Got the song in your head? good. I’d put a picture of Sebastian the crab here, but the Mouse is known to be one litigious rodent…
Anyway, it had to happen eventually. I made a diorama. I’ve never done one before. While I can marvel at and enjoy a good scene as much as the next guy, I’ve always been more practical when it comes to painting miniatures. I do so assuming I will use them in a game someday (see how that has turned out), so keeping miniatures locked in place holds little utility for me. That, coupled with my ambivalence towards scenery-making, has pretty much kept dioramas off my personal hobby list until now.
Behold: The Mermaids’ Grotto. I actually had the idea to do this a few years ago, but shelved it because I couldn’t get excited about making a diorama. I pretty much followed the tutorial from Eons of Battle for constructing underwater bases. The seaweed is made from twist ties; the shells are from a novelty candle that was full of pink sand (don’t ask), and the “rock” is pink XPS board.
All the miniatures are from Reaper’s Dark Heaven line. This one is Children of the Zodiac: Pisces (03300), sculpted by the legendary Sandra Garrity. She was the first one I painted.
This is Pearl, the Mermaid (03078), sculpted by Werner Klocke.
And finally, Coral, the Mermaid (03554) sculpted by Gene Van Horne. This miniature required some cutting and repositioning, as her original pose was this:
As you can see, her tail disappears for a while under the surface of the water. This wasn’t going to cut it in a scene that’s supposed to take place on the ocean floor, so out came the nippy cutters and the green stuff. It’s not a perfect join, but it looks ok.
The octopus and the eel were from Familiar Pack VII, which features a bunch of aquatic critters.
Here’s another shot of Pisces.
Halfway through making this diorama, I realized that my first Fem-bruary submission shows a lot of boobs. Don’t get me wrong, boobs are great; it just wasn’t really my intent to focus so much on them in a month celebrating female miniatures. (I’m not a teenager. It’s just that most mermaids aren’t particularly modest.)
I’m hoping to get a couple more female miniatures done soon, one of which will be my D&D Character of the month; so watch this space.
Great looking diorama Keith, has all the elements needed to carry one off, plenty of points of interest, something to see from every angle, and fitting scenery.
Can understand the lack of breast coverage with the models in question, can’t imagine too many Victoria Secrets outlet at the bottom of the ocean ! LOL
Thanks, Dave. I see flaws, but I appreciate the praise! I just find it noteworthy (but completely accidental) that my Fem-bruary submissions would be so…”artistic”. I guess it could be worse. I could have posted some Brother Vinni models (if I had any).
Well I wasn’t expecting that!!
What a great submission for Fembruary, puts my effort to shame, love it, very bright and jolly, makes a pleasant change from all the usual dark, war related stuff we usually get around the blogs.
Well executed too, a smashing bit of work in my books. I’ve never made a diorama myself, too much work I think, so good on you for this.
Oh and I quite like boob’s too, but don’t tell anyone….sshhhhh
Cheers Roger.
Thank you, Roger. I was thinking about sculpting some clownfish or something similar, but then I thought…”Who do you think you are, Roger or Dave?” In the end, I just bought some familiars for sea creatures. (Don’t worry, Roger. It’s not a crime, or I’d be in jail many times over.)
I’ve been waiting to see your Fembruary diorama and I am blown away at how good it is. Excellent work all round, from the base itself to the painting and positioning of the mermaids. Seriously this was well worth the wait. Nicely done!
Also, boobs are awesome.
Thanks for the kind words, Matt. I see quite a few problems with it, myself, but as it’s my first diorama I guess I can live with them. (And yes, boobs are indeed awesome.)
That looks fantastic. I understand your concerns about the boobs. I’ve done two super heroines for Fem-buary: Storm and Emma Frost. Neither of them exactly shining examples of equal represenation. At least mermaids with their boobs out makes sense. In fact it’s hard to find mermaid models without their boobs out. I wanted to add a Little Mermaid to my Magic Kingdom project, but couldn’t find a suitably shell-bikini classic figure.
Thanks, Kieron. I briefly considered sculpting some scallop shell bras, but then I thought how dumb that would be. plus, I can’t sculpt worth shit. So Free the Nipple, I guess.