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The reaching-out guardsman seems a little out of place in the body-pile. His arm and head are raised above the ground which makes him look dying, not yet dead. Maybe if you placed something that's propping up hsi arm and head?

I am loving this diorama so much, and I'm so glad it's alive again.

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
The reaching-out guardsman seems a little out of place in the body-pile. His arm and head are raised above the ground which makes him look dying, not yet dead. Maybe if you placed something that's propping up hsi arm and head?

I am loving this diorama so much, and I'm so glad it's alive again.

Thanks! Nice to...read that you like it!

I agree with you about the split in two trooper being out of place. I'd thought the same, actually, but that thought had slipped from my mind. I might replace him with another one even though the split-in-two one is pretty cool and different, albeit a bit gross, lol. Might actually keep the sitting one because it's again different and cool. Maybe one of the cultists enjoy the irony?

Hello my fellow hobbyists! Or Dakka Dakkaites. I hope your days are going well. I did a bit more work on the diorama today. I finished a couple more death Station Forge Grim Guard dead minis. Including the replacement mini for the alive one in the last photos. I decided to make hit this one with his arm missing, poor frigger.







I also definitely decided to keep the decapitated guardsman. I think it provides a difference to the ones all the other ones lying on the ground. I was going to use another one that I thought was sitting, but that turned out to being a guy being dragged by another Grim Guard. If I make one being dragged to sacrificial circle I'll use that mini. I took some photos of it with the new guy and it looks better.









I also tried to test painting the circle with Blood for the Blood god on the box that I use to prime minis. The top is textured now but not as much as the top of the diorama and it wasn't fun, it needs a hell of a lot of thinning to work. I plan on mixing it into a pot with some black paint and water? . But I was wondering is Blood for the Blood god even water based? I'm assuming so, but it seems so different from normal acrylics it could be oil based or something else based. Anyone here know? Would lahmian medium be a good choice for thinner?

Edit: Never mind it is water based but does the normal pain thinners work with it like other acrylics?

Looking gooooooooood mate!

I actually don't mind the reaching out guardsman at all...I mean if I'm a khorne cultist and I just split a dude in half, I'm going to drag him over to the corpse pile regardless of his "still-breathing" status, you know what I mean? It's only gonna be a matter of moments...

I've never played with Blood for the Blood God before, but I'd hazard a guess that Lahmian Medium would work - but then I've never used that either, only water.

Excited to see results either way!

The new guy looks great and far more consistent with your vision.

Thanks, guys! I hope all of you are well and everything. Today, I took the plunge and painted the sacrificial eight-pointed star on the diorama, something I've been working up the courage to do for a few days. I actually just applied Blood for the Blood god as is on at first. Then, another layer mixed with some gloss Nuln Oil. I got too carried away, though, and made the points on the stars too large, so I tried to fix it with a layer of Mechanicus Standard Grey and Kantor Blue, the same mixture I used to paint Attelus' and Adelana's bases to attempt to replicate the grey/blue of the Mechanicus Standard Grey Citadel Primer.











I then went over with the same Vallejo black wash I used on the Diorama and Attelus' and Adelana Bases. I messed up a bit and applied it a bit too soon so the Mechanicus Standard Grey and Kantor Blue hadn't quite dried yet.









I'm looking at it right now, and it seems the wash has finally dried, and it's darkened up quite nicely. I was hoping to make the eight-pointed star look more scratchy and, I dunno, solid? Anyway, the next step is to dry brush the parts I've gone over with wash with my Dawn Stone dry brush paint and hope it matches with the rest of the dust and such, which, theoretically, it should. Anyway, thanks again for being interested in this project and if you're really interested and have quite a bit of time up your sleeve, check out the story Attelus and Adelana are from! Secret War if you haven't. I've got it linked in my signature below!

Thanks again!

Hello my fellow Dakka Dakkaites! It is Adrassil again with another update on this diorama; he also hopes all of you are having a great day and life, and all that jazz and he'll stop referring to himself in 3rd person after this sentence finishes.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand, I dry-brushed the newly washed ground around the eight-pointed star and...well...I think I put too much black wash around the star as it's distinctly darker than the rest of the surface of the diorama, which I'm not too happy about if I must be honest. The only way I can think of fixing it is by going over a lot of it again with Vallejo Black Wash, but I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't notice and/or not care. I've also been experimenting with my modelling water stuff; it's Scale 75's puddles and water. Mixing it with paint, washes, etc, and the results have not been good. I also had an idea to make a pool in the middle of the diorama that Attelus sprinted through as he sliced his way through the hapless cultists in his way; that'd be pretty cool and add more movement to the narrative, but I don't know how to make the ripple effects. It's doable with liquid resin, but I don't know if it's doable with the stuff I wanna use.

Anyway, new photos!

If the darker spot is bothering you (and in the final photos it wasn't obvious from most angles), you could do something fun to "explain" it; like, what if you painted some black "cracks" or similar types of lines emanating from the eight-pointed star, so it looked like the ritual itself has started and has caused the ground to change?

I think you've done a great job of blending the stained ground back to match the rest of the diorama. I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't mentioned it, and it makes sense to me that that much blood will darken/moisten the cracked earth around it.

Would love to see your experiments with water effects!

Thanks, guys!

@Gwyn, I think the idea of the cracks in the ground sounds like a good one! I might give that a go soon. Thanks, mate.

@tzurk, hey, I can try to take some photos of what I've tried, although I don't think it'll be of much use, though lol. I got some new stuff, AK Interactive water, which isn't liquid but a gel, I think. I don't know how well I can mix it or manipulate it, but we'll see how that goes.

Thanks again for the input!

Hey yo, my fellow Dakka Dakkaites! It's been a good while since my last update. I've been working on a lot of different things in the way of minis, such as working more on Autarch Raloth Arlyandor and his scenic base, which I posted a photo of in my first post in this thread. I've also mostly been working on minis for playing rather than displaying, mostly for teams the kids can choose to play at my Miniature gaming club. I think I also worked on completing a 2,000-point army of my custom-made faction of Grimdark Future "Independent Inquisition," which is based on Attelus' and Adelana's Inquisition faction from Secret War. In all honesty, I took these photos a...good week or so ago? And well, I've been busy and forgetful about posting these photos. I've added a lot more dead not-Death Korps of Kriegers and a barbed wire thingy from Army Painter. I've painted them up along with the other things, too. I was tempted to say this diorama was finally finished but I still might do the puddle in the middle for Attelus to have run through. Enjoy!

Hi, everyone! Hope life is treating you well! I have another update on this project. I finally super glued the dead/dying not-Death Korps of Krieg to the diorama. I was sick of dusting the diorama and having them slip off or around so, yeah. Anyway, of that was all I did I wouldn't be updating here. I don't know if I mentioned this a while back but I had ordered some uhh Tamiya diorama brick slips because a while back I wanted to have some tiles on the ground to "break up" the diorama. So, when I found them on Mighty Ape I leapt at the chance and bought a few of them in different colours and patterns that I really didn't need, in all honesty.

I've been hesitant to try put it on even after choosing which pattern I wanted as, well, the diorama is quite crowded already so thought it might be hard and might frig it up. But today I took the plunge and did it.

I cut out a part of it and painted on the texture paint I used the first place on the edges as well as a thinned down version on the bricks. Then painted the texture paint with a...I dunno, 70/30 mix of Mechanicus Standard Grey and my favourite GW blue Kantor Blue which I apparently use on almost every mini I have including Attelus' pants and my Eldar Craftworld Dalorsia, as well as the main character of my Fantasy/Diesel Punk novel series The Angaran Chronicles: Anargrin's shirt. Before dry brushing it with grey dry brushing paint. I think it looked pretty good.


After more hesitation I finally forced myself to glue the paper. Another problem with doing this was how the tiles will stand up too high. I hoped I wouldn't have to paint more texture paint on the edges.



The photo doesn't do it justice but it does stand out. I tried to push it down with my green stuff tool and a few other things, but no dice. So, on goes the paint.





It's raining and humid as frig here right now, so it didn't dry quick enough to paint on so decided to wait to the morning.

Uhh, yeah, will update when that's done. Another thing, though, I got a little too happy with the super glue when gluing on the guardsmen so parts of the diorama sorta turned cloudy and I had to fix that too!

Thanks!

Made more progress on the diorama today. I painted the new edges with my Mechanicus Standard Grey/Kantor Blue mixture...



Then the Vallejo Black Wash...







Then drybrushed with the GW grey dry brushing paint I can't remember the name of right now. Pretty happy with the results.











I am thinking of having the blood spray of the slain cultists in the tiles or do my last theorised puddle now with the elevated edges around the tiles it'll be able to hold the liquid better than before, might mix the blood in with in it too. I thought I'd "finished" the diorama, but it seems not, lol.

Hey-lo, everyone! Been working more on the diorama. Only a little, glued on more bits of those tiles. I decided they were destroyed during a bombardment, and that grey muck is the dirt underneath. I wanted to make the other remaining pieces small and subtle, but accidentally frigged up the first try by getting too much texture paint on it. But the 2nd try worked out. I'm getting a bit concerned it might get a bit too busy.









I applied the paint. I didn't wait for the texture paint to dry properly, so it got a bit mixed in one place but decided it didn't look too bad at all.











I applied the Vallejo Wash (or at least I think it's Vallejo), but the pot has been covered in wash, so I can't see the label anymore.











Trying to keep my shadow out of these photos was damned frustrating, especially because I was tired and grumpy. I leave it too late at night to take photos. Uhh, I don't think the photos do it justice, but the wash makes it look good. It seems to be making this diorama. I then dry-brushed it. But accidentally got too much paint on it (again, I was too tired and grumpy). But it turned out okay, especially after I put some more wash on it.















About the water pools. I'm thinking of making another bit of cardboard, covering it in texture paint, and experimenting with that to avoid potentially ruining this diorama I've spent so long working on.

Anyway! I hope you're having a great day and thank you for reading this blog of mine!

Love that extra bit of texture!

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Love that extra bit of texture!

Thanks! Should I add some more? Or is that enough?