"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).

Christmas is early this year

Look what Santa got me this year (I must have been a very nice boy so far ;-)

No, that is not a coffee machine. I got hands on a 3D printer and I am so exicted to get it delivered in a few weeks. This technology is so amazing, and I have been thinking about a 3D printer in general for awhile now. If everything works out as planned, I will start to try 3D printing for different application for wargaming terrain next year.

 This is a model is a Up! Mini by PP3DP. Right now I feel like a little boy back then waiting for his presents under the christmas tree.

Returning to Moria - once more

Alright, after finishing the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm I was up for a new project. I got hands on an old metal cave troll with hammer and chain which went out of production at that time and started painting it right away. I like painting large miniatures and the fierce troll was a lot of fun. I started thinking on how to showcase the cave troll the best way and searched for inspiration. After watching the Moria part of the fellowship another time I knew what to do:

To showcase the epic confrontation of the fellowship with the cave troll I will build a diorama of balin´s grave or more precise the Chamber of Mazarbul. On my shelf the cave troll was kind of a companion who kept me motivated when I lost focus for my ambitious plans about all the details and lighting.

I haven't based it yet because I want it to match the floor of the diorama. In the next update I will hook you up with the details on my inspiration and planing for the Chamber of Mazarbul diorama.

How to use polystyrene foam board for wargaming terrain - Video tutorial

It is finally done. This is the first video of a series of tutorial I have been planing for awhile now. It is about polystyrene foam board, a material I use for my showcases most. I hope you find this interesting and helpful.

This video took too much time to shoot and edit, but I guess that is something I need to learn. Messed up the sound on the first render and had to reupload it. Hopefully I will be more time efficient on the next part that is going to be about tools and accessories for terrain building.

"Let's hope our friends last the night" - Miniatures Gallery of Helm's Deep diorama

With some delay I updated the review on the helm's deep diorama with a miniature gallery. Having a big number of miniatures on this one I typically dislike to have identical poses and gestures. I converted some of the uruk-hai and haldir to alter the appearance.

"Escape from Moria" - Miniature Gallery

Started into the weekend to do some soldering for my latest project (I will announce this soon) and.... ran out of shrink tubing after half an hour. So I grabbed the camera instead and took a few pictures of the miniatures from the Bridge of Khazad Dûm diorama. Looking at them today I am not too content with paint job but I did most of them several years ago and improved my skills ever since.

"You shall not pass" - Slideshow of the Finished Diorama

It´s done although video editing took some time again. In this slideshow I take you on a tour to have a detailed look on the features of my second showcase.

 

Next I will update the galary with some pictures of the miniatures in the diorama which conludes this kind of reviews about the projects I did in the past. I am very excited that I can finally begin to show you what I am working on right now.