I admit it, I’m late to the party with Star Wars: Shatterpoint‘s 2025 convention exclusive model – an awe inspiring diorama depicting Darth Vader’s brutal duel with his former apprentice Ahsoka in Star Wars: Rebels. The kit, titled ‘I Am No Jedi‘, was revealed earlier in the year, and I’ve just discovered it while gearing up for UK Games Expo this month. Why am I bothering to write about it? Because it’s shockingly beautiful, and because it’s got me jonesing to do something I’ve never been brave enough to attempt before: paint a goddamned diorama.
I spend a ridiculous amount of time painting miniatures. My shelves are stocked with thousands of the blighters – seven Warhammer 40k factions and five Age of Sigmar armies, in varying stages of incompleteness, are just the tip of the plastic iceberg. But I’ve always quaked in my boots at doing dioramas.
My excuse of choice is that they’re no good for gaming, and too time consuming a project to take on, when I already have a queue of unfinished army reinforcements that I’m too embarrassed even to log in a hobby tracking app. But I confess it now: that’s a lie.
For a start, most diorama sculpts (including I Am No Jedi) are clever nowadays. The models’ wargame bases are neatly sculpted in, so you can remove the heroes from their battle scene when you need them for games, and pop them back in when you’re done. And as for prioritizing projects – pah! If I truly cared about my backlog, I wouldn’t keep adding to it.
No, the true reason is just that I’m scared of painting something specifically for display, and then ending up with a paint job I don’t feel does justice to the model (or the clears throat noisily dollars I paid for it). I can do a fair job of high detail characters when I put my mind to it – I’m fairly proud of my rendition of Lion El Jonson below, for example.
But with models like that, I can always fall back on the comforting notion that, 95% of the time, most people will see it at ‘tabletop distance’ (i.e. three feet away), be favorably impressed, and not get right up close enough to see the 7,476 glaring imperfections that kept me awake after ‘finishing’ it.
Dioramas, on the other hand, have always felt to me like a large cash investment in challenging oneself to paint something big, detailed, and really nice to look at on a shelf – and I get spooped out by that. I look at the bigger-than-usual price tag, imagine the quality of paint job that would make me feel justified in spending that money, conclude that I won’t achieve that, and run away with my tail between my legs. This has so far happened with at least seven of the 21 Warhammer 40k primarchs.
The thing is, though, this one just looks both fantastic, and extremely fun to paint. I’ve wanted Star Wars Shatterpoint‘s Vader since I first saw it; Ahsoka’s aggressive, leaning pose, exacerbated by the diorama base’s disintegrating floor, looks ace; and the big floating monolith, crackling with energy bolts just begging to be wet-blended… phwoar.
Dioramas shouldn’t be different to any other model; I know that really. We should paint the things we love, do our best, and learn from the results. And I really love this bad boy. I just hope I manage to scoop one at UK Games Expo, so I can put my theories to the test. In the meantime, maybe I’ll finally get around to watching Rebels, so I can better absorb the backstory while I’m trying to make Vader’s black armor look convincingly shiny.
If you’ve got some banging dioramas to share, or tips on approaching them as a project – come join the Wargamer Discord community and give me a hand? Or just chat hype about what’s coming up for Shatterpoint and Legion this year. We’ll be sharing all the biggest new games we come across at UKGE in the Discord, too – so if you can’t make it, hop on board and we’ll keep you informed.
Or, for a less painting-heavy option, check out some of the must plays in our list of the best Star Wars board games of all time.
Source: Wargamer
