Eldritch Horror Display Stand

After spending a good while selecting all my pulp miniatures, I wanted to put together an Eldritch Horror display stand to show off my (eventually!) painted minis.

I had a rough idea in mind, I wanted a round circle with some sort of Lovecraftian symbol on the floor. I also want the minis to take part of that circle with them when taken off to play.

After a bit of searching on Amazon for a plint I came across this trivet, which is perfect. Has a great industrial vibe to it, I won’t even need to paint the metal. The initial plan then was to use milliput on the surface to form the details.

The plinth on amazon

For basing the minis I went to my go to cheap flat basing material, 2 pence pieces. Hard to find washers or anything similar for tuppence. Bit of measuring told me I needed 26mm holes for the coins. So I bought a forstener bit that worked just fine in my bench drill (the benefits of overlapping hobbies).

plinth all carved up
Holes all drilled..
Coins in place
2pence pieces fit perfectly, huzzah

Now I turned my attention to a symbol. There are certainly a few of those in the mythos, I didn’t realise quite how many! I was going to go for something like the Necronomicon Symbol, but the game is so dark and full of inevitable doom I thought something a bit more upbeat might be nice. Then I stumbled across a stylised drawing of an Elder Sign I liked. A bit of doodling and I had this:

Eldritch horror display stand plan

This shows the positioning of the bases and the rough shape of the elder sign. I was thinking in ink about the detailing around the edges, but I’m not sure how, I don’t want to over-busy the design.

Foamed pvc elder sign

When I started laying it out I realised my skills with milliput are woefully under-developed for this design. So I thought, carve it out of foamed pvc. This does mean the minis need pinning to the base to give them something to stick to. Fun fact, the above was my failed first attempt. The holes for the bases didn’t line up with the wooden plinth. If I was starting over I’d glue the foamed pvc to the wood THEN drill one set of holes.

Eldritch horror display stand sliced and diced
Holes all cut out

I really need a metal circle cutter. My plastic one shown above has done me proud for going on twenty years, but there’s far too much flex in the design making accuracy a best guess.

Eldritch Horror display stand under way

And here’s where we are. The pvc is glued to both the wood and the coins. I’ve carved the elder sign into the pvc. All that’s left is to give it a little texture. I’m now thinking stone work pressed on with a rock, and cracks carved in with a scribing tool.

The minis are all converted as needed and the primer is drying. Eldritch horror display stand is well under way!