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Hi everyone! I hope life is treating all my fellow Dakka Dakkaites well! I posted about this on the "What Are You Doing Today? Hobby wise Only" thread and said there I might make a blog about it, as I've just made a big step forward.

For a while now, I've wanted to start a diorama, sorta inspired by a scenic base I made for my Eldar Autarch Raloth Arlyandor (pictured below)









That was made using cardboard glued together with superglue and GW texture paint, Astrogranite Debris, to be precise.

So, I decided to use cardboard again as it worked quite well for Raloth's base. So I got a bunch of thick cardboard bits, deciding on the measurements, which I can't recall exactly, lol. And cut it up before glueing four levels together and a few pieces on top of it for hills. I then drew a plan of where the minis might go and placed them to demo it...















I used those old GW Cultists as stand-ins for the ones I ordered off Etsy, as there will be numerous dead ones in the diorama, including the one Attelus is in the middle of cutting through and didn't want to use expensive GW minis for it. Also, the ones from Etsy are resin, so they are easier to cut apart for conversion than hard plastic. The Mantic Deadzone ruined wall is also a stand-in as I plan on using a proper 40k ruined wall as I feel the diorama isn't quite 40k enough yet as both Attelus and Adelana are Hero Forge (although the new version of Attelus is using a power sword blade from the Dark Angels vet kit) And the cultists aren't GW either.

I also decided I wanted to cut holes in the diorama and put magnets in them for the minis that aren't dead so they can be used for games and such. Which definitely complicated things, especially when my dad suggested using a circle drill to do it, which he then used on a piece of wood, and it worked well with the 25mm bases I plan on giving the cultists. I found a 6mm magnet fit well in the hole. But my dad pointed out that trying to use the circle drill on cardboard would tear it apart, so he suggested we coat it in gib plaster to harden it for cutting, but before we could do that, we had to prime it with oil-based primer, which we painted on it at our current workplace.











We'd done that a week or so ago. So today, we applied the plaster, and it turned out to look much better than I thought it would!













I plan on applying another layer of plaster and then another priming (which I might use Rustoleum Matt Primer on), But I'm not sure if I'll go over the base with Vallejo texture paint and then cut the holes in or cut the holes then apply the texture paint. Another is how I'm going to do the downed corpses of the dead cultists, as the posing doesn't apply at all to being dead on the ground. Might have to do much more cutting up of the minis than I thought!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this, and I hope I'll be able to update you soon.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! Another update! Since my last post, I decided to go over the diorama with two more layers of plaster which I mostly did under candle light as we had a powercut, thankfully, the power's been turned back on. The first over it in general, the 2nd just on the elevations to try...well...elevate them more? I smoothed them out a bit too. Pretty happy with it so far. We're going to prime/seal it again tomorrow, and then I plan on priming it black, painting it over with the Vallejo texture paint then priming the top with Mechanicus Standard Grey. Then apply a crap ton of AK Interactive Black wash and dry brush it with a lighter grey. They're fighting in some ruins that have been pretty much utterly devastated.

Here are more pics of the base so far.













I think it's looking better now!

Hello, yet again, my fellow Dakka Dakkaites! Back for another update. Not too much to say, just that I brought the diorama base to work and painted it with a thick coat of oil-based paint. I was planning on using the circle drill after applying the texture paint but decided against it as the bases will be on top of the texture paint, making them stand up further than the surface if that makes any sense lol.













I was hoping to prime it black today, but the paint took longer than I hoped to dry. Got a bit too enthusiastic in painting it, lol. I like how the plaster looks good, but I'm not looking forward to painting on the texture paint as it'll take a bit of work to get it covered due to the texture.

Update! I primed the diorama with some Rustoleum Matt Black and, well, here's a photo or two.











Or three...or four...or five.

I like the look so far; it's just a bit disappointing that I found the primer didn't stick to the oil-based sealer as we hoped it would. It chips off at the lightest nick, so I'm considering going over with a layer of matt varnish. Because the texture paint is black, I'm thinking of going over the top with Mechanicus Standard Grey Primer to make it easy to see where I have and haven't been.

Anyway, it's still going to be a while before my Chaos Cultist proxies and my walls arrive so I feel I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I'm having fun making this. It'll be interesting when we try to make the holes with the circle drill. Wish us luck!

It's been a few days since my last update on this blog. So hello, everyone! Hope you're doing well. Anyway, I sprayed the top of the diorama with Mechanicus Standard Gray as I planned. I thought about masking the sides of it but decided against it, as taking off the masking tape would likely pull off the primer. I did try not to get gray on the sides, but it did, but it's not much and easily fixable. Might go over it with a layer of my Vallejo black undercoat.

The next step is...ohhh, it's to drill in the holes for the bases to go in. So that's a huge step which may or may not break the diorama, so wish me luck on that!







I looks more like a cake than ever now lol

Another update, sorry it took a while. It's been a bit busy. A couple of days ago, the Chaos Cultist proxies I bought from Etsy and the ruined 40k walls I ordered off eBay arrived and well. Made another step by beginning to assemble and convert the cultists. Most especially the five that Attelus had killed.




























I am very impressed with the level of quality and detail of the Cultists! But one problem with them was most had quite static poses. I only had four total running pairs of legs, which was a bit of a pain as they were assaulting Attelus' and Adelana's position. But an idea came to me today as I was working on the diorama; instead, Attelus and Adelana will be ambushing the Cultists. This will explain the static poses, etc. I obviously used green stuff for the animoo-style spurting blood as I did with the Emperor's Children Chaos Marine on Raloth's scenic base, and it turned out pretty good so far, I think. I did try to make it obvious which cultist Attelus attacked first after he shot from behind cover. Now it's an ambush; the headless body on the elevation lying there will need to be changed to being just shot as Attelus has just killed the cultists behind him; if Adelana shot the cultist long enough before Attelus attacked, the cultists would've been alerted already so, yeah. But that won't be hard to change at all.

I also applied some scenic paint on the diorama already; that was mostly because I frigged up and didn't build up the plaster in a way which would allow for room for the wall. But that was easy to fix. Another annoyance was trying to figure out how to have the dying/dead cultists drop their weapons as they are collapsing. I thought it would look wrong to have them holding them, but it didn't turn out too badly. I'm also happy that I included the cultist standing over the corpse of the Death Korps of Krieg, as that adds a bit more interest. Now I'm thinking of writing a short story about Attelus and Adelana being forced to work with some Death Korps sometime during the three-year time skip between Secret War and Upon Blood Sands. The two of them deal with the extremely fanatical Death Korps, might be fun to read/write.

It's been a big step, as I was hesitant to cut into such nice minis, and I'm always hesitant to use green stuff. So now I'm happy to keep going on with it. Despite still having to cut into the diorama with a circle drill and how much work there is left to do to finish it.

Today I primed and zenithal highlighted the cultists and the ruined wall I got from eBay.











I'm pleased with how the wall turned out; I zenithal highlighted it Mechanicus Standard Gray as the dust from the dead world coats everything.

I then began painting a couple of the cultists, one as a test, and they turned out alright! I actually enjoyed painting them the level of detail yet again impressing me. Might post pics of them tomorrow.

I jumped the gun a bit as I pasted the new version of Attelus and Adelana onto the bases and applied the texture paint. Forgetting that, then I'd have to paint them with the acrylic pot version of Mechanicus Standard Grey, which is a very different grey from the primer-not-primer version. Might try to up mix a grey that's similar. Maybe applying the not-nuln oil would make them look alike? Would anyone be able to tell the difference? Probably not lol

There's also going to be a 4th alive cultist charging for Attelus.

I made the decision to glue all of the cultists to the diorama instead of putting the four soon-to-be-dead cultists on bases and then drilling holes and magnetising them. Just because it's easier, I guess. Oh, and because if we use the circular drill on too much of the diorama, it could tear apart the cardboard beneath. It'll also give me more freedom on where I can place them. So then I had to decide whether to glue them on before or after I apply the texture paint and eventually decided to glue the cultists on after, as trying to paint the texture paint around them will make it much more awkward. I might try to glue them on before the texture paint dries (not by a huge margin, though), as it'll allow them to seem to have more weight and presence on the board.

I enjoyed painting the cultists so far but I'm not looking forward to painting the new Attelus. I hope I don't frig him up! Wish me luck!

I've been pretty uhh inspired and managed to mostly finish painting five of the ten Cultists for the diorama. I'm keeping them simple and grim and gritty and dirty for a couple of reasons that's because that's how Chaos should be. I think GW and Heavy Metal paint them too clean and pretty (I know they paint them that way to display everything about them, but they also don't paint eyebrows on their minis because they don't sculpt them on with a few dwarf minis that are an exception which makes me think that everyone in the Milky Way of the 41st millennium shave their eyebrows like the crazy girl did in my high school for attention) 2nd being I don't want them looking too good for fear of drawing too much attention from the "main characters" of the diorama. Here are some photos which I promised yesterday.











Ahh, I love Agrax Earthshade, liquid talent indeed. I used Criptex Armour Shade Gloss on the metal parts. GW's Blood For the Blood God which I'm loving more and more, lol. I did Bugman's Glow for the leathers as their leather is made from human flesh. An edgy must I find Chaos almost needs. It also might give them involvement with my Chaos Marine warband as they also use human flesh for their leathers.

I'm really enjoying painting these guys and using them to practise skin which I haven't painted in a while in preparation for the new version of Attelus for the diorama. I always find (and I'm sure many on this site are the same) the minis I care to "get right" I keep trying to get right way too much, so I frig them up more than the ones I care less about. I also decided I will paint a Hero Forge mini of Azakir Halgriv that I have had lying around for ages now (he's an NPC from my Rogue Trader campaign, an Inquisitor who'd allied with the PCs; he was Arlathan Karkin's Interrogator from Secret War and may or may not have been a half-clone of Attelus. He was also the protagonist of a short story I put into a BL competition which *sigh*, of course, didn't win) As practice for Attelus proper. Sorry Azakir, but you come secondary, lol.

Anyway, next step will be finishing the next five Cultists, then cutting the holes into the diorama for Attelus' and Adelana's bases. That's going to be...interesting.

I finished the last five cultists today. Pretty happy with them. A big step toward finishing the diorama. For the blond Cultist with the skull mask, I used a simplified version of how I plan on painting Attelus'/Azakir's skin, and it was good practice.











For the pale one/the one being in the middle of Attelus slicing through him, I got lazy and just applied some Nuln Oil over his zenithal highlights; it turned out not too bad, though. It was quite fun painting all the diverse skin tones of these guys. And I kinda used the dead Not-Death Korps of Krieg body as a concept for the colours of my Death Korps of Krieg Kill Team. Just did somewhat the normal colours from GW. Oops forgot to dry-brush the helmet with silver. Will do that tomorrow, maybe.

With the Cultists finished, I decided to take some photos. I stuck the Cultists on with Blu Tack. I used the old version of Attelus just so all the minis would be finished for the photos. I am very happy with how it's looking so far. (I also need to get a cover for my light. Sorry about the glare)

Wow love how the diorama is coming!

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Wow love how the diorama is coming!

Hey! Thanks a lot for the encouraging words! Hopefully will be able to update soon and it'll look even better!

Hey, everyone. Sorry it's taken so long since my last update, but I've been quite busy with work and other things, as well as hitting a bit of a wall, as the next step is a big one. Drilling holes in it for Attelus and Adelana's bases to go into it, so...yeah. I did do a small step a day ago, finally painting the bases of Attelus and Adelana. I was hesitant as Mechanicus Standard Grey is a very different colour than the primer, so I mixed Mechanicus Standard Grey with Kantor Blue, and it worked out very well, becoming almost identical to the blue-grey of the primer. I then coated it with the Vallejo not-Nuln oil then dry-brushed it with the GW grey dry-brush paint.

Anyway, today, I finally got the courage to paint the new version of Attelus for the diorama, and I'm quite happy with him so far. Very intense and...scary? Which was exactly what I was trying to do! With his parting on the left side due to a mistake, I made making this version on Hero Forge, the scar on his face is shown, so does anyone have any good advice for painting scars? It's a big, black ugly thing he gets in Secret War.







Here he is on the diorama.







I also thought I might as well post some photos of Adelana. I realised I might have to green stuff a muzzle flare on her not-bolter as she's just asploded the head of a cultist.





I painted her ages ago when I didn't have my magnifying glasses with a mounted torch, so I might fix up her eyes a bit but otherwise I'm pretty happy with her.

Well! We finally did it! We used the drill press to cut the holes for Attelus' and Adelana's bases into the diorama. It didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped, but first, we experimented on a piece of wood.





And we managed to get a depth that worked well. I'd marked the depth on the circular cutter a few weeks back, about 4.2mm. 2.2mm for the magnet beneath the bases, which are GW bases, and I had magnets I bought last year for GW 25mm bases from the Magnet Baron. And 2mm for the magnet inside the diorama itself as it is 2mm by 6mm, which I found fit into the hole width-wise when we'd experimented on that bit of wood the first time. One thing that happened we didn't expect was the drill pulled out the lump in the middle. What we sorta expected and hoped wouldn't happen was that the drill tore into the cardboard. But that was easy to fix.





The lower hole for Attelus turned out pretty well, but it was a bit low, almost completely flush with the surface of the diorama because I'm planning on painting on some terrain paint which might make him not the same height. So I poured a whole lot of super glue into the drill hole and on the edge of the circle. I also did the same for Adelana's, but I also glued in a...wash? Feth can't remember the term to even it up a bit, as the hole was a bit uneven due to the diorama moving a bit when the drill was tearing into it before glueing in the magnet, which I did by using the magnet underneath Attelus' base to make sure it was the correct polarity, then letting it set. I also used the funny pen-like device I got from the starter kit from the Magnet Baron on Adelana's, then did the reverse technique for hers. I also found out the wrong way that some GW bases have a weird little lump in the middle which I had to cut back with a knife before the magnet would stick properly, which was annoying.







Then I primed the holes with Mechanicus Standard Grey.



Should've done it with black in hindsight, but it doesn't matter as I'm priming it again after I paint on the terrain paint. I did already around the holes with a 6-sized brush for the bases. When I applied it with a big brush, I might frig it up and get too much in the hole. As well as priming the terrain paint where the wall went, just to see if it will go on well, and it did, so that's cool.





I decided to paint the texture paint around the feet of the cultist who's in the midst of being cut through by Attelus, even though I planned to glue him to the terrain paint as it seemed it would make it harder to place him beneath Attelus' sword now he's lower on the diorama.



One thing I've learned with this diorama is that you've got to be adaptable with your plans if things don't go your way. The big example is changing it from the Cultists assaulting Attelus' and Adelana's position to them being ambushed by Attelus and Adelana due to their more static poses.

Anyway, it's nice to be able to make this post, and it's inspired me to get working on it all the more and looking forward to finally finishing it!

Made another big step toward finishing this project today. I painted the Vallejo mud texture paint on the top of the diorama. I just went over with a big brush with a lot of it, and I'm pretty happy with the look so far...

Without the ruined wall...





With it...



I accidentally covered the footprints of the cultist in the midst of being killed by Attelus, but oh well, it shouldn't make much of a difference. I placed the wall on the surface to try to mould a nice place to glue it onto. I'm tempted to paint another layer of texture paint and then spray it with Mechanicus Standard Grey again, then go over with a black wash, then dry brush it with the GW grey dry brush paint, which I can't remember the name of. I already did it with Attelus' and Adelana's bases, and it turned out nice. My friend suggested placing a Mantic Dead Zone pile of rubble on it or two; I have a whole heap of them which I'm tempted to do right now. It didn't look too bad when I tried it earlier and might give the diorama break it up and provide it more visual interest overall.

Went and glued on the Mantic Deadzone rubble scatter terrain to my diorama. I think that area of the diorama just seemed a bit empty, so needed something a bit extra. Then I went and glued a tactical rock from an awesome Maugan Ra proxy I bought from Etsy a while back, just because, I guess. I would've liked to have primed the top of the diorama today but had to use more terrain paint to make the rocks and rubble seem a part of the terrain.













I'm a bit disappointed the ruined wall can't stay standing, and it seems that I might have to glue it on, then paint more texture paint around it, and then prime it with the rest of the diorama instead of my original plan.

I bit the bullet today and glued it on the ruined wall onto the diorama base. I was planning on glueing it on after priming, but it'd make it a bit more complicated because the texture paint hadn't moulded in a way to allow the walls to seem a part of it; I was hoping the zenithal highlighting would be able to stay but, oh well as there'd be a small gap beneath it. So I glued it on today and painted some terrain paint around the base to get rid of the gap. As well as another quick layer around the rock and the rubble.











I was hoping to prime it with Mechanicus Standard Grey today, but the paint hadn't dried fast enough and looking at these photos, it seems like the area around the wall could use another layer. Might do that now and hope it'll dry by the morning.

As I said in my last post, last night I went and added more texture paint around the base of the ruined wall...





Too bad it hadn't dried properly by the morning, but we worked today, so when we finished early and arrived home, I was onto it almost right away and primed the top of it.











I then brushed on a crap ton of black Vallejo back "Not-Nuln-Oil" wash, but when it went on, it turned out to be far too black, so I dabbed it down with a paper towel, and that gave it a bit more contrast. I maybe should've thinned down the wash with some water.





Then I dry brushed over it with some Dawnstone GW Dry Brush paint, and it made it look MUCH better. I'm becoming more and more of a fan of dry brushing every day. Then dry brushed with Necron Compound over the wall and the steel bits in the rubble pile.















Then on went the cultists onto the diorama as a test with Blu Tac. I decided to place one on the rock because if the rock was there, one of them would most likely perch themself on it.











So...yeah! Just got to fix up Adelana's mini a bit and maybe green stuff up a muzzle flare for her gun (if anyone has any advice on doing that, please feel free to share your knowledge, as I couldn't find a video about making one on YouTube) I am very happy with how it's going.

I hope you guys and/or gals like my diorama as well!

Today I took the plunge and glued the Cultists to the diorama! I decided to make it so that none of them was on that rock near the middle as I felt it would be better as a stand-alone add-on, and I think I was right. That other pile of rubble on the right side I just placed there isn't glued, or anything, but that side of the diorama still seems a little empty, so might have to do something about it in the future. That and green stuffing a muzzle flare on Adelana's gun. Here are the photos!

































Might also paint on some more Blood For the Blood god on the ground in front of a few of the sliced-open Cultists. But otherwise, it's pretty much done. Oh! And also got to find the axe of the Cultist with a raised auto pistol trying to draw a bead on Attelus and glue it back on but for the life of me just can't find it!

Sorry for how long it's been since my last update. I finally began...trying...to green stuff the muzzle flare on Adelana's Not-Bolter (I wish Hero Forge would make an option of a character just holding a gun handle so you can just glue on a gun of your choosing). Green stuffing the flare was harder than I thought, but I think I've done okay it looks pretty good from afar. I'm going to get a bit more green stuff to add more, uhh, spiky bits? I made it large to emphasise how powerful the gun is. Anyway, here are some photos and hope you're having a good day!

I worked quite a bit more on Adelana's gun's muzzle flare, and it looks much better now.







Just gotta let it set, prime it (using a primer I can paint on), and then paint it; I hope it turns out well!

I primed and began painting Adelana's muzzle flair. It took quite a few layers of yellow paint, as my brush-on primer is black.









I'm much happier with it now; it goes to show that how it looks as green stuff isn't too much of an indication.

How it looks after at least five layers.









The next step is to go over it with a layer or two of orange wash which is the GW one that I can't remember the name of yet. I did it with the muzzle flash of this version of Attelus Kaltos.



I think it took a couple of layers.

I painted the Casendora Wash (I remember it now) onto Adelana's gun's muzzle flash, and by the Emperor, it turned out much better than I thought it would! Very happy with it!









I accidentally let the wash flow over the not bolter and onto her arms and tried to dab it off but didn't get it off in time before it dried. But it turned out alright, a bit of one-source lighting from the muzzle flash.

Here's the diorama overall now.

Hellloooo, everyone! It's been quite a while since my last update here. Quite a while, lol. But that's for a reason. I finally got around to assembling the remaining 10 Station Forge cultists of the 20 total I bought. Ten for the diorama, ten to play. But I'd accidentally dropped one of the cultists and broke his axe, which went into the fifth dimension where pieces are forever lost no matter how hard you search. I wanted to replace the axe with a weapon from the rest of the kit but wasn't sure I could. So, after assembling the remaining 10, I did indeed find I could, which finally allowed me to glue him to the diorama proper. Try to guess which mini he was.

I thought at first that was it. I'd finally finished the blasted thing, but again, I decided it wasn't after I looked at the 2nd wall I bought from eBay along with the wall with Adelana behind, then primed it. Washed it, dry-brushed it and glued it near the edge of the diorama, and by the Emperor, I'm glad I did. The diorama was sorta missing something in hindsight, and this ruined wall seems to be that something.









I could've just glued it on and left it there, but nooo, I have to be picky and prevent it from seeming to hover above the debris-covered ground (only if you look really, really close), so painted the same Vallejo texture paint around the base as I did the rest of the diorama.





















Sorry about the ten million pics, but I'm so proud of this diorama and so happy with it now; it ain't funny. Anyway, I put two layers of texture paint (probably not enough, but meh). Went over with some paint-on primer. Then painted over with a mixture of Dark Mechanicus Grey and Kantor Blue, the same combination of paint I put on Atteus' and Adelana's bases because I'd forgotten to prime them Mechanicus Standard Grey before glueing them on.















I have applied the Vallejo Black Wash, but haven't taken photos yet. I might post them tomorrow before dry brushing around it, hopefully allowing it to blend better with the rest of the diorama better. I also have the 2nd piece of Mantic Rubble to glue on and paint the paint around, but I'm kind of torn whether I should or not. They look identical, and it might make people looking at it break their immersion. So, I'm considering using something else to fill in the space, so to speak, or forego the rubble entirely. Any ideas? It doesn't look too bad being there, so maybe I'm just over analysing it? Dunno.

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed my meanderings and the photos. Have a good day!

Hello, another update after ages and I'm hoping you're doing well who ever is reading this! There is a few reasons why it's taken so long the first and foremost being that nothing had changed with the project, besides me having another idea. If one looks at the diorama there's a pretty big empty space just in front of the large wall on the...right. Right? It really depends from which direction you're looking at it, but I digress. I'd placed that Mantic rubble pile there but that was sorta a place holder and I didn't like it looked the same as the other one which might work for scatter terrain, but not for a diorama especially being placed to close to each other.

What inspired this new idea was showing it to my dad without that pile of rubble and him asking what I was going to do with that "empty space" which sorta confirmed my thoughts on the diorama and so I began to think it over and...bang! Why not a pile of corpses? Corpses like the one Cultist getting his head split in two stands over? A Station Forge Not-Death Corps of Krieg? So searched on Etsy and found exactly what I needed, a large collection of Station Forge "Grimguard" dead and injured soldiers. Perfect! And at a decent price as well. Too bad it was from Ireland which amped up the cost with shipping considerably and that meant it'll take a good while to reach me in little old New Zealand. Which I didn't mind as I had numerous projects to work on before they arrived.

So, after, I dunno, a month? Maybe? I could check Etsy and look at the dates but I'm lazy, so no, and I've rambled on enough already. The miniatures finally arrived. So I placed them on the diorama to test them. It's cool there's so many as there are a lot of options and it means I wont need to use them all and they may make good objective markers, etc. So it'll be "dead space" instead of "empty space".

The first was having them sorta scattered chaotically (sorry for the bad puns, lol)...















I think some of you might agree that the corpses really "fill-in" the diorama. The dead bodies being there also explains why the cultists are sorta scattered around as they'd just finished dumping them there and a far behind the front lines so relaxed. But then another idea hit me: the corpses could instead be placed there for a purpose, a Chaos ritual perhaps? A Chaos ritual Attelus and Adelana are attacking to prevent, perhaps?





I'm considering using my Blood for the Blood god paint to draw half a Chaos star around the dead bodies. These guys are performing the Ritual along with another group on the other side of the ruined wall which is needed for a reason I have yet to ascertain. Hey, it's Chaos sorcery I don't need to explain frig, lol. So might make there be eight corpses instead of the number now.

So please tell me which one looks better and if the Chaos ritual is a good idea. Uhh, yeah, now I've finished my 2,000 point Grimdark Future Inquisition army based on my Inquisition faction from my fanfic continuity Secret War (starring both Attelus and Adelana) Now I'm onto painting a bunch of miniatures pf dead people.

Uhh, yeah, thanks for reading this and have an excellent day!

Hey mate,

Just wanted to say thank you for the amount of detail you've gone into on this project from start to (almost) finished - it's been really great to see and read about the way you've approached this and I've definitely learned a few things that I will use in my own hobbying - like the trick for sinking the mini's bases in to the diorama board - thanks dad!

It's really coming together and looks great at this stage.

my 2 cents is that the corpses spread out looks very natural and gives the air of a prolonged battle, but I really love the narrative flair of having them piled with their blood splashed around for some kind of sorcery shenanigans.

 tzurk wrote:
Hey mate,

Just wanted to say thank you for the amount of detail you've gone into on this project from start to (almost) finished - it's been really great to see and read about the way you've approached this and I've definitely learned a few things that I will use in my own hobbying - like the trick for sinking the mini's bases in to the diorama board - thanks dad!

It's really coming together and looks great at this stage.

my 2 cents is that the corpses spread out looks very natural and gives the air of a prolonged battle, but I really love the narrative flair of having them piled with their blood splashed around for some kind of sorcery shenanigans.

Thanks, mate, for the nice compliments and feedback! Yeah, the old fella has been great with his ideas. Using the GIB plaster and the press drill saved me a lot of time and effort.

I am going toward it being a ritual. I also ordered some stuff for water that has yet to arrive, so I might add a puddle or two to the diorama, so that might be cool.

Looks amazing! Definitely a great diorama - I love the addition of the corpses spread out - but I think that doing a 'ritual interrupted' would be a cool narrative point for the diorama - As the poster above said, spreading them out looks narrative(ly?) true as well, so make the best of both worlds - you could add a cultists dragging a dead body, or just use blood for the blood god to make blood trails on the ground.

Also - If you need different cultist bodies, look at the new cultist kit for Khrone (Jackals I believe) - I mixed them with leftover cadian bits from the new cadian kit, and leftover bits from the Blooded Kill team, and got some awesome 'in motion' minis. With some greenstuff to fill gaps, all the parts work together. Nice work!

blockade23 wrote:
Looks amazing! Definitely a great diorama - I love the addition of the corpses spread out - but I think that doing a 'ritual interrupted' would be a cool narrative point for the diorama - As the poster above said, spreading them out looks narrative(ly?) true as well, so make the best of both worlds - you could add a cultists dragging a dead body, or just use blood for the blood god to make blood trails on the ground.

Also - If you need different cultist bodies, look at the new cultist kit for Khrone (Jackals I believe) - I mixed them with leftover cadian bits from the new cadian kit, and leftover bits from the Blooded Kill team, and got some awesome 'in motion' minis. With some greenstuff to fill gaps, all the parts work together. Nice work!

Thanks for the compliments and the input! I think the cultists dragging a death guardsman is a cool idea. You're right, and I don't have to go one or the other but a mix. In all honesty, the reason why I'm leaning toward the ritual as I don't have any dead cultists, and I don't think they should've somehow murdered a squad of Death Korps of Krieg without losing a single man. That's my Imperium bias speaking, maybe, even though Death Korps is far from being one of my favourite IG regiments (that being Gaunt's Ghosts), but if cultists are dragging dead bodies to the pile, the diorama implies they didn't manage such a feat.

Anyway, to the next update! I finished five of the dead not Death Korps today. I tried to replicate the scheme of the dead one at the cultist's feet (who was drawing his blade to cut the corpse to start the ritual). I want to make them dull and "grimdark" to keep too much attention off them from Attelus and Adelana. I also mixed Blood for the Blood god with a little black to show the bodies are quite old because the blood has oxidised (I don't know how many people would know enough to understand that detail, though), which also contrasts with the brighter red of the recently deaded cultists. Here are some photos.





























I think the blood turned out better than I thought it would! Here are some photos of them on the diorama.

Finished two more dead Not-Death Korps of Krieg today. I might've went a bit overboard with the Nuln Oil, but that's part of the fun, lol. I'm thinking of swapping out the decapitated soldier due to having his rifle on his lap, which made me wonder why would the cultists bother to carry him and his rifle then almost lovingly place it on him? It doesn't make much sense. There will be 7 in the circle with the 8th being between the boots of the cultist having his skull split. I'm planning on painting the blood to have the larger arrow beneath his feet also.