The Last Big Battle.

15Aug
by patmcf

The last big battle.

70 cm (28”) x56cm (22”).

245 Orcs, 120 horsemen and 32 Elves and Southern Kingdom Warriors.

Well here we are with the last big diorama, hopefully I don’t get carried away again and forget my new mantra keep it small little man!!

The idea which most of you will realize came from a clip of a film I chanced on which amazed me.  Of course there was no way I could replicate it but me being me had to have a go.  It didn’t quite turn out the way I had intended; the base was changed as it originally had a big dip into which the horsemen would have had to ride down into and back up which wasn’t the case in the film clip.

After fixing that problem I realized I had the Elves and crew to incorporate and that’s when I spied some pillars in the shop in town that caters to my paint requirements.  Ever since I changed from enamels (thanks Heather) they did the trick and fitted in with the ancient stone wall that I made after seeing our Dave the IMP make one for his grand minis.  The funny part is that I wasn’t able to find any plaster sheet, bar buying an enormous sheet from the hardware shop. I was able to grab a bit though from when the renovations were done for the sale of our previous house.

The figures are mostly from Dark Alliance along with Cesar and a few Strelets ones. There’s not much more to add, it was a straight forward affair with very little planning needed when banging on the figures. 

Well that’s enough waffle, I’ll leave it to you kind folk to judge if I came anywhere close to replicating that marvellous movie scene. 

Keep well, Pat.

46 thoughts on “The Last Big Battle.”

  1. theimperfectmodeller

    Truly epic Pat and if you are going to go out on a high of bigger dioramas then you’ve excelled yourself once again. Not only do I marvel at your patience to paint so many minis but also that you make such a great effort to make each one unique. Love the pillars and the base work generally. I take it that’s Fi’s coke can! 🙂

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

    1. patmcf

      Thanks Dave, being winter and the weather being wet and windy did help with the painting, but strangely enough it was a lot easier to do than the last one! that done i’m moving away from the fantasy fort he moment with another period that I like and haven’t done before so I need to do a bit of research for it , oh well at least I have the figures ready to paint in the meantime.

      Liked by 6 people

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  6. Dave Stone

    You’ve really captured the essence of the scene Pat, the orcs ready to receive the charge as the horses pound across the battlefield to rescue the beleaguered remnants of the outpost as they watch on.

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. patmcf

      😅😅😅! Yeah mate there are quite a few photos , I got a bit carried away 😳, as I said to Dave I have you folk to thank for helping me improve with all the little tips and tricks I have picked up from your blogs🤓

      Liked by 2 people

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  10. Marvin

    Incredible achievement! 🙂

    So much work must have gone into this to create so many troops. Individually they great but collectively, there’s something about having a mass of figures like this that creates something bigger than the sum of its parts. As always, I’m very impressed with your scene composition and it’s little stories that are played out across the whole scene which, of course, I’ve been studying!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks Marvin mate, as I have said before en mass hides my lousy painting and painting them was really the only work involved, the placement was easy enough although the temple took a bit of work as my terrain painting lacks somewhat !!

      Liked by 2 people

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  12. Mark A. Morin

    ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Ok Pat, ya get the idea. SPECTACULAR ACHIEVEMENT OMG I LOOOOOOOOOVE THIS! Really a work of art Pat, can’t say enough (or add enough emoji’s either)!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. patmcf

      Well Mark I reckon you might like this one 🤓!! Thanks mate , I’m happy that the last big diorama was so appreciated by all, anything I do from now on will be possibly tiny 🤔. Fingers crossed I don’t get carried away 😉again 🤞.

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks Steve , from all the positive comments I feel I have wrapped up doing the big ones on a high note , a bit of a change of themes coming up
      and of course much smaller 🤞😅😅😅

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  14. Kuribo

    A lot of blood is about to be shed over that can of Coke, mate! 😀 This really is an epic diorama and like others have said, it really tells a story. Extremely impressive work and you did a great job sticking with this project until its conclusion. Painting so many tiny figures is not easy but you made it look that way!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks mate , the only way to draw with it was to paint like buggery and the variety one gets painting Fantasy helped a lot , I wouldn’t be able to paint one large group of soldiers like I did for the retreat from Corruna on a few years back.

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. patmcf

      Hi James , sorry I forgot that 🥴, most are Dark Alliance Steppes Warriors along with a few Strelets Norman’s and one or two odd bods I had in the bits box 🤔. I used both sets of the Steppes warriors and think there were about six boxes, they may look different as I do a lot of boiling so the poses are s little different . Cheers mate thanks for taking a look and feel free to ask if you need to know anything else 🤓.

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  17. Subedai

    This is epic, I love it! Being a mass battle gamer/collector at heart, I always appreciate such an ambitious project. I like the three perspectives – the view from the distance, seeing the shapes of the armies overall, followed by zooming in on individual engagements, and finally individual characters, with every figure coming to life as an individual. Great work!

    Liked by 1 person

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