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My Neighbour Totoro Diorama

20th Dec 2022

When I decided I was going to sculpt a Totoro diorama I did think about what shortcuts there might be such as 3D printing, but the problem I felt with that was that the results for a novice would be unpredictable at best. It would lack that personal human touch as well, so the only option was to sculpt all of it by hand. For the scale I wanted to make this to, using Green Stuff for sculpting wasn't going to be cost effective, so instead I used some Superfine white milliput.

It's usually recommended that something such as crumpled tin foil is used as a core, however I didn't have anything…

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Da Red Gobbo and Bounca

29th Dec 2021

When Games Workshop announced Da Red Gobbo and Bounca for this year's festive-themed miniature, I knew I had to do another diorama. The first thing that sprung to mind was that they should be on a roof and throwing the dynamite down a chimney. This idea expanded out to include some of the walls below the roof to give more context, and then after the miniature of the month on November was revealed to be a squig I had the idea of using this on the same diorama, but that its rider has fallen off, face-planting in the snow. The first step was to figure out the sizes - I wanted it on a display plinth…

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Priming

21st Apr 2021

Priming before painting is something that most people do. In the 'old days' it was a necessity to make sure that the paint would cover and stick to metal miniatures okay. Most of what people paint now will be either plastic or resin, and in some cases may choose not to prime it first. Personally, I like to prime. I don't think really it's as simple as picking up some spray paint and just spraying it at your model - you need to consider what you're going to do. The colour you prime it with will have an immediae impact on your paintjob - priming it white will make the initial base layers appear…

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