For this final installment, I've got a few photos of the painting process and a selection of finished images. The terrain gallery has been updated to include the diorama. For the full gallery of images, click here.
Painting
All of the elements were painted separately, like the ground and flagstone streets, and the Hammer Fortress.
The University clock tower was sprayed with purple for its basic undercoat...
...and then it was drybrushed with a series of purple-greys.
Once the stonework was finished, all the details like the railings and telescope were added.
The Alchemy District was painted with a blue-green scheme to help differentiate it from the other areas of the diorama.
With everything finished, the lights get turned on...
...and here is the Arcadia Quest diorama in all its glory!
You can see the full spread of detail shots, including the finished terrain before the miniatures were added, in terrain gallery here. And check out the game itself on the Arcadia Quest website.
'Til next time!
Now that the diorama has been premiered at Gencon, and Cool Mini Or Not has photos of the finished table up on the Arcadia Quest Facebook page, I can show off my process for the final construction of the moon and backdrop.
The Moon
Cool Mini wanted the diorama o have a backdrop with a moon and fiber optic stars behind the action. The moon also needed the Arcadia Quest logo emblazoned across it.
The backdrop stands just over four feet tall, and screws into the base of the diorama. In this shot, you can see the outline of where the moon will be, about two feet in diameter.
To construct the moon, I began with layers of insulation foam, stacked and sanded into a semicircle. The craters were burned in with a heat gun, and then I smoothed over everything with wood filler putty.
The wood filler creates a unique texture, and to enhance the rough surface of the moon, I coated everything with wood glue and a little sand.
Cracks running from the craters were cut into the surface, and then I sprayed everything with black primer.
After the primer, a dusting of grey sprays I began painting the moon with a series of drybrushes and washes using a variety of blues, greys, and black ink. The logo, printed and mounted on foam core, was bent around the curve of the moon.
The logo was separated into two layers– the background elements and the text. The background was secured to the moon and the edges painted to match the surface.
The text was mounted over top, to create a tiered logo.
The backdrop was sprayed with blues and purples, and speckled with a star field. The fiber optic lights were positioned, linked to the lighting in the Alchemy District, and then the moon was attached.
I'll be updating the terrain gallery with images of the full, finished diorama later this week.
'Til next time!
Welcome to part three of the assembly journal for the Arcadia Quest diorama that I'm building for Cool Mini or Not! Last time I discussed the construction of the University clock tower. Here's a shot of it with the Hammer fortress in the background. Both have been primed and sprayed with an undercoat color, and are ready for painting. On the right, you can see the buildings for the Alchemist District. This post will be a little short because I didn't take many photos of the work in progress.
Part 3: The Alchemist District
The houses and shops all started as foam core shells, visible on the right. The shells were then detailed with all manner of windows, wood framing and stone foundations. Doors and windows were added as well.
The shingles were cut from strips of thick bristol board. The red roofs are made from Spanish-tile textured styrene sheets. The stonework was made in the same way as the surfacing for the University clock tower. The doors and windows are a combination of scratch-built and resin cast elements. Since the buildings will have lights inside, some of the windows have cut outs, which I'll address further down.
Each building plugs into the table and sits snugly on the angle of the street. (For information on how I made the street, check out last week's terrain tutorial: Flagstone Streets.)
I use strip LEDs to light the buildings. Each is wired together in a series, and they all run off the same power source (a 9v power adapter). The lights are attached to foam blocks to elevate them to the level of the windows.
Each window cutout is covered with a sheet of colored film and a textured sheet of acrylic to diffuse the light.
With everything glued in place and the lights turned on, the buildings cast a colorful glow from within!
That's about all I can show of the table until Cool Mini Or Not it debuts it at their next convention. All of the painting and construction is finished, but because this is a diorama, and not just terrain, there will be plenty of models adorning it.
Back to my painting table...
'Til next time!
This is part two of my assembly journal for the Arcadia Quest diorama I'm building for Cool Mini Or Not. Last time I was just finishing up the fortress for the District of Hammers. Here it is with the roof shingles and hammer icon over the main gate. After a coat of primer, it's ready for painting.
Part 2: The University Plaza
To construct the clock tower for the university, I use insulation foam for the main structure of the building, and foam core for the tower itself. The front of the building needs a breezeway with arched openings below the balcony on the second tier. The surface of the foam is textured with a smaller natural brick pattern to differentiate it from the hammer fortress. Over the foam core, a thin layer of pink insulation foam is affixed. This thin layer is similarly textured with the brick pattern.
Details like the stone frame for the clock face and windows are added using a combination of foam, basswood, and resin parts. Here you can see the breezeway taking shape. The columns are wooden candle holders trimmed down to size.
The foam is coated with a mix of wood glue and black latex paint to protect it. Once dry, parts like the cardboard framing for the railings and spires can be super glued to the protective shell without dissolving the foam.
On the back of the building, I added a large staircase going up to the overlook level. You can also see the flagstone street and the moat for the hammer fortress.
Here's a look at the right side of the structure and the arch leading into the breezeway. the ground is textured with sand and gravel.
To make the stone path, I the paper is peeled off one side of a sheet of foam core which is then glued to the table. a stone pattern is drawn on the foam and then the individual stones are cut out with a hobby knife, using a series of V-cuts to remove the gaps between the stones. A wire brush is used to press a pock-marked rocky texture into the foam, and then it's coated with wood glue and, once dry, a thinner layer of wood glue is painted into the recesses and sand is sprinkled over top.
The roof is added using using foam core covered with card shingles.
The clock tower is finished, save for some of the smaller details like the railings and this telescope which I scratch built using styrene tubing. And, of course, I'll add a clock face in there somewhere.
Coming up, a tutorial on how I make my flagstone streets!
'Til next time!
I've been mostly absent from my blog (and life in general) for the past several months due to my latest project– a diorama display for Arcadia Quest. Similar to the Wrath of Kings diorama, this one is a large cityscape and it incorporates three different settings:
The District of Hammers– a large stone fortress topped with barbed wire. The Alchemist District– a collection of buildings whose windows glow with an eerie light produced by the arcane concoctions brewing within. And the University Plaza, a large clock tower overlooking a courtyard.
So this will be a multi-part assembly journal focusing on the highlights of constructing each area. Once the table debuts in the Cool Mini Or Not booth at Gencon, I'll put up some photos of the finished diorama.
Part 1: The District of Hammers
As with every large display, a wooden frame is constructed for the base. Atop that, insulation foam is layered to create the landscape.
The foam is sanded to form a smooth gradient. You can see the outline of the Hammer fortress at the back of the table. The rectangular area on the left is the base of the University clock tower. But we'll get to that in a bit...
First, the Hammer fortress. Layers of insulation foam are stacked to form the building shapes and the surface is textured with a stone pattern. Here you can see the main structure with the smaller buildings that will be set atop it.
The windows are cut out during the stone texturing process. To protect the foam, it's coated with a layer of wood glue. The doors are then glued in place, and the metal rail is made by attaching styrene strips to a sheet of foam core.
The balcony is textured with cardboard chits and sand to create stone flooring.
The roofs of the buildings get a covering of styrene sheets, punched with rivets. L-strips frame out the edges.
At the base of the fortress is a moat. The shape is cut out and the front edge is roughed up with a wire brush. The back is textured to match the stonework of the fortress. Then the surface of the water is made by smoothing wood filler putty into the recess.
There is a bit of a waterfall and stream as the water flows down the slope and off the edge of the table. Finally, sand mixed with glue is painted in lines to simulate ripples in the water.
Here is the District of Hammers fortress, nearly finished. It only needs a few final details, like a drawbridge, barbed wire, flags, and some roof shingles, most of which will be added during the painting process.
Coming up, the University Plaza!
'Til next time!
