The Bureaucrat. A diorama project log

[Davout]

I’ve always loved the images of the Administratum, ranks upon ranks of menial scribes scratching away at ancient desks in vast ill lit halls. I first got into 40K back in Third edition and this quote has always stuck with me.

The whole population of Earth belongs to the unimaginably vast and complex bureaucracy of the Adeptus Terra or Priesthood of Earth. The divisions and departments of the priesthood number hundreds of thousands of independent, quasi-independent, federal and subsidiary offices. Entire lives are spent in ceaseless shuffling of paper and checking of rosters, the assessment of planets for tithes and counting of holo-clips. Together these billions of petty and largely aimless activities turn the wheel of the tireless engine of government. All intelligent self-awareness vanished from the process millennia ago. Whole departments exist to serve worlds or agencies that have long since disappeared. Applications and petitions arrive daily from citizens and are dully processed and acted upon, though the process takes several lifetimes to complete so the citizens in question are inevitably dead by the time their reply arrives.

Such is the nature of government in the Imperium—as devoid of malice as it s without compassion.


I also have a soft spot in my heart for those faceless agents of the Imperium because I am also a low level bureaucrat for my countries federal government and the above quote rings true all too often. In this spirit I have decided to take a break from army painting and work on a little diorama that I think captures the spirit of the Administratum and parts of my day-to-day work life.

The inspiration for this little scene started with one of the Inquisitorial Henchmen, specifically the fat little bald scribe (who oddly enough resembles my division lead). I’m also using Hirst Arts bricks to build him a little office (he’s very important…he has a window). And now pictures!

Here he is taking a Simple Green bath


Primed


And the base coat, Deneb Stone

[BeatTheBeat]

Really looking forward how this evolves! Always a fan of non-martial interpretations of the 40k setting, and this looks like it's going to be a good 'un.

Looking forward to more,
BTB

[Veteran Sergeant]

Some of the coolest fluff and short stories from the old days involved seemingly innocuous characters. It's kind of a shame that the 40K fluff has gotten away from that for the most part to concentrate on relatively bland combat or action/adventure narratives written by authors who don't know anything about warfighting or weapons.

Looking forward to this project. Some of the best project logs are ones which concentrate on telling a story with the figures rather than trying to achieve the most action factor possible.

[Student]

Sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing how this goes.

[Davout]

So, as you can tell by the annoying little dates in the pictures I started this project back in March. It was briefly interrupted by our decision to buy our first home and all the ensuing projects that come with home ownership (I've been refinishing furniture like a mad man). On the upside I now have a garage to do all the casting for the Hirst bricks and thins are moving along at a nice pace. Below were some more WIP shots of the fig that will be the focus the scene.

Typically I just batch paint armies for the table top but with this fig I wanted to try to build up the color using some layers. These shots show the fig after adding a layer of Bleached Bone to the Deneb Stone foundation.

[Davout]

Another layer plus some skin tones.







And now some shots of my brick casting work area

[Davout]

Just a quick update. Two weeks ago I finally had the majority of my bricks cast and dried so construction of the "office" commenced with a quick dry stack to see how things would lay out.



Next step was laying the floor. The legos help keep everything nice and square.

[Hideous Loon]

Looks real nice. What accessories will he have? (Bookcases, filing cabinets, whatnot.)

[malika]

Looking very nice! Very curious to see how this'll end up!

[Davout]

Hideous Loon: I'm planning on a desk, chair and at least two filling cabinets. I don't want to clutter up the space two much. I'm currently trying to figure out how to build a little desk lamp.

[Davout]

Construction went pretty quick. Hirst Bricks are easy to use with a minimal learning curve.



And a detail shot of the window. The plan is to fill this with a color window printed on a transperency.

[canberraguy]

Looks good so far. Kudos for trying something pretty original too.

[Davout]

After construction comes painting. First coat was spray painted black. On the next layer I used normal house paint from Home Depot, mixing strait black and white to make various shades of gray.

First spay coat





Second coat





Finally, a quick shot of the finished fig

[Davout]

Just a quick update with the first dry brush coat on the walls.

[madd0ct0r]

looking good - will there be noticeboards, pin boards ect up?

[Davout]

So despite this guy being a somewhat important cog in the Imperial government (remember, he has a window office) he still works in a pretty dank and dark place. I've tried to illustrate this by adding some large leaky pipes to the interior of his work space.





As a finishing touch I need to apply a glossy clear coat to giv the pipes a nice slimy look.

[S_A_T_S]

Looking nice. I think the filing cabinets, paperwork and wall details/posters & memos are what will really sell it.

[Thrillhouse]

That opening post kindof gave me goosebumps, cant wait to see where you are going with this.

[Vex]

That horizontal pipe needs a shelf on it for storage of bureaucratic paperwork, scrolls and other important seals etc.

[Davout]

I've been working on the furniture most of this week and I think it turned out really well. The desk file cabinets, and book case help fill out the scene. The pieces are primarily constructed from Hirst Arts bricks from the gothic dungeon molds.