Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Phase Three

 

 So I now have the latest phase completed and on schedule. This is the most gruesome part of the diorama where we see that a tomb has been desecrated, in the search of a treasured and possible all important artifact.

 A poor unfortunate from one of the nearby villages, acting as a guide for the adventuring party, had probably fancied his chances of getting in on the glory until his untimely, gruesome demise.

 The corpse is that of a Citadel Dogs of War Fighter casualty, whose head I removed. The half-buried sarcophagus is, like the gravestones for this piece, part of the Arcane Architecture range - the lid from a two part set.

 With virtually all of the foreground complete, the next phase will be the diorama's prime antagonist, which I hope to have ready by the end of the week. 

 Meanwhile, here is a shot of all three phases completed so far.

Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Phase Two

 

 So I've managed to wrap up Phase Two of the diorama, which is pretty much the entire front area now. This part features more reanimated skeletons plus another one of the adventuring party, a dwarf slayer.

 As before, the slayer model is Kimril Giantslayer from the classic Dwarf Lords of Legend box set, who cuts an ideal pose for what I'm after. 

 As I've gone for a smaller base, as well as a different shape this time, there was less area to play around with on a circular base so it was a bit of a task to fit everything in. I had to juggle a bit and swap the skeletons around, also making sure nothing was too bunched up or blocked from view. 

 Trying to accommodate models in a slightly reduced area is going to be an ongoing challenge with future phases in this project but I think this one was probably the most awkward. 

Phases One and Two Combined

 I've already made a start on Phase Three which has some slight alterations from before with a small extra feature or two. I'm hoping to have this ready to show in a couple of weeks.

 

Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Phase One

 

 Way back in 2016, I spent several months working on what was my largest project to date, a diorama featuring predominantly undead models encountering a small adventuring party. At the time, I was extremely pleased with the result, especially as I'd originally hatched the idea way back in 2001 and had finally taken it from a sketch on a piece of paper to a finished article.

The diorama in its original incarnation 

 In recent times, however, it had been niggling me, it sat in one of my cabinets surround by other models with superior paint jobs. I thought "If it was a smaller, less significant piece, I would have boxed it up by now and given the cabinet space to something more deserving." This played on my mind more and more until late last year I made a brave and potentially foolhardy decision to dismantle it and remake it. 

 I have to admit there was a sense of regret for like a split second as I took a hammer and chisel to each model to painstakingly remove them from the base, thankfully with minimal damage. I decided to repaint the corpse and gallows first, just because it was the easiest part to remove really.

 I felt the first proper phase to take on should be the front central area where the heroic fighter Gladius is prepared to do battle with an armoured zombie warrior, stood over a wounded knight. I had painted Gladius a while back for an adventuring party so decided to give this one an identical colour scheme. Makes sense really. 

 The knight, who is from the old Citadel Rock Dragon set, was painted in a different scheme to before plus the zombie has had a more weathered and rusted look. 

 The base from the original diorama was something that had bothered me greatly in recent times and that played a key role in me deciding to completely redo it. 

  With Phase One complete, the next part will be another foreground area, featuring the Dwarf slayer and several skeletons rising from their graves, which I'm aiming to have finished off sometime next week.