WIP: Halloween-themed Ork diorama (Warhammer)

[DefiantWorkshop]

A few more little guys over the weekend:

A Necron-dressed ork with a good haul this halloween:


This older guy's in on the action, can anyone spot who he's dressed up as?


And a few tyranids in the house:






That last little guy is concerned about something...what could it be?



Added some drool with some gel super glue and nurgle's rot paint:

[DefiantWorkshop]

Next up, some odds and ends...

A few Space Marine Jack-o-lanterns, with styrene rod stems:



And the foam base finally cut and glued down:

[Mark M]

From what I've read, 28mm is about right. My eyes are just now uncrossing.

LOL...

[tay666]

Man, this is gonna look killer when you have it done.

Can't imagine all the fine detail painting.
I don't have the eyes for stuff like that anymore.
Or the coordination for that matter.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Tay, hopefully I WILL get it done. I seem to work in spurts. I blink and I've finished 3 pieces, or I sit for days and do nothing. Ugh. I lack a sense of urgency as of late. Probably the 5 and 7 year olds tugging at me at all hours. The good news is the 5 year old sits down and paints her own models with me. The only reason I keep pink paint pots.

[tay666]

We all have days like that.
At least I know I do.

And yeah, kids will suck a lot of momentum out of hobbies.

[DefiantWorkshop]

So I GROSSLY underestimated the amount of spackle I would need to cover this. "Do I need the giant tub? Nah, the medium sized one will be just fine!" Wrong.

[DefiantWorkshop]

OK, have a few days of vacation to burn, so I took the day off to get to work on this. I'm getting a bit behind the 8 ball as it were.

Early morning trip to the hardware store, some more spackle, and voila, whole thing finally covered. I created a bit of texture to it by using spackle's terrible and awesome ability to stick to anything and everything. Just patted any surface that had an obvious putty knife streak or was too smooth with a gloved hand. Eventually the surface pulled up just a hair, creating a nice uneven texture across the whole thing. Now to wait on it to dry to base coat it:



As I was waiting for it to dry yesterday, I got involved with the trees. Lighting at my bench is less than desirable for photography but works in a pinch for quick stuff. Also, it appears my daughter's pink-themed Tau made it into the shot as it dries on my desk, lol.



Also cut out a few strips of styrene, took my nifty heat gun to them to make them appear more paper like. Here's a test for one vignette I'm working on, you'll get a good idea of what's going on:

[DefiantWorkshop]

I'm a blind man forging a trail here.

So I have no clue what to do when it comes to scenics. I've read a little bit about them, OK, recently, A LOT about them, but I've still never done anything with them, and for every informative technique I find, I find something that debunks what I just read. So, I figure let's just dive head first.

While waiting on the spackle to dry, I started mixing up different colors of turf:





And after what felt like and excruciatingly long time, the spackle was dry enough to base coat with some cheapo craft brown paint:



While I wait on that to dry, I'll be working on the trees. But for now, I'm starving and have tickets to the local drive in theater, so its a good time for things to be drying.

[DefiantWorkshop]

OK, back again. Sick of me yet?

I woke up and put another coat of brown on it, as there were some spots that didn't get very good coverage after it dried. While I waited on the second coat to dry, I started on the next vignette...the TPing!

After learning a good bit on a previous kit about heating and shaping styrene, I started randomly taking strips of styrene and heating them up at different angles, letting them warp into various shapes, then covered them with a thing off white paint to get some of the sheen off of the styrene:



Then a quick test shot on the tree:



After that, it was time to start bringing things together, so I got my trusty Aves Apoxie (seriously, this stuff is magic) and mixed up a good batch. see, the GW trees have these weird airborne roots. Even when placed on the base they come with, they just look...off, with places they look like they grew over things, with the things they grew over just...not there. So I sculpted some turf up to the tree roots with the Aves, and then textured it a bit with an old stippling brush. The Aves serves two functions...it acts as a putty to blend the tree into the turf I made, and also acts as a serious adhesive as well.





Finally, airbrushed where the grass flocking will go with a mottled pattern, and placed the chapel down just to see what it looked like:

[tay666]

OK, back again. Sick of me yet?

Heck no!
Been loving every minute of this thread.
These posts have been pure gold as far as how to tackle a huge project like this.
Great pics, and lots of useful info.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Next up, some odds and ends from the weekend.

Split the Runtherd arm and the squig (dog) up to better suit the diorama, sculpted up some lost detail after the fact:





Also got my TP thrower completed, he's sure to be one of the focal points if early reaction around the household is any indication. I just cut a tube of styrene to the same width as my TP strips, glued together and heat warped the streamer and glued to the thrower's hand:

[DefiantWorkshop]

Got some turf laid down. I had, and still have, no clue what I'm doing with turf, lol. I should have started with the dirt, but hindsight and all that. Started with the grass, and its a good sight better than the brown and green paint.



Added a small signpost and a buzzard, some extra bits that I had laying around that fit the theme:



Also, sculpted up some dirt for the Carnifex to come bursting out of. Putty was still wet, I'm gonna paint it up later:



And I inexplicably forgot to take a picture with the dirt, but did take a quick mock-up shot for posterity that shows the state of the base right now, looking at this I realized I didn't take close ups of the trees in progress either, need to get some of those. Now that the sloppy stuff is done, the wife is happy to get her kitchen table back while I finish things up on the floor in the hobby room:

[DefiantWorkshop]

So after sitting and staring at the task at hand almost all night, I finally broke out of my stupor and started laying paint to things. I got the vulture on the sign post painted up, and the dog that I mentioned last post is now fully painted with a chain leash. I plan to super glue the leash to stiffen the links up, and wash it to dull the look down, but until I know exactly where he goes on the board, its gonna stay cheap link jewelry.







Also finished with the dirt from the emerging tyranid, and got some promised pictures of the TPed trees a little more up close.





Next, I'm trying to come up with a way to do realistic leaves. I'd read about just getting real leaves and crushing/blending them, but I'm left with either WAY too large chunks from crushing, or basically spices when blending. Anyone got any good alternatives for doing leaves that doesn't look just like the turf I laid down?

Thanks for looking!

[beaveren]

Try eBay for Warhammer scale leaves. You should be able to get a bunch of different colours. Here is one as an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/390838423455?lpid=82

B

[DefiantWorkshop]

Thanks. I had actually seen SW's leaves on their site, but they looked very...vivid. The pictures on ebay look a lot better, thanks!

[DefiantWorkshop]

Right as y'all are starting to get bored of this, I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, but its just a pinpoint right now. Keep in mind these aren't final shots. I'll whip out my good camera when all is said and done, and though what's on the board seen here is permanently attached, its not everything, and I'll keep adding as time permits.



I started pinning some of the vignettes to the board. I drilled out some paper clip sized holes and applied some Aves to each foot for extra security. There's not much contact room on these tiny miniatures, and putting them on turf is even shakier, so I'm taking what I can get. First up, the tyranid vignette, where three friends who came dressed as the fearsome foes are goofing off until one of them spots the real threat right behind them!





Next, the owner of the house is giving out his candy to a few arrivals (including a devil, a necron with a skeleton shirt, and someone that is copyright-wise distinct enough from the Joker) but took his eye off his pumpkins...





More to come, but rationed out to not be a pic explosion....

[Fauberoptic]

i always love your warhammer WIP
great work!

[DefiantWorkshop]

Thanks...I made a checklist to focus me on the home stretch here. Still waiting on a few pieces to arrive to finish things up.

[DefiantWorkshop]

OK a bit more finished last night. I'm procrastinating right now by doing updates, but when I"m done typing, hopefully there will be no more distractions and I'll get back to it. Took today and tomorrow off, so hoping that means I can get some headway.

A few more pieces pinned down...

The uruk-hai and his kid, walking up to the door:



The vulture on the signpost and one necron who's done for the night after a huge haul:



I also created a fence by manually breaking up craft sticks in random lengths and using the inherent "puncturability" of the the foam and spackle on the board to push them in place in varying patterns:





Finally, smashed a pumpkin, because that has to happen on Halloween. Just some Aves sculpted in various patterns with lots of yellow and orange to goop it up:



Thanks again for looking!!!