Diorama: Tilean town under attack

[Cthulhu]

Right, a real update:

Ignore the rubbish paintjob on the mini in the last pic, he's six years old or so. I just needed a human gunner that I was willing to rip the base off, and found this guy. At least he shows scale.

And another facade. It's hard to see, but the door is of planks and has wood grain. A light drybrush will pick it out I hope.

And finally, I thought it was time to put together what I have so far:

 

[Chaos_Born]

Architecture's looking good, can't wait to see some gribbles attacking

 

[Mr.Malevolent]

Wow!
Love the amount of detail you've put into this so far.
Keep up the awesome work.

 

[Zephyr]

That's a lot of attention to details. I see a lot of dioramas and though they are cool they do not look alive because some of the designs do not make any sense.
Kudos to you for paying attention to details, cannot wait to see the end result, IMO it will be epic.

 

[Santawraith]

it is loooking good really good.

 

[Cthulhu]

@C_B:
Thanks! If gribbles means undead things I'm afraid it'll take a little while, I'm planning to get all structures at least blocked out before adding any figures. But then, I might get bored of just building and building without painting anything, so maybe I'll sneak around the plan a little

@Mr.Malevolent:
Thank you very much!

@Zephyr:
I'm very glad you think so! I've done my fair share of poorly planned and detailed dioramas, and not repeating that is one of my goals with this one.

@Santa:
Thanks!

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Here's some detail on the gate tower:

The little sculpture is from a product called Bag of Cthulhu (not joking!), by Fantasy Flight Games. He's about 2 cm tall, cast in soft but detailed plastic, and came with twenty-something friends. Bought it a while ago on impulse, and finally found a use for one

Since the other side of the tower will have to be detailed as well, the thought of casting the whole piece in resin occurred to me. Then I checked how much it would cost, and… no. Seems like resin and silicone only is available in big quantities, and there are no manufacturers here in Sweden. So I'll just have to cut and glue one more…

 

[Santawraith]

couldn't resist could you

Loving the archway and the special decoration.

 

[Cthulhu]

Nope
Thanks!

Here's the start of the next house:

The other side:

I'll add two more storeys to this one, and some more details on the columns. Skulls, anyone?

 

[Raizi]

Why skulls when you have little Cthulhus?

[Edit: What's the plural for Cthulhu anyway?]

 

[Cthulhu]

Lol…

The little Cthulhus are too big unfortunately, about half the height of the columns. Plus, I think I only want one of them in the diorama, as a sort of easter egg.

As for plural of Cthulhu… It's a name, so there isn't one really… "Great Old Ones" would be best I think, but that also includes other unpronounceable gods from space such as Shub-Niggurath, Azathoth and Nyarlathotep… So I think "Cthulhus" is fine

 

[untitled_musketeer]

Why skulls when you have little Cthulhus?

[Edit: What's the plural for Cthulhu anyway?]

The plural of Cthulhu? Indescribable horror surely? :lol: Joking aside it's probably Cthulhi or just simply Cthulhu (just like the plural of sheep).

On a serious note though, this diorama is excellent. I'm really enjoying seeing it come to life though it's going to be a huge diorama and more of a board. Keep up the great work Cthulhu. I speak for everyone when I say we look forward to seeing more!

u_m

 

[Cthulhu]

Thank you very much, U_M!

Now, I do have a copy of the Necronomicon in a vault under my basement, so I could go down and take a look in the grammar section and settle this once and for all, but I'd rather not risk the little sanity I have…

So instead of having to find out the plural of Cthulhu, I went with skulls:

Here's how it's placed in the diorama:

And if anyone's interested, here's how I make relief skulls.

1. First I roll a small ball of putty (green stuff/procreate/play-doh)and slightly flatten it onto the surface I want the skull on:

2. Then I cut two slices:

3. Poking the eye sockets with a thick needle, and also fixing ugly corners left from the previous step:

4. Shaping the nose with a small needle:

5. Marking the teeth with the small needle:

6. Finally I squeezed the skull together a little, as all the poking had made it too wide:

It looks extremely rough, I know, but there are two reasons. A) In reality it's about 5mm tall, and B) It is rough and I need more practice. But this is the theory at least :tongue:

 

[Johnny-Crass]

I wish I had half your sculpting talent

 

[Santawraith]

I was just thinking that johnny, I have yet so much to learn.

Your town is coming together well thanks for another beauitful update.

 

[Cthulhu]

Thanks, guys. I wasn't trying to show off, I'm sorry if it came across that way. My pedagogical skills are rubbish. Anyway, I don't believe in talent, it's all about practice and a will to progress.

-----------------

Working on three more facades now, waiting for a new window design to cure so I can make a mold of it.

 

[Zephyr]

I think the skulls look great as they are, if you look at medieval buildings the ornamentation is usually weathered and cracked quite a lot. This already happened even after a few years, they usually made these out of very soft stone.

 

[Cthulhu]

Good point, thanks!

Here's the front facade for the building with the columns:

I chose to cast the windows in clay this time, as putty is too expensive for the amount of windows I've realized I will need. It becomes a little rougher, but as Zephyr pointed out that might not be a problem.

 

[Legion]

Wow. This is an amazing diorama! The amount of detail is just incredible. You make the creation of those little skulls seem so ... easy. Great tutorial on how to make those btw.

 

[Cthulhu]

Thanks, Legion!

Here are the three facades glued onto the foundation:

The backside (the hole will be covered by another building):

 

[strigoi85]

Amazing work!
But I hope you will paint better than that sharpshooter ...
However, congratulations!
and Cthulhu is the icing on the cake!

 

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, I think I have improved a little since I painted him :lol: Thanks Strigoi85!

I decided to completely rethink the roofs. My first idea was to cut plastic tubing in half and glue to sheets of plasticard, and then sculpt the tile edges onto that. It turned out so ugly I won't even show it :tongue:

Now, I think I'll do it much more like it's done in reality; casting the tiles individually. It's not as much work as it sounds like actually, I made a "master" with putty and then a few simple push molds to duplicate it in cheap clay. Here are the first eight:

They need a little cleaning up before being glued onto some card for stability, but what do you think?

 

[Vectra]

nice tiles! i may try that for Mordheim...

 

[Santawraith]

:O Those tiles. I worship you.

Okay, that's the wrong kind of worship, but you get the idea.

Keep it coming!

 

[SotF]

Yeah, I think I have improved a little since I painted him :lol: Thanks Strigoi85!

I decided to completely rethink the roofs. My first idea was to cut plastic tubing in half and glue to sheets of plasticard, and then sculpt the tile edges onto that. It turned out so ugly I won't even show it :tongue:

Now, I think I'll do it much more like it's done in reality; casting the tiles individually. It's not as much work as it sounds like actually, I made a "master" with putty and then a few simple push molds to duplicate it in cheap clay. Here are the first eight:

They need a little cleaning up before being glued onto some card for stability, but what do you think?

Might want to make the "front" row that hangs off the edge of the roof a bit more detailed rather than just the flat underside you're using for the rest.

 

[Cthulhu]

@Vectra:
Thanks! Just be prepared to make lots of tiles… Lots… and lots… and lots…

@Santawraith:
Hehe, thanks erv:

@Sotf:
I won't have to do that actually, as there has to be an edge that keeps the tiles in place.

So, 85 tiles later:

A bit too big, but I'll go with my usual argument: everything in Warhammer is!