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Hello to all! I am not a pro painter by any stretch of the imagination, I just like to paint my favorite armies (Grey Knights and Black Templars). These are the Knights I have finished so far. I still have 2 squads of Terminators and a Dreadknight to paint up. The story on the scenery is the Knights were teleported into the courtyard of an old bastion (most likely xenos) on a world that has mysteriously gone silent. The prognosticars have determined a greater daemon will be borne into the Imperium here. There is a Chaos portal inside the keep and they are there to greet whatever comes out. Even though there is snow it is over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. It is silent as there is no wildlife or even insects. The dreadnought with the psycannon and banner is former Grand Master Orias (made up) and he is here to greet the greater daemon that put him in his tomb chassis 200 years ago.

My own critiques are I should not have used the bases the trees came with and I should have made the courtyard walls higher then the entrance columns. Any other comments, critiques or ideas are of course welcome!

Negatives:
-I think your whole diorama is just a bit big. There's a lot of wide open space that needs to either be filled or cut out, it lacks visual interest. I'd basically put the trees on the edge only a few inches from the portal and set the knights up in the smaller space.
-In my opinion the Grey Knights are in a very flat formation, just a straight line with one guy out of it, mix them up a bit, move them back and forth so it looks more natural.
-The portal is very flat at it's surface. I really like the tentacles but the portal itself needs either more varied paint or some green stuff texture added.

Positives:
-The actual models look good from what I can tell.
-The structure of the walls are very nice.
-The snow and rocks and shrubs in the environment look great.

So it's well done in the painting and modeling, but needs a bit of cleaning up in the composition department in my opinion. I look forward to seeing anything more you upload.

Great Idea and fluff, the models look great !
I am however agreeing with the man with no plan regarding composition and the occupation of space. Especially given that the angle from which you took most of the shots makes the dread masks his brothers in arms.

Regarding silly ideas of mine I would have liked to see a lower class inquisitorial servant being dragged by a tentacle, and maybe an inquisitor mercifully about to shoot him in the face.
Also what goes really well with snow, is blood. Maybe there could be the remains of the sacrificial circle that conjured this portal, slain by the GKs, or by their own doing ?

Anyway, this is a great project man !

I disagree with the first two comments about the wide open space being a huge issue - I'll reserve that judgement until you'd added the models that you listed as not being present (termis + DK).

I generally try not to offer critiques about custom backstories or lore because that part of the game is sort of sacred to me - creating your own lore is the most important part of 40k IMO. That being said, you specified that the scene is supposed to be 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93+ C), but you've given no visual indication of this in the showcase... I understand the whole 'nature of chaos' bit, but when you are trying to represent things with a diorama (visual arrangement of models) some things simply have to be made visually apparent or the viewer just wont be aware of them.

If you want the snow to be there despite the heat, perhaps have the trees be burning or burned... adds that impossible contrast without just having to say it.

On the positive side, I really like the portal itself. I think it looks convincingly chaosy. Though your DK will have a hell of a time squeezing through it.

I think this is a really cool diorama. Captures the Grey Knights' take whatever come attitude.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I like the ideas of someone being grabbed by a tentacle and the trees burning. And blood. There will be blood! I already have some ideas about how to incorporate that. As for the space, I am actually thinking that once I add all the new models, it will be too small, and may have to take the interceptors out of there.

very cool idea love the tentacles, would look better imo if you cut the base in to a triangle so we could have more angle on the portal and staggered the mini's in an arc from the back wall out, would be more open to the viewer and more dynamic pose wise. Also it would kill a lot of the dead space.
More a personal gribble, i like there to be no bases or to sink the bases into the board, so they can be lifted out for use or sit flush when on display.

Do you have any close up pics of the minis?

I think a red glow being cast on the snow in front of the portal would look really cool.

Also, I love it!

Cool! I love the both the concept and the execution The snow, too!!

Hey guys, thanks for the ideas! I appreciate the replies. I do not have close-ups of the minis at the moment, I am overseas at work and my diorama is at home. Fortunately I brought my terminators and dreadknight with me to work on while I'm here. Can't wait to get back and bring these ideas to life!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hey guys, thanks for the ideas! I appreciate the replies. I do not have close-ups of the minis at the moment, I am overseas at work and my diorama is at home. Fortunately I brought my terminators and dreadknight with me to work on while I'm here. Can't wait to get back and bring these ideas to life!

I really like it!
I've often seen dioramas that are "theatrical" in composition: designed to showcase several models in a compact space.
These theatrical dioramas often pack many miniatures together (usually with flamboyant or dramatic poses) and are quite "busy" with detail.

By contrast, your diorama seems to be more "realistic". The space marines have fanned out across a rather broad zone respectfully far from the portal itself. I like the first picture quite a bit: it looks like an actual photo of the scene in question.

Too many Grey Knights
Pack like 300 guardsmen in front of them and like 4 Termies and your done

but in all seriousness looks great but either the knights could do with some glow and flair to draw your eyes to them or the portal needs it. i seem to have my eyes kinda roam around a bit but not taking it all in more looking for somewhere to focus