Special Thanks must be made to Quendi for the loan of his Hirstarts Moulds (and never ending nagging to use buildings in my dioramas), Exile of Noldor and to Jim Jackson (Sivousplay) for his inspiration…many thanx Guys!

Materials used:
Bridge At Khazad-Dûm Boxed Set.
High Elf Archer.
Green Stuff.
Hirstarts 'Ruined Tower' mould.
Hirstarts 'Basic Brick' mould. (Lent from Quendi…Cheers Mate!)
Hirstarts '4" Circular Tower' mould. (Lent from Quendi…Cheers Mate!)
Plaster of Paris.
1 x Large Cake Board.
1 x Medium Cake Board.
Bostik Household Glue.
Expanding Foam Filler.
Woodland Scenics Soft Flake Snow.

Paints used:
Skull White.
Codex Grey.
Chaos Black.
Plasti-kote Fleckstone Spray Paint.

Tools used:
Modelling Tool.
Craft Knife.
Clippers.
Scissors.
Sanding Block.
Needle Files.

The initial step was to choose a suitable base for the diorama.

The main part of the diorama was going to be the ruined tower, therefore I decided on a circular base and chose a Large Round Cake Board.

I also purchased a 'Medium' Cake Board at the same time to aid in the creation of the tower.

Using a 'Hirstarts Ruined Tower' mould (http://hirstarts.com), I began by casting a quantity of bricks from Plaster of Paris to get me started.

After reviewing The Two Towers DVD, I set about recreating the two arches on top of the ruin. Using five small straight bricks from the 'Basic Brick' mould, I carved and sanded them into the specific shapes required.

The first step was to create a 'wedge' to enable the bricks to slope downwards. Two small straight bricks were attached, then the ends were filed to slope upwards and two more small bricks were attached. All the bricks were then 'chipped' to represent ruins.

Next, using two 'curved' bricks from the 'Ruined Tower' mould, they were glued together with normal household glue.

A third curved brick was then used, but this time the top right angled edge was filed down.

The third brick was attached to the other two and then two small straight bricks were attached to the sides of the third.

Reviewing the DVD footage again, I noted that turret sections of the ruined had intermittent 'drain' like features. To create this effect, a small straight brick was cut at an angle.

This brick was then attached to the centre of the two base bricks and two grooves marked.

The section between the grooves was filed out using a flat needle file until the top brick and the small carved brick met at the same angle.

The top section was then attached the base section.

Two of these arches were made in total.

During the creation of the arches, I was casting more bricks every thirty minutes.

Using the medium sized cake board I had purchased, I started to attach some curved bricks around the circumference and also inserted the arches.

A deliberate gap was left at the front as the DVD footage showed a gaping whole in the ruin. The next layer of bricks was added, staying with the theme of the arches.

After the top section was complete, I proceeded to cast the bricks for the lower section. I balanced the upper section upside down on a 'cup' to allow me to work on the lower section. I did not want the tower to be a perfect cylinder, so for the lower section I inset the bricks by 1 brick. A special brick was used in the lower section which comes with the 'Circular Tower' mould. This brick forms a 'slot' in the wall section.

Because the lower section was to be inset by the depth of a brick, this meant that the bricks had to be positioned with a slight gap between each (as you can see from the picture above), as the curvature was not correct for where the bricks were being placed. The bricks were glued into place and for every two bricks, an 'Arrow Slot' was used.

Two bricks were attached to the side of the tower to match the upper section.

After these bricks had set, an additional brick was carved at an angle and positioned to finish off the columns.

On the original diorama that I constructed, I had the stairs running up the outside of the tower, however on reviewing the DVD footage, it showed that the stairs are actually on the 'inside'.

The 'Ruined Tower' mould comes with a specially designed brick to create spiral stairs, however this could not be used as it was going in the wrong direction, therefore 'floor tile' bricks were used to create the stairs.

There needed to be an 'entrance' to the top section from the stairs, therefore a section was cut out of the cake board to create the entrance.

Once everything had dried, I sprayed the ruin with Plasti-kote Fleckstone Spray Paint. This is a spray paint that gives a 'speckle-dashed' texture and is great for fast results. The base was then sprayed with a Chaos Black undercoat.

As this was a 'ruin', the top section required random rubble. As mentioned earlier, whilst cutting and carving, nothing was thrown away and all this debris was used to create rubble on top of the ruin.

After the glue had dried, the rubble was coated with another layer of Plasti-kote Fleckstone Spray Paint.

The next step was to start creating the side of the mountain. For this, I chose a piece of driftwood and coated it with Plasti-kote Fleckstone Spray Paint, however this time, I used a darker shade.

To create the mountain side, I used 'Expanding Foam Filler' (or as Yith calls it...Ice-Cream (Ed: Do I?)) which is available from any good DIY store. The filler was used in controlled bursts, as it will expand over three times its initial size.

The piece of driftwood was actually attached prior to using the foam filler, but I forgot to take a photo!

Once this had all dried, the ruins were 'masked' off and the foam filler sections were given an undercoat of Codex Grey. This is required, as the bare foam filler has an 'oily' texture that can cause problems when trying to coat it.

Once the undercoat was dry, the entire section was coated with the darker shade of Plasti-kote Fleckstone.

As this was a 'ruin', the top section required random rubble.

As mentioned earlier, whilst cutting and carving, nothing was thrown away and all this debris was used to create rubble on top of the ruin.

After the glue had dried, the rubble was coated with another layer of Plasti-kote Fleckstone Spray Paint.

The next part was to create the snow on the mountain sections. For this I used 'Woodland Scenics Soft Flake Snow' (approximately £7 for a large tub). PVA glue was spread over the appropriate sections and the snow was sprinkle heavily over the glue. As the edges of the PVA dried almost see-through, the whole process was repeated again to get a solid white appearance.

After sufficient snow had been applied, the ruin was completed and all that remained was to prepare the Miniatures.

Two conversions were required, the first was very basic and all that was required was to remove the sword from the Balrog's hand. This was cut away with clippers, then filed down and painted.

Gandalf on the other hand took a bit more effort. During the Bridge at Khazad-Dûm scene, Gandalf loses his staff over the edge and it is never seen again, therefore the Miniature was inappropriate for the scene. The left arm holding the staff was carefully cut away using clippers and filed smooth.

On my first attempt, I used the piece of arm from the miniature that I had cut away with Green Stuff, however although it was a small piece, the weight of the arm kept causing problems. I decided to use the arm from a High Elf Archer and cut away the arm from the bow. Green Stuff was then modelled around the arm in the fashion of Gandalf's robes.

The sword arm was then attached and the Miniature was painted.

All that remained was to put everything together.

Gandalf was removed from his base and the metal sprue on his feet was filed flat. The miniatures were then attached using Super Glue to hold them in place.

And that's about it. I'll leave you with some shots from different angles!

And finally....lets add a bit of 'Theatre'!

---

Please take a moment to give the writer of this article some feedback on their work!
The link below will allow you to rate and leave a comment for this article.

Rate & Comment Here!

---