A few months ago, I bought some DSM minis, specifically the male and female rogue with bow. I figured I would use them as miniatures for characters the Hubs and I played at one time. They were second story thieves that were part of a group called the Aruskins. They stole stuff.. but with class. 🙂 And it was only worth stealing if it was so priceless it was practically worthless. You see the appeal. 😉 My Hubs is the best DM ever.

Anyways, I digress. This is Rose and Crash, and they are playing hide and seek in a very Aruskin way. They both know the other is fast enough to get out of the way if they’re paying attention. 🙂

I started with them, but Crash’s head would not go on at an angle that I felt was working. So I decided to have him peeking around a building. Well… then I needed a building. So I got out my trusty foam cutter and my insulation foam and made a wall. yay! This wall needed bricks or something, and I remembered spending an inordinate amount of time making bricks out of (what else) egg crates one day. Out came the egg crate bricks and we were off to the races!!!

On went the paint! And grout! I think this is looking awesome! I am so excited!

I find a Wappel tutorial on youtube and carve sculpey! This will be the best diorama ever!

Then I look at it…. THE BRICKS ARE THE WRONG SCALE!! AAAAH! So these bricks I cut for literal hours one morning are pretty much worthless. I decide to use them as flooring later. Then I go to my little bitty, teeny tiny, Juweela bricks and begin my new profession as a brick-layer. And I lay over 500 of those suckers. Like a boss

Then I paint them, because they start out plain white. I decided on these colors based on how I painted Crash and Rose. I wanted the colors in their clothes to match the area. That way they are somewhat camouflaged. Nobody that is actually sneaking somewhere would wear all black. Duh. 😉

I then lay down mortar and carve a spot for their bases. I spend a ridiculous amount of time drilling holes in their bases to insert magnets. The tiny magnets I have (for basing resin GW minis) don’t have the juice to hold these heavy pewter guys up. I curse. I wish for the day when I’ve done all this and can knock one of these out in a much shorter amount of time with fewer blisters and pain. 🙂

Then I finish (mostly) painting Crash and Rose (check out the show-off here). As soon as you get out the camera, magic flaws appear. They wait until you have put up all of your painting supplies and its obnoxious. This is the plan I have at the moment for a layout of the diorama.

Anyways, it’s been fun so far. I’m nowhere near done, but I’m working hard at it!

Surgery is tomorrow, so I doubt I’ll be doing much more than sleeping, eating popsicles, and binge-watching Castle. I will probably end up looking at this and the reaper forums. so it’s up to y’all to keep me entertained.

-marinealRose