When Doom Came To Minas Tirith
The Project Begins
Hi everyone,
This is a new diorama that I am starting, where I try my hand at forced (or false) perspective. This is also the biggest diorama I have ever done in size and number of miniatures involved. As I have written in the brief to the side, the idea for this project was actually planted in my head by @sundancer when he made a wisecrack about 10mm miniatures being far away.
Before I even started working on the diorama, I looked for the models to use. I strictly wanted to use miniatures and models that are not made by Games Workshop. The miniatures are from Northstar, Grenadier, Lucid Eye and a few 3D printed miniatures (including the city of Minas Tirith).
In this first post, I built up the basic structure of the layout with polystyrene, air-dry clay and some actual rocks. I then add some figures to show what I am trying to achieve.
I will let the pictures tell the rest.
A mock-up of what I am trying to achieve. There will be more miniatures and probably in differnt places.That is all for now. With my next post, I will try to finish the modelling of the mountains behind the city of Minas Tirith.
Until then, stay safe and have fun,
NR.


































are you sure you want to ‘flood’ the foreground with lots of minis? less might be more.
@collins thanks for the comment and advice. Yes, you make a good point. The issue is the focal point of the diorama – where is it? My effort was to make it the city, so the only empty space I want is around the city in order to emphasis its importance. Otherwise I follow one of the 10 Laws of Dioramas that states: Thou shall not leave empty spaces in the scene unless required to tell the story.
Nonetheless, I will keep this in mind when I start placing figures. I do want to give the impression of a ‘vast army’ approaching, but as you rightly have said ‘not over do it’. Thanks.
Understood. Visually i quite like the photo where the axe wielding ogre/troll is overlooking the city, that gives a brilliant feel of perspective. But the story that comes to my mind from that is more an adventurer finally reaching their destination, not an army preparing for a siege, which is very different from they story you’re wanting to convey. aka, i understand what you’re wanting to achieve, i just felt my eyes were too distracted by the volumes of minis in the foreground for them to be the ‘set dressing’ for the city centrepiece.
I very valid point. I will give it some thought.