Side project: Tau Pathfinder Diorama

[mangozac]

Well some of you already know that I won't be getting much in the way of scratchbuilding or new kits done for a couple of months while I finish my uni degree (long story but my accommodation for the semester will be very dynamic). But I am planning to take the opportunity to get back into some painting and actually finish off some models on dioramas. Although I am very much looking forward to the new figures that Jon (Paulson) will be releasing soon, I figure since it's been so long since I've painted anything I might as well cut my teeth on something simple...

... and by simple I actually mean a mini diorama.

So I was cleaning out a lot of my modelling junk last week and realised that I still have an unpainted squad of Pathfinders that belong to my army. Even if I do happen to have a game of 40k any time soon, I can't see myself using these guys so I figured I might as well stick a couple of them into a diorama.

So the story is this: two Pathfinders and a miniature surveillance drone are on a long mission stealthily creeping round to the enemy's flank. They have stopped momentarily inside a crater - one of them remaining at the ready while the other takes an opportunity to clean his helmet optics.

As it turns out, I've only ended up using one metal pathfinder, mainly because I hate working with metal minis (has anyone else noticed that white metal stinks?) and I was planning to have one guy crouched down. So my second Pathfinder is actually a heavy conversion using Fire Warrior and Tank Commander bits I had in my bits box. Some filing and greenstuff later and I think he looks even better than the metal one!

The drone I went to town with using styrene and Koto detailing parts. It's based heavily off the drone designs Cirillo did for the 4th ed Tau concept artwork. It's turned out quite nicely I think (note it still needs some greenstuff work around the engine area to fill gaps).

As a base for the diorama, I specially cast a cylinder of resin with black pigment. Came out quite nicely (although I didn't use enough mould release so getting it out of the cup I cast it in was a mission!). After hacking the top off at some angles I then whacked down some styrofoam to lay out the basic terrain shape. The idea was that this would be just part of a large crater. The groundwork is a mix of PVA glue, water, backyard dirt, talus, tiny rocks and talc (only used because I couldn't find any plaster around). This was my first time using this mix and I think it worked quite well, although I would recommend mixing the glue with water and then applying it to the mix (I just mixed everything together).

So now comes the nitty gritty: how to lay this thing out. You can see I've temporarily positioned my two Pathfinders and drone but I'm not real happy with it. The crouching pathfinder will have his gun by his side, but I still feel that they need some more equipment or something. As shown I have the drone advancing out over the top of the crater. I imagine he's moving forward to scout ahead. I know Warhound will say "I told you so" but I do feel a little like the minis are getting lost on the base.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Warhound]

hehehe... told you so!;-)

REALLY nice work with the drone and the knelt pathfinder! The drone, yes, does need some tight GS filling, but other than that, the work is very tight! (then again for straight line stuff, I would expect so!!)
The helmet work is very sharp also, although, I think that the antenna on the side of his head is too large/ thick, it needs scaling down a touch I think?

Given the positioning of the 2, I would have the knlet guy turning his head in conversation to the stood one, would look very organic?

Now, the base.. I don't like it ... while I can see what you have done with the mixture.. the texture is now too flat and too uniform... if it is supposed to be a crater, let alone bank, this would be a lot more irregular.... also, the lack of some other man made scenic detail, such as wall edging or tank part means that they seem to be sat in limbo?

I would recommend using terracota milliput as a base, teasing it apart with your thumbs makes great natural fissures, then when set, add various layers of sand, brick dust, chinchilla dust mixes using super glue to set over the top.

Let us know how you get on?

cheers
W (AH, its good to be back!)

[mangozac]

OK sorry for the late reply but I've had a busy week - I had to fly down to Victoria for a couple of days on a business trip and have since been taking a while to catch up.

First things first: my paints arrived yesterday from Maelstrom Games. As always it's impressive service: I paid ridiculously cheap prices, got free postage, and had the goods in hand on the other side of the globe in one week!

So to answer the comments:

1. If the antenna on the knelt guy is too big it will only be just slightly so. I'll measure it up again and cut down if necessary - those Pathfinder antennae are pretty big!

2. Yeah looking up at the other guy is probably a better dynamic between the two, I agree. It should tie things together a bit better.

3. I tried looking for crater reference pics before I started the piece but didn't have any luck so just decided to wing it. It is supposed to be a blast crater, not a deliberate man-made one, so there's no reason for any wall edging, etc.

I did realise while doing it that the crater texture would probably flatten out too much as the glue/dirt/rock mix levelled out during drying. I figured if this was a problem I could come back later with a much more viscous mix and add to spots to create some raised texture. Aside from the fact that I don't have any terracotta Milliput, I'm not really keen on going that route unless I have to...

I am thinking of adding an equipment pack or two beside them in the crater to add some more interest. And while the original plan was to give the Pathfinders a camo scheme, I'm now toying with some other ideas. It'll be another fortnight before I get a chance for some painting anyway.

[mangozac]

In supplement of my last post, here's some close up pictures of the base. It's hard to keep things in focus at this range, but I hope it shows a bit better the resulting texture and its suitability.

[mangozac]

Well I've done a bit of sitting and staring at the base and I'm now starting to agree with Warhound. Because the bulk of the filling was done using dirt, the texture is too coarse and the PVA mix was too viscous, allowing it to level too much while drying. So I've acquired some plaster and intend to do it again, using the following references:






Again, the basic shape of the crater will first be made up using polystyrene foam. I have a better idea this time of the shape to use.

I've also begun work on a small tripod mounting sensor turret that I will have inside the crater with the Pathfinders. Hopefully I'll have some pics tonight. Today is the last day I have to work on the modelling part of this before I head of to uni...

[mangozac]

I just spoke to Warhound via IM and he's given me some more pointers. As I promised to him, the following is some pictures of today's progress:

First up is the resin base after I cleaned off all of the old sand/glue mix:

I then pulled out ye olde hot wire cutter and attacked a bit of foam to design the groundwork:

I then used the following recipe to do a much better dirt mixture:
- Plaster
- Fine sand
- Talus
- Some "small stone mix"
- A bit of GW Graveyard Earth brown to tint the mix a little
The plaster and fine sand was mixed about 50/50 with just enough water to give it a pastiness. After applying to the base it was sprinkles with the talus and a few odd small stones added around the place. It certainly worked a lot better than the first attempt:

Next up I have a shot of the scanner pod tripod and a small power generator pack. These will sit down inside the crater with the two Tau.

And lastly, here's the primed Pathfinders. The gun on the right is for the crouched Pathfinder - it will be on the ground leaning against him. Note the cable coming out from underneath it that will plug into the box on his hip.

So I'm still contemplating colours at this point. I like the idea of a weathered white colour scheme (white armour, black cloth) but I'm not too sure. It might be a bit bright for troops who are supposed to be stealthy! I'll do some more research and look through the colour schemes on ATT....

[mangozac]

Still researching colour schemes, but am quite partial to this one:


I would probably bring them back to be slightly more brown/earthy tones and not have the red. I'm thinking of doing the base a sandy brown colour (akin to GW graveyard earth).

The thing I'm struggling with is this: I like the miniatures on a diorama to have a decent contrast to the terrain. It helps focus the attention onto the minis and the variation provides additional interest in my opinion. But on the other hand the Pathfinders are supposed to be stealthy commandos who are sneaking around the enemy's flank, so having them a bright colour would be a bit dumb from that perspective. So what does one do in this case? I'm all for aesthetics over realism (hell, isn't that what sci-fi modelling is half about?) but I don't want to go too far.

[Vaaish]

that's a pretty nice scheme. It reminds me of Xeones theme but red instead of orange:

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=203996

http://forums.relicnews.com/showpost.ph ... stcount=11

[Warhound]

and there you have your scheme... I could only give a bigger thumbs up if I had sponge mitts;-)

W

[mangozac]

Thanks guys I think we're getting somewhere now

Nobody answered my question though! Is realism more important than the aesthetics and contrast of the diorama piece?

[Warhound]

I dont think you even have to go near the Aesthetics over realism thing with WH40K. Given that for 10k years plus, there are inumerous races at war with each other, in many different guises- why is it that as a general standard it is only the lowly Imperial Guardsman that knows the benefit of good camo?;-)

I personally would struggle more with adding camo, as I am used to using the texture of the model vs the base to create a contrast- the paint scheme itself just accentuates this.

Make it POP bruv;-)

cheers
M
W

[mangozac]

Yep that has always generally been my feeling as well, but I just wanted to see if we were all on the same page

I'm playing around with a FW painter in GIMP so I'll post up some shots of proposed colours when I have a chance.

[mangozac]

Well I've done some playing around in GIMP and come up with the following colours. Not really 100% sold on any of them although I do keep coming back to the off-white armour coloured schemes. the background is indicating the kind of colours I'm planning to go for on the dirt. I might have to go do some refresher research on colour theory.

Who would have thought choosing some colours would be so hard?

[Vaaish]

I'm partial to the middle and bottom although the bottom will need some extra work to look right because of the white. I think it has the most promise to pop with the base.

[mangozac]

Alright here we go. As much as the above schemes were on an interesting track, I just didn't feel that they were going to work with the base (as Vaaish said, they would need extra work). I did some research and reading to refresh my colour theory knowledge and have come up with the following:

So the theory is as follows:
- The armour is a dirty bone colour a la that is effectively a light hue of the background dirt colour.
- The grey cloth is a dark grey version of the background colour hue. This means that the cloth and armour are harmonious colours but their difference in brightness provides a degree of contrast that should draw attention to the minis.
- Some strategically placed orange panels (but a more red/brown tone of orange) will provide further interest on the minis by providing a second harmonious colour.

The armour will all be moderately weathered, as will the equipment in the crater with the Tau. I do feel a tendency to want to paint the drone almost entirely orange but I think that that would draw too much attention to it so will just keep it similar to the Pathfinders.

Well I won't be getting a chance to paint for another week or so, so probably no updates for a bit. As an aside, even though I've undercoated the minis in black, do you guys think a white undercoat would usually be preferable for a lighter scheme like this?