UMS "Agram" : Diorama in a frame – Paycheck! – part 1 < Articles < Hobby

Diorama in a frame – Paycheck! – part 1

Marko Paunović, 18th January 2024

This was supposed to be one article, but due to the amount of photos, I decided to put together a short series of three articles on making framed dioramas. The first part is construction, the second part will be painting, and the third will be adding various details.

As always, the first step is planning. I decided to place this story in one 1/35 scale workshop. For that, I got a resin lathe and a set for the workshop from the company Miniart.

First, I threw myself on the lathe and started assembling it, and there was a lot of work with sanding and cutting so that all the parts lay on top of each other...

I also put together a work bench with smaller tools. Miniart really does good diorama accessory sets.

Then it was the turn of the wall in the background. As I planned from the beginning, the wall is flat with one hole for a window under which the lathe will be placed. In the tub (the making of which we explained last year in these articles) I put a piece of 5mm thick balsa cut to the dimensions of the window frame. I mixed in the plaster and poured it.

Then I assembled two figures from the MiniArt set. And that's actually where the "theme" of the diorama was born. The figures were somehow in strange poses for me to work at the machines. So I decided to place them ON the bench as if they were dancing. Why would you dance at the workplace? Because the salary has been paid. For February. And it's August. 1999.

Finally, I added sand to the floor - in the true manner of old workshops with still dirt floors...

Latest articles

Back to Basics Workshops in Galerija VN, a part of Libraries of Zagreb

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	During October and November, we held our Back to Basics miniature painting workshops for the youngest at the Zagreb City Libraries.

	

	

	The second set of three workshops was held in the Gallery VN on October 30, November 6 and 8, 2025.

	

	

	During the workshops, our youngest participants painted chibi figures from the UMS Agram line and made a castle from upcycled materials.

	

	

	

	

	

	

	More photos can be found on our social media.

	
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	Tijekom listopada i studenog u Knjižnicama Grada Zagreba smo održali naše Back to Basics radionice bojanja minijatura za najmlađe. 

	

	

	Drugi set od tri radionice održan je u Galeriji i čitaonici VN 30.10. te 6. i 8.11.2025. 

	

	

	Tijekom radionica naši najmlađi polaznici su bojali chibi figure iz linije UMS Agram te izrađivali dvorac od upcycle materijala.

	

	

	

	

	

	

	Više fotografija potražite na našim socijalnim mrežama!

	
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Krunoslav Belinić, 4th December 2025

We attended: Monte San Savino 2025

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Our Ivan brings you a report from the best miniature painting competition in the world.

In a small town in Italy, one of the largest and most prestigious miniature exhibitions in the world has been held every year since 2006, bringing together miniaturists from all over the world. The Knezović clan decided that it was a shame that Croatians did not come to the Monte San Savino Show, so after a great time at Kontrast, a miniature exhibition in Warsaw, we decided to visit Italy as well.

The exhibition is held in Tuscany, and all the content related to it is located within the walls of the castle around which most of the town is located. The exhibition is set in an exceptionally beautiful setting of a medieval castle, with which no other similar miniature event can be compared. The town itself allows visitors to easily get to know each other, as most of them gravitate to the square in the center of the castle.

We set off on Friday, November 14, 2025, and it took us about eight hours to get to our accommodation. Italian motorways are good, but Italians themselves often don't know what lanes are for or how to use turn signals. Large trucks often swerved left and right, and drivers usually only turned on their turn signals after they had finished changing lanes. Fortunately, none of the miniatures were damaged in transit. The Patafix and plastic box are more than enough protection for the models.

We distributed a large number of flyers in the hope that some of the visitors would come to our Black Queen, and some even promised us that they would (try to) come. We also awarded the UMS Agram Best of Show medal. We did not proceed in a "judgmental" manner, but rather we sought the work (or works) of a miniaturist that we enjoy the most. I have long appreciated Magnus Fagerberg's works and have often used them as references in my own work. They were even better in person, which is usually the case with all top-notch works. Therefore, UMS Agram presented Magnus, in addition to the Best of Show medal, with a terranino to accompany the Monograph on our work.

The exhibition itself featured the best works that we usually see on social networks, and there were about 2,000 of them in total. Almost all of the winners of this year's Golden Demon also brought their models to Monte San Savino.

The results we achieved were very good, considering the exceptionally high average quality of the works. Filip won one gold with his works in the Storytelling Standard category, while I (Ivan) won one bronze in the Storytelling Master category and one bronze in the Fantasy Painting Master category.

I'll leave the best part of the article for last, photos of some of the models we saw. Filip has since learned how to use a macro lens, so I'd say the photos turned out great.

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Naš Ivan vam donosi reportažu sa najboljeg natjecanja u bojanju minijatura na svijetu.

U malom gradiću u Italiji svake se godine, još od 2006., održava jedna od najvećih i najprestižnijih izložbi minijatura na svijetu, koja okuplja minijaturiste iz cijeloga svijeta. Klan Knezović zaključio je da je šteta što na Monte San Savino Show ne dolaze Hrvati, pa smo nakon odličnog provoda na Kontrastu, izložbi minijatura u Varšavi, odlučili posjetiti i Italiju.

Izložba se održava u Toskani, a svi sadržaji vezani uz nju smješteni su unutar zidina dvorca oko kojeg se nalazi veći dio mjesta. Izložba je postavljena u iznimno lijepom ambijentu srednjovjekovnog dvorca, s kojim se ne može usporediti nijedan drugi sličan minijaturistički događaj. Sam gradić omogućuje posjetiteljima da se lako upoznaju, jer većina njih gravitira trgu u središtu dvorca.

Na put smo krenuli u petak, 14. studenoga 2025., te smo putovali oko osam sati do našeg smještaja. Talijanske autoceste su dobre, ali sami Talijani nerijetko ne znaju čemu služe prometne trake ili kako se koriste žmigavci. Veliki kamioni često su lelujali lijevo–desno, a vozači su pokazivače smjera uglavnom uključivali tek nakon što bi već završili prestrojavanje. Nijedna minijatura srećom nije nastradala u prijevozu. Patafix i plastična kutija sasvim su dovoljna zaštita za modele.

Podijelili smo veći broj letaka u nadi da će dio posjetitelja doći na naš Black Queen, a neki su nam čak i obećali da će (pokušati) doći. Dodijelili smo i UMS Agram Best of Show medalju. Nismo se vodili „sudački“, nego smo tražili rad (ili radove) jednog minijaturista u kojima najviše uživamo. Već dugo cijenim radove Magnusa Fagerberga i često sam ih koristio kao reference u vlastitom radu. Uživo su bili još bolji, što je u pravilu slučaj sa svim vrhunskim radovima. Stoga je UMS Agram Magnusu, uz Best of Show medalju, poklonio i jedan teranino za uz Monografiju o našem radu.

Na samoj izložbi mogli su se vidjeti najbolji radovi koje inače viđamo na društvenim mrežama, a ukupno ih je bilo oko 2000. Gotovo svi pobjednici ovogodišnjeg Golden Demona također su donijeli svoje modele na Monte San Savino.

Rezultati koje smo ostvarili bili su vrlo dobri, s obzirom na iznimno visoku prosječnu kvalitetu radova. Filip je sa svojim radovima u kategoriji Storytelling Standard osvojio jedno zlato, dok sam ja (Ivan) osvojio jednu broncu u kategoriji Storytelling Master i jednu broncu u kategoriji Fantasy Painting Master.

Za kraj ostavljam onaj najbolji dio članka, fotografije nekih od modela koje smo vidjeli. Filip je u međuvremenu izučio korištenje makro leće pa su fotografije rekao bih odlično ispale.

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Marko Paunović, 24th November 2025

Science behind Acrylic Paints

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In this article, our Dunja takes us behind the science of acrylic paints!

Acrylic paints – high pigment content and good coverage. If they are well formulated, they stay where you apply them, don't leave "brush marks" and dry slowly enough to do what you want on the miniature, yet still fast enough.

Composition:

Binders (eng. resin) – form a film – in our case probably pure acrylates, I suspect they are styrene acrylates.
Fillers – in addition to adding volume to the paint, they also affect the viscosity, coverage and appearance of the dry film
Pigments – the main division is into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Inorganic ones are more covering but have less vivid shades, while organic ones are often quite poorly covering (yellow for example) but their shades are vivid and bright

Additives:

Anti-foam
Rheological modifiers – affect the behavior of wet paint on the substrate (e.g. spillage) and the behavior of the paint when a force is applied to it (brush, roller, spray, airbrush). Rheological modifiers also include thickeners that affect the viscosity of the paint.
Dispersants – envelop pigment and filler particles and prevent their agglomeration during standing. Good dispersion of pigment and filler affects the coverage and uniform appearance of the dry film. There are a bunch more but I won't go into too much detail
Solvent – in this case water.

Contrast paints and speed paints – high pigment content, but not so much that it causes high coverage. They are formulated to spread, not to stay where you put them. The result of spreading is that the paint collects in the recesses, where a thicker film of paint remains than on the protruding parts of the miniature. Where the film of paint is thicker (the recesses), the shade of the contrast paint is more pronounced, unlike on the protruding parts where the film is thinner, which is why the shade is then influenced by the color of the substrate.

Composition:

Binders
Pigments
Additives – all listed above + surfactants that reduce the surface tension of the wet paint film, which is why it flows
solvent
I would say they do not contain fillers, or contain very, very little of them

Washes – similar in formulation and behavior to contrast agents, only they have a much lower proportion of pigments, certainly no fillers, a higher proportion of surfactants, lower viscosity, and probably less binders.

If we want to greatly dilute acrylic paint or contrast, it is better to use a product intended for this purpose from the manufacturer of that paint rather than water, because it contains all the necessary amount of binders and additives for that paint to retain its properties.

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U ovom članku, naša Dunja nam otkriva znanost iza akrilnih boja.

Akrilne boje – visoki udio pigmenta i dobra pokrivnost. Ako su dobro formulirane ostaju tamo gdje ih naneseš, ne ostavljaju „brush marks“ i suše se dovoljno sporo da stigneš napravit što želiš na minijaturi a opet dovoljno brzo.

Sastav:

Veziva (eng. resin) – formiraju film – u našem slučaju vjerojatno čisti akrilati, sumnjam da su stiren akrilati.
Punila – osim što dodaju volumen boji utječu i na viskoznost, pokrivnost i izgled suhog filma
Pigmenti – glavna podjela je na organske pigmente i anorganske pigmente. Anorganski su više pokrivni ali manje živih nijansi, dok su organski često dosta loše pokrivni (žuti npr) ali zato su im nijanse žive i jarke

Aditivi:

Protiv pjene
Reološki modifikatori – utječu na ponašanje mokre boje na podlozi (npr razlijevanje) i na ponašanje boje dok na nju djeluje sila (kist, valjak, sprej, airbrush). Pod reološke modifikatore spadaju i ugušćivači koji utječu na viskozitet boje.
Dispergatori – obavijaju čestice pigmenata i punila i sprječavaju aglomeraciju istih stajanjem. Dobra dispergiranost pigmenta i punila utječe na pokrivnost i ujednačen izgled suhog filma.
Ima ih još hrpa ali neću toliko u detalje
Otapalo – u ovom slučaju voda.

Kontrastice i speed paints – visoki udio pigmenta, ali ne toliki da uzrokuje visoku pokrivnost. Formulirane su da se razlijevaju, a ne da ostaju tamo gdje ih staviš. Posljedica razlijevanja je skupljanje boje u udubine gdje onda ostane deblji film boje nego na isturenim dijelovima minijature. Tamo gdje je film boje deblji (udubine) nijansa kontrastice izraženija, za razliku od isturenih dijelova na kojima je film tanji zbog čega na nijansu onda utječe boja podloge.

Sastav:

Veziva
Pigmenti
Aditivi – svi nabrojani gore +
surfakanti koji smanjuju površinsku napetost mokrog filma boje zbog čega i dolazi do razlijevanja
otapalo
rekla bih da ne sadrže punila, ili ih sadrže vrlo vrlo malo

Washevi – po principu formuliranja i ponašanju slični kontrasticama, samo imaju puno manji udio pigmenata, sigurno ne sadrže punila, veći udio surfakanata, manji viskozitet i vjerojatno manje veziva.

Ako želimo jako razrijediti akrilnu boju ili kontrasticu bolje je koristiti za to predviđen proizvod od proizvođača te boje nego vodu, jer sadrži svu potrebnu količinu veziva i aditiva kako bi ta boja zadržala svoja svojstva.

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Krunoslav Belinić, 20th November 2025

We attended: ModelMania 2025

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	U subotu 25.10.2025. održao se Foto Video Show & ModelMania Zagreb u Kongresnoj dvorani na Zagrebačkom Velesajmu. UMS Agram je nastupio s prezentacijom rada naših raznih programa poput Advent u Agramu, Agram Group Build, Agram Lego Sekcija i Knjižnica i čitaonica UMS "Agram".

	

	  

	  

	  

	Naši volonteri, Kruno i Marko bili su tamo od 10 ujutro i odgovarali na pitanja s čime se bavimo.

	

	Antoni i Lav su bili zaduženi za demonstriranje stolne strateške igre Gaslands!

	  

	  

	

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	Kruno je držao Back to Basics radionice bojanja minijatura!

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  
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Marko Paunović, 5th November 2025

Necropolis Board part 1

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	In October we started with our first board for Necropolis, and with an appropriate theme! – the Eternal Autumn configuration from the Necropolis rulebook. The configuration is such that it only requires 3 trees, which we considered too boring, so instead of one tree, we plan to build a cubic lime kiln and 2 streams.

	  

	The board is inspired by Hawthorne's story Ethan Brand, where several characters talk about the unforgivable sin (next to a lime kiln in the middle of an American pastoral idyll). Aesthetically, we're aiming for early fall with rural motifs, along with gnarled trees (ala Burton's Sleepy Hollow) and a few pumpkins.

	  

	For now, we are very far from any aesthetic choices because we have dealt with the basic structure of the board: the housing is made of pine glued boards for the floor and pine profiles for the sides. After we glued everything with Drvofix, the entire housing was finely sanded. The size of the Styrodur board that fits into the housing is 40cmx40cmx2cm (Necropolis standard is 16"x16").

	  

	The placement of the stream itself was difficult to choose due to the peculiar, angular deployment in Necropolis, so we used token strings to try out a few potential streams that would least interfere with the game. Although we planned to keep our forest streams shallow, we still carved channels with a scalpel and a rotary multitool and coated the beds with diluted texture paste. While the paste dried, we added various sizes of pebbles and created a transition across the stream with larger pebbles.

	  

	The trees are actually real mangroves, so they have natural knots and twists. To add a Sleepy Hollow feel, we hollowed out a few holes in the wood to house the greenstuff faces. We propped up one tree with pieces of pine bark so it wouldn't lean too much and interfere with play.

	  

	The next step is to cover the entire board with a mixture of gypsum and sand and make the stove itself.

	  
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	U listopadu smo započeli s našim prvim boardom za Necropolis, i to s primjerenom tematikom! – Eternal Autumn konfiguracijom iz Necropolis rulebooka. Konfiguracija je takva da nalaže samo 3 stabla, što smo smatrali predosadnim te umjesto jednog stabla kanimo izraditi kockastu vapnenu peć i 2 potoka.

	  

	Board je inspiriran Hawthorneovom pričom Ethan Brand, gdje nekoliko likova priča o neoprostivom grijehu (pored vapnare usred američke pastoralne idile). Estetski ciljamo na ranu jesen s ruralnim motivima, uz kvrgava stabla (ala Burtonov Sleepy Hollow) i nekoliko bundeva.

	  

	Za sada smo jako daleko od ikakvih estetskih odabira jer smo se nosili s osnovnom građom boarda: kućište je napravljeno od borovih lijepljenih dasaka za podni dio i borovih profila za bočne strane. Nakon što smo sve zalijepili drvofixom, cijelo kućište je fino izbrušeno. Veličina stirodur ploče koja sjeda u kućište je 40cmx40cmx2cm (Necropolis standard je 16“x16“).

	  

	Sami smještaj potoka bilo je teško odabrati zbog osebujnog, kutnog deploymenta u Necropolisu pa smo koristili nizove tokena da isprobamo nekoliko potencijalnih tokova koji bi najmanje ometali igru. Iako planiramo da nam šumski potoci budu plitki, i dalje smo skalpelom i rotirajućim multitoolom izrezbarili kanale i premazali korita razrijeđenom teksturnom pastom. Dok se pasta sušila, ubacili smo razne veličine kamenčića i uspostavili prijelaz preko potoka većim kamenčićima.

	  

	Stabla su zapravo pravo mangrovo drvo, tako da ima prirodne kvrge i zavijutke. Kako bismo dodali sleepy hollow šmek, izdubili smo nekolika rupa u drvu gdje bismo smjestili greenstuff lica. Jedno smo drvo poduprli s komadima borove kore kako ne bi bilo previše nagnuti i ometalo igru.

	  

	Sljedeći korak je prekrivanje cijelog boarda smjesom gipsa i pijeska te izrada same peći.

	  
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Antoni Pastuović, 5th November 2025

Latest battle-reports

Kill Team - Blooded vs. Vespid Stingwings 28th February 2025, GW - Warhammer 40.000, and Antoni Pastuović (Imperial Guard)

22nd April 2022, GW - Warhammer 40.000, Borna Pleše (Space Marines) and Kristijan Kliska (Tau Empire)

17th November 2021, GW - Warhammer 40.000, and Nino Marasović (Space Marines)

Association of miniature collectors, modellers and tabletop wargamers "Agram"

Diorama in a frame – Paycheck! – part 1

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