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I have started several PLOGs here in the past but failed to update them regularly partly due to my often changing armies leaving older projects by the wayside. I used to collect warhammer alot when I was younger and bathe it in paint/wash and then just slap it down on a board to play against my brother, painting was if anything a necessary chore that I was happy to be done with as quickly as possible. Since then I have grown up, got better coordination and perhaps more importantly a job and family of my own to motivate me to keep trying to improve myself and my talents. I am not the best painter in the world and under no illusions about my current skill levels, I can achieve a good level of tabletop quality painting and have sold several pieces on ebay for a profit but beyond that haven't managed to get some of the heart wrenchingly good paint jobs that those leagues above me have managed (yet, I'll get there trust me on this).

My older painting has improved over the past few years, I've been back in the hobby about 3-4 years now and went to my first games day last year to enter Golden Demon, it wasn't with the expectations of winning but a major step for me to have my work in a showcase where others could see it in a competitive environment. As expected the models didn't place but I left happy that they had been there in a competitive environment and vowed to get better and come back this year to enter once more with work that was a long way above the quality I had achieved.

As an example of older/more recent works here's a quick breakdown:

ORK


OLD MARINE


CHAOS:


DEMON:


BLOOD ANGEL:


SONS OF HORUS:



AND NOW THE PLAN!

I have models lined up for a number of categories at Golden Demon this year but my main focus is the Diorama category, I saw some beautiful pieces in this category last year that really made an impact with me and I want to try my hand at story telling through this medium this year in a real way, for this reason I have been wracking my brain for an appropriate scene for me to depict.

I have chosen to depict the destruction of a science station near the ghoul stars, specifically a lab studying capture necron parts falling prey to their own curiosity.

The base will be the Zone Mortalis scenery shown below, the exact maximum size I could use in this category which was lucky:


I intend to have two containment tubes against the far wall housing deactivated (supposedly) necron scarabs suspended in clear resin for this project. These are being diligently scanned by a scientist to check for changes in status.
Against the inside left wall I will have a computer panel attended by the senior technician as he reviews schematics for the experiments.
Against the front facing wall end a guard will be standing idly on his patrol path, aim is to capture a bored guard on a dead end station.

I aim to destroy the circular floor grate in its entirety and have a necron flayed one ripping his way up through the floor panel, trying to convey the force of this occurring in the very moment will be the challenge (before the guard has reacted).]
I also want to have a number of flayed ones skulking down the left corridor aiming to slaughter the guard with scarabs moving along the walls beside them.

I have placed orders on the bits I require for the project and will start updating with pictures as they arrive and I begin cleanup, I aim to take about 2 months for this project which gives me ample time to finish up and do final checks before Games Day.

Thanks and keep checking back, I hope this project goes well.

What's this? A future fantastic Golden Deamon worthy diorama piece that has Necrons in it?!

Gentleman, you have my attention!

(and it will probably be the only time I'll see a flayed one painted Their rules are so bad )

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
What's this? A future fantastic Golden Deamon worthy diorama piece that has Necrons in it?!

Gentleman, you have my attention!

(and it will probably be the only time I'll see a flayed one painted Their rules are so bad )

Cant guarantee fantastic but I intend to do my very best.

One thing that I am looking for is anywhere that does deals for 28 mm scale industrial signage (warnings, health hazards, directions etc) cant seem to find anything useful yet so I may need to use a template in the end.

Loved the fluff for the flayed ones but I agree they are dire in game, however their "horror" appeal made them the perfect villians in this piece

Looks like a good idea. An idea I had to improve it would be to mount the base (if the rules allow you to) about 1-2" above the ground so you have a cutaway view of beneath the floor, then you can really go to town on some Flayed Ones and Scarabs scuttling around in the pipes and machinery beneath the lab.

OK... so thigns hit a hitch right at the starting point. I merrily got ahold of my new flayed onesand spent the best part of 2 hours trying to clean them up, aside from minor bubbles the cast was alright but it was a flash nightmare and one couldnt support its weight too well on the key supporting legs. It was a really disappointing start but I was determined to try and redeem the idea by painting up a test model...


Things then got worse.

I read somehwere that anyone can paint necrons, mine turned out like a two year old had made an attempt and a failed one at that. What was going to be an enjoyable afternoon of painting took a sharp downward spiral.

Lesson learned shortly afterwards is that I cannot paint necrons, not well enough atleast for me to be happy in making a diorama around them which has forced a last minute revision of concept in order to make something worthwhile.

NEW CONCEPT:

Medlab containment breach has led to a desperate last stand for an elite squad of guardsmen, fenced back against the wall they desperately attempt to arm the self destruct whilst sheltered behind their makeshift barricade. Hordes of zombies form a relentless wall trying to stop this last herioc act, and the barricade is starting to come down.


And now a little bit of work, mostly around the baseboard my plan has been to paint it up neat, then "decorate" it (signs, posters, directions etc), then splatter it (corpses, blood) and weather to that effect.


Getting down the basic colours for the board was atleast something of astart for the day, so here it is after cleaning and priming.

Stage 1 - Basic colour (floor and alcoves)


Stage 2 - Reapply black to metal runners on floor, piping and grates


Stage 3 - Starting basic wall colours

You've certainly got my attention. The old Marine has to be my favorite of the bunch. Can't wait to see you snag that trophy!

This weekend has been a busy time at work so I havent actually got any time to work on the diorama, still I am off tomorrow and determined to make some solid progress on the backdrop so that I can start building "the scene" onto it.

My aim is to get all of the greys on the walls done tomorrow and make a start on the metallics (floor grates, wall switches, wall plates, nuts and bolts) so that I am setup well enough to do things in bits and pieces. Currently my workload is looking like:

BACKDROP
Greys/shades
Metallics
Blood stains/signage

BLOCKADE
Assemble Barricade of crates, barrels and razorwire.
Accessories (lasgun stash, grenades, weapon emplacements)
Weathering.

ZOMBIES
2 x corpse piles to assemble
2/20 zombies painted (might add more depending on time)
Zombie litter (arms, legs, heads, etc)

HEROES:
5 Guardsmen veterans to assemble and paint
Por guard propaganda (signage, posters, kill tallies on walls etc)


And I have 2 months and 16 days to go, if I tried to do everything just on days off thats just... 20ish days, fortunately I'll be using my evenings aswell.

Here's the two test zombies from my other thread.

Some progress has been made on one of the sidecorridoors for the diorama. I have done the metalwork on the flooring for the entire board and all of the wall vents, and fully completed the metal/wall painting on the first coridoor.

I've also starting to apply some of the damage to the corridoor, first step has been to bloody it to excess for a good sense of gore and brutality, then I'm aiming to muddy/dirty it up, sponge weather some of the walls and apply some rust pigment beneath some of the metalwork to show just how long this facility had been neglected for.

Here is step 4 of my progress:




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And with accessories:

I'm a bit peeved you dropped the Flayed Ones idea ( ) but it's always cool to see a "zombie apocalypse" diorama!

That corridor looks properly gruesome. Why zombies would chain pieces of corpses on a wall is beyond me, but it looks cool

Not gonna lie I was really broken up about the flayed one idea not panning out too, fortunately I had the forethought to actually test my ability to paint necrons BEFORE assembling the scene or it would have been a very costly mistake.

I prefer the zombie idea, zombies are way coolerthan necrons. How do you plan on doing the zombies and how did you paint the blood?

I have 19 odd zombies already from a previous project modelled up but unpainted. hey're made from acombination of Cadian, WFB Zombies, FW Autogun arms and Krieg accessories. They're all sat primed and ready for painting (aside from the two test models above) so thats a couple of weeks project in and of itself, I still think Ineed some "big" models mixed in with the zombies to make it stand out from the horde so I've been looking at either Ogryns, Spawn or something along that vein of thought.

The blood is a mixture of Tamiya clear red with either black or brown depending on what shade I needed at the time, either blown through a straw (blood spray) or pipetted onto the board (heavy splatted and blood pooling).

I've nearly finished corridoor 2 and just need to paint up a fewzombie related accessories to give it more of a theme and then I can start on the focal area of the open room. My accessories for this (about 16 barrels, 8 ammo crates, razor wire, etc) should hopefully arrive this afternoon to start preparing the room.

That sounds a lot coller than the wargames factory zombie kits lol and a zombie Ogryn sounds absolutly terrifying.

That's really interesting I may try that out. thanks.

 Melcavuk wrote:
I have 19 odd zombies already from a previous project modelled up but unpainted. hey're made from acombination of Cadian, WFB Zombies, FW Autogun arms and Krieg accessories. They're all sat primed and ready for painting (aside from the two test models above) so thats a couple of weeks project in and of itself, I still think Ineed some "big" models mixed in with the zombies to make it stand out from the horde so I've been looking at either Ogryns, Spawn or something along that vein of thought.

Yes, yes you do. "Tanks" like the Left 4 Dead ones would look really good with the "Small" zombies. Variety is always nice. Since it was an Imperial building, the idea of some Ogryn zombies isn't far-fetched.

Ratlings could be some kind of Stalker zombies

Midget zombies.... now thats an idea. Off to see what GW models I can use for zombie ratling/squats


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A little progress update:

Corridoor 2 whilst waiting for zombie attachments is now done, I intend to add in a few barrells and bits into the coridoor to break it up but I'm quite happy with it currently.


With the arrival of my forgeworld order I have managed to start work on the survivors, having tallied up the bits I have gathered from my collection and orders I can make 7 survivors and 1 servitor helping to maintain the barricade. Here is the chief gunner officerL


And onto some more exotic zombies I have been messing about with my Zombie Hulk, and given the inspiration above a couple of zombie ratlings gone feral:




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Aaaaand start of a Barricade, Rusted up barrels:

The survivor has a bit more colour now, he's progressing quite well and needs a a few decals and possibly beating up a little:

I'm amazed how you managed to create such menacing looking Ratlings.

The start of the barricade looks pretty darn good, the rusted barrels are a cool touch.

And yes, he's surviving a zombie apocalypse, he needs some battering

This is looking really great. Going to make a heroic last stand!

Cheers guys, havent made much modelling progress but I did get a new camera, here's a quick test:

Great work!

However, if you'll allow me to nitpick- whilst your rust technique is effective, you've applied it unrealistically It tends to gather around seams, and corrode down, rather than in patches as you have painted. This is especially true where the barrels still retain a great deal of their original colour.

Again, nitpicking, but thats Golden Daemon for you!

Loving it so far, really cool idea and models.

Looking good! I like the sounds of this...


Do you mind showing us your attempted Necron painting?

CadianXV wrote:Great work!

However, if you'll allow me to nitpick- whilst your rust technique is effective, you've applied it unrealistically It tends to gather around seams, and corrode down, rather than in patches as you have painted. This is especially true where the barrels still retain a great deal of their original colour.

Again, nitpicking, but thats Golden Daemon for you!

Nitpicking is always helpful, I have a dozen more barrels to do up so knowing how to better rust them is a great help.

Squigsquasher wrote:Looking good! I like the sounds of this...


Do you mind showing us your attempted Necron painting?

I will see if I can dig the guy out to show you, might take a coupla days.

For now here's a quick mock up of barricade assembly:




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Something not overly exciting but progress nonetheless:

Concrete Tank Traps and Razorwire Barricade WIP


WIP on the remaining Barrels

A little more progress there on the barrels, the rust is still sitting a little funny which wasnt overly great for me however the barricade isnt stuck down at this stage, and comes apart into about 5 pieces meaning if time permits I can go back and switch parts out later.

I have spent the afternoon assembling and cleaning up the imperial element of my Diorama, I have ended up settling on 7 guardsmen of varying ranks and degrees of health accompanied by an Imperial servitor. A significant amount of my bits box went toward these guys and I'm happy with how individual they seem to appear (to me atleast), I cant hit onto painting until I pick up a bit more primer but that gives me time to get on wti ha few other things I have waiting for my attention, so for now here are a few good imperial men:



From left to right:
Private Meir
Medic Weiss (Front)
Chief Gunnery Officer Monroe (Rear)
Sergeant Yarrison (Deceased)
Lieutenant Brae Tanner
Servitor 0X472
Private Fields
Standard Bearer Hills.

Love it, you really did a good work making sure they look like individual soldiers, not just "Clones" like we usually do with our armies.

I'm very curious about the GIANT SWORD Lieutenant Brae Tanner is carrying. A relic that was kept there?

Oh dear, zombies everywhere. I like it! And well, a real man uses a massive sword to do massive damage to his ungodly foes

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Love it, you really did a good work making sure they look like individual soldiers, not just "Clones" like we usually do with our armies.

I'm very curious about the GIANT SWORD Lieutenant Brae Tanner is carrying. A relic that was kept there?

I'm working on the theory that the stations corruption and subsequent brain craving zombie problem may have come about due to the corruption from a daemon weapon that a radical inquisitor was conducting testing on. With the station coming to pieces and survivors at a minimum the weapon sought a way out, and the lieutenant was compelled to take it with them "for the good of the imperium" so that the research might continue again elsewhere.

He's meant to be a good guy, with good intentions but naive and easily manipulated. Unfortunately painting this idea will just look like... a big sword.

You could try painting that sword with some warp influences, like a red light around the sword. The man don't notice because they are far too busy shooting at the incoming zombies. Maybe a title suggesting they are being duped like "A Fool's Errand"?
Would a short story help or the "story" can only be told through the diorama?

I like the rifles you gave them (I hate lasguns) it gives them a little more, flavor. Great work so far.