I ended up going with .375 height and adding some geometry at the top and the bottom to even out the shelf effect it had.
I did a test in MDF.
And that looked good enough so I built a jig to hold the top of the box and then let it roll.
I did not do this on purpose but the grain color difference and the mountain in the upper left look really cool.
As I mentioned earlier, the top of the box was the same thickness as the bottom and I had originally planned to carve deeper to make it look less chunky.
The top is 1.75 total height with a .75” cavity inside. Of the remaining 1” the new carving brings the flat surface down .375. I am trying to decide if I like it this way or is I should just flatten the carving and recarve from that level. The way the grain swoops under I would lose that cool effect on the mountain though.
I used a .25” for the roughing pass and then 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 tapered ball nose bits. The tapered bits may have actually helped in this case with the horse bodies.
I have sanded the sides and bottom already. After decide about the carving I will put some danish oil and shellac. Normally on walnut I use the Watco Dark Walnut danish oil but in this case that may lose some of the detail so I may try a lighter one.
Not sure if I want to do that to the inside.
