Blood Angels Diorama with McFarlane Action Figures

After condensing 12+ hours of content into a 14-minute video, it’s finally live!

I’ll get some more images up as soon as I’ve caught my breath!

The three figures are now glued into position, and I’m really happy with the layout.

Next up is some weathering with dust, dirt and soot effects, then a few finishing touches.

After that, I’ll paint the diorama rim matt black and have a long, hard think about calling it done!

Finally, I’ll film the finished piece for the YouTube video and begin the long process of editing all those hours of painting and building footage.

Blood Drinker – is fully painted and detailed. Once he’s on the diorama, I’ll add some gore and soot.

Knight of Blood – Fully painted and detailed. I made the guts out of DAS clay and painted it with GSW blood and Citadel purple ink. Once he’s on the diorama I’ll add bloody drag marks. 

Genestealer – arrived 3 months late, but is now ready to go. I added contrast to the paint job and I’ll gore it up once it’s on the diorama.

Next up I’ll be adding all three figures to the diorama base and doing all the last, gory bits and pieces.

This Artist’s Proof Space Marine Interceptor from McFarlane Toys is not having a great day!

Torn in half by genestealer claws, he bleeds out his last, while watching a battle brother destroy his attacker, mere feet away.

This model will form the background to my diorama, with the surviving marine and a dead genestealer as the foreground.

I damaged this model with a Rotary tool, and I was careful to make sure the wounds all looked like claw marks, rather than bullet holes.

Next up, I’ll be priming and painting this poor dude, but I’m still working out which Chapter to use for him from the Blood Angels lineage. That’s the fun part though!

I’ve added some more depth to the damaged ceramite armour with mechanicum grey that’s washed with nuln oil, then speckled with Vallejo Game Color silver.

I used a fine tip pigment pen to scribble some nonsense text on the purity seals.

I used Scale 75 black inside the muzzle of the rifle, but I’ll add a lot more damage and weathering later on.

It feels like it’s going okay so far, but I’m still waiting to get my McFarlane genestealer so that I can start putting all the bits together on the diorama itself.

I’m going to leave this marine for now and start painting his fallen brother, who’ll be lying in several parts behind him in the mud!

The action figure came apart relatively easy, with only slight leverage needed on the torso.

I primed it with Green Stuff World grey primer, then followed that with:

• Vallejo Game Color Bloody Red – for armour plates.
• Vallejo Model Color Gold – for gold trim.
• Mig One Shot Primer Black – for the black rubbery bits under the body armour plates and rifle parts.
• Vallejo Game Color Sun Yellow – for the helmet.
• Citadel Base Leadbelcher – for bare metal rifle bits.
• Tamiya Clear Red – for blood drop rubies and purity seal wax.
• Tamiya Clear Green – for the helmet’s eye lenses.
• Citadel Contrast Skeleton Horde – for purity seal parchment.

Next, I’ll be doing some shading and highlights before moving on to the next action figure in the diorama – a disembowelled Blood Angel who’ll be lying in the background!

Some test images of different angles and poses to get a feel for the possible approaches I can take. You can have a huge amount of fun with these relatively inexpensive action figures!

As a wee bonus, here’s a teaser video I put up on Instagram too.