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!