While I was busy watching the PVA glue dry.

*Read - Playing games on the computer and trying to decide on which minis I wanted to put in the diorama.**

MrsDF started making some items to dress-up the cavern. First off, all good caverns have to have a selection of fungi and 'shrooms growing in and around the place. Secondly, what's a cavern without Stalagtites hanging from the roof, and Stalagmites on the 'floor'?

These are all made with DAS Modelling Clay. Not being content with just 'shrooms, MrsDF also made (as you can see in the pics) other different sorts of Fungi, as well as spores. DAS has a tendancy to dry extremely quickly as can be seen in the pics of the Stalagtites/Stalagmites. Airdrying modelling clay is so easy to use and is extremely cheap. One day I'll buy some Sculpy and give it a try, but for  this diorama, I wanted to be able to do it as cheaply as possible.

Once the PVA glue dried on my 'Foam Box', I took to it with a knife and scissors and proceeded to remove 90% of the sides and ends of the box. Once that was done, MrsDF took it from me and added differeing thicknesses of foam chunks to the cieling of the cavern. To get the chunks of foam to look natural, MrsDF applied a small amount of wood-filler to the edges of the foam 'bits' and then added the Stalagtites. Once she was happy with the look and feel of the interior of the cavern she proceeded to dig away small amounts of the exterior foam as well. At this point, the floor of the cavern is seperate from the rest for ease of modelling and then painting.







Now I had to seriously give thought to what was going to be in this diorama (Mini-wise). Without the minis I couldn't go much further.

DF

 

So. Who, or what, is going to go in my Fishtank Cavern? I had so many ideas originally but the more I thought about it the more I thought of making it a scene from any possible adventuring party's travels, from D&D RPG. So I finally decided that I would have an adventuring party making their way through the cavern.

As anyone who knows me from MM-Chat (or anywhere else for that matter), I am pretty much 'Old Skool' in my line of thinking when it comes to D&D and what 'should or shouldn't' be in a cavern. If there was nothing else in this particular scene, there had to be 2 'Old Skool' miniatures/monsters from D&D. The first monster that I personally believe had to be in my cavern, was a Roper. One small problem arose with this line of thought. I only have 1 Roper mini. This was not a good thing. I was lost. I didn't know what to do.

When I decide on something, I go with it. If I can't, I suffer a major case of 'Writers Block', or in this case 'Modeller's Block'. I started to get annoyed at my predicament, and turned away from the diorama and looked elsewhere for solice.

*Read - played computer games again.*

Once I bored of this, I turned around to see this sitting on my gaming table.

I'll take this opportunity to say just one thing. MrsDF rox da house! If I never do anything else right in this lifetime, at least I know I did one thing correctly. Marrying a Gamer Chick = PERFECTION! Especially when MY gamer chick has such excellent skills. This creation was made, again, from DAS modelling clay. MrsDF was both smart and careful, and made sure not to make the 'resculpt' exactly as the DDM Roper. (No WotC Laywer letter for this little black duck!) BTW, the teeth are the pointy ends off toothpicks.

With that 'problem' out of the way. I not had to do something that I knew all along I would be doing. No matter if I had made this diorama the inside of a cavern/tomb/dungeon. I was always going to have to make my personal favourite 'Old Skool' miniature. So out came the DAS, again, some Greenstuff, and some more toothpicks. TADA! One DarkMantle made and ready to roof-hug.



**Look closely at the pic below. For all you poor people that are unlucky or unable to find one. That's a gamer chick! In this pic, she is currently working on some other stuff for the cavern. This is an extremely rare pic. MrsDF dislikes camera's with a passion.**



Why I detailed the 'bottom' of the DarkMantle I do not know, as it won't be seen after the diorama is done. But I did all the same. Before anyone says anything, I know the DarkMantle has it's 'foot' ontop of it's head and actually hangs from the roof in such a way that it can fall onto it's prey. Mine will be reversed - trying to blend in with the Stalagtites. You will see how this works out later on.

DF

Well this morning, we have managed to get some of the Stalagmites placed and cut out 'placement locations' for the bases of the miniatures I am planning on using for the adventuring party. It's not much to look at at the moment, but seeing it come together is pretty cool (IMHO).

I tried to place the 'adventurers' in a manner that I think a group of PC's would move in. For example - Rogue moving ahead and away from the main group using his Hide in Shadows and Move Silently abilities, Ranger and Companion in the background, Spellcaster in the middle of the party, etc.







There is still much work to do on the cavern floor itself such as more (smaller) Stalagmites, detailing the pool/pond, adding in a 'shroom patch and other fungis clusters, and detailing the floor texture itself, etc. Hopefully the pics will give an idea of what the overall look of the cavern will end up being.

DF

The last couple of days have been a little slow in the modelling area. Real Life getting in the way and all. Anyway, a few things have been done. A couple of minis repainted, and some of the extra scenery stuff has been worked on.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to show a couple of pics of the fungis growths and a few of the 'shrooms that MrsDF has been working on.

Orange and Off-White Fungis growths:

White Spotted Red Shrooms:


'Fire' Shrooms:


Next post will contain some of the mini repaints I am going to be using in the Diorama.

DF

Heya All;

Finally got the cavern undercoated and some of the 'inhabitants' painted. The undercoating was done with GW Chaos Black paint thinned with water and applied with an airbrush.

And now with some light added (camera flash)


The first of the repaints is done. I wanted to make the Timber Wolf look more 'juvenille' with it's markings, and try to relay a sense of scruffyness - from being in the caverns exploring. The base isn't painted yet, but once the cavern is done, the base will be painted to match.


The first of my 'cieling inhabitants'. This creature will be stalking the other creature which will be located on the cieling. I wanted to give the diorama an 'Aussie feeling' so I repainted the Spider of Lolth as a Redback Spider.


And here is the creature that the Redback Spider will be stalking. My scratchbuilt (oversized and not really anotomically correct) DarkMantle. It has been painted to match the inside of the cavern cieling, so on it's own it probably doesn't look real good, but hey, at least I can say I own a DarkMantle (even if I did have to make it myself).


Next lot of pics 'should' be the painted cavern itself and maybe even with some details (fungis/shrooms) added.

DF

First of all to answer Yacks question:

The two halves of the diorama are not attatched at this moment. That will happen once everything is in place and detailed completely.

Well, I have finally gotten some pics of the scenery effectively painted and some of the detailing work started.

Firstly, we have started to add some of the fungis growths and two of the cavertns inhabitants. When looking at the following pics remember to do as all good dungeon delvers do... LOOK UP!

There is also a pic of the Timber Wolf in place (with unpainted base) to show something else with a bit of colour in the scenery)

I hope you all like what you have seen so far. Hopefully more pics of the final details will be forthcoming in the next day or two. Maybe even some more of the adventurers too?!

**Due to a posting error, this whole post got removed... but here it is back again.**

Sulaco: Lighting it for normal viewing wont be a problem as it will be placed in a specific location on display. As far as future pics go for this thread - I am going to play around with my lamps and try to get a better position which will basically light up the complete interior of the cavern.

DF

Heya All;

Wow. This is a big update. Not so much because of the amount of work that has been done, but because of the sheer quality of the work. (Not by me so much, but by MrsDF - you'll understand as you read on)

I have been keeping a secret until now about the Diorama. The secret of the 'enemy minis' that my adventuring party will be facing of in this scene. Well the first of the enemy minis (not including the DarkMantle & Redback Spider) is now done, so I present you with 'Enemy #1'.

This is a completely scratch built version of the ever-sought-after Beholder. I have shown a select few people the finished product in pics, just before I permanantly attatched it to the diorama via superglue, and was asked to include a step by step for it in the Diorama thread, so here goes.

*A deep and profound thankyou to MrsDF for all her hard work and extraordinary skill in sculpting this for me**

The Beholder 'resculpt' started life as a ball of Aluminium Foil. Around this was added a layer of DAS Modelling Clay, to form a perfectly round sphere. Then the details like the eye and raised areas were added, and finally the jaw line. While this was drying, the eyestalks were built. Each eye stalk has a paperclip armatage, surrounded by more DAS. The eyeballs for each stalk were shaped with the metal part of a paintbrush (without the wooden handle in it of course). The rest of the 'flesh details' were added manually with straight edged items and other sculpting tools. Once the Beholder 'body' was amply dry, the eye stalks were added and PVA glue was used to seal the joins and fill any gaps. (PVA is excellent for this as it dries clear and can easily be painted over).
 


Once everything was attatched and dry, the entire mini was coated in thinned woodfiller to add flesh details like skin folds, creases, etc. Pimples/lumps/growths were also added before the woodfiller coat was applied.



The finished mini was then undercaoted in GW Chaos Black Paint thinned with water and applied with an airbrush.



The rest of the painting steps I cannot comment on as they were performed just this morning while I was having a rare sleep-in. The final miniature is a little more rounded than the DDM original, but we are considering this a female Beholder (due to it's differing 'shape').



Here is an animated version of the above pics to show it from all angles.



With the Beholder permenantly attatched to the Diorama within an hour of my waking up, I thought it a good idea to take some pics of the scene with the BBEG in place. First 4 pics are 'lit up' to show everything  a bit more clearly. Followed by the rest of the pics in 'normal lighting conditions.









Normal Lighting Conditions









As always, I hope you all like what MrsDF and I have donw so far. There are still 2 more 'enemies' to be added to the diorama (not 2 more beholders) and of course, the Roper is still to be painted (finished) and added. As well as other details, etc.

Any Comments or Criticisms, please post them. Any ideas will also be welcomed aboard and will be taken into serious consideration.

DF

OK I saw this on the Hoardlings site and wanted to comment very badly but didn’t have a login (boy that’s lazy isn’t it). Now that I have seen it over here I have to tell you that you and your wife are doing a terrific job on this. It is obviously not a project as projects go but a labor of love. The time and detail that are going into it is not lost on me and I for one have to congratulate the both of you for not giving in to self inflicted time tables. Nothing hurts a project more then trying to get a long project over with and taking some shortcuts at the end.

The diorama is coming along great and the layout is spectacular. Normally I would say you have too many different monsters in it but the choices you have made make most of the monsters out of a viewer’s normal vision. It certainly can show how big a bind the adventuring party can get into. It looks bad enough with the Beholder they can see.

As for the sculpting, they are all very fine quality scratch builds, but the Beholder has me amazed. The level of detail blows me away. It is a better looking model, in my opinion, than the all ready great looking model put out by WoTC. I would pay twenty dollars for an unpainted model without blinking an eye.

Now I’m not saying you should try to sell them but I do quite a bit of mold making and could recommend a brand of mold material including a 1 to1 mixture of liquid plastic that picks up all of the molds details. The Beholder would be problematic due to all of the tentacles but if you ever decide to reproduce other stuff it makes my life easier. In the hobby of actual model making I am a novice in comparison to you and your wife however. If your interested in the mold making materials I have experience in please give me a PM or email.