Interview: Abaroth from Abaroth's World

In todays interview I talk with Abaroth from Abaroths world! Check out his site at http://abarothsworld.com/ there are lots of great tutorials and tricks on his site. Now on to the interview!!!


[TerrainProject] When did you start Abaroth's World and why?

[Abaroth] I started Abaroth’s World in 2006 after my entering the “Fountain of Galadriel” model in the HADD contest of that year. I originally envisaged it as a place to keep pictures of my models, but after the contest I received a lot of correspondence asking how I did the marbling on the fountain. The idea for a Tricks & Tips page came from that, and the rest of the site grew organically from there.

[TP] You recently moved the site to a new URL. Why the sudden change?

[Aba] In 2009 I outgrew my free web space from Tiscali, and John Klingbeil very kindly offered me extra space on his host at GameDecor.com. GameDecor recently changed hosts, and I also found that AbarothsWorld.com was available. Hopefully, this should make any future changes seamless from the perspective of my visitors.

[TP] How long did it take you to put together the Heraldry Section? Do you use it a lot for your own work?

[Aba] The Heraldry Section so far, has taken a couple of months of work. I realise that it is far from comprehensive and I intend to keep adding to it when the urge takes me. I have almost all the images stored here in vector format so they can easily be resized. To be honest, I don't use it often at all. I had originally hoped to make a random shield generator program for use in roleplay games, but the coding is beyond my current skills in online languages.

[TP] I love your Temple of Tears piece. How long did that take to build and design?

[Aba] Overall, I think it took about 4 months to design and build. I had made some skull and bones tiles after seeing pictures of the catacombs in Paris, and wanted to make a building which would use them. I tried to create a structure which superficially resembled a Gothic church, but one with a slightly creepy feel - something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Gothic Horror film.

[TP] What is your favorite piece and why?

[Aba] My favourite piece HAS to be “Ascending & Descending”. I have been fascinated by optical illusions since I first saw some of Escher’s pictures at an early age, and I knew that making a real version of one would be a challenge. Oddly, the hardest part was not in creating the illusion, but in dividing the interior space into a meaningful series of  rooms. However, I still got an amazing thrill when I finally got the camera set up in the correct place, and saw the illusion for the first time.
 
[TP] We have all messed up when building a piece, tell me about one of your mistakes and what you did to fix it?

[Aba] My biggest accident was dropping the top section of “Belvedere” whilst I was setting it up for the final image. When the plaster hit the tiled kitchen floor, it broke into about 40 or 50 pieces, and I had only two days left to meet the competition deadline ! About an hour later, having got over my initial horror, I carefully began picking up all the pieces and gluing them back together. Fortunately, only a couple of the pillar capitals were damaged beyond repair, and I had some spares. After carefully retouching the paintwork, the damage was hardly noticeable, even close up.

[TP] You have a lot of tips and tricks on your site. Which ones do you use most frequently and which ones have saved you a ton of time from other methods you have tried.

[Aba] The trick I use most frequently is to make all my floor sections upside down on a sheet of tempered safety glass. This ensures that the upper surface will be absolutely flat when the floor is turned over, which makes it much easier to build on top. I would say that the biggest time-saver is making tapestries and banners using a printer and canvas paper.

[TP] Any tips you have yet to put on your site?

[Aba] Yes, I have a long list including making furniture, weathering, creating rubble piles and several techniques for different water effects. I also want to make a tutorial on model scales, which can be a very confusing subject. I am always open to new suggestions or questions, should anyone wish to email me.

I shall save my best tip till last: take your time completing your models – it took hours to cast the blocks, so be sure not to rush the painting and final details.