Really busy at the moment but things move forward

Hi everyone,

sry, that thing went quiet for some time now, I am awfully busy at work so that I dont have any time left for the hobby. I hope this will change soon because I am really looking forward to finish my mazarbul diorama. I have got for you a sneak peak on the paintjob so far. Stay with me.

Lord of the rings tabletop hobby is becoming even more expensive

With lots of the original games workshop models gone out of production I noticed a vast increase in prices for almost every miniature from the range on ebay(except for the ones that flooded the tables from the Deagostini magazines). It's kind of funny (and sad) that the products GW dropped because of a lack of demand and revenue became instantly "rare collectibles". I wonder who buys a bunch of models for over 100 Euro that cost 35 Euro just a few months ago. Certainly not me. I love the LotR miniatures but I have a pain threshold. For now I have still 300 unpainted miniatures left (recently counted them), but there are other model ranges and every single one is suitable for dioramas.

If things go on with the LotR tabletop like this (and I fear they will), I am going to switch to another miniature range sooner or later. Any suggestions?

"A chamber of old wisdom" - Illuminated dwarven runes with LEDs

Hi everyone, this is a short update on my recent project, the diorama of the chamber of Mazarbul in Moria. I finally finished all the wiring for the glowing runes effect around the doorway. If you hope you like the results.

Next on the printer: Dwarven Paragon

Hi everyone,

a good friend of mine is a talented digital sculptor and made an amazing 3D modell of a dwarven paragon based on a recently published video game (Do you know which?). I am heating up the printer and I am curious how this will turn out. Estimated printing time for an 8cm high statue is 3,5 hours. For best detail and resolution I am printing 418 individual layers of 200 microns. This is by far the biggest print I have made so far.

Thanks to Felix for your support.

First 3D printed test piece - statue for wargaming terrain

 

Hi everyone,
my 3D printer finally arrived and I managed to print a first test piece. I would like to share some thoughts and details about the process and show the results.

  I hope you like it, please leave a comment if you do.

"The old chamber of records" - Work in Progress of the chamber of mazarbul

New year, new video. I finally managed to finish the first video on the chamber of mazarbul, the showcase I am currently working on. I tried a lot of new thing with this one and everything worked out as planned so far. Suggestions and further ideas would be most welcome. Feel free to leave a comment.

"Drums in the deep" - Inspiration for Balin's grave

Hi everyone,
and a happy new year to all of you. Still waiting for my 3D printer I am going to fill you in on the inspiration of my latest diorama I am working on right now. Again a valueable resource for the chamber of Mazarbul were the scenes from the fellowship movie and the book. In fact balin's grave has such iconic features that I honestly felt I didn't have much of a choice because missing any of these feature would make the diorama incomplete.

The first thing I liked about Mazarbul was the grave itself with the white marbel stone giving contrast to the overall greyish room. And I loved that ray of light hitting the grave stone like a spot light through the ceiling. I would you a bright, focused LED for this task that should work well to get this effect.

(© New Line Cinema)

(© New Line Cinema)

Two additional pieces of architecture that could be recognised easily were the old wooden doorway and the mysterious well that a fool of a took tosses a dwarven skeleton in. Both will be represented in the showcase.

(© New Line Cinema)

(© New Line Cinema)

The diorama should showcase the dramatic moment when the cave troll and the goblin breach through the door into the heroes of the fellowship awaiting them ready for a fight. To get miniatures right it would require some conversions but I think it will be worth the effort. With one axe in each hand Gimli would be the centre piece standing on top of the grave.

(© New Line Cinema)

I wanted to include additional features that didn't appear in the movie. I like the runes Tolkien created these fabulous runes for the Angerthas Moria (the dwarven rune alphabet) and I love how their style fits to the dwarven theme. Ornaments and wall decorations would be needed as well as a lot of rubble and collapsed pillars. And I planed to let the runes and some of the cracks in the ground glow in the dark with a bunch of LEDs.

In the next update I will show you some of the tests that I used to tried out certain effects before building the actual showcase (which is generally a good thing if you don't want to waste a lot of time with mistakes or misconceptions).