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Hello wargamers, thank you for viewing this post.

Here I will be posting the entire build of a decent sized diorama, around 20x70centimetres. It will be themed as modern versus nature.
The idea is that the goblins with their squigs will rush off off a mountain with no tactics whatsoever into the far advanced city of the dwarfs.

Again thanks for viewing, feel free to leave a comment, i'd very much appericiate it and would like to take you in to work out the diorama. Any ideas are welcome! Let's build it 'together'..





Scroll down for more pictures!

This is a very ambitious diorama, how many figures will you use?
Sounds cool!

Looks very promising so far.
About the dwarves, do you want to have the first line to be static and absorbing the impact of the first wave (with models like ironbreakers), or do you want to have an ongoing combat taking place (the grim hammers from LotR are pretty nice too, albeit hard to convert)?
And the grots will just be squig riders? On a mountainous terrain like that, I feel like spider riders crawling from everywhere could look nice.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys!

The idea is that around 5 dwarfs (visuals will assume the line will be longer outside the diorama) will stand with huge shields. They will be ironbreakers with shield from the skeleton army (the long medieval ones) just closing the entire gap.
Altho one of them will be out of line due to impact of one of those massive chain-ball (night goblin fanatics) while a squig rushes through.

I like the idea of the spiders, so far my goblins are: archers on top, squigs and squig riders along the hill and on the dwarf area, like 3 fanatics in total rushing off the mountain using their weapons and some leaders on top.
The dwarf army will be a total of: archers in the back, ironbreakers in the front. 1 individual halfway on the mountain hiding under the overhanging rock using a boobytrap & a leader on top of the stairs in the far back. Besides that there will be 1 mounted weapon like a cannon somewhere in the city.

The overall idea is that you will see just a fraction of the start of the dwarf city, i will be trying to visualise it so that this is just a chunck of the entire battlefield. So that when you see the diorama you will visualize the city behind it and the rest of the army alongside it.

Thoughts?

A first glimpse of the luxurious marble/golden city of the Dwarfs. More will follow today!

The first texlst in placement of the units. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the dynamics.

Rocks made with styrodur. Overplayed with glue drenched toiletpapier is what gives the structure.

Lovely work on the landscape. I'm excited to see more of this.

Yet to build: a gate in front of the stone bride & finish off the siding on the city side, concrete look on the vertical wall downwards from the tiles.

Photooooos

It's coming along nicely!
The color tiles seem a bit odd to me for some reason, maybe because they're all just one plain color (no highlight or much wash between them). But at the same time it gives a nice clean and shiny look. I suppose your dwarves will also have a clean paintjob to complement it.

And one question: for the "glue drenched toiletpaper", did you use scenic glue or PVA/wood glue? It really creates a perfect structure.

Thanks mate! The tiles are actual glass tiles used in mosaics, I guess I'll have to varnish the entire diorama to pull the shine to 1 level. It's surprising to hear they come out as flat since they are actually tiles and not painted, but I wouldn't have seen that myself so it's great advice!

The toilet paper (buy thin cheap ones, best result) is done with white wood glue, 2 layers thick. Make sure to really push it on hard or you will keep seeing the pressed texture of the toilet paper its self. It will dry in this wrinkly, stone like texture.

Finally nature is done! Now working on dwarf city

Great stuff. Love the color of the rocks contrasting with the greenery.

Finishing up the city side of this diorama. Used hardwood, some bitz and AK interactive diorama concrete.

How do you like it?