OK, so here it is - the ongoing story of my first real attempt at a diorama. Not sure if this should be in beginners or small scale, but I figured my inexperience was greater than the (approx) 1/48th scale of the figures. Since this is a beginners log, I'll record every step I take, for better or worse - which means experienced folks here can tell me what I did wrong so I can learn.

I'll start by saying something about this build. I'm using Warhammer 40,000 models, which I realise isn't everyone's cup of tea. Being an avid wargamer though, it seems like a good place to start as I'm familiar with them. Plus I've had this idea kicking around for a while.

So the concept of this diorama is a training session between two different factions of Imperial Guardsman (specifically Cadians & Catachans for those who follow 40K). In the diorama, one side is valiantly defending their flag from a final assault by the opposing force. To add interest, there will be some cover in the form of some boxes and a few trees, plus a small stream.

I began by planning the diorama on a sheet of paper. A4 (210mm x 297mm is a convenient size for the scale, and lets me press the computer into action. I locked off a 10mm border on all sides. Next I put my photographic skills to use, marking out a RoT (thats "Rule of Thirds") grid, before placing some proxy models onto the paper and shuffling them around for a good dynamic. After a sketch, this was photographed and stored on the computer.


The original sketch for the diorama.

Once I was happy with this, I proceeded to build the baseboard. This was built out of the packing styrene from my BBQ, and secured to a piece of cardboard. I was going to use MDF but I didn't have any on hand. I'll retrofit that next weekend. The river was carved out with a hobby knife and a screwdriver (I don't have a hot foam cutter yet), then the rest of the board was suitably distressed to give it some natural contours. This was done with a combination of a claw hammer, high speed rotary tool, hobby knife and my boot.

Next up I made a slurry of plaster, PVA glue and sand, and carefully applied a layer of this to the board. This partially filled the distress marks, ended up with a suitably natural looking (well, I think it is) landscape. Finally I sprinkled some addional sand over the board, and coated the external sides in PVA.


Diorama base, plaster coated.

So thats where I am at the moment. Next job will be to put some final touches on the sculpting of the board and get it properly sealed prior to painting.

I'll be trying to update this every couple of days until its done. I have a deadline of June 10th as I want to enter it into a competition at my local hobby store. I'll be up against some very experienced modellers, but thats fine - I don't expect to win (or even place), only to learn more.

Not a huge update for today, but Ive done a little bit. Put down a layer of thinned PVA over the top to seal it all. Decided against any further sculpting at this point - I'll do that when I start to set the scenery on the board.

Using my box of spare models (some Orks) and terrain, I've proxied up the scene as it should look once I build and place the real items. Obviously certain things aren't quite right - everything is on bases, the cheesy GW "trees" and the line of barrels representing a ruined wall for instance - but it gives an idea of how it will look. I need to shuffle the large tree on the right a little closer to the stream, but otherwise I reckon it will look decent.


Diorama layout w/proxy models, top view


Diorama layout w/proxy models, oblique view

Sorry about large pictures, but there is quite a lot going on in there, and I could certainly use some feedback on the layout in general.

Hi Steve,

As most here are 1/35 or 1/72 scale modellers, i think we have a bit of difficulty to "see" through Warhammer eyes.

Not looking at the scale differences between the trees and the figures, i would say that the layout looks good. The size of a sheet of paper does not leave a lot of alternatives.

Cheers
Claude

Appreciate the feedback mate, thanks!

The Warhammer scale is, if I remember rightly, "28mm Heroic" which roughly translates to a slightly chunkier version of 1/48th scale - so yeah, I can certainly appreciate that.

I elected to make the scene "busy" as I wanted to give it a bit of a frantic feel. But by choosing to convert the figures to bear paintball-esque weapons (and plenty of brightly coloured splat marks) I want to also make it lighthearted - a bit of a juxtaposition on the whole background mythos of the GW 40K universe.

Thanks for the info on your project. It looks interesting, and I'll be sure to follow the progress of the diorama.

As a former avid 40K and Epic gamer I sometimes miss the tactical aspects of modelling, so it's good to see the combination of diorama-building and wargames. :-)

I, for one, like the wargaming stuff. Plenty of room in modelling for all to share. My 2 cents worth.....cut off the bases or intigrate them into the scenery. Unless your going to use the figures for other projects or for gaming, that is. Love the fantasy stuff and your well on your way to good diorama. Kudos

Cheers for the feedback - there will be no bases in the finished dio. I just used proxy models to test the layout - I'm in the (enviable) position of having several boxes of stuff I could quickly toss onto the baseboard to see how the plan would look in some semblance of scale.

Just a minor update (no photos yet) - I've been building the wire armature for the trees using the Barry Bowen method - they're looking good. 2 decent sized "focal" trees and a few smaller ones. This weekend should be good for progress though - I'm hoping that by the end of it I'll have all the scenery constructed and the baseboard airbrushed ready for detail painting. Then its onto the figures.

The build is going well. Over the past couple of days I've gotten the base airbrushed and sealed the creek with varnish. I've built, painted and placed a wooden barrier and a small section of ruined wall. The trees have been built, skinned, painted and the foliage flocked - now I've attached the trees to the base. Next up is to disguise the glue under some flock and get the water effects poured. Maybe not a job for tonight.

Here's a shot of the dio in its current state.



I've also begun building some of the troops in the paintball match. Still waiting on some more parts to arrive, but here's Side B - the Cadian 8th straight out of the 40K Imperial Guard codex. I've made some small modifications to the lasgun to make it more resemble a paintball gun - specifically shortening the flash suppressor and adding a dual hopper (in the form of some frag grenades from a Space Marine assault kit) to the top of the gun.

Here's a shot of a sample trooper. I've stuck the lasgun & head on with blu-tac for the moment - can't paint the figure with the gun in the way, and I may use a different head depending on how the extra parts look when they arrive next week.



Hopefully another update in the next day or so. Have to say though - really enjoying this build. Learning a lot, having fun doing it. Should do more.

I don't know how practical this would be, because it would be difficult to model, but another way to really give it a "paintball instead of lascannon" feel would be to do some conversions on your figures giving them an air source. I suppose you could assume that in the grim future of 40k, they would have sufficiently advanced technology to make a "tankless" paintball gun. Actually, they pretty much have those now.

Anyway, just a thought, if you rigged up some little tanks on their backs with hoses (guitar strings?) running to the guns, or maybe some tanks hanging from the the bottom of the guns, it might give it more of a paintball look to it.

Oh, and also some modified belts/harnesses that are full of brightly colored paint pods. Masks would be cool too, but hard to model.

Thats a cool idea - if I can find something to use as a tank I'll definitely give that a shot. I couldn't think of anything in the right scale to use as an air tank, and my scratchbuild skills are sadly lacking. Guitar string, on the other hand, I have plenty of.

Hi Steve

Good to see you taking the leap to dioramas! Once you start you won't be able to turn back!

I myself have a big background in Citadel stuff, painting and Wargaming. I actually worked at a GW store for a few years when I was a student. Great fun but the money was terrible!

One thing I might recommend if you want to continue using Citadel miniatures for Dioramas, or if you just want general tips on Diorama building and painting have a look for Forgeworld's Modelling Masterclass book. A lot of Citadel stuff is horribly out of scale or proportion by scale model standards but if you look at Forgeworld items they are generally a lot better (most FW resins are quite close to regular 1:48) and actually the FW team have made some cracking dioramas this way using Death Korp of Kreig figures. I have the book myself and I still regularly read it alongside my Xtreme Modelling guides and Osprey books for example .

I'd say that your second photo of the WIP terrain looks great, the scenic base and the trees are very well done and serve the scale well I think. Heroic scale should always be taken with a pinch of salt, the most important thing is having fun I think (which should be a universal law in my mind in all modelling) and serving the genre. Fantasy settings give us much more artistic licence and scope to do whatever looks cool.

As for airtanks for the guns why not just take a regular frag grenade and file off all the rippled detail. That would leave you with a small hip mounted flask or tank that could carry paint. Alternatively why not do a similar thing but flamer style and attached the flask under the lasgun by removing the clip?

I'm looking forward to following this and I think it's a great idea, you could even enter it into a Golden Daemon if you wanted! Certainly is a fun and original concept!

I like the idea of using flamer cannisters - I'll see if I have some spare. If I mount them in place of the energy cell it might solve the problem. I've been looking at the guns some more - I'd like to remove the barrel altogether and replace it with a piece of brass tubing - just need to find some at the appropriate scale.

I love FW stuff - some of the new resin kits are gorgeous. Would love to make a dio of some Elysian troops with a Tauros but can't justify the spend (yet). Give it time.

I'll post the latest photo tonight - the trees have been secured and some basic flock has been set around the bases. I airbrushed some shading to darken it to look like fallen leaf matter. More scatter will go down once the figures themselves are in place. I've added the water effects, which are in their 24 hour curing time whilst I'm at the office - hopefully they work (first time using water effects that are more than just a layer of gloss varnish).

Assuming the water works, all thats left on the base at this stage is the final blending of the terrain elements to the earth base. Then I move onto the figures - which is where things could go horribly wrong.

OK, not enough flamer canisters but I had some locator beacons. A touch on the large side, so I probably need to find a way to scale it down a little. I have JUST enough Flamer cans for Side A though - so the weapons will be suitably different between the forces.


New and improved gas-powered paintball gun


Scale check of one figure placed on the board. Plasticine plugs are holding the water effects in.

Probably won't get much more done until Sunday due to work and other commitments, but you never know.

Finally got some time to get back into this dio - been a crazy couple of weeks. Coming back to it with fresh eyes helped though. First off, the paintball marker wasn't working for me, so it got rebuilt to this:


Paintball Marker X-3

Which was nearly there. I ended up just shaving the cage on the canister and calling it done.

Next, I began assembling the opposing force. These guys are a bit more aggressive. I have 2 with rifles and 3 with pistols. Here's the prototype:


Catachan soldier w/paintball marker.

With that sorted I finished the rest of the figures, primed them with white spray and got started on the painting. After a few hours, this is where I'm currently at.


Diorama in its current state on my painting desk


Cadian Force - currently basecoated


Catachan Force - awaiting the brush

For the Catachans, the guy in the middle is a casualty - he'll be walking back with his gun over his head. The one on the far right will JUST have taken a hit and is now "dead". The one on the far left will have cover position at the wooden barricade.

So thats it for tonight. More painting to be done throughout the week, but probably not tomorrow night.

Bit more progress tonight. Took delivery of my DF3028 lamp this afternoon - boy does that thing show up the mistakes!! Spent all evening (4hrs) fixing up stupid things and tightening up the colour blends. Still got some edge highlighting to do but chose to leave that until I'd assembled the troopers - which I've now done.


Cadian troops, X-3 Paintballers at the ready

I can't do faces to save myself, so I'm currently debating about what to do there. Still, I've got 4/9 troops "almost done" so thats a start.

I should add in the answer to this question "where are the splats?". Those will be applied last, probably not until I have the models placed on the diorama base. I'm also not sure on whether to have them all liberally tagged or to keep them pretty clean to emphasise the hits.

Hi Steve, Nice job so far. I think the faces look good in the last photo you posted. Could you make goggles or some type of eye/face protection(safety first ). This would eliminate the problem of painting the faces.HTH....Vince

I'm still too scared to do the eyes on the faces, but aside from that I've done the first batch of troops to completion.


4 Cadian skirmishers, ready for some paintball action

Couple of detail shots of some of the troopers:


Cadian Trooper #1


Cadian Trooper #4

I've also made a start on the opposing force's paintwork. Just some parts of the basecoat plus a simple wash to get some edge definition.


Paint us... we're still half-naked! Paint us!!!

If I keep up this rate I'll be done by the weekend... NOT!

Big update for once. Plenty of work happened on the weekend to get this diorama to a much more advanced state. I'm pretty happy with the way its going.

Finished painting all the troops, including sucking up my fear and doing the eyes on them. Not a brilliant result but not too bad for a first attempt at it.


Close up of the Catachan skirmishers.

Then it was on to painting splat marks on the terrain and adding some flock, then securing the troops to it. The pictures below are where I'm at now. The flock still needs some tinting and blending, more splat marks are requires and some weathering needs to be done to tie everything together. But we're close. Very close.


View #1 - The Catachans press the attack (front left)


View #2 - The Cadians grimly hold the line (rear right)

Hopefully get it finished by next weekend.

The post I never thought I'd make. I'm done. Sure, its a bit rough around the edges but thats OK - I'm happy with where it is and every "improvement" I tried all looked worse (so I removed them). I've relocated the "dead" guy running back, added round 2 of the flock and then the additional paint splats. Blended the edges of the creek to the banks. I'm leaving the flock the colour it is as its working for me.


The completed diorama


Side-on view of all the troops

Some detail shots are below. There are 8, so this is a pretty big post full of pictures.


The Cadians


The Catachans


Front-Right View


Right View


Detail Shot #1


Detail Shot #2


Detail Shot #3


Detail Shot #4

Its been a learning experience but its been rewarding too. Regardless of the competition result I'm pleased with what I've achieved on this one. Learned to do eyes. Learned to control my paint a lot more for many sections of the model. Learned more about conversions. First time using water effects & woodland scenics products.

Thats it for this one folks. Now time to take a break, watch some Star Trek and plan the next build. Its been fun. Hmm... what should be next? I'm not exactly hurting for choices...

Cheers!

brilliant! that is the funniest build in a long time.
Just one thing to add. Someone shot in the breadbasket for that full PB experience.

Great stuff.

OK, I give up - how do you mark a build/log as "completed"? I can't figure it out.