Cat vs Dog mini Diorama

Up for your viewing pleasure today is a mini diorama I created. It's on a 50mm base, I included a 2p coin in the picture below to show how small it is!

The cat is from a Cygnar Trencher solo I bought years ago but did not put on the models base because I was intimidated to paint it back when I first got it. Now it finds its new forever home in this project.

The dog is from a Greylord minicrate model by Privateer press, it was a limited sculpt which I didn't buy, the dog was given to me as a freebie in a different order. 

The pile of groceries is by Bad Squiddo games, you can find them here

Painting the cat was always going to be a challenge. I had long ago decided to try and paint it like my cat Noodle. My daughter would never forgive me if I didn't!

Here's what my cat looks like for reference. (Shes 13 this year bless her)

Getting in her various markings or at least the suggestion of them was important to me. I think I did well enough to capture her likeness. However the eyes took me forever! I had to repaint them so many times they are so small!

I really enjoyed painting the dog, going with the yellow brown was a fun choice, I would typically in the past have defaulted to a brown or grey for a dog. 

I really like the spread of colours I used for the various supplies piled up. They were a joy to paint, I can fully recommend these if you want to add some detail to your terrain or basing.

I made the cobbles with a greenstuff roller. It seemed to be 3d printed so the stones had lines across them unfortunately. I spent some time smoothing them over so thankfully it doesn't show up too much now. Painting them in various colours helps add to the realism and break up the look of the ground without detracting from the scene.

What do you think of this mini diorama?
I'm really pleased with it, it was a fun challenge to my painting skills and make me feel more confident that I will one day be ready to make my Dungeons and Doggies & Cats and Catacombs minis (which really intimidate me with their tiny size and high detail!)

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. Or Kofi here. I don't put any finished content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article as well as posting wip projects.

Even if it's just $1 it really helps me out!

See you all next time!

Stone Lord Guvul Godor Painted

This is another 2023 model I finished but never got around to sharing online.

Stone Lord Guvul Godor for Riot Quest. It sat work in progress for so very long until my hobby friends helped me pick something to work on one evening and I pushed through and finished him up.

So since Warmachine is basically dead in my area I reassessed how I paint the base rims of my Riot Quest minis. I used to paint the front of the base grey to match the rest of my Warmachine models as they can be used for both games, and painted the rear of the base the same colour as the Riot Quest hero class they are. I've now decided I will just paint the whole base rim for Riot Quest as there is no chance he will ever see play in Warmachine now. 

I also now don't need to match the basing to a Warmachine army so I decided that all the "Winter wasteland" Riot Quest heroes will be getting snowy bases to make identifying them easier as there are some bounties and other in game effects which target or benefit Winter wasteland heroes. (I know you can see the symbol on their card but this makes it even easier to see and helps friends who don't know the game as well.

Sooo... many... gems... It was a fun challenge to find and remember to paint each one with each step of the gem painting process.

So what do you think of this guy? Have you used him in Riot Quest much? I only play with painted minis in Riot Quest so not had the opportunity to use him yet.

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. Or Kofi here. I don't put any finished content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article as well as posting wip projects.

Even if it's just $1 it really helps me out!

See you all next time!

Lord of the Rings Diorama

This is a bit of a special project for me, a Lord of the Rings diorama which I made as a wedding gift for a friend. I asked the couple to pick "DnD" miniatures to represent them from my "pile of potential" and then planned to create a diorama to display them on. 

My friends lovely wife hails from New Zealand and they both enjoy fantasy and nerdy things so I decided I would like to have them posed fighting Orcs from Lord of the Rings. 

It was incredibly difficult to photograph this keeping everything in focus so please forgive me and see that I've taken extra pictures of all the different elements to show everything in focus in some way.

I wanted it to be somewhat dynamic, so adding this Orc attacking over this makeshift barricade pleased me.

Hard to spot in the wider pictures but I added a cursed metal mask hidden behind the barricade.

For the defeated Orcs I mixed a small amount of black paint into blood for the blood god technical paint. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I used a bunch of different weathering techniques to make the Orcs armour look old, battered and rusty. 

I smiled a lot painting up this white rabbit as a little easter egg (pun somewhat intended) for my friend.

Lets just say this little fella has "nasty big pointy teeth!"

This is the Knight representing my friend. I did customise this Reaper bones mini with a head swap (the helmet I removed in on the ground by his feet) and a backpack and bed roll. 

My intention is that they will be able to use these miniatures in games of DnD and for that reason I wanted them to look like adventurers.

This mini was challenging to paint with the colour scheme I was suggested by the couple. I did my best to make each element of the model distant but interesting.

This Elf was picked by my friends wife. I wanted to make the metal elements (pauldrons and shield especially) look very old but well cared for, to illustrate her elvish long life.

They both have some of the Orcish blackish blood on their swords having both dispatched some of them.

I really enjoyed painting the cape, adding highlights and fabric hatching look to it to add to the realism.

And hidden under the minis is my message to the happy couple. This really was a labor of love and I have no real idea how long it took me (and I don't really want to know now!)

I presented it to them in a transparent acrylic case to ensure it will be safe and not become a dust trap for them! I found it next to impossible to get a decent photo of it in the case so I gave up!

It too me way too long to finish writing this article... the wedding was in April 2023...

I am glad to be able to share it with you now though. And if you enjoyed seeing it and hearing about my thoughts around it drop a comment below letting me know your thoughts. Its great to hear from people who read my stuff, and lets me know what to focus on in the future.

All the best for your 2024!