Finished.

I just completed the Gladiator Arena I had been working on for my Manager at work.  I might have mentioned before how he had said a couple of times how he liked the Gladiator scene at the beginning of the UFC fights, which then gave me the idea to create the Gladiator scene.  It originally started out to just be two Gladiators squaring off, but by the time it was over I added the "full" arena and Summa Rudis and Secunda Rudis.  To date, this is the diorama I am most pleased with.  Not that the others weren't good, but with each one I learn something new and improve upon it.  Were I to make another Gladiator Arena, it would be better than this, improving upon mistakes I made and lessons learned.  All in all, I am still well pleased.

I like to have at least two primary dioramas going at once that I have a majority of items to complete - in between these I work on other pieces that will be used for upcoming dioramas in the future, or single piece historic miniatures.  I am not counting, but I am sure I have close to 50, if not more, "in the works" (that is figures, not dioramas).

Anyway, my next pieces for now will be Jesus and Peter Walking on the Water (for my wife's pastor), and I want to do the John Wayne scene from "True Grit"...where he is in the valley riding against Ned Pepper and his gang...you know the famous quote from the scene..."Fill your hands you..."...yep, that one.  All around the scene are white birches with yellow leaves in the fall (compared to the remake, they are still green...boo, hiss!).

I think trees will be a nice break from the sand...I am ready for some greenery, having done two back to back sand pieces (Gladiator Arena and Moses and the Burning Bush).  I will post the Moses piece at sometime in the future.

Anyway, there are the photos from "Gladiator Arena"...