materials used
What I needed was this tunnel, a set of miniatures and proper lighting. Lighting and miniatures were already at hand. Lighting because it‘s part of my setup. Miniatures because I had a set of kitbashed and painted miniatures with which I wanted to create something anyhow.
Leaving me with the tunnel which I had to craft. The original photograph by Jeff Bridges does not have any light sources within the tunnel. But for my interpretation I wanted them. That‘s why I‘ve added an LED strip to the tunnel ceiling.
The miniatures I wanted to be part of my work are 3D printed miniatures designed by Reconquer Designs and plastic miniature designed by Games Workshop. All of them I‘ve modified and kitbashed so that they fit into my Knights of Embersworn setting. To be able to place the miniatures properly I‘ve replaced their bases with needle tips so that I can easily push them into the floor made out of xps foam.
The tunnel I’ve crafted out of cardboard, xps foam and an LED strip. With cardboard I’ve created the walls and the ceiling and their details. The floor and the beams to hold the structure are made out of xps foam. The windows are just a plain white 80g/m2 printer paper. The paint job is straight forward using cheap black, brown and terracotta acrylic paint from the hardware store which I put on with a sponge.
a quick test shot
In order to be able to place the miniatures easily the ceiling and the walls are not glued together. And yet I had to make sure that there‘s no gap letting through any light from the side.
the photo setup
The original photograph by Jeff Bridges has two light sources. On the left side there‘s light coming in through windows. From the rear of the tunnel-like construction. I‘ve made test setups with whatever I had at hand but it quickly became clear that I wanted to add the ceiling lights.
miniatures in a test setup for the tunnel
The paper window needed a strong light source from the left. Here I‘ve set up my amaran 200x from aputure. The rear light didn‘t need to be that strong. My LUMIS LED Panel 600 RGB from Rollei was sufficient. Still I had to diffuse its light with another plain white paper. I didn‘0t want the rear light to as strong as in the original.
After a couple of test photos it was clear that I wanted to emphasize the foreground a bit more for which I placed an additional spot.
As I don‘t have a Widelux camera and I doubt that it is useful for miniature photography I used my laowa 18mm probe lense.
The most challenging part was to trigger the camera shutter at the right time when the fog was distributed in the most fitting way.
post processing
In Adobe Lightroom I changed to a 16:9 ratio. The Widelux of course must have a ration 2:1 or 3:1. But I did not necessarily try to replicate the Widelux style but create an interpretation of the original with what I have.
Also I‘ve adjusted the lighting slightly with a couple of masks.
The result I‘ve processed in Nik Silver Efex for a proper Ilford hp5 plus 400 analogue film style.
In Adobe I‘ve added some subtle haze to the scene.
the result
The Tunnel
Printed on Hahnemühle Museum Etching fine art paper. This is the best way to enjoy such pieces or art.
the story in the photo
When she entered the tunnel with her retinue she already knew that the recon team had been overwhelmed. How badly was to be found out. The fog was dampening down the food steps on the cold floor. Slowly the went inside. A moan. A slowly raised hand, reaching for help.
This work is set in a dystopian world with the Knights of Embersworn being just one of many factions. If you want to see more related works please read my other posts for Transcendent Decay.
With the help and support of a lot of creators and creatives we managed to release volume 2. The Vignette28 PhotoBook Vol 2 – now available as free pdf (download, ca 100mb). Thank you to everyone who was part of this undertaking and who supported the release.
Cover of the printed version. Cover art by Jan Závěšický @icono.cybernetica
Here’s some stats:
We have some 40 creators, who entered up to three of their works.
Volume 2 has over 100 pages of awesome Vignette28s.
Once again that has been a challenging project and I’m happy that – despite a lot happening in 2022 – I can finally call it done. The Kickstarter rewards have mostly arrived, all backers had early access to the pdf. Now it’s time for you to enjoy this great collection of Vignette28 artworks from creators and creatives from all over the world.
The Kickstarter included two versions (the now available print and a deluxe edition).The high quality print (left) and the deluxe edition (right).One of the amazing entries by Frederic Faulhaber @a.tale.of.grimdarkPreparing the shipment of the Kickstarter rewards.
Finally one remark on the deluxe edition: the deluxe edition was only available as a limited Kickstarter reward.
The Weald Eyetoad Challenge 4 requested to roll on a table with two dice. The outcome was what you had to create. The second condition of the challenge was to place said outcome within the town that may or may not exist in the Weald. My dice said to create a lost and confused lady.
Part 1 – Grave-Eye Flint
Grave-eye Flint, Terror of the Blackened Copse
This time it was different. It was not a single fire like normally when the humans prepare for the night. This time it was multiple fires. And loud noises. The gnarly things were attacking something. Most likely humans. Screams were filling the dark. Grave-eye Flint, Terror of the Blackened Copse, was hesitant. But hunger drove it towards the lights. Inevitably.
Part 2 – Her Durchlaucht
Her Durchlaucht with her pet Ronald
Her Durchlaucht had a terrible night. It did not turn out at all the way she wanted to. After she had received a letter from her husband, His Durchlaucht, she had decided to join him on his little adventure in Hollar. Two wagons, a couple of guards and some servants were quickly ready for departure. A not too uncomfortable road over the mountain range. They followed some road signs. On the eleventh night the guards were making too much noise. And the maid was annoyingly crying. It did not turn out the way she wanted. Now all those unthankful guards and servants had left her alone. She stumbled through the woods. There was a town nearby. But she couldn’t figure out if she really saw it or just wished it to be there. At least she was not completely alone. During the night she found Ronald. He was without his leash. Unthinkable of what could happen to him, alone, on his own. Lucky Ronald now was led by Her Durchlaucht through the pastures, slowly approaching the town which may or may not exist.
Here’s my entry: the Rotting Ancient Shrine – the third Eyetoad Challenge of the Weald
The Challenge Rules
The rules are as follows. Roll 3d6 which determine the topic of your entry. The entry will be a piece of terrain with a diameter of less than 12cm. Another limitation (or motivation) is that you need to include a piece of nature which you found. So my kid took a dice and rolled three times: 3 for Rotting, 5 for Ancient and 6 for Shrine. Next I went outside and found a nicely shaped piece of wood in my pile of chopped wood. And then I started staring at that piece of wood. For quite a while. Slowly turning it in my hands, inspecting it from all sides when creativity hit me. Given the topic I new I need something rotting, but didn’t know how to deal with that yet. So I start with Ancient Shrine. My interpretation was a an old shrine used by different worshippers with different habits.
One of these groups would have set up grave stones. Luckily I had these amazing 3D-printable gravestones which accidentally also had a version with tentacles growing. Which was a fit for the Rotting part. Another group, probably taking over after the gravestone group would place holy relics in beautifully shaped containers. Yet another group, the latest maybe, would use the place to sacrifice whatever beings. Until the rot came. In the form of tentacles growing from below the tree. This is also when the mushrooms started growing.
Building and Painting
First step was placing the piece of wood. The majority of the building process was printing parts from various vendors. Gravestones, cages, relics. Of course I’ve printed a lot more than I needed in the end. Once every item was ready I test fitted their positions on the shrine. Some places needed some adaption (like creating crevasses and flat surface areas) that the items had a better placement.
The tentacles and mushrooms I created with Milliput. Once that was dry I primed the whole piece and tried to figure out a colour scheme. Lucky me we just had a Weald Workshop about colour theory which helped me creating my palette within a couple of minutes. That being worked out I painted the shrine. Tufts, leaves and some pigments were the final touches and I was almost ready. Why almost?
Shooting the Shrine
There’s no need to say that I never would create such a build without putting it into a Vignette28. I made the concept sketch even before I started building the shrine. And after the built was done began working on the collage. But the scene lacked the impact I was looking for. It took a bit of editing time before I realized it didn’t work out the way I had planned. Therefore I dumped all the stuff, made a new setup, took a few shots and once again learned new things in photo editing (for example how to increase the field of depth beyond the camera’s capabilities with PhotoShop’s stacking algorithm). And of course all of my own Photography tips apply here as well. So here’s the new Vignette28.
His Durchlaucht and his Warden retinue wonder if they will find any loot at the Rotting Ancient Shrine. But they don’t know what is waiting for them.
The Weald
The Weald is a fantasy skirmish game with a lively community. For inspiration head over to Instagram following the #weald28 hashtag.
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