  If it is desired, a foreground base can be made with a block of balsa wood or a piece of styrofoam plastic. The material is carved to blend, in surface contours, with the background picture. If the background picture has land with uneven contours, with hills or bluffs, it will be best to carve the block with a slope down away from the front of the box. (FRONT, CROSS-SECTION) If the background picture shows a low, level, flat area, the foreground block should be carved sloping up at the back. (FRONT, CROSS-SECTION) If a flat base is desired, Elmer’s glue is brushed on the bottom inside of the box and sand, gravel, dyed sawdust or other texture is sprinkled on the wet glue, after the figures are glued in place. (unlabelled) The foreground is made from cut-out pictures or from figures and accessories from hobby shops, ten-cent stores or other sources. There are two methods of using magazine pictures for the foreground figures: (1) Paste the pictures to index cards or cardboard of similar weight. Use Tri-Tix cement. Put the picture face down on scrap paper; brush or spread a thin but complete coat of Tri-Tix on the back of the picture. Work from the center out, in radiating strokes. SCRAP PAPER Turning the picture over, place the center of the picture down on the cardboard. Smooth down from the center out. Place piece of waxed or scrap paper over picture, roll down with a linoleum brayer or rolling pin. This helps to remove all air bubbles. (unlabelled) Let cement dry completely before trimming picture. When the excess rubber cement (squeezed out on the scrap paper) has changed from milky white to a translucent material, the cement on the picture will be dry. Cutting against the plate glass, trim out the parts of the picture needed with the X-Acto knife. Cutting against the glass produces a cleaner edge than against a different surface. If your foreground is the flat side of the box, without carved balsa or styrofoam block, leave tabs on the bottoms of the trimmed figures. Fold these tabs back and glue to base. TAB If your foreground is of carved balsa or styrofoam, trim out figure completely, then glue supporting wire to the back. Straightened paper clips may be used, being glued down with Elmer’s glue. Let about ½ of wire extend from bottom of figure. When glue is dry, force wire into base. (unlabelled) (2) The second method of using pictures is to glue the picture to a piece of light weight (tooling) aluminum or copper (about 32 oz. weight). Brush Pliobond on the back of the picture, smooth picture on aluminum or copper. Press out all air bubbles. The Pliobond holds immediately; there is no need to wait. Use scissors to cut out the picture. Manicure scissors will help in small areas. Narrow strips, such as the legs of animals, will curl, but the Pliobond will hold the paper tight, and the metal can be straightened. (unlabelled) When completely tooled, the figure will have an appearance similar to that of bas-relief. Again, the figures are reinforced with wire glued to the back, using Pliobond. As with the cardboard backed figures, the wire should extend about ½ from the bottom of the figure. The figure is fastened in the same manner, by forcing the wire into the base block. (unlabelled) If the foreground figure does not stand higher than the cigar box is deep, it may be placed on the lid of the box, and the background material carefully located so that the lid will still close. (unlabelled)
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