Mini Balin's Tomb Diorama
A Diorama
-- Ed O'Brien (Reapersoul)
Introduction
This is my article on how to make a scaled-down version of Balin's tomb. It cannot be used in conjunction with any of the Games Workshop scenarios; it is not a gaming piece, that is unless you write some of your own scenarios!
This is a very easy diorama to construct, all of the materials should be very easy to find and also extremely cheap. The reason I wrote this article was because, quite simply, there are many guides available on building Balin's tomb, but most require specialist materials or tools, this guide is for those who do not have access to those materials, or those who are simply to tight to buy them (Am I the only one?). Anyway, we'd better get started….
Materials & Tools Required
Corrugated cardboard/Hardboard (Anything you think suitable for a base)
Normal (uncorrugated) card, cereal box cardboard.
Wire cutters/clippers (To make sprue rubble)
Sprue
Foam-board/foamcard (Easily available from most newsagents or art suppliers)
Suitable models of Aragorn (Strider), Legolas, Boromir, Gandalf, Merry, Pippin, Sam and of course, Frodo.
For added effect, you may wish to include some models of the Goblins of Moria, and even a model of the dreaded Cave troll.
PVA Glue
Super Glue
The spongy material from the inside of cushions or Polystyrene!
Step One - The Base
Cut out a piece of hardboard measuring 35cm X 39cm . Alternatively cut out two 35cm X 39cm piece of corrugated cardboard and glue them together using PVA glue. Leave to dry for at least 12 - 24hrs.
Step Two - Raised Platforms
Using either a hot wire-cutter and polystyrene or the spongy substance inside of a cushion and a scissors/craft-knife cut out 5 pieces measuring :
Try to get the texture of these pieces to be as smooth as possible, as you will be gluing them in the next two steps.
Step Three - Gluing
Using mostly PVA glue, but outlining the edges in a small amount of super-glue for added stability, glue the platforms to approximately the centre of the base in this pattern:
The gap where the platforms meet will still be clearly visible, but this will improve dramatically when texturing is added in the next few steps.
Step Four - Surfacing
At this point, your piece will look fairly unimpressive, but do not be disheartened, from now it will improve a great deal with every step that is completed.
This step is very easy, simply cut out several pieces of foam-board/foam-card to cover the top and inside of the platforms, as illustrated in this diagram:
That is a total of ten pieces of foam-board/foam-card.
Next, glue these piece using mostly PVA glue but also super-glue on the edges of the foam-board. Glue to the same areas as shown in the above picture, try not to leave any bits of foam-board/foam-card sticking out as it will appear unnatural when we add texture to the platforms.
Your piece should look roughly like this after Step Four :
Step Five - Finishing the Platforms
At this point, your raised platforms should look OK, but we still need to add a rocky, dwarven feel to it.
Doing this is very easy, and all it requires is PVA glue, water and paper.
Simply tear out some very small pieces of newspaper - roughly this size :
Next, soak the paper in a glass of water, take it out and evenly spread a small amount of PVA glue onto one side of the paper. Then stick the newspaper onto the platform !
This will do two things : Make the gaps between the platforms invisible, and make the platforms have a rocky, uneven look to them .
Leave to dry for another 12-24hrs and your platforms will be ready for painting, but we will get the rest of the model ready before we actually do start painting…
Step 6 : Adding some detail.
Now that we have finished the platforms, we will now start adding a bit of detail to the central area of the base.
The first thing I decided to do would be very easy. Just cut out some small pieces of normal uncorrugated card, roughly this size :
Now attach them to the centre of the base, leaving a 3cm gap between the start of the card and the platforms, like so :
Leave these to dry and you have completed this step.
Step 7 - Adding some more detail
Now we can simply add some sprue rubble to the model, for those who do not know what sprue is, sprue is simply the plastic casing which is still attached to plastic models when you buy them. By cutting off short, slender pieces of this using a clipper or wire cutters, we can create the appearance of rubble, it is very cheap and works extremely well.
Simply add some PVA glue to the model and put sprue rubble over it, try to apply most of the sprue rune to the bottom-right corner of the tomb as this is where most of the rubble was located in the movie.
Next, just drop a very, very small amount of gravel in random areas of the tomb. This will add texture to the piece and make it look nicer when it is painted up.
Step 8 - The Sarcophagus
Extremely easy to make, just needs foam board. Cut out two pieces of foam-board/ foam-card that measure 6 ˝ cm, two that measure 7cm and 5 pieces measuring 5 1/2cm. The thickness of the foam board is .25cm.
Now, after following these slightly complicated instructions you should be left with a piece looking like this :
Step 9 - Finishing Touches.
Now your piece is as good as finished, and it should not look too shabby ! The only thing to add is some shards of a door. This is done by cutting some balsa wood, or foam board, or even cardboard into shapes looking slightly like these ones which I drew on paint :
To add a wooden texture to the doors, very lightly run a craft knife over one side of the door, very lightly, just enough to make a permanent imprint on it .
Step 10 - Painting.
I painted this model very lazily indeed! All I did for the whole model was as always, undercoat the whole thing in Chaos black spray-paint, although if you made the platforms out of polystyrene use normal paint as spray-paint will melt polystyrene.
I then gave the entire model a heave drybrush of Codex Grey, concentrating on the raised platform, but do not drybrush too heavily as the paper may tear, although this is unlikely if the model was glued properly, it is still possible and it did happen to me, so drybrush lightly!
I then gave the model an even lighter drybrush of Fortress Grey, concentrating on the sprue rubble and the pieces of card in the middle of the piece.
That is all I did to paint the entire model, and I was pleased with the results but I am sure you are all much more talented painters than I (but then again, that wouldn't be hard!). Be adventurous when painting this piece, although not too adventurous - Dwarfs didn't make pink doors!
Painting the Sarcophagus.
In this tomb lies Balin son of Fundin. Balin was always one of my favourite characters from 'The Hobbit', so lets give him a nice place to rest eh?
The thing to remember when painting this model is that in the movie there was a very bright light shining directly on Balin's tomb, to represent this, I painted it slightly brighter than the rest of his tomb to make it stand out.
I gave the model an undercoat of Chaos Black and then a basecoat of Codex Grey. I then painted over that with a 80/20 mix of Codex Grey and Skull White which was then highlighted with fortress grey and then very finely highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Skull white and Fortress Grey.
Next I painted on the dwarven runes which translate to ''Here lies Balin, son of Fundin''. These runes were painted on with Scorched Brown.
The runes :
Conclusion
Now there you have it, a very easy to make piece which looks gorgeous! I actually came 3rd in a diorama competition in my hobby shop with it and I am usually terrible at making any kind of terrain or diorama - so you should be able to win any competition if you have any talent at making terrain! I decided not to do any pillars or even the well for this piece as I scaled it down a great deal and did not want to clutter it up with unnecessary pieces. Good luck and thank you for reading my article!
Thank you to Rutta0208 for his wonderful Gimli, Legolas & Frodo models which he sent me for free, they really help to hold the diorama together - Had I used these models in the competition I entered I am sure I would have won easily on those 3 models alone.
Thank you also to all the staff, especially the one who proof-read this article and the leaders for letting me share this piece with the community….and for doing all of the coding!
Ed O'Brien (Reapersoul)
squire_fender@hotmail.com
