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Just finished this project as part a larger ongoing series of dios

Very cool!

The 2nd edition SoB codex was one of my first purchases for 40k so this diorama brings out a lot of nostalgia.

Out-freaking-standing!!!!!!

Painting quality is tabletop, but the composition is masterful and cinematic... very cool! I would encourage you to continue coming back to this over time and enhancing the paint job as you are able, I think the overall piece is worth it!

Thanks for sharing, very inspiring to see well done composition!

Wonderful!

That's the good stuff. Lovely, atmospheric, and super reminiscent of John Blanche's work.

One word: Grimdark.

*claps* this is spectacular! If I may how long did this take, and are there any wip pictures?

Thanks folk , apologies for the lateness of the reply ..

@Majortom thanks yeah , i am not the best painter , but i do like composition. story telling. and terrain making in general.. i doubt i will add anything else to this piece though.

@stompygitz yeah i took plenty .. let me see if i can upload them.





here is a blog post with pics on the diorama




https://distopus.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/canoness-veridyan.html


here is a blog post on the creation of the skull pyramidden

https://distopus.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/learning-to-cast-but-loosing-muse.html


some pics of the pyramid build






























some pics of the diorama build...














and finally some pics of the dio











and for context the dio was made as an eight part series of dioramas and story narrating the life of an inquisitor called Darthur.

the ages of Darthur
https://distopus.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/ages-of-darthur.html


cheers !

Looks fantastic - well done

Awesome!

Fantastic work - excellent job bringing the book cover to life.

Nicely done!

This is a thing of beauty.

Amazing Work!!!!! it looks perfect! it has that classic dark 40k feel, awesome, made my day

Great work Neil The pyramid base even by itself is superb and incredibly well thought out.

Had a quick look at your link and I'm looking forward to reading about the ages of Darthur.

Thanks for the kind words folk..

@Perkustin.. aye up..mate.. glad you like it .. enjoy the read but forgive the typos ;-)

Awesome!

Incredible work, bringing that iconic artwork to life in miniature.

The whole diorama is great looking and evocative, and you represented the artwork perfectly with your miniatures.

My only comment is that the artwork had a more orange hue to it, but it's not criticism. I prefer it with this black, dark theme. It's more gritty, more nihilistic... I feel the hopelessness of the setting.

Great work!

 Adam Spielmann wrote:
The whole diorama is great looking and evocative, and you represented the artwork perfectly with your miniatures.

My only comment is that the artwork had a more orange hue to it, but it's not criticism. I prefer it with this black, dark theme. It's more gritty, more nihilistic... I feel the hopelessness of the setting.

Great work!

Perhaps the orange is due to the available light when the photo was taken? Common household lights have a color temperature that affect the camera when taking pictures.
Maybe the White balance needs adjusting, if the feature is available. It can also be corrected easily in Photoshop or most image ending apps.

Cheers all..

@Adam Spielmann

Thanks , yeah the original artwork is a masterpiece and this is just a shill copy and in my opinion not worthy to sit in the same room. I just wanted to add a backdrop to the cannoness mini and this one seemed appropriate.. just a mere homage to a great painting.. with that in mind there is no way i could copy the original tone without spending a good year on this project ( it took six months just to build the pyramid )as the warm medieval scripture tones of the original are found mostly in the sprawling back painting.. i would need to paint up thirty six sisters plus all the other stuff flying bats etc.. and more scenery..

having said that i did experiment with the colour tones , to try and copy the original , but in my mind it just didn't work , without manipulating the image a lot in photoshop.. its just not the road i wanted to travel with this 3d piece , it needed to stand on its on merrits and play to its own strengths.,. Using daylight as the main source of lighting and strong dark shadows really gave the dio a heavy grounded realism that i like too.

the real difficulty was trying to capture the foreground and background in focus like the painting. my camera didn't like that at all and i had to test hundreds of shots to find the perfect balance of foreground and background.. plus composition and lighting.


@Bushfire good advice thanks , I could be wrong but I think Adam was saying the orangey tones were in the original painting but not in my diorama ..




foreground focus test




background focus test




multyfocus test




Multy focus final : I did add a small filter to slightly darken the final shot .. it does add some warmth but i don't think it distracts from the reality of the final piece.





Original John Blanche Painting





I did make some warmer copies but i think they lacked the dramatic strength of the final piece






finally my friend Krautscientist from the brilliant eternal hunt blog https://eternalhunt.wordpress.com/ made a few copies with much warmer tones like the painting. It might be worthwhile noting that the backfocus image has a composition more close to the original painting..

multy focus



background focus

Exactly, what I meant was that the painting was more on the warm tones, with the blazing fires, orange light, and slightly yellowish bones. This one feels more solemn.

Keep in mind, I'm not a HUGE fan of John Blanche's art, and I prefer his landscapes to his picture of people and machines.

Therefore, out of atmosphere, I prefer yours to the original. It has a stronger feel of dark, silent solemnity. Tiny points of light in a dark and unforgiving world. It's much mre evocative.

Dude. very nice!

Just WOW!

Amazing work, keep up the great work

Stunning. Just stunning.

Beautiful and dynamic!

One of the best dios I have seen that really captures the grimdark. WELL DONE!

Late well done from me.

Cheers,

CB