Matthew's Terrain Things - FINISHED DIORAMA! [30/9/15]

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Matthew**

SCROLL DOWN A FEW POSTS, THAT'S WHERE THE REAL COOL THINGS ARE!

Hi everyone! Me and a friend of mine are starting a huge project: We're going to make a gaming board, complete with tons of terrain. The board is probably going to be MDF with sand, and we'll make tons of separate terrain pieces so we can customize the board as much as we want. Current plans are a small city, a river, a defense line, and so forth.

So, pictures:

A normal WoM Bunker, nothing special. a Heavy Stubber, an aquila and a DA badge added. The DA is for my friend who plays them.

A scratchbuilt comm center/bunker. Still WIP.

Maybe the vox is too big...

**Prestor Jon**

I don't think the box is too big you can work with that. I do think its facing the wrong way. To my eye it looks like a powerful wall mounted strategium vox caster with the battlefield displayed on the green orb part. It just doesn't make sense to have it on the exterior of the bunker where it and people using it won't be protected. Make it part of the exterior face the bunker or emplacement and I think it would look better. Maybe redesign the bunker to be more of a hard point of the trench that way you could move models around it and possibly use it as an objective too.

**Matthew**

Well, the point of it isn't to be a defensive thing, it's a comm station. The bunker-y bits are just there to add some sort of protection. But thanks!

**Matthew**

Sorry for the blurry pic, it's me sketching on a modular road system. The piece right there is 10.5 cm wide and 20 cm long, the cork is 10 times 20 cm. I broke it up a bit to conserve cork. It's blended into the base with sand, to make it look more natural.
Bigger things coming soon, I promise!

**Matthew**

Hi everyone! Please treat this as the first post on this thread and ignore the horrible bunker-y thing I made.

I've started to build something bigger now, a real building. That is a blueprint, and although it's in Swedish, you probably get it: a 2 level building, complete with ramps, doors and windows. Yes! So much win!

I started out with a modest product placement...

...and started cutting out the cardboard pieces.

A few hours later...

Ta daa!

The PVA hasn't hardened yet, and the hot glue is still... hot?

The ramp itself. I build the whole thing wide enough so that two normal infantry guys can walk alongside eachother.

Right now I'm working on the second floor and the roof.

**Matthew**

Been building on some cool stuff, including a walkway, which is raised about 5 cm up:

Whenever I play with my best friend, the only altitude difference we have is when we put Devastator Squads or Snipers on top of buildings, and I want to implement something like a modular road system.

It's 30x10.5cm long and wide, I'm currently trying to figure out how to make a nice bend/turn, any ideas? I really need some help...

Here's a Chimera on it. You can parade 4 25mm bases on it, if you can squish 'em together.

**Red Harvest**

Those are DVD/CDs which you are using for the base of the raised road? And some sort of cardboard tube. Quite clever.

**Matthew**

Red Harvest wrote:
Those are DVD/CDs which you are using for the base of the raised road? And some sort of cardboard tube. Quite clever.

Why thank you! The CDs are just me being lazy, I didn't want to cut a cardboard base. And those are actually toilet paper roll cardboard tube things! They're just high enough for a normal guy to pass under... convenient. I'm palnning on making sections that are completely broken, to let tanks pass under.

**Kiblams**

I do like the way that overpass looks, should look very nice once done. Do you have plans to texture the edges of the cardboard at all?

**Matthew**

I'm entering this months painting contest, with an epic diorama:

I started out humble, with a simple cutting board.

I used polystyrene and toilet paper rolls to bulk it up.

Here it is with some more bulk.

I used PVA to fill all cracks and gaps.

Here are two alternatives to the statue that will stand on the toilet paper roll. I like the Scion, which one do you prefer?

**Desubot**

I would not be using that cutting board.

Polypropylene is REALLY hard to glue to and is IIRC impossible.

Id use Hardboard like a wood clip note.

**Matthew**

Desubot wrote:
I would not be using that cutting board.

Polypropylene is REALLY hard to glue to and is IIRC impossible.

Id use Hardboard like a wood clip note.

Well, it's both kind off too late, and I actually first sanded the thing, then glued everything with a mix of hot glue and PVA. Let's see if it falls off! Ugh...

**Matthew**

An update on the diorama:

I've added some more rocks and slate. Mostly that, plus these guys:

I really want the left guy to be standing on that pillar. do you like the verdigris look on the guy tot he right?

A huge part of this diorama will be the heroic guy flinging himslef to his certain death to distract the Tyranids from killing his fellow Guardsman. Now, I want him to look like he's flying down, so I came up with this: He's got a plasma pistol, which will be firing into the Tyranid mass, with some wire coated in glue to look like a plasma beam/projectile.

**Matthew**

I spent a few hours today and yesterday building on the diorama, here's my progress so far:

That's a birds eye view. All the Nids that are lying down are in the positions they'll be in when I'm done. Sorry for the bad pictures!

Here's the top half, with the flamer guy and a few Nids.

My favourite part, the posterboard. Essentially just Imperial propaganda with a SECTOR CLOSED glued on top of it.

Here's the most annoying one: The Officer who sacrifices himself. I'll probably use some sprue to hold him up, and I'll make it into a more pleasant plasma-like texture with some hot glue.

Is the recruiting poster too torn? Maybe.

And this poor guy, getting mauled by Nids.

**Cleatus**

The diorama is really starting to take shape.

**Theophony**

I like the concept and the work so far. Sorry for not commenting sooner. I actually like the simple guardsman statue better than the Scion. Just makes it more of a recruiting tool to show the common man he can make a difference.

as for the torn recruiting poster....maybe move the little ripper over towards the poster and have it chewing the poster off the pedestal

. I mean the tyranids eat everything biological on a planet including paper right?

it might be too silly though

**Matthew**

Hmm, I like your idea with the Ripper...
The reason I have that specific Scion, and not a normal Guardsman, is that this diorama takes place on a planet used as a huge garrison by an IG regiment. Most people who see the statue will be normal Guardsmen, who will then be inspired to become higher ranked and die more gloriously.

**Theophony**

Sounds good

, but if it's a garrison world why would there be a recruiting poster?

**Matthew**

Hmm, that's... oh... right...

**CREEEEEEEEED**

This looks very good. I wish I had this much motivation, maybe I'd actually get stuff done occasionally.

**Matthew**

Here's a small update:

That's the posterboard, what do you think?

I like this one, he might have something to do with the flamer guy...

Here's the finished diorama (almost) I just need to make some mud for the bottown and paint everything.

**Matthew**

There ya go!

**Matthew**

Here's the diorama as of yesterday: I've started drybrushing, plus all the rocks are slowly getting a nice coat of Eshin Grey. There's at least a hundred rocks on there, and I need to paint all of them... the humanity!

**Fifty**

I like the use of hot glue as flames. I might try that myself some time.

**Matthew**

A quickie:

Almost done!

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Me likie. Me likie a lot.

**Matthew**

Right, sorry:

**Warboss_Waaazag**

Diorama is coming along nicely.

**Ustrello**

Very nice so far man! If you have a gw around you, you should think about entering that in armies on parade!

**Matthew**

Nah, that's in just a month and it's waaaayyy too small. Maybe next year wink wink