Community Spotlight: Overgrown Terrain, Animal Gangs & Middle-earth Dioramas

Come and join us for another delve into the Projects to find the best of the best from the last week or so. We’ll be getting stuck into lots of great-looking miniature wargaming painting and hobbying this week…

…always let us know what YOU have been working on and share it across the site.

Overgrown Sci-Fi Terrain by taochi

We start with taochi this week, who was inspired by seeing a tutorial by Alex Paints on YouTube. They wanted to bring some awesome Overgrown Terrain to life for games of Kill Team and so have been putting in the extra effort to make sure that it pops!

I think you'll agree that the terrain pops. taochi has taken the standard ruins from Games Workshop and turned the terrain into something pretty extraordinary that feels packed with character. Even at a base level, the different colour choices used on the terrain start to tell an interesting story about these ruins and what this space used to be.

The tufts are what really sells this alongside the other elements of vegetation, showing that nature has started to reclaim this space. I think you can sometimes go a little bit overboard with tufts and flock but I think it works really nicely here thanks to the way taochi has managed to make them feel random rather than placed. The addition of more of them at extra heights also helps to sell the look.

This expands to more of the bits and pieces from taochi that are going to be making up this Kill Zone that they use during their games. I think the red earth really helps the pieces stand out as well and sells the alien world vibe a lot more than standard mud would have done. Even going so far as to add in the broken windows sort of adds a haunting quality to the terrain, making it feel like once upon a time it was really lived in.

Burrows & Badgers by paulgbarnes

Next up, we're going to be looking at more of the painting from paulgbarnes for Burrows & Badgers as their collection of miniatures expands.

I really like the gang members and regular townsfolk that you can get as part of the Burrows & Badgers range and these are looking particularly glorious. These came from the Kickstarter that finished way back in 2022 and so whilst it might have taken four years to finish them, they are looking superb. I still haven't painted mine so you're winning there!

I like that paulgbarnes has managed to inject a bunch of colour into the miniatures and make them pop. I like the earthy tones that you get with Burrows & Badgers and how it can contrast quite nicely with that semi-Victorian look and feel to the clothing that the creatures wear. Having the lit cigarette on the top miniature also adds that little slice of something extra!

This brings another swathe of miniatures from paulgbarnes to the done and dusted pile, which is also awesome. I really like seeing paulgbarne's progress with the Burrows & Badgers range and what they've been doing when they get confronted by different styles of beast. This is also reminding me that the Burrows & Badgers townsfolk would make brilliant miniatures to use as an alternative, anthropomorphic Guards of Traitor's Toll.

Doom Came To Minas Tirith by nightrunner

Lastly, we come to a diorama that has been in the works for a while but has now finally been finished by nightrunner. This is Doom Came To Minas Tirith, which showcases the evil forces of Sauron bearing down on the White City in the hours before the siege.

The idea behind this project was a focus on forced perspective and trying to tell a story through a different way of viewing the miniatures. The scene depicts the moment when the Orcs march through the hills and see Minas Tirith before them and Pelennor Fields ready for them to stake their claim on, all over the shoulder and in a rather striking way indeed.

This is also the biggest diorama that nightrunner has ever attempted and I am purposefully saving the big reveal for the final image. I think a lot of great painting has gone into the different evil miniatures and I commend nightrunner for having the hobby strength to power through all the little bits that had to be done in order to bring this to life. The final look is worth it.

Wow. I think the effect works incredibly well and as someone who is a Middle-earth fan, as soon as I saw what was coming together for this, I knew this was going to be getting a golden button. I think it's really awesome and should be on display somewhere in pride of place! I know nightrunner has said that they have learned some lessons from this and would do a few things differently but I think this works so well!

What Are You Painting Right Now?

Every week, we’re absolutely blown away by the incredible topics that are put into the Projects; it’s getting more difficult to choose Community Spotlights! We love your work and we hope to see a lot more of it in the future!

If you fancy getting your hobby fingers out and showing off your newest paint job, terrain piece or even greatest gaming achievement, we want to know about it! We don’t mind if you’re a newcomer to painting or a veteran of the brush; everything you do inspires us to create more and more content together!

What do you think of the entries this week?