Crimson Alizar and the Death Leeches of Dashur

Hi everyone,

After painting the Ogrion army for so long, during the little time I have at my disposal, I was suffering from burnout.  So I decided to take a small hiatus and build a small diorama to recharge my batteries.

I had bought some barbarians from a German company that closed its doors last year – but I have forgotten the their name.  This female fury of a miniature was one of them.  When I saw her, I knew what I wanted to do!

I also had some monster leeches from Reaper miniatures that I will never use for anything else.

Below is a quick photo-description of the initial process.  I find this better than writing walls of text.

That is all for know.  In the coming days, I will continue to work on the base – adding details and painting it.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi eve

I chose oils because it is so easy to blend up and I am in no rush to finish this.  Oils are a very relaxing medium to paint with.  You don’t need to constant clean your brushes, the paint can stay uncovered for hours without drying.  Just great!

As this is a jungle scene, I went green heavy. Cadium green takes a long time to dry, so I added some ‘megilp’ medium to speed up the drying time to a day or two.

The pictures below tell the rest of the story.

Next week I will start painting up the leeches and we will see how it goes.

Until then farewell and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

I was going to paint up the leeches from Reaper Miniatures – the ones from the Bones Collection, but it turns out they were more work than they are worth.  The mold lines were just to pervasive to keep this project stress free.

Therefore I was going to do something else, when I remembered I had other leeches from Otherworld miniatures sitting in my cupboard in the dark, never to be used.

So in the end things worked out just fine.

With these horrible critters painted up, I can now focus again on the terrain and the water effects in particular.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finished painting up Crimson Alizar.  Painting women is always a bit more difficult than painting men – at least that is my experience.

I have rarely pulled it off convincingly, but like the ‘Little Engine that could’, you have to keep on trying until you succeed.

Whether I have or not, I will leave it to the public.

Now that is done, I can go back to working on the terrain for this diorama.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

Working with water is a treacherous affair for me.  I always encounter problems.  I had problems with my werewolf diorama – and I had problems with this one as well.

The problem, once again, is with the products.  The culprits were the ‘Scenic Cement’ from Woodland Scenics and Vallejo’s ‘Water Texture’.  On their own, they are great products, and I use them often.  Together though, is a whole different story.

After I used the scenic cement to attach all the rubble in place, I let the river bed dry; and then I painted the whole thing.  Later I added a very thin layer of Water Texture to seal everything in before pouring a slightly thicker layer.

The next day everything turned a bright white.  I contemplated self-immolation for 30 seconds, then tried to salvage the situation.

I let the diorama dry properly for two days, then I repainted the river bed – and let it dry again for another two days. Since I used a thin layer of Water Texture, the rubble detail was still pronounced enough to be seen. I decided this time to seal everything with UV Resin and let the whole thing cure overnight after using the UV torch.

Everything seemed stable, so I added some green paint to the resin and poured two layers,and once again let the whole thing cure for a day.

Unfortunately, some whiteness, still came through, but I knew it would be subdued when I added white water to the scene.

The rest is in photos.

The white water is the fun part of water modelling.  First, place some ‘Water Texture’ on plastic and let it dry to create the splashes.  Peel them off, cut them into shape if need be, bend them and glue them into place with the UV resin.  Then add some thickness with the UV resin.

Next, add some artificial snow to some heavy gloss gel and mix thoroughly. Before placing it on the diorama, do some tests to see how much ‘snow flakes’ you need to add.  Some artificial snow brands turn transparent when added to gel – others turn yellow!  So be warned.

All that you have to do now is add the mixture and ‘sculpt’ it on the splashes to create agitated white water.

Now that the water is done, I can focus on the jungle vegetation.  I might have to divide that into two posts, because it takes a lot of work, and is the most demanding aspect of a diorama like this.  The vegetation will sell the illusion or sink it.  Time will tell I guess.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

Today I post the first steps in making the jungle terrain.  This diorama is very small and compact, and I have very little space to put in plants – so whatever I do has to look or give the impression of a thick jungle.

A great modeller once told me that vegetation will sell the illusion or sink it – when it come to dioramas, so this step is very crucial.

I have used several types of plants for this project, namely – paper laser-cut plants, natural dried and preserved plants, plastic plants and etched brass plants.  I find the paper laser-cut plants to be the best option, and as time goes by I am orbiting more and more to this solution.

On the other hand, etched brass is on the way out.  I used one of the very few I have left on this project – the elephant ears from Hasslefree Miniatures.  I had it for a long time, and instead of throwing it away, I used it here.

The first layer of moss is simply coloured balsa wood sawdust.  I used it as a base for the other layers of detail that will come after.

That is all for now.  I will probably post again if work doesn’t bust my gonads, like it does so often on the weekend.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

I managed to get in some more hours into this project, and I did get a few things done…besides work on other projects.

I completed the third stage of detailing on the log, as well as adding more moss to the scene. I have also started to work on some plastic plants I might use.  I will see how they turn out before adding them.  With plastic you can never really tell if they will work or not.  They are also very time consuming.

Plastic plants can be tricky to build-up realistically.  An old modeller taught me how, but I always preferred dried plants.

Below I am using the petals of this plastic aquarium plant in two different ways in order to create two distinct plants.

That is all for now.  I will still be working on the vegetation this week, but if everything goes as planned (which it never does) I think this project will be ready by next Sunday. Fingers crossed.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

The project is nearing its conclusion, and after making these last plants, all I will have to do is attach everything to the diorama.

I have continued work using plastic, paper and dried plants, but I have a nagging feeling that I wont be able to include everything.

A quick tip for anyone who would might think of doining something similiar, always make more plants than you need – even plants of a single type. You never know if you might need more, or damage one or loose one.

As I said in the opening, all I have to do is put it all together.  Therefore my next post will be the last and this project will be concluded.  I will try to get it done before the weekend – if everything goes according to plan.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Double entry.

Hi everyone,

I was so exited yesterday because I knew I would finish this project today, that I decided to take the day off and just focus on it.

Now that it is ready, I have to ask myself, ‘Did I sell the illusion?’ Well that is a question that can only really be answered by those that observe it.

I did my best and I will leave the judgement to the jury.  That is the first law in ‘Nightrunner’s Ten Diorama Commandments‘:

Thou shalt never be a perfectionist.  A perfectionist is just a masochist who never gets anything done.  Be a determined pragmatist.  Do your best, reflect over your work and try harder to improve the next time round.

That’s a wrap.  My next diorama will be a completely different subject and genre.

That, is for another time though.  So have fun and stay safe.

NR