As my skills and confidence have progressed, I have started to look over my first projects with a view to creating actual moments from the films!

Furthermore, as the Cave Troll was one of my first attempts at Miniature Painting, you will see from the picture above that I knew nothing about the likes of 'Flash Lines' and therefore have cleaned him up and totally re-done the paint job!

Step 1

After purchasing a length of balsa Wood from the local model shop, I sized up the Cave troll against the wood to assess what size I wanted the door to be.

The door had to be slightly smaller than the Cave Troll and therefore the wood was marked and cut accordingly.

After reviewing the DVD footage, a rough drawing was made of the doors which was transferred to the Balsa Wood. Using a sharp modelling knife, the 2 doors were cut out of the Balsa Wood.

The next part was to create a structured frame around each door. Thin strips of Balsa Wood were cut for this.

The strips were cut to the correct size and then glued into position using Super Glue.

This process continued until both doors were complete.

Step 2

The next step was to create a door frame. Using the 2 doors as a guide, thicker strips of Balsa were cut, however this time a 'Junior Hacksaw' blade was used to cut the wood.

Continuing to use the doors as a guide, the door frame strips were cut one at a time and glued together.

The doors had to be removed constantly, in case any overspill of Super Glue attached itself to them. This process continued until the door frame was completed.

Step 3

The next stage was to prepare the doors. Using a modelling knife, strips were cut into each door. The knife was forced completely through the wood.

The reason for cutting these strips into the wood was to create the damage to doors caused by the onslaught of the Goblin Horde. To effectively cause damage to the door without actually destroying it, I needed something small and solid to push through and cause the required effect. During the creation of my Buckleberry Ferry diorama, I used the 'Sam' miniature from the 'Captured By Gondor' box set. The camp fire part of the miniature was cut away and discarded....until now!

Placing the piece of metal beneath the door, directly beneath the cuts I had made, I gently (but firmly), pressed down until the metal forced the wood to snap.

I continued to reposition the piece of metal beneath the door until I was happy with the damage created. Next was to try and create that 'splintered' look! Using a modelling knife, I carefully 'scraped' at the wood to create the desired effect!

Once the left hand door was finished, it was attached to the door frame with Super Glue.

Because the door was to appear ajar, just super gluing the door onto the frame was not secure enough, therefore a cocktail stick was used on the rear to add support (not pictured), this was super glued between the door and the door frame.

The left hand door was to be totally different, i.e. totally off its hinges. I decided I wanted to have the door still attached to the door frame, but have the majority of it on the floor! Using a modelling knife, I cut through the door to the desired shape and separated the 2 pieces.

Moving on to the piece that was to be attached to the door frame, the same process was used as earlier to create the 'splintered' look.

This was then attached to the door frame.

Again, following the same process as the right hand door, the right hand door was 'damaged'.

The doors were now completed and all that remained was to paint them!

Slightly watered down Scorched Brown was used to basecoat the doors. After this, Bleached Bone was added to the mix for 4 successive highlights.

Step 4

The next step was to prepare the base. For this, I found some model railway ground plates in my local model shop.

The base was coated in Chaos Black, than highlighted with Codex Grey and finally highlighted with Fortress Grey.

The door frame and right hand door were then attached to the base.

Step 5

The next step was to create a wall around the door frame. Tipping the base on its side, I again used the doors as a template to draw around and mark onto a fresh piece of Balsa Wood. This was then cut out with a modelling knife.

If you look closely at the picture above, you will notice that I marked the over-hanging bricks. This was to create a more 'Dwarvish' style architecture.

The bricks were carefully scored with a modelling knife and gently cut/chipped away until the desired shape was created.

Next, I wanted to create a small amount of damage to the wall to reflect where the Cave Troll bursts through with his hammer. Again, using a modelling knife, the wall section was carefully chipped away to gain the desired effect.

The same technique as above was used to remove the 'sharp' square edges of the entire wall section.

After this was complete, the entire section was base coated with Chaos Black, drybrushed with Codex Grey and finally highlighted with Fortress Grey to match the base.

After this, the wall section was attached to the base using Super Glue.

PVA was then used between the wall and base sections and spare Hirst Art bricks were smashed and used as rubble. Grit was placed in between the rubble and where any excess glue appeared.

Whilst this was drying, the entire scene was turned around and Milliput was used to fill the gap around the door frame and the wall.

I had 3 ways to go with regards to the opening in the door:
1. Leave it so you can see through it.
2. Place a backing board on it and paint it black.
3. Place a picture on the backing board.

I found a suitable (ish) picture and decided to go with it. If you look closely on the finished pictures, you will see that it is actually a picture of Uruks facing the wrong way. The reason I used this picture was to capture the torches held aloft!

Conclusion

So, that brings us to the end. I'll leave you with some shots of the finished scene.

Hope you enjoyed the article!