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Alien Sewer

Alien Sewer

I’ve been commissioned to produce a couple of sewer dioramas, one identical to the one I had created earlier this year.

As you can see I have the basic form of one and the other two are in the process of joining this one.  

 

 

With the design agreed I can now branch this piece of onto it’s own page.  My client has asked for a few of changes to be made previous version.  Instead of the central column with grate, he would like it replaced with a barred tunnel entrance, damp walls with multiple pipes running along the sides. 

To apply the magnets to the walls I sanded all the sides down, having the magnets in place at this stage, I find it easier to work with model.

 

The brick work has been marked out and ready to be scored.  I had marked out the size of the tunnel entrance and toyed with the idea of adding a raised smaller sewer pipe further down one of the wall.

 

 

Sewer 2

Sewer

I’ve been commissioned to produce a couple of sewer dioramas, one identical to the one I had created earlier this year.

As you can see I have the basic form of one and the other two are in the process of joining this one.  The other two will be getting their pages as they develop, as you can see they are still in their early construction phase.

 

 

 

With the walls dry it was time to cut the mouths of the sewer tunnels into one wall of two of the sewers. I wanted these sets to marry up with the ones I had previously cut for me TMNT Lair I made a couple of months ago.

 

With this done I can now start to etch in the brick work into the walls of these two sewers. The third sewer I need to cut a sewer tunnel mouth in the center of the middle wall.

 

 

Bradford Unleashed 2019 event

Bradford Unleashed 2019 Event

I attended Bradford Unleashed on Sunday, I had a great plot in hall.

 


To my absolute joy I was placed diagonally opposite Peter Davidson, the fifth Doctor Who.  It cost but I got him to sign my 80’s Doctor Who Tardis diorama.

 


 I had a wonderful day, met some great people who are really interested in my work.  Half way through the day my youngest daughter joined me making this a family affair, even though by the end of the day she got a little bored.  

 

 

A great day had by all and looking forward to the next one!

Turtle Lair

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Turtle Lair

Taking inspiration from my recent Sewer commission I wanted to make a TMNT lair.  This piece is scaled to the 7″ Classic figures (based on the 1987 cartoon).

Build

The diorama is made from insulation foam board, held together with magnetic tape.  Since I have used magnetic tape, it means its can be expanded upon at a later date.  Either adding in extra rooms or sewer tunnels.

 

 

Decided to etch in brick work to outside of one of the doors, followed up with brick work on the sewer tunnels. 

 

Finished the night of with some test shots of the Turtles facing down Shredder and his Foot soldiers.

With the door
Without
 

Painting

 Grey acrylic base coat was applied to all the inside walls, floor and the one outer wall.

 

I washed over the entire inside of the model with a light brown which I applied using a sponge.   With that trying I turned my attention to creating one of the main pieces of furniture for any Turtle lair, the sofa!  Making this out of 10 mm foam board to fit two turtles.

 

 

Placing the sofa around the lair, I’ve realized I need to trim an inch off the sofa so it doesn’t look to fill the room as much as it does now.

I cut a couple of lengths of pipe which will run the length of each wall, as you can see they are only resting on top while finish off painting the walls before attaching them.

 

 

I applied a second wash of grey over all the walls, while they were drying I turned my attention to trimming an inch off the sofa and cutting the pipes down to size.

 

Using the airbrush to go round each brick and every crack using a light grey.  The sofa was given a coat of lime green (I know it looked awful!), this was quickly rectified and repainted over with a light brown.  Once it had dried I dry brushed a dark brown over to weather it.

I spray painted the pipes with a black base coat, followed with an aluminium layer.  They were dry brushed with Games Workshops Dryad Bark and Necron Compound.  The walls of the model were dry brushed with Games Workshops Longbeard grey.

 

All the pipes where fixed into place, I combined the Turtle lair with the sewer commissioned piece I had also recently finished together to build an awesome Turtle play-set which you will see in the final pictures.

Final Pictures

 

 

Eternia Ruin

Eternia Ruin

Keeping with the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe theme, I’ve put together another small landscape diorama drawing inspiration from the old Filmation cartoon series back in 1983.

Build

This build I wanted to be a simple landscape diorama, I cut a piece of 10 mm foam board to act as the base.  Then another piece of 10 mm which will be a broken wall, I’ve added three tabs to the bottom of the all which allow it to be allowed to slotted into the base.

Eternia in the 80’s cartoon, wood land area had a lot of huge, twisty trees of all sizes.  To make one of these for the size of this piece, I have taken a cardboard tube and wrapped it up in tin foil with enough excess to twist to a point.  I rolled up two more lengths of tin foils and wrapped them around the trunk like twisted branches.  This will be positioned behind the wall.

 

Build upon this basic design, I added a horizontal wall behind the first wall, a couple of tin foil boulders into the foreground.

 

 

 

I was looking at the walls and realised one layer of 10 mm was not enough, I cut another piece the same size as the long wall. Glued them together and then sanded it down, I will do the same with vertical wall this evening.

 The vertical wall, I added another 10 mm layer of foam board making it the same width as the horizontal wall.  Using the round sander on my rotary tool to weather both walls, lightly touching the wall faces with side of the spinning sander.

I laid a piece of 6 mm foam board on the base in front of the horizontal wall, marking out 2″ x 2″ slabs before setting to them with pottery tools, scoring imperfections into the slabs.

 

 

Turning the attention to tree and the boulders, I watered down filler and coated the mixture over the objects.  I poured the rest of the filler down the left side of the base and around the back.  I inserted the tree into the filler covered the damp filler with sand.  

 

Painting

Coating foil covered objects with filler mixed with water, then covering the vacant floor area with it also. I painted the floor area with a yellowish brown and the stump of the tree. I then started to layer the the full tree with darker tones of brown, finishing off with a shade of Agrax Earth shade. The tile floor and walls have been given a base grey coat. When it dried I start layering them.

 

Sprayed the ground with a light yellow, the paving and walls with a light blue/grey. While they were drying I took a wire brush to the small floor behind the horizontal wall. Going with the grain of the foam and scoring it to look like worn floorboards. Shade with Agrax Earth shade and airbrushed with a water down black acrylic.

 

All stone work was then dry brushed with Longbeard Grey. When it had dried grass tufts and moss where applied on the tree and in places on the diorama.

 

All that is left to do is paint round the base and take final pictures of this.

 

 

Final Pictures

 

 


 

Castle Room 1

Castle Room 1

Started on a small diorama piece for Bradford Unleashed, drawing inspiration from He-man and the Masters of the Universe.

Build

Made from foam insulation board, it’s scaled to fit Masters Of The Universe 5.5′ to the 7′ figures.

 

The external I’ve etched brick work similar to that of the 80’s Castle Grayskull play set. Internal I’ve etched my standard brickwork. The walls are made from one piece of board, cutting between the bricks to make two interlocking walls.

 

For the base I made three curved steps  leading towards the wall, then curved the corners.  A single pillar created and fitted into the corner.  With the external being based upon the 80’s toy, I’ve put in a small window for the Sorceress to view out of.  Stone slabs have been etched into the floor and steps.

 

Sanded down all edges and started playing with ideas on how this will look when it’s finished.

 

 Painting

With the build completed, it is time to start painting.  The base coat for the walls and floor were applied using a watered done mixture of white/black and touch of blue, applied using a sponge. 

 


 With the base coats dry, sponged over the walls with a water downed burnt umber mixed with yellow, dabbing the paint all over.  

 

The floor was given another grey coat using my airbrush, random flags were sprayed a darker grey.  Once dry it was dry brushed with Games Workshop Longbeard Grey to pick out all the detail.

The inside walls I gave another coat of grey using the airbrush, once dry it was dry brushed with Games Workshop Longbeard Grey to pick out all the detail.

 

The exterior walls where sprayed with a grey/brown solution, then random stones where sprayed different shades of grey.  Once dry it was dry brushed with Games Workshop Longbeard Grey to pick out all the detail.

Sword Casting

Now the diorama build is complete, I wanted to decorate one wall with two hanging swords.  I took casts of both Masters of the Universe Classics He-Man and She-Ra’s swords, since the swords are permanently fixed to walls I took half casts of each sword using blu-stuff to make the molds.

When it was safe to remove the curing swords from the molds, I trimmed the excess off and left them to finish curing. 

I base coated both the swords using Abaddon Black and did the same to a spare MOTU 200x golden sword of power.  All three swords where then base coated with Leadbelcher, layered with Runefang steel and edged with Stormhost Silver.

Turning my attention to plaque the classic swords were going to be mounted onto, a circle had been cut into a piece of 6 mm foam board.  I used a wire brush to make it look like it had been made from a piece of wood. Base coated with Rhinox hide, shades with Agrex Earthshade and the washed over with Mournfang brown.  Both half swords where glued into place and then mounted onto the wall.

 

I created a stone plinth for the 200x Sword of Power to stand in and to be freely seated  in the corner.  Painted with Mechanicus Standard Grey and then edged with Longbeard Grey, the sword was embedded into the stone.

 

Final Pictures

 

 

 

Munitorum Armoured Containers

Munitorum Armoured Containers

Base coat

 

Containers, crates and barrels done I’ve only got the small cannons that come with each container to finish.

The receipts are:

Red
Base- Mephistor Red
Shade- Agrax Earth shade
Dry brush- Evil Sunz Scarlet

Blue
Base- Maccrage blue
Shade- Agrax earthhade
Dry brush- Necron Compound

Green
Base- Death Guard Green
Shade- Agrax Earth shade
Dry brush- Caliban Green
Dry brush- Necron Compound

Gun Metal
Base- Leadbeacher
Shade- Nuln oil
Dry brush- Stormhost silver

 

Gold
Base- Retributor Armour 
Shade- Reikland Fleshshade
Edge- Liberator Gold

 

 

 

 

I decided I wanted a container worthy of the Death Guard, one that is writhe with disease and decay.

 

With the gun turret painted and in place, the scene can be set for the battle to take place between the forces of good and evil!

 

Sewer

Sewer

I’ve been commissioned to build a sewer diorama to accommodate his Marvel Legends 6″ figures.

Build

With this diorama build I will be constructing it out of foam insulation board  using widths 5 mm and 10 mm.  For the overall base I am using 10 mm foam board 25″ width by 16″ depth.   Two walkways on either side running the length of the diorama, one side with the width of 4″ and the opposite 3″ width.  A central wall at one end with a semi circle cut out to act as a grate fitted between the two walkways with a couple of little walls either side.

For the center I am thinking of using a couple of sheets of ripple water purchased from Greenstuffworld, it’s the same sheet’s I used for G.I. JOE Tiger Force Outpost diorama.  I have some left over from my Stargate diorama which I have used to test.

 

 

With the basic form there I started to build upon the structure, building two walls and a second layer for both walkways.  With these parts cut it is time to mark up the brick work.

 

 I cut a crescent a half an inch width to go over the central column, I then marked on the brick work, each brick is 2″ x 1″.  Once completed I took an etching tool a scored out each brick and crack.  After completing the walls and central column I repeated the process on the two walkways.

 

 

I made a trench running the width of the 4″ walkway and then taking my rotary I cut off a section of piping to use as a drain pipe coming out of the wall above the trench.  I then used 5 straws, cutting them down in length to use as bars from the drain.

 

Water sheets have arrived, I’ve loosely put them into place and now toying with the idea of using some blue foam board as a base.  

 

At the request of my client, I built a third a wall but this one containing a circle entrance.  This wall running the in parallel to other long wall, the circle cut is about 5″ diameter.    I scored in the brick work to match up with the rest of diorama.  I cut a ring of foam  as a frame for this entrance etching stone work to it.

Magnetic strip has been used to attach the walls to the floor.

 

Using my rotary tool I sanded the inside of the round doorway, tidied up the edges of the overall piece.  To attach the central column to the back wall using small magnets placed along the edges and married to the magnets on the back wall.  I purchased a small ladder made from bolsa wood, I thought it would be ideal for this piece.

 

 

 Painting

With the build completed, it is time to start painting.  The base coat for the walls and floor were applied using a watered done mixture of white/black and touch of blue, applied using a sponge.  The base I used watered down mixture of blue/white, once this had dried I added Burnt Umber into the mix and dabbed into the area where the water runs trough the center.

 

 

With the base coats dry, sponged over the walls with a water downed burnt umber, dabbing the paint all over.  Adding a little yellow to the watered down burnt umber I repeated the process once the walls had dried.  The bars were painted with Games Workshops Runefang steel, shaded with Nuln Oil.

I turned my attention to the water, using Games Workshops Nurgle’s Rot (commonly known as snot in pot) painted ripples onto the board.  I laid the water sheet on top and glued it into place.  I dry brushed screaming skull over the water sheets highlighting the ripples.

All some brick work was dry brushed using Games Workshops Longbeard Grey, emphasizing all the cracks and edges of the bricks.  The waste pipe and the ladder had a coat of Games Workshops Leadbelcher, shaded with Nuln Oil and highlighted with Stormhost Silver.

 

A couple of days ago I filled the small trench with PVA glue, when it dried I had created film over the trench which meant I could then apply more PVA glue over the top.  The thickness of the dried glue, gave the impression of fluid running the length of the trench, I painted over it using Games Workshops Nurgle’s rot.  I poured PVA into the small waste pipe above the trench, painting it again with Nurgle’s rot once it had dried.  I proceeded  to apply the paint also to areas on both walkways and the small waste pipe.

 

There are some final little touches to be done and then this will be completed.

Final Pictures