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Hi guys,

I'm pretty new here but I've been working on this display piece for a little while and this looked like a good place to show it off. I decided to put together a scene with a Dwarf mine under attack by some greenskins. It's still a work in progress and I'm trying to up my painting technique (got a lot of catching up to do judging by the other posts around here!) but I'm pretty happy with how it's coming together. I hope you like the pics.

My camera's made the grass look pretty garish but it's a bit more subtle in real life.


This is a closer shot of my Dwarf warriors. I chose blue basically because I hadn't painted anything in that colour in a long time and I think it's a really nice shade


There's still some work to do sticking down the torches to the floor and finishing off the paint on the left hand one


I'm not so happy with the way his eyes came out but I think I managed to get a good effect on the beard, cape and his jewel.




These were some of my first experiments with my new iwata airbrush. I really love how much character you instantly get on the faces with just some simple airbrush shading.

Well that's my little submission. There's lots more for me to paint yet (boar boys, longbeards, orc warboss etc etc.) but this is how it looks so far. I'd love to hear your feedback!

Stunning!!

Love the diorama with lights. Is that a castle/cave kit or did you build it from scratch? I love the look of the rock flooring. Good stuff.

Thanks Mdlbuildr.

The lights were something I was really keen to build into a scene. I thought it would make it look a little more eye catching and fiddling with electronics is always fun!
The whole thing started life as just a sheet of black perspex which was cut so it would fit in my bookshelf. Then I stuck some styrofoam to that (with some difficulty!) and sanded it into a slope to form the terrain and the raised part inside the cave. I used another slice from the sheet as the rock face. The tiled area is then just carved out of the foam. Same goes for the rocky effect of the wall. Spent quite a bit of time watching some guys on youtube to find out how to get the right look.
I designed the archway and the torch-pillars myself and had them 3D printed by a company called Shapeways. Again that was a good excuse for me to play around with some technology

Very cool, especially the inside of the mine

I really love your painting style, gives everything a warm storybook feel. The diorama/cave looks unreal, do you have further pics of it?

Thanks Scrub, I've never had it described as storybook before, but I'll take the compliment
I've taken a few more pictures of the scene. Hopefully it gives a bit more of an insight into how it looks


This is a slightly further out shot of the front of the mine. You can see the rocky outcrop and some of the Orc warriors


And here's a shot of those orcs. I figured a red motif would work nicely against the blue of the Dwarfs. I also love how much action GW have captured in the animosity Orc figures in the background


This is a more panoramic shot of the whole mine scene. It still needs some more coats of paint on the inside and that longbeard looks very lonely at the moment... At least he gets the throne to himself I guess!

I'm thinking of adding some trees to the plain outside the mine entrance but that kind of depends on how well the Orc army fits in. There's still plenty of work to do on the scene and the figures but I'm really pleased with how it looks so far.

My god that is a beauty.

That's fine as hell, dog ;-)

I love it, very colorful and dynamic scene. I actually like the somewhat bare look of the outside; it looks like the barren approach to the mountain. The inside needs a bit more, but I know that you know that.

Great stuff, especially the long side shot!

Thanks for the comments guys. Perhaps I'll leave the approach without trees then. I do like the idea of a more windswept and barren lead up to the rock face. I just need to think of something to add a bit of action to the inside (Other than lots more dwarfs!).
I'm glad you think it's dynamic. I'm just putting the finishing touches to some boar boyz. With the spears out and the banner flying that really adds some dynamism to any scene... If any Orc warbosses are reading this and you don't have any boar boyz.... get some!

Fantastic work. I love it!