Diorama tipps

Mosch

Active member
Vhailor was not sure how long they have already been adventuring through this damp, godforsaken place, but it was too long for his liking. He gazed back at his friends. Baron Tillius von Drachenau, the young nobleman, constantly eyed the surroundings, while Laetitia silently scouted ahead. A stair led them even deeper into the dungeon, and the cobblestone floor ended abruptly where a bed of mud and dirt began.
A tingle crawled down Vhailor\'s spine.
\"There\'s something sinister about this place\" he muttered.
\"Indeed so, my friend. I feel the presence of the power.\" Tillius answered under his breath.
Vhailor grasped his weapon tighter when he heard a rumble down below. The rumble intensified into an omninous bellowing as the earth began to shake. Laetitia jumped back rather clumsily and readied her daggers while Tillius drew his sword. With a damp, but loud boom the floor erupted in a shower of earth, mud and some kind of rotten organic material....
\"Brace yourselves!\" Vhailor cried. He was ready for whatever might come.
Through the splatter of mud and dirt, the heroes beheld three, no, four figures in the dark of the dungeon. Incredibly thin humans, anorexic even.....
\"Skeletons!\" Tillius shouted. He held up his sword and conjured all his might as the first undead charged the party.
Vhailor stood fast in front of his comrades.
\"We will not fall. For Sumus, goddess of earth, we shall shatter your unholy bones and grind them into the dust of the past!\" he shouted, sensing how Laetitia beckoned their enemies to come closer if they dared....


Well, that\'s the scene. I am going to do this dungeon scene as a birthday present for my cousin, but I am not sure how to accomplish this as I have never made a Diorama before. Of course the first step would be to find some suitable miniatures; for the skeletons, I would use Morbid Puppets (Confrontation), while a GW Witch Elf would be Laetitia. Tillius von Drachenau will be Dieter von Regmon (Reaper) and Vhailor either Nagel the Hammer (Reaper) or Piotr Irongale (Reaper too). Now my first problem is scale; to my untrained eye they seem to have the same scale, but if I place them directly beside each other, Piotr seems about a head shorter. Now I\'m not sure if those \"breaks\" in the scale would be obvious after the Diorama is finished..... I would really prefer Piotr instead of Nagel because he is far more dynamic and quite frankly because a chain as a weapon is even cooler than a large hammer ;)
Second thing is the ground. I have an idea how to do cobblestone with Efaplast (that stuff works a little like china clay), but rough earth sound like a challenge. Would it be convincing to just drag a toothpick around it in irregular patterns? I fear it won\'t....
And last one, what order of work would you advise? I thought of painting the miniatures first and then attaching to the base (which also be done seperate), but I fear I might rub off the paint trying to get a good hold on the base (I tend to be quite rough).
Which actually brings me to another question: Do you think it would be enough to just glue the minis to the sculpted base? I though of using two part epoxy glue (I think that\'s what it is called in english), but I am afraid it could break. The Diorama is supposed to stand in a glass.... display.... cupboard... thingy my cousin has and will probably not be handled much anyway, but my fear consists ;)

So many questions, so much eagerness to start working right away.... restrain yourself, plan it well beforehand..... omm.... :)
 

beh

New member
Well, I\'m certainly no experienced diorama builder--indeed I\'ve yet to make one, so I can\'t offer much help at all. But it did strike me that you might be able to use some rough grained sand mixed with finer grain sand for the dirt and mud. Glue it down to your surface and then paint it in earth/mud colours. At least, that\'s what I\'d try to do for it...
 

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
You are planning a very large undertaking there and I hope it works out.

I would suggest as BEH has said that you use very fine sand to represent the disturbed earth. If this is glued on over a roughend pile of your sculpting material, then it will look realistic.

If it were me painting this I would do the figures separately, taking them off their bases and use pins to anchor them.

One question; are you intending that this Diorama has a backdrop of a cave wall? If so then you have the opportunity to try a little light reflection. (like Victoria Lamb\'s \"Rescue of Sister Joan\").

I\'m not familiar with the figures that you have mentioned but they sound ok. My ony reservation is that Rackham figures tend to be rather tall in comparison to Reapers.

Good luck and I hope to be seeing some Work In Progress shots soon.
 

Mosch

Active member
Thanks you both ;)

Dragonsreach, I was concerned about the Rackham size at first too, but as it turns out the Morbid Puppets are just a tiny bit smaller than my Reaper minis, so I think they are rather realistic skeletons.
(Did I just say they are \"realistic undead skeletons\"?)
Concerning the backdrop.... I thought about it. I magine it would look great.... if I could paint like Victoria Lamb, Tammy, you, or my girlfriend. But I would probably destroy the effect and I have enough to paint as it is now, so I\'m going to try a little lighting effect on Tillius\'/Dieter\'s hand (he\'s about to throw a fireball or something) to see how it looks. So, no backdrop for now.

And don\'t fear, you\'ll get quite some WIP shots, I have waited for my parents to return from their vacation so I could use the camera :D
 

Mosch

Active member
Meh, I\'ll probably not do the Diorama now. My cousin has bought some kind of dragon/serpent-statue that now occupies the place I thought my Diorama could take..... hm. Meh, once again. Now she\'ll only the morbid puppets.
 

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Not being much of a fan of skeletons, I am however really impressed by the one Kneeling resting on it\'s sword.
It has a look as if to say \"Oh not Again!\" :D
 

dauber22

New member
Diarrehea tips...

Pepto Bismal or Immodium AD!!!

Oops! Sorry! Must have read that wrong, Mosch lol lol

Sorry to here your plans for the diorama went awry. It sounded pretty cool.
 

Mosch

Active member
Orginal gepostet von dauber22
Sorry to here your plans for the diorama went awry. It sounded pretty cool.

Na, I would have just ruined it anyway, I know myself well enough for that :p
 
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