Mummies Defending the Temple

04Jan
by patmcf

700gm/1.5lb
300 x 400 x 200cm [1’ x 1’5 x 8’’]

Well here we are, a new diorama using the Amazons again but this time up against some pretty angry Mummies. Both sets are from Dark Alliance and as you might recall, I’ve talked about them previously, so I won’t bang on again about how good they are.

The set is again pretty small with 122 figures, some horse, two dogs and a chariot. The terrain comprises just a few layers of foam board for the base and for the columns I used cardboard hot glued onto bottle caps, then painted with acrylic paint mixed with chalk dust to give it a rough finish. (That was not my idea, I picked it up on you tube, how to make columns and it is well worth viewing if you want to make some).

The Egyptian image has been washed over with the chalk dust and PVA white glue with some powdered turf dusted onto certain areas to make it look aged and damaged. The roof is just strips of Styrofoam, again painted as above but with PVA white glue added for strength.

The well I made from air drying clay. The cat statues are cheap Egyptian figures knocked out in China, I’d say for the tourist market, as they have Egypt printed across the base that I have plastered over and painted again with paint and chalk dust, no glue needed. The urns are again container caps hacked up a bit and painted. I have also found from my Chinese friends some really great skulls which I have used. Unfortunately my photos probably don’t do them the justice they deserve but they are pretty close on perfect to 1/72 scale. I have even done a conversion on one figure in the centre of the action. Just a note about the figure placement, usually just super glue them on but this can leave a shiny spot if too much comes out, I saw John@just needsvarnish put me onto Vallejo Earth Texture and that worked out well, so a big thanks to John for another trick in the bag.

Oh and I have included a few random figures that the wife of one of the suppliers I have purchased sets off in the past, had thrown in for me when doing the packing. She might do this as a bit of a hoot, as I then have to go off and find out what they are! Some of them I thought I would never use, but when doing this diorama, I thought, ah yes! They will be perfect! I painted them up and popped them on, so it’s now your turn folks to find them and figure out what set they are from.

28 thoughts on “Mummies Defending the Temple”

  1. John@justneedsvarnish

    Excellent Pat! Really like this one! An awful lot of action going on there, I’ve cycled through all the pics a few times now! Apart from the very nice figures, I really like the “ancient” look you’ve got for the whole setting (and thanks for the mention)! 🙂

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks John, I have to say when I first finished it I wasn’t sure if I had succeeded or failed with what I had in mind in the beginning , but Tech adviser came out and reassured me it was ok and she liked the ancient look that old look, so thanks mate for the reassurance, and thank you mate that product worked really well ,the shop knew all about it and in the end I bought yours and the desert sand which fitted in well with this job .

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  2. Marvin

    Another masterpiece, Pat! Like John, I found myself taking a few turns on the picture carousel. Beautiful work on the columns and other features of the building. The Amazons looked great before, but in this setting look even better. I literally wouldn’t know where to start to build this, you make it sound so easy. I suspect the placing of the figures in this melee was a lot of fun – the archer group, a line of warriors, the charging chariot, etc, etc.

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks mate, I agree with you on the better setting for the Amazons, this was going to originally be the first in the series until I decided to make them all a smaller uniformed size ,you will see the larger terrain I was going to use further down the track. They do suit the desert more than the jungle like terrain of the last one. And as for creating the melee at is the fun part and is over pretty quickly, and its probably just practise that makes it easy ,oh and you don’t get to see all the failed stuff that doesn’t get on the show !!!

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  3. Wudugast

    Brilliant once again! I would never have worked out that those were bottle caps if you hadn’t said, very clever indeed. The size of the piece is just about perfect too I’d say, big enough that you get a sense of the scale of the temple but small enough that the viewer is pulled right into the heart of the action. I’m off to take another look through the pictures and see if I can spot any more crazy little details I’ve missed 🙂

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks mate, I’m glad you like the size as it took me and the tech advisor some time to settle on one that wasn’t to small or to big so this will be the standard from now on for certain shows, the other reason is I’m running out of storage space ! When you are having another peep check out the arrows, I forgot to mention them on the blog ,they are from Fredericus -rex and I got them for Xmas but the amazing thing is you have to stick the fletches on the wire yourself ,not what I thought when I saw the picture on their site, I must say it was a lot of fun!!

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      1. Wudugast

        I had spotted the arrows and they’re great, they really add to the impression of an active battlefield. I can almost hear the sound of them clattering off the tiles or hissing through the air. Having to stick the fletching on yourself though – that calls for defter fingers than my great man paws could have managed! Well done!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. patmcf

      Thanks Paul, you are right on two counts but there are a few more hidden in the doorway, probably hard to see in the photos ! and a Happy New year to you mate.

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    1. patmcf

      Cheers Dave, I must say it was a miserable worrying start but it worked out in the end, this is one I’ve had in the pipeline for some time and really wanted it to work and I think this is what caused my early doubts, I have had a few stuttering starts on this subject earlier that weren’t quite right, so yeah I’m happy now hearing all the positives coming through from the team.

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  8. theimperfectmodeller

    Fantastic Pat. Well painted figures is nothing more than I have come to expect so I tend to get more excited about the creative side. I love the pillars, urns, the well and the use of the chalk dust. I love the mural backdrop too. An excellent piece. 😊

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks Dave its funny what us modellers can turn everyday things into ,doing our bit to save the earth!🤔 the backdrop was a bit of fun all though I had done it before I read about your method of putting a print onto a wall , mustn’t forget to give that one a go next time . We are having a terrible start to the bushfire season already ,your Kangaroo island has had one third of it destroyed so far and large parts of Victoria and NSW have been burnt with a number of deaths . Near Sydney a place recorded 48.9 degrees Celsius while here in Melbourne it was 19 ,weird weather eh !

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      1. theimperfectmodeller

        I do love seeing how and what things can be turned into something else so it interest me what others get up to. The fires are making headlines here and have for a while now. All quite terrible and I was sad to learn about Kangaroo Island as I have happy memories of the place. I guess we have to learn to live with it, not sure there is much we dan do. Over here our rainfall is worse year on year.

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  10. Azazel

    Outstanding once again, Pat. So, so many little details that it’s hard to figure out what I like the most. Are those spiked-helmet barbarian types the “I’ll never use these” figures in there?

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  11. patmcf

    Thanks mate, I’m glad that I managed to pull this one off ,those ‘never use these guys are made by HAT and are Sea people, they are so badly sculptured they could only be used on a fantasy themed dio !!!

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  12. Jamie

    Seriously Pat this is fantastic! I have to show my wife, she loves ancient Egypt.. she’s been busy playing Assassins Creed while feeding the little one late at night so she will appreciate this.

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    1. patmcf

      Oh that’s great mate , I decided to go smaller as you know I’m running out of room!🤔and I’m trying to keep the sizes to small and medium and leave any more larger ones until we have settled in up the country maybe next year . The mummies one was one I have wanted to do ever since I got onto the Dark Alliance Amazon’s .

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