Battle of Hastings diorama by Jock Gillespie

After six years of collecting the swathe of John Jenkins Designs Age of Arthur Saxons, Normans, some Vikings, and self-painted figures, I finally completed my Battle of Hastings diorama.

I had to shuffle the collection to accommodate the depth of figures and moved from one 1.2m to two 1m x 450mm shelfs. As you can appreciate, trying to fit 132 Saxons, four Vikings and 65 Norman foot and mounted figures into a diorama was challenging, especially with restricted width. The following images take you through the diorama development (1.5 weeks) and displaying of the figures (five days).

Step 1 Diorama base and terrain building

Step 2 Forming the Terrain (based on research from books, articles and You Tube docos)

Step 3 Painting and flocking the ground.

Step 4 Placing in Cabinet

Step 5 Unboxing and positioning figures before placing in diorama.

Step 6 Placement of figures (based on some historical facts, Breton cavalry retreat, archer placement and William I being alive reveal)