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Sunday 17 March 2013

DIORAMA MINES OF MORIA: THE TOMB OF BALIN. YEAR: 2013.

We come back after some weeks working on our 2 main projects: the Lord of the Rings miniatures and Space Wolves.

Today we are going to show you a very special diorama, one that every fan of fantasy universes would like to have on his room. It has taken us several weeks of intensive work searching layouts, ideas and materials to build it, how to get the right textures in the different surfaces, how to get the lights that we wanted in the process of painting, etc. However, we think that the result is excellent.
Let me introduce you: the Tomb of Balin at Mines of Moria.



Many of you will remember this room, the Chamber of Mazarbul, because it is the place of one of the most amazing scenes of The Fellowship of the Ring. Here the Company was attacked by a horde of Goblins and a Cave Troll being Frodo wounded there. They also discover the Tomb of Balin and the Book of Mazarbul where is related the history of Balin's expedition and the last hours of the dwarf survivors. If you don't remember what we are talking about, here you have a link to Youtube that contains the scene: battle at Balin's Tomb.

We have tried to reproduce the Chamber exactly like in the film, including as much details as we could. We just had to respect the measures indicated by our customer .

Now let's see the diorama detail by detail:


Balin's Tomb.



If you pay attention you will see that the dead dwarf and the Book of Mazarbul are present as well.



 If you remember the film, the tomb is illuminated by a bright shaft of sunlight. We wanted to create that effect applying a white dry brush over the grave and the ground around.





The gates of the Chamber of Mazarbul. Check out the damages and scratches that we have perfomed at the doors and the arrows nailed.



Dwarf corpses.



The well where the bucket falls waking up the Orcs of Moria.



Left side of the Chamber:



We have followed the film to enlarge our knowledge about dwarf architecture and apply it in our diorama: most of the time right angles, straight lines and stone textures.







Broken weapons and shields abandoned since the last battle. We have tried to give a rotted and rusted appearance to these elements.



Right side of the Chamber.



In order to get some variety, we have added some debris and fallen rocks like the broken lintel. 








Diorama is pretty nice but... let's see how the miniatures of Games Workshop that we painted time ago look on it:



Orcs are invading the Balin's Tomb! Defend yourself!













Moments before Frodo was wounded by the Cave Troll.





The Fellowship of the Ring:



Moria Goblins and Cave Troll:



Finally, we wanted to dedicate a special photo to the lovers of the books. Originally, the first encounter between Gandalf and the Balrog was here, in the Chamber of Mazarbul. That's how it looks in our diorama:



It has taken us almost a month of work but this diorama really worth it. We want to encourage all of you to leave us your opinions and suggestions.
See you soon with more updates about Space Wolves!

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