First-Time Diorama & 10mm Conversion Advice

[Zelda123]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning my very first diorama project, and I want to create a gritty, realistic, and highly atmospheric scene set during the French and Indian War (1750s). The concept is a British column being ambushed in dense wilderness by French and Indigenous forces, using Pendraken's fantastic 10mm range.

Because I want the scene to look chaotic and historically authentic, I don't want everyone standing perfectly upright. I need to create custom casualties and wounded figures, as well as extract hats and weapons from donor models to scatter or swap onto others.

Since I am a complete beginner to 10mm modelling and diorama building, I'm aware that I'm not going to make a museum piece and will try and keep things as simple as possible for a first attempt to get something finished,  However I would love some specific advice from the veteran painters and modelers here:


Painting the Figures:

The Andy Mac painting guide looks fantastic with a list of recommended paints. Are there any other suitable guides out there for the French and Indigenous forces? What paints and brushes do I need?

Surgical/Conversion Tips for 10mm:

 What is the best technique for slicing off tricorn hats, head-swapping, or harvesting muskets from metal figures without completely destroying the donor miniature? Could you recommend what tools I need to do this?

Sculpting Wounded/Dead Figures:

How do you approach bending or re-posing 10mm pewter miniatures to look like casualties without snapping the metal? Are there particular Pendraken packs from other ranges (like AWI or Seven Years War) that work perfectly as base models for casualties?

Achieving a "Gritty" Realistic Wilderness Look:

What terrain materials and paint techniques do you recommend to make the ground cover look like a messy, organic North American forest floor rather than a neat wargaming table?

I'll obviously be using Pendraken's French Indian War range, what miniatures can I use from their AWI range to keep within the period?

Any tips, step-by-step tricks, or links to older conversion threads on the forum would be massively appreciated!

Sorry this is a bit long winded.

Really looking forward to your replies.

Many thanks!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Hello and welcome

There's a lot of ideas  there.

Anything Andy Mac says us brilliant.

Look at the AWI range it has a lot of spare headgear. Also great wounded miniatures and irreguilars


French white I did by leather brown, brown wash,highlight leather brown, then dun, then linen, then ivory.

Native skin tones I would recommend Foundry paint trio.

For diorama I default to sculpted bases, with a covering of sand held on with 50/50 water & pva glue, ink washed and then highlighted with beige brown and flat earth, then washed again with the glue mixture. I then add scatter, fliock, clump foliage and tufts to taste.

My sand is a mix of 50/50 sharp sand and white play sand.

[Zelda123]

Thanks for the reply.

I've slept on it and have come to the conclusion that it's a somewhat ambitious project for someone that has never even painted a mini before : - )

That being said I'm not deterred and will take it one step at a time.

I could get the figures painted, casualties converted and and all that sort of thing done by a third party, which would allow me to concentrate on the landscape and terrain. I've heard that there are people out there that do this type of thing?

Though I would love to learn how to do this type of thing from scratch. 

For the French do you recommend a place to get those paints from?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Thanks for the reply.

I've slept on it and have come to the conclusion that it's a somewhat ambitious project for someone that has never even painted a mini before : - )

That being said I'm not deterred and will take it one step at a time.

I could get the figures painted, casualties converted and and all that sort of thing done by a third party, which would allow me to concentrate on the landscape and terrain. I've heard that there are people out there that do this type of thing?

Though I would love to learn how to do this type of thing from scratch. 

For the French do you recommend a place to get those paints from?

coat d'Arms via Timecast, or Vajjejo via Pendraken

[Zelda123]

Thanks!