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My local GW has a competition coming up in April where we make Warhammer dioramas, that are 1 foot by 1 foot maximum in size, and I had the idea today on making a diorama that depicts a Raven Guard ambush about to happen on some poor traitor legion troops or convoy. My idea was to make the diorama a ravine that went in a line down the middle, where the traitors will be walking forward, and the Raven Guard kill team will be at the top of the ravine on either sides aiming at the traitors and about to start an ambush. The real thing that I want to do is layer the floor in the ravine under the traitors in hidden boobytraps and explosives, maybe explosives on the walls too, the traitor marine at the front of the diorama will have a trip wire snagged on his leg, as if he was just about to trigger it. My problem is though that I am finding it very difficult to sculpt or buy walking pose marine legs for the traitors and I'm not so sure which traitor legion to use. This will be the first diorama I have ever made I just want it to look half decent, so any help that can be given on general tips or tips for this diorama would be greatly appreciated!

You can chop regular marine legs at the knee and hip joints and re-sculpt the flexible under suit parts with gs. This is the easiest way I have found to alter the poses of space marine legs. This sounds like a really neat idea, can't wait to see how you handle it!

Go get the running/walking legs from a third party site. Kromlech has some that work well with Mk III Crusade armor:

http://bitsofwar.com/home/61-space-legionary-running-legs.html

The models have to be GW ones, no third party bits unfortunately

 Decay wrote:
The models have to be GW ones, no third party bits unfortunately

With the massive amount of GW parts around, and people kitbashing/sclupting their own stuff, I am pretty sure that they won't be able to tell

Basides, you had to buy the marines anyway

True point, on another note, do you think that the ravine should be a sheer drop to the floor, where the traitors are, or more of a sloping one? I'm stuck on how to pose the Raven Guard and this is the first step to answering that question.

Here are some pictures on my rendition of the diorama. The red dice indicate the 1' by 1' border for the whole thing, and the outer edges of the green dice indicte the edges of the ravine cliffs (or slopes). The marine legs will be made into Iron Warriors as their legs are walking, the Cataphractii termies will be stripped and reposed. However, I need to decide on whether to buy a new land raider or use the vindicator. Both tanks fit in the ravine, but I think that the Land Raider stands out more. The Raven Guard will be place somehow between the edges and the green dice.

Due to glitches two replies were needed

My local store has that annoying rule as well: no third party bits at all, even for armies just playing on their tables. Since all of my armies have a few heads or weapons from third parties, I can't play there. I think it's silly and overkill, but his store, his rules.

The idea for the diorama is excellent, but it's going to be hard to fit the cliffs and ambushers all in such a small space. Maybe just do one side of the cliff/ravine, leaving the other side open to the viewer. It will be easier to see the models in the ravine as well. Otherwise you will only see the tops of their heads.

That's a good idea, plus the Raven Guard models won't be dispersed and noticed a bit better. This photo shows the diorama with one cliff side, and it works better in my opinion. I'm still stuck though whether to make that left side a sheer drop or a steep slope, as a steep slope will be easier to pose marines aiming down snipers on, but a sheer drop could work for some assault marines and for putting traps on the cliff side.

Here is my first Raven Guard marine equipped with a converted sniper, now I need to decide how many more I will put on the cliff. Ravens in real life generally travel in pairs, but maybe three would be better for the size of the diorama.

With dioramas, whilst the models on them are important, the ground is also important and you need to strike a good balance between the two. So with that said, I would get rid of the landraider (it's too big) and use a rhino chasis tank.

I'd also reconsider the posing on the traitor marines (if the positions in your images are the planned ones). Three 3 man lines will look odd to the eye (asymmetry can be good/look right), they need to be staggered and spread out a bit.

That is the diorama with a vindicator instead of a land raider, just seems a bit too empty to me, but if it will look better that way then I don't mind, and the lines of marines at the front will be 2 lines of 5 it's just I haven't assembled all of the legs yet.

The "emptiness" you are concerned about is better off in my opinion as it will make the diorama look less busy and allow the viewer to focus more on the ambush and what's going on there! Also thematically iron warriors would probably be escorting a vindicator to its line position over a land raider! And as you pointed out ravens tend to travel in pairs so why not several sets of pairs, maybe a spotter and sniper pair or two and a pair of demolition/trap specialists to set off the bomb/trap they've set up?

 Drummernathan wrote:
The "emptiness" you are concerned about is better off in my opinion as it will make the diorama look less busy and allow the viewer to focus more on the ambush and what's going on there!

Yeah definitely. Less is often more! GW has forgotten that rule resulting in overbusy models. Don't make diorama same in bigger scale!

That does make more sense, I'm going to change where the Iron Warriors are in hindsight. How does 5 in front of the vindicator and 5 behind it sound? There's clearly enough space now to spread them out far enough for all to be seen. Also, should the vindicator have a Seige shield or not? The shield may be cooler to paint as it is a nice part to paint the classic IW hazard strips on.

Decay wrote:That is the diorama with a vindicator instead of a land raider, just seems a bit too empty to me, but if it will look better that way then I don't mind, and the lines of marines at the front will be 2 lines of 5 it's just I haven't assembled all of the legs yet.

It might look empty, but that is because you are planning on a flat tile/floor. You need to remember that you are going to build the ground as well, you will be building your cliff/slope, the path/road that the tank and the marines are walking over, random rocks at the bottom of the cliff/slope, any trees or shrubs you put on there, grass, etc.

In dioramas, the "base" is just as much part of the model as the miniature soldiers that you put on top.

Decay wrote:That does make more sense, I'm going to change where the Iron Warriors are in hindsight. How does 5 in front of the vindicator and 5 behind it sound? There's clearly enough space now to spread them out far enough for all to be seen. Also, should the vindicator have a Seige shield or not? The shield may be cooler to paint as it is a nice part to paint the classic IW hazard strips on.

I actually think 10 marines is too many, especially if you are going to have more Ravenguard on there. I would do maybe 2 terminators (as a Vanguard and rear guard), and then 5 marines spaced around the tank. That would then let you put in maybe 3-5 Raven guard models.

I'd go with the siege shield, it's pretty iconic.

In light of what you said about even less marines, I've come up with a incredibly quick idea of what it would look like, the circles are regular tactical IWs and the one with the T in it is naturally a terminator. The black dot is one RG marine hanging from the inside of the concaved cliff face, other than that I'm not sure about the other 2 or 3 RG marines.

Cool idea. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Should I get an airbrush for the IW vindicator and marines? I've never used one before but maybe it'll make them look better as it looks like airbrushes can paint metal and highlights better than normal brushes.

It's not that they paint them better, it's just easier and quicker to get a smoother finish on larger areas.

If you have the budget for it, get one. Even if you use it for nothing other than basecoating I would still recommend it.