The arrows were a challenge Freddy but those are the small things that add up to the story. I'm glad the rope idea turn out well.

@King Elessar the Uniter and Queen Berúthiel - Thanks. I would love to speed things up for you guys but then again I'll definitely miss documenting the details.
@Thorin & Co.- Yes, I'm definitely thinking of adding more details inside. That's a cool idea. Treebeard with Merry and Pippin would cool too but there's only room for one Ent on this one.

Here's the latest update on the Isengard diorama. The bridge was scratched built using skewers and chopsticks.




Tutorial Video for the bridge is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEmA3KxbXAs


Here's a prop for the diorama that I build. A miniature wheelbarrow for the orcs to transport their bad intentions.



You can find the article on how to make it here below.
http://quazen.com/recreation/models/scratchbuilt-your-own-miniature-wheelbarrow/
More props coming up soon.

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Website http://2paintminiatures.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/2paintminiatures

cool stuff!! once again can´t wait for the next update Keep it up

Nice progress! This diorama will look simply splendid when finished.

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" I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Bilbo

Great ideas shriff.

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TO9G - 2010 Isengard

@King Elessar the Uniter- Thanks. The diorama gave me lot of fun
ideas.

@Longbottom Leaf- That's what I'm trying to achieve man. Have to be better than the previous ones. That's my goal.

@Queen Berúthiel- Thanks for the hot comment.lol.

The diorama is shaping up but pretty slowly. I've been scratchbuilding 99 percent of the project and that's time consuming. I'm pretty happy on how things turned out so far. Once i add putty to the walls, I will add some more smaller details to each individual building too.Looking at the size of the diorama, its needs a pretty decent amount of detail to make it exciting. That makes me excited with the project but I'm not sure how long you guys can wait.

Okay eventually i will have to stop and the painting shall begin.I made some additions to the diorama by adding a tower and walkways for orcs to move up and down the three levels. I also added a guard tower. Now now, I think its best if you can see all the things done so far for yourself in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRpGP3fIlJo

I'm working on the walls and making some modifications to the orc figures as we speak. That would come up in the next update.
I'll be back pretty soon.

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Website http://2paintminiatures.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/2paintminiatures

Wow, this looks even better than I thought it would!
The design is stunning and the construction itself is brilliant. Great work shriff!

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TO9G - 2010 Isengard

Great work shirif keep it up

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"I will take it. I will take the Ring to Mordor...though I do not know the way."
—Frodo, at the Council of Elrond

Wow mate, just shocking so far! Ever think about writing some articles?

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Flying is the practice of trying to crash into the ground and missing.

@King Elessar the Uniter and Queen Berúthiel- Thanks. It's well worth the time sitting down and thinking what I might miss.

@Anduril Blade of Kings-Thanks mate. I do have some article link at each of my Youtube videos. I have just one here at One Ring on painting Bilbo Baggins though. Perhaps I will write one on this project.

I've been busy sculpting skulls using greenstuff. I made about twenty to decorate the diorama. Never seem to have enough skulls. I shot one session on video and here was how I did it. Hope you guys likes it(Gollum style).

Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eeWXerngiA

Btw sculpting is easy if you have a lot of practice. So playing around with greenstuff is a must. The diorama is almost there. I hope to start painting the orcs soon.

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Website http://2paintminiatures.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/2paintminiatures

nice stuff - it's nice to see some sketching nicely drawn to!
and the stuff you r making looks great so far to
keep it on

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goblin: "people associate me with boogers because i am green"

Excellent video.
Definately going to try this - thanks shriff!

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TO9G - 2010 Isengard

I love what you are doing and the arrows tutorial have given me some ideas.
My only concern is regardingn the arrows. Are they too long on the Birch ent ?
I couldn't get to grips with the scale you have on the Orc archer so maybe it looks accurate in 'real life'

Great to watch it progress though

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Commission Service Available

mallysminiatures.blogspot.co.uk

@garmenhord-Thanks for the encouragement mate. I hope you will like the final product too.

@King Elessar the Uniter- I'm glad you like this. Thanks man.

@Gandlaf the Grey- Thanks for pointing that out mate. I'll get back to it and have another look at it before I start painting. I'm all for improving things as it goes along.

It took longer than I expected but finally the Isengard diorama is almost complete save for a few washes and weathering here and there. If its you first time reading this WIP posts below is a pictorial summary of what I've already done.



Wooden Parts
Everything seems to be going according to plan though. The time consuming part was the scratch building. Then came the painting of each individual part. All the scratch build wooden parts like the tower and bridge were painted using an acrylic stain this time round. It's a new thing that I'm trying out in this project and its turning out great.

Rocks
The rocks were primed black first and then drybrushed with flat brown and desert yellow before given a wash of raw umber oils. I then gave a final drybrush of desert yellow again for the highlights for the rocks.

The Groundwork was painted in typical GW rock terrain style using Fortress grey and codex grey. It is supposed to show the burnt and dusty ground of isengard that was being stripped of all vegetation and life.

I just need to weather the skulls just a bit to make it look more aged.
Check out the video link and short article for this project below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHIP-nuEsdQ

http://quazen.com/recreation/models/assembling-and-painting-a-miniature-isengard-diorama/

The figures will come next. Till the next update, thanks for watching guys.

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Website http://2paintminiatures.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/2paintminiatures

Thats really neat. Good job! your drawing is pretty good too. I cant draw my dioramas that well, i have to rely on the image of it I have in my head. Anyway awesome.

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http://noddwyr.wordpress.com

Dude that's awesome !! And evern without diorama itself...the sketches are just Mindblowing !! (yes the capital M is in fact intended)


One request :

Close ups!
Close ups!
Close ups!

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My WiP thread

www.independent-painters.blogspot.com/

Nicely done! Keep us updated!

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Hmm... what would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

Very good work. The videos were interesting and very informative. The water based stain and the paint is a really good idea. I am going to try it right away. You mentioned oil based umber is there a reason you prefer it over the water based stain for that application?
I like your over all presentation. It enhances the model.You have a new fan.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Very nice, i like what has become of it. You really did a great job. Nice job on the sculpting of that dead uruk to. It's an amazingly well made diorama. This will look good on the closet . Also nice that you kept your work on progress recorded that well. I want to see more stuff like this here The big hand on that stone reminds me a lot at the part in the book where the nails turn red, then the red starts getting black.

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goblin: "people associate me with boogers because i am green"

That looks great, I can't wait too see it in it's full splendour with the painted miniatures.

This is an amazing diorama - extremely well designed, built and painted. Inspirational work shriff!

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TO9G - 2010 Isengard