Making a Scene (as usual)
War of the Worlds
After two years of aggressively attacking my grey mountain, I wanted this year to take a different direction for my hobby. I wanted to take a break from painting just to get paint down. To have a couple of projects that are about taking my time and doing things just for the love of it. It’ll sound preachy and it’ll be different for everyone but clearing the pile of shame has connected me back into my hobby in a way I haven’t felt for years.
Something I’ve always wanted to try has been dioramas. My grandfather was a train driver and raised three sons who each took their children to train museums and model railway exhibitions all through our early years. None of us have turned into railway hobbyists but we do all have a soft spot for them.
Pendraken Miniatures
Anyone who followed my Black Dogs project will know that I found a love of 10mm last summer and spent a significant part of the latter half of 2021 painting up a dwarf army. Most of the models came from Pendraken who, it turns out, do an annual painting competition in February. Rather than submit something I’d worked on previous I reckoned it was a good time to do a wee diorama I had been thinking about.
So we’re working in 10mm and the base to count in the category I was eyeing up was maxed at 100mmx100mm.
Roughly figuring out the layout. The soldiers are from the Boer War range of Brits but they'll be painted up as Sappers as mentioned in the novel
Milliput, sand, a bit of XPS foam with some brickwork marked on it and some cut up matchsticks to build out the street... somewhere in Woking I guess 
Speaking of sappers, part way through painting. Black trousers and helmets, red jackets and a red stripe down the legs, white belt where visible and some brown packs.. 
Almost done, after a wash they got finished off with a quick highlight of the base colours and a little dab of gold on their helmets.It was around this time that work stopped me hobbying for a week and then by the curse of linear time, it was the night of the closing date. Photos of stages don’t exist. Just the end results (below).
Overall I’m happy with it. Of course I wish I had taken a little more time over it and there are lessons already but for a first try at something like this, I like it. I like the story being told and it was fun to do.
This was actually started when I was already part way through a different diorama which will be the next post but don’t expect it soon.
Looks really good. I recently did a Napoleonic camp scene, my first diorama-style thing, and I was surprised that I struggled a little with the order of bringing everything together. i.e. you paint the figures, work on the base, but when is the right time to integrate the one with the other? I was wondering if this is just me overthinking tings, or whether you had a similar dilemma as a someone new to dioramas?
I didn’t but I suspect that’s because at that point I was under the gun to finish it within a few hours so just put them down after painting the ground but before flocking. Being 10mm they were too delicate to clip or file off the built in bases so I just used the flock and some Stirland mud to hide them a bit. It’s one of the things I’d like to do better next time!
2022-07-12 Your project has been visited by the unofficial Hobby Hangout. Huzza!