Citadel Runequest Broo

 

 So, after finishing the diorama, I took a good week or so to decide what's next. I've plenty of ideas lined up but ultimately, decided on some classic Runequest Broo miniatures. 

 I've been collecting Broo for a number of years now but have never felt it's the right time to actually crack on with them. Originally released back in 1983 (I think!), a lot of these guys featured prominently in Bryan Ansell's legendary chaos army. There are plenty of bizarre looking variants in the range and the two headed guy above is my favourite so I had to paint him first.

 The main thing that I had to think about was what skin colour I was going to opt for. I won't be painting all of them in the same skin tone but I decided on a greenish grey for the first few. 

 Some time back, I painted a classic Asgard Half Troll which will be represented as a beastlord and regiment commander. The plan is to paint a few of the broo and see how I go. Ideally, I'd like to get two or three ranks painted and now I've found a skin recipe, I feel this is pretty doable. I'm already working on more, so expect to see another broo post in a week or so.

Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Completed

  Well, after the best part of a year, with a four month break during the summer, my diorama remake is finally complete. 

 I have to admit, the last month was a bit of a slog and I can't see myself painting anymore zombies anytime soon! There were one or two zombie new additions this time and one or two that missed out, mainly due to the smaller base size and I ran out of room.

 Another new feature is the tree which is a 3D print from the excellent Critical Terrain. Its presence against the skyline gives the whole piece an extra dynamic. It's the first time I've actually ever painted a tree and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

 Ultimately, I'm so glad I went for this, after a long time seeing the old version in the cabinet and feeling it wasn't up to scratch.

 So, I've spent the last few days wondering what will be next. I think the upcoming weeks will be spent working on single miniatures and keeping it simple, rather than any specific projects. 

Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Phase Five

 

 So after four months break from the diorama and a dragon ogre palette cleanser, I've resumed the main project and have managed to wrap up the phase with the largest footprint. 

 It's important to incorporate height into a diorama and here we have the shrine that overlooks the graveyard. The shrine piece is the same as I used on the initial diorama project, which is from Scotia Grendel. 

 Three packs of milliput went into the hill and like the rest of the base, a thin layer of green stuff which is then textured. 

At the base of the hill is the wizard of the adventuring party. I used the high level Magic User model from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons range. The pair of elves are troopers from the Regiments of Renown Skarloc's Elf Archers box set. Finally, I've used the classic Death Elemental figure, accompanied by a chaos familiar, lurking at the back, unnoticed so far.

 With all that milliput, it's beginning to get a little bit weighty but I'm on the home straight now and it's mainly just zombies to go, albeit a fair few of them!

Citadel DS2 Dragon Ogre

 Well I've struggled to get anything painted for about four months now. Had a fair bit of life getting in the way and all that plus I felt I needed a break from the diorama. I'd tried a few ideas with various small projects and nothing seemed to stick. In the end, I went back to a model I'd made a start on about two years ago. Nick Bibby's iconic dragon ogre.

 I remember purchasing this from Southampton Games Workshop in about 1989 or 1990. Being only about 14, I was a bit out of my depth trying to build it, plus it has some difficult joins to get over, especially where I wouldn't have had the tools to pin it. I believe it was the first time I used epoxy resin as well, which I recall being a rather messy affair. I remember stripping and redoing it around the mid 90's then would have stripped it again at some point, only for it to remain stored away in the Chaos box for years.

 Fast forward to now and I decided to opt, as with the original GW staff paint job, red armour which would contrast well with a pale, sickly flesh tone. The flesh was quite a lengthy process of layering up plus the blending to the darker toned legs took a bit of messing around with.

 I've also repositioned the left arm and drilled out the fist as I intend to equip him with a chaos banner and I have just the thing; and pretty unique as well, thanks to the insane skills of Roberth Breséus. 

 That'll have to wait for now as the much needed break has motivated me into returning to the diorama.

 

 

 

Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Phase Four

 

 This phase took an absolute age to complete, mainly due to a massive work schedule. Anyway, it's done now. This phase features the diorama's prime antagonist, The Liche King.

 A classic undead cavalry model, he is the ideal general for any undead army. The only downside with him is he doesn't seem to fit any steed properly, which huge gaps either side so I had to sculpt a cloak extension to deal with this issue.

 As before, he is accompanied by a small retinue made up of one of each of the Nightmare Legion troopers and a skeleton horseman (from the Lord of the Rings Dead Men of Dunharrow set).

 As a feature on the base, I added a small puddle made from Vallejo Still Water liquid resin. This took about six days to create, as I needed three layers of the stuff as it takes a couple of days for each layer to set, plus it tends to shrink back a fair bit each time. 

 The next phase will be a fairly significant background section which will involve giving the diorama some much needed height that features the shrine atop a small hill and the remaining adventurers.

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.