Display base experiment - Part 1

I recently participated in a miniature painting competition - The Crystal Dragon. I hadn't initially planned to enter the comp with the miniature that I did as I was just practicing painting flesh at the time. But the format of the comp was not the traditional podium finish where a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place are given overall. They use the 'open system' where each and every piece is judge on it's merits, thus I felt like I had a slim chance.

I didn't manage to snag even a bronze but I received some really good feedback. So my plan now is to experiment, to create a more scenic display base and achieve the following:

1. Create focus on the head of the mini
2. Create focus on the mini on the base
3. Tell a story

Preparation

I browsed around for inspiration and decided I wanted statue ruins of some kind. I wanted to make this myself and eventually settled on using Composimold as it's a reusable product, I also bought plaster.

I searched around in cheap shops for a statue or bust of some kind but found nothing. Eventually I found some dinosaur toys, a picture formed in my mind - someone walking through the ancient ruined legs of a T-Rex statue.

Figuring out how to create the mould took some thought as I wanted to capture the feet and  suspending the dinosaur above the bottom on a container seemed difficult. I cut the bottom  of a plastic container and used clay to form a seal then tape to hold the dinosaur in place.

Next step...create the mould!