On this Facility D20's miniature diorama project, Troy aims to make one epic diorama by combining 3D printed miniatures, 3D printed terrains, and a 3D printed helmet.
For this 3D printed diorama, he took inspiration from Warhammer 40K Diorama to build a futuristic war-torn landscape displaying 3D printed proxies from the Warhammer 40K Cadia Stands box set and a full-size Imperial Guard Helmet—which is digitally sculpted by him from scratch.
Excited yet? Let's get started!
Models Used on This Epic Diorama
The Minis
For this project, Troy chose to use the Kaledon Fortis set from Print Minis because it suits the futuristic troops style he wants. The goal is to reproduce pretty much the entire box set of Cadia Stands from Games Workshop.
Apart from the troops, he also printed out a Phobos Battle Tank, a couple of Death Stalker Robots, as well as the Field Gun Heavy Battery Guns as his heavy weapon platforms.
The Terrains
For the terrains, he found some half-open buildings with floors for free on Thingiverse.
The Life-Size Helmet
To make his 3D printed diorama even more unique, Troy decided to add a life-size 3D printed helmet to his diorama. He sculpted the entire thing from scratch on Blender, and this alone took him well over a week to complete. It really pushed his Blender skills to the limit, but the result definitely makes it all worthwhile.
As a final touch, he found an insignia file online to add to his helmet.
Digital to Reality With 3D Printing
As Troy mentioned, there's something amazing about creating something in a digital space and seeing it out in the real world. And no matter how often you do it, it still feels like magic every time.
Like his typical miniature diorama project, Troy went ahead and fired up his FDM printer and his new Sonic Mighty 4K. He thinks the Sonic Mighty 4K is such a sweet machine with an easy-to-use 2.8-inch touchscreen panel and a 9.3-inch 4K LCD that'll print everything you ever want with complete details.
He used the Sonic Mighty 4K to print out all of his Print Minis models, including the troopers, the tank, the walkers, and the heavy weapon platforms for maximum details. On the other hand, as the building and helmet models are not as detailed, he decided to go ahead with his FDM printer instead.
Painting and Coloring 3D Printed Models
If you're a fan of Facility D20, you must have known by now that Troy is such a fan of the slapchop technique that he used it for the most important minis of his life. So, it's no surprise that he also chose to use the same technique for the minis on this miniature diorama project.
As FDM printed models are generally larger and don't require much detail, he simply went ahead with multiple layers of spray paint and dry brushes for extra details. Lastly, he painted the insignia on the helmet with gold paint and a wash of sepia paint.
Terrain Making and Assembly
The last step to complete his miniature diorama project is Troy's most favorite part: building a futuristic war-torn landscape.
He started by gluing a layer of SM foam to an MDF board and adding layers to further elevate the look with more SM foam. Next, he added a layer of corkboard for more texture to cover the foam surface of the diorama.
Troy then tried making it more realistic by randomly cutting out the edge of his foam and shooting a few fire hits with his blowtorch to create ground texture and a random crater.
To finish, he did a layer of priming paint and some dry brushing to make the ground look more realistic.
Our Next War Will Be Our Last Diorama
After months of work, Troy finally completed his miniature diorama project that spans through the miniatures, the terrain, and the helmet, all completed on the display base.
He mentioned that it was not exactly what he first thought it was going to be, but he's still super excited about the result, and lo and behold, he's definitely killing it.
What do you think about Troy’s Warhammer 40K inspired 3D printed diorama? Let us know in the comment below!
If you want to see everything up close, step-by-step, make sure to watch his video below and get your own Sonic Mighty 4K to start printing!
