UMS "Agram" : Making PIETY HILL < Articles < Hobby

Making PIETY HILL

Marko Paunović, 22nd August 2020

In this article, I'll be doing a centerpiece terrain for an old west type table. For a while now I've had an idea of doing a hilltop church with a small cemetary for my games of Malifaux and writing this article presented a perfect excuse for such a project.

Idea and planning

I always say when you start any larger project you should plan ahead first. Take your time and explore your options, design the terrain (in this case), decide what materials would be best, see if you have all the tools at hand and most important check if you have enough glue. There is no worse thing than running out of superglue on a saturday evening when you have a sunday's worth of working planned out.

The idea behind this terrain comes from a terrain I did for my gaming club in 2003. mainly for Mordheim and WHFB. It was done in the usual Vampire Counts style. The terrain exists to this day and has only minor damage and some small pieces missing as can be seen in the picture. However, as much as I love this terrain, it doesn't quite fit in the Malifaux world. And besides I wanted to see how differently I'd make this (more or less) same terrain 13 years later.

With the theme of the project decided, I know started to explore my design options. First thing I usually do is go for my home diorama/hobby library. Usually the first books I leaf through are from old masters Ray Anderson and late Sheperd Paine. The former has done some great Old west dioramas and his book The Art of the Diorama is a source of endless inspiration for me, the latter has done mostly military dioramas and his book How To Build Dioramas offers great advice and tips on building scenery and composition. For this project I decided to refer to Ray Anderson's diorama Piety Hill and thus have decided to name my project equally in hommage to this great artist.

So, with the style and theme decided upon, I began designing the outline of the terrain. It became apparent that the size of the terrain would greatly depend on the size of the church. Since I had an already existing terrain with church as a template I roughly copied the dimensions of the church. With the rough dimensions determined (13x10cm with 5cm high walls), I went ahead and started to draw the design of the wall elements. I wanted to build the model of this church as close to how a real wooden churches were built – by using wooden beams to construct the wall frame segments. Connect those segments and after they are errect, use wooden planks to make the walls. The design of the wall frame segments showed four different setups. One for the front side of the building (10x5cm) with holes for two narrow windows and a door, one for the back side of the building (two such frames would be needed as they are 5x5cm), one for the sides of the building with holes for the windows (four such frames needed as they are 5x5cm) and one for the side of the building and for the church belfry (8 needed – 2 for the sides and 6 for belfry, as they are 3x5cm). I would also need several wooden beam constructions/horns for the roof. When I had all this drawn in 1:1 scale on graph paper, I used a different paint marker (green) to mark how the moulding tool should look.

This sketch provided me with the lengths and ammount of material (tables in the drawing sketch) I'd need for the construction work.

For this project I will need the following materials:
- roughly 7 meters of 2x2mm linden slat
- roughly 1 meter of 5x5mm linden slat
- roughly half of a meterlong plank of 2mm balsa wood (they come in 10x100cm planks)
- 40x40cm of HD styrofoam
- superglue
- PVA glue
- gravel (three sizes)
- static grass
- pine trees (several)
- other vegetation
- sanding paper (2 sheets)
- foil for overhead projector
- thin card
- toothpicks
- one chain ring and two small hinges for jewlery boxes
- one bell from a Christmas decoration
- several tombstones

The tools needed are:
- scalpel blade
- scissors
- modelling saw
- pin vice (or an electric mini drill)
- brushes
– various sizes
– for painting/washing and for drybrushing
- pliers and pincers - icepick

Building the church

As I mentioned earlier, the size of the terrain and the layout of various elements greatly depends on the size of the church so it was only natural to start with the construction of the church first. Since I would need a lot of slats of various sizes which would require a lot of precise and repeated measuring, I decided to help myself and construct two tools that would be used to cut the slats into several desired lengths. Tool 1 would be used to cut planks 13, 30 and 50 mm long, whereas Tool 2 would cut planks 11, 20 and 46 mm long. The geometry of these simple tools would allow fast and precise cutting of the linden slats and true enough after only an hour I had cut almost 7 meters of linden slats into 181 differently sized would-be wooden beams. Using scotch tape I glued them all into groups so they wouldn't get mixed up.

Next up, it was time to construct the moulding tools to simplify the production of wooden frames and ensure the right angles of the beam connections (as much as possible). For this, I used one sheet of transparent plastic foil. I simply placed it over the sketch and glued the 5x5mm linden slats over the green marked areas on the sketch. Inside I put the linden slats of according sizes (I had previously written the sizes in red on the sketch for easier assembly) and put just a dab of superglue making sure it didn't run onto the plastic foil or the thicker linden slats of the moulding tool. A great advice is to use Rapid Cure. This is a chemical of sorts that instantly cures the superglue the moment it comes into contact with it. However it leaves some white marks which in this case won't matter as everything will get painted in the end.

Once I had all the wooden frames for the bottom part of the church I glued them onto a balsa wood base. I now had the outline of my would-be church. It was time to construct the belfry and the roof. Using the same method, I made the roof horns – basicly a set of triangles glued to gether. To make those, I used only one mould tool as all I really needed was to construct the right angle between the horizontal and perpendicular beams. Once they are fixed, I just connected the hypothenuse of the triangle that would hold the roof. I made several sizes of the roof horn in order to have an appearance of a wobbly roof. When the roof construction was done, I glued 2mm balsa wood over it that would hold the roof tiles. (Note: I didn't glue the roof construction to the wall frames so the roof will be removable) With the roof construction done, I proceeded to make the belfry using 6 smaller wall frames and some roof triangles.

It was time to fill the walls with planks. Using 2mm thick balsa wood I cut strips about 30cm long and 5mm wide using an icepick. The shape of the icepick enables the bevelled look of the plank in one stroke (both cutting and bevelling at the same time). If I had used the scalpel blade, I would have to chamfer the sides which would prolong the process. Afterwards, I again resorted to my makeshift tools for cutting planks and made a bunch of 20, 30 and 50mm planks out of the balsa strips. These I then glued to the floor, making sure I followed a certain pattern. It does not matter which pattern you use, but you need to follow it to the end. In the case of my floor, I used the following pattern: 40mm-50mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm; 50mm-40mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm and repeat. I used a similar method for all the walls. Where the length of the plank protruded from the wall frame, I had cut the excess material only after the glue had set (which is best seen on the roof part). Once both parts of the church were done (roof and building) I glued them on a stick to make the undercoating with a black sprey easier and to prevent spreying over my hands.

Making the base

With the church done, I could now make the base for the terrain. Same as in the original from 2003, I opted to make it from HD Styrofoam. Although these days I opt for the more sturdier materials for the base (like MDF), I went for the styrofoam because I wanted the extra height that 3cm thick styrofoam provides. First, I drew the church outline with a marker and then arranged all the elements according to their position to the church. Once I had all the elements in place, I drew the outline of the top side of the base and around it the bottom side. Using a scalpel blade I cut the base along the outmost line. In several steps I cut the base until I reached the inner outline of the base adding more angle to the blade with each step. Once the cutting part was done, I sanded everything using sanding paper. I also made a couple of stone boulders from leftover pieces of styrofoam and glued them to the base using PVA glue and toothpicks as pins.

5x5mm linden slat was used to make the gate to the church graveyard. Using my electric mini drill (which can be replaced by a hand-held pin vice) I pinned all the pieces together and to the base again using toothpicks as pins. Once the gate was done, I made the wobbly wooden fence from toothpicks and balsa wood planks left over from church construction. Before adding texture it was time to dryfit the two pieces together. Upon inspection I discovered several damaged places on the styrofoam that needed fixing. Had I more time, I would probably have filled those with DAS airdrying clay. However, several strips of masking tape provided a perfect quick fix.

Texturing

At this point, I was nearing the end of the construction and all that had to be done before the painting was to add texture to the base. Before doing this, take a look at the picture of the old piece taken in 2016. You will see that there is a damage to the road just on the rim of the base. I'm not sure what happened or how it got torn off, but my best guess is that the styrofoam base was not fully protected before undercoating with a sprey so it damaged the undersurface of the base and during time the stress broke off this piece. In order to prevent this (as much as possible) I decided to cover about 5mm around the edge of the underside with PVA and thus protect it from damage. While it was drying, I took out all the gravel I was to use on this project:
- chinchilla sand – smallest grain
- GF9 medium basing grit
- chinchilla sand – largest grain

Once the PVA protection was dry, I smeared more wattered-down PVA on the surface that would become the road/yard. I first sprinkled over some largest grain gravel, next I sprinkeld some GF9 Medium Basing Grit and to finish I poured over the smallest grain chinchilla sand. If you sprinkle gently and with care you can end up with nice variations in texture – for instance the middle of the dirt road usually has some larger stones as opposed to the sides of it. When the road was dry, I repeated the process with the rest of the base, sprinkling the two largest grains over the ground part and smallest grain over the boulders and graves.

Preparation while waiting

While I was waiting for the texture to dry, I made the roof tiles from finest grain sanding paper. It has nice texture when painted. I also put metal pins to the pine trees I was going to use on this terrain. The easies method of pinning metal pins to the plastic trunks of the trees is to heat the metal pin using a candle and just stick it into the trunk. The heat will melt the plastic locally. As the pin goes into the trunk it gives over heat (to the trunk that melts) and once the pin is cool it will become lodged into the trunk without any need to glue it.

Painting the base

After the texture had set, I undercoated the base using black sprey and it was time to paint the terrain. Unlike my minis, I like to use minimal/limited pallette when painting my scenery. These are the paints used during this whole project (manufacturer: Pebeo Deco):
- White (41)
- Antique White (69)
- Ash (70)
- Ochre (51)
- Brown (29)
- Grey (54)
- Black (55)

On all my scenery I use Pebeo Deco colours as I find they have just the consistency needed for quickly painting the terrain. They are quite rubbish for painting minis, mind you, as they are too thick. For terrain, however, they are perfect and their price of 3USD per 45ml bottle is well worth it. When the undercoat was dry, I painted brown all over the yard/road/graves area and just drybrushed the rest of the base. Using drybrush method (without cleaning my brush from previous paint) I applied ochre over the entire base. On the road part I added a final highlight of a mixture of ochre and antique white. Once that was done, I used black paint to pick out all the details – fence, stones, gate and when this layer was dry, I drybrushed them all with a mixture of black and grey. I highlighted it with pure grey. Now all my grey surfaces were the same, both wooden and stone. To make variation to them, I put a final highlight of pure white on the stone surfaces (stones and gravestones). I also added a highlight of ash to both the ground part of the base (without the road/yard) and the wooden parts. To end this part of painting process I decided to make hommages to two works of art very dear to me. First is the sign on the church gate that says Piety Hill in reference to Ray Anderson's work and the other is the two tombstones – one marked Arch Stanton the other marked Unmarked in reference to one of my favourite movies of all time. This being a terrain for Malifaux, I figured a reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly couldn't miss. All three signs I wrote using my 0,05mm micron marker (you can get those from Ebay for quite a reasonable price, and they come in several colours if you need them).

Vegetation

When I was done with painting, I glued the four pine trees to the base using PVA glue and assmbled all the vegetation I would use: tufts of flowers (found on Ebay), extra long static grass/fibres (Noch), Poison Ivy (ArmyPainter), and a wide assortment of tufts of various colours, sizes and lengths (Gamer's Grass). All these I would use on the base to hopefully get that prairie feel to the piece. Starting with the longest fibres and going to the shortest length tufts I glued each using PVA glue. In the end I added some flowers to the graves. With all the tufts glued, I still had some awkward empty places on the base so I decided to mix some static grass and glue it. I used green, pure yellow, ash and almost black green stuff to get the mixture of the right colour. When I was happy with the shade, I glued it using PVA glue once again.

Painting the church

While the flock was drying, I painted the church. I decided to go for the brownish interior and grey exterior. Inside was painted using brown, ash and antique white. Outside was painted using a mixture of black and grey, then grey and pure white as the final highlight. While this was drying I added some poison ivy to the base and proceeded to paint the bell. This element was the only one painted with paints I normally use for painting minis. Scalecolor Dwarven and Viking Gold and Vallejo Sepia Shade. When everything was painted, I added the roof to the belfry and glued the church to the base.

Adding the door that can be opened

During my build of the Malifaux modular gaming board for Figure Painter Magazine, I discovered a nifty little way to make doors that can open. Apart from a couple of linden slats and some balsa, it requires smallest (that you can find) hinges for jewlery boxes. The process of making is really easy, but you need to make sure the hinge is fixed between two plates both on the door side and on the frame side. This way, there is no (or little) chance of the door falling off during opening. Once it was done, I painted it following the process described above and when the paint was dry, I glued the whole thing to the church and the base.

Final product

The fitting of the door marked the end of the project and all that was left was for me to take it to the club to take a picture of it with it's older brother.

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Agram Group Build #7 – Amon Hen, pt.5

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	Agram Group Build is back. For this seventh installment, the team decided to create a gaming board/diorama for Amon Hen. To that end, we fulfilled a childhood dream and acquired the original Forge World Amon Hen terrain (released around 2000) along with the accompanying set of miniatures. This series of articles will document the entire project—from crafting the terrain to assembling and painting the miniatures.

	  

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	Agram Group Build se vraća. U svojoj sedmoj instalaciji, ekipa je odlučila izraditi igraću tablu / dioramu za Amon Hen. Za tu potrebu, ispunili smo si dječačke sne i nabavili originalni Forge World teren Amon Hena (izašao negdje cca 2000.) sa setom pripadajućih figura. Ova serija članaka pratit će izradu cijelog projekta – kako izrade terena, tako i sastavljanja i bojanja figura.

	  

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	I to je bilo to za ovaj put. Sljedećeg tjedna ide bojanje.

	  
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Krunoslav Belinić, 15th October 2026

Agram Group Build #7 – Amon Hen, pt.4

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	Agram Group Build is back. For this seventh installment, the team decided to create a gaming board/diorama for Amon Hen. To that end, we fulfilled a childhood dream and acquired the original Forge World Amon Hen terrain (released around 2000) along with the accompanying set of miniatures. This series of articles will document the entire project—from crafting the terrain to assembling and painting the miniatures.

	  

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Marko Paunović, 8th October 2026

Agram Group Build #7 – Amon Hen, pt.3

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	Agram Group Build is back. For this seventh installment, the team decided to create a gaming board/diorama for Amon Hen. To that end, we fulfilled a childhood dream and acquired the original Forge World Amon Hen terrain (released around 2000) along with the accompanying set of miniatures. This series of articles will document the entire project—from crafting the terrain to assembling and painting the miniatures.

	  

	Last time, we created and attached large volumes to the base and roughed out the terrain contours. To prevent the Styrofoam from warping while the PVA glue dried, we had secured it to the wooden base with masking tape. Therefore, the first task was to remove the excess masking tape.

	  

	Then, using PVA glue and DAS modeling clay, we created gradual transitions and built up slopes on the "steps" made of Styrofoam.

	  

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	That concludes the construction phase for now. Before applying the texture, the DAS modeling clay needs to dry thoroughly. Next up is the texturing process, along with some touch-ups to the relief where the stone structures were placed.

	  
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	Agram Group Build se vraća. U svojoj sedmoj instalaciji, ekipa je odlučila izraditi igraću tablu / dioramu za Amon Hen. Za tu potrebu, ispunili smo si dječačke sne i nabavili originalni Forge World teren Amon Hena (izašao negdje cca 2000.) sa setom pripadajućih figura. Ova serija članaka pratit će izradu cijelog projekta – kako izrade terena, tako i sastavljanja i bojanja figura.

	  

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	Time je lagano završila gradnja za ovaj put. Prije nanošenja teksture, treba ostaviti DAS glinamol da se dobro osuši. Sljedeći put na redu je tekstura uz mjestimično popravljanje reljefa na mjestima gdje smo postavili kamene strukture.

	  
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Krunoslav Belinić, 1nd October 2026

Agram Group Build #7 – Amon Hen, pt.2

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    ["title_eng"]=>
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	Agram Group Build is back. For this seventh installment, the team decided to create a gaming board/diorama for Amon Hen. To that end, we fulfilled a childhood dream and acquired the original Forge World Amon Hen terrain (released around 2000) along with the accompanying set of miniatures. This series of articles will document the entire project—from crafting the terrain to assembling and painting the miniatures.

	  

	After cutting the board in the previous article, it was time to create the terrain. We decided to achieve the necessary height—or volume—by using Styrofoam. The choice of material was dictated by the availability of Styrofoam; had we possessed that amount of extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam, we certainly would have chosen it due to its ease of shaping. We arranged the Styrofoam sheets to cover the entire surface of the board, gluing them down with PVA glue and reinforcing the joints with masking tape. Next, we placed the assembled Amon Hen model in position and traced its outlines.

	  

	  

	  

	The next step was cutting out the rough shape of the terrain and arranging tall vegetation across the diorama to establish the outlines of the final look.

	  

	  

	  

	  

	After marking the placement of the trees, we decided to glue the Styrofoam terrain piece onto the board. We used PVA glue for this as well, and to ensure firm contact, we secured the edges with masking tape so the Styrofoam wouldn't warp while drying. Finally, we constructed a ramp for the temple entrance.

	  

	  

	  

	In the meantime, Kruno was working on the preparatory work on the figures.

	  

	KRUNO: "The deal was to clean the figures of excess metal and dirt. I haven't dealt with metal miniatures too much, so it was an interesting challenge for me. It's not much different from cleaning rubber or plastic miniatures. Of course, a new scalpel blade is needed and pliers come in handy. Although it is not obligatory, I also performed the ancient miniaturist rite of consecration of a new blade and sacrificed a few drops of blood to the Gods of miniaturism and state games. It seems that they were satisfied with the victim, because there were no problems. Excesses are neatly and nicely positioned for quick removal and if any trace remains it fits into the texture or folds of the model. There were very few heads, and even those that were seen were easily leveled with a knife."

	  

	  
"
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	Agram Group Build se vraća. U svojoj sedmoj instalaciji, ekipa je odlučila izraditi igraću tablu / dioramu za Amon Hen. Za tu potrebu, ispunili smo si dječačke sne i nabavili originalni Forge World teren Amon Hena (izašao negdje cca 2000.) sa setom pripadajućih figura. Ova serija članaka pratit će izradu cijelog projekta – kako izrade terena, tako i sastavljanja i bojanja figura.

	  

	Nakon rezanja table u prošlom članku, došao je red na izradu terena. Visinu, odnosno volumen, smo odlučili dobiti korištenjem stiropora. Odabir materijala je uvjetovala dostupnost stiropora. Da smo imali tu količinu stirodura, sigurno bismo ga odabrali zbog jednostavnosti obrade. Stiroporne daske smo posložili tako da pokriju cijelu površinu table. Zalijepili smo ih koristeći PVA ljepilo, a spojeve dodatno učvrstili koristeći krep traku. Potom smo stavili složenu maketu Amon Hena i ucrtali obrise

	  

	  

	  

	Sljedeći korak bilo je izrezivanje grubog oblika terena i slaganje visoke vegetacije po diorami – tako da dobijemo obrise konačnog izgleda.

	  

	  

	  

	  

	Nakon označavanje gdje ide koje drvo, odlučili smo zalijepiti stiroporni teren na dasku. To smo također odradili pomoću PVA ljepila – a za dodatan pritisak, rubove smo pritisnuli koristeći krep traku tako da se stiropor ne deformira tijekom sušenja. Na kraju smo izradili i kosinu za prilaz u hram.

	  

	  

	  

	Za to vrijeme, Kruno se bavio pripremnim radovima na figurama.

	  

	KRUNO: "Dogovor je bio da očistim figure od viška metala i srha. Nisam se previše bavio metalnim minijaturama, pa mi je to bio zanimljiv izazov. Nije puno drugačije od čišćenja rezinskih ili plastičnih minijatura. Naravno, potrebna je nova oštrica na skalpelu i kliješta dobro dođu. Iako nije obavazeno obavio sam i drevni minijaturistički obred posvećivanja nove oštice i pritom žrtvovao par kapi krvi Bogovima minijaturizma i stateških igara. Izgleda da su bili zadovoljni žrtvom, jer nije bilo problema. Viškovi su uredno i lijepo pozicionirani za brzo uklanjanje i ako i ostane koji trag uklapa se u teksturu ili nabore modela. Srhova je bilo vrlo malo, a i oni koji su se vidjeli lako su se poravnali nožićem."

	  

	  

	 
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Marko Paunović, 24th September 2026

Signs for your plinths

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    ["title_eng"]=>
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	This article will cover creating nameplates for your display figure bases. I have been considering the option of printed nameplates for quite some time, and these are the results I achieved after a bit of effort and research.

	The 3D engraved nameplates I usually use are quite expensive (around €10 apiece) and require preparation, ordering from an engraving studio, and waiting for the work to be completed. Consequently, my practice has been to place only one or two orders a year, mostly before our "Black Queen" event. Another major drawback is that these nameplates are made of plastic and cannot be bent, which automatically rules out round plinths.

	  

	After a bit of research, the results showed that miniaturists quite often use printed paper signs. What I saw in person was that these signs are very glossy, and online research revealed that they are printed on photo paper. So, I decided to try it out myself. First, I created the design for the sign.

	  

	Before looking for a photo studio, I decided to print it out on plain paper first to see what it looked like.

	  

	  

	Even when I put up those signs on plain paper, the result wasn't bad.

	  

	The hardest part of the whole process was finding a photo studio. It is incredible how few of them there are (that aren't just photocopy shops). I managed to find one relatively close to where I work and ordered two sets of two 10x15 cm photos—I decided to get two copies of each shot just in case something went wrong and I needed a backup.

	

	In total, the four photos cost me just under €2.00 (one-fifth of the price of a single plastic, engraved sign).

	  

	The final result on the bases is more than satisfactory! Would bang 10/10.

	  
"
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	Ovaj članak će se baviti izradom natpisa za baze za vaše display figure. Već dulje vrijeme razmišljam o opciji printanih natpisa i ovo su rezultati do kojih sam došao nakon malo truda i istraživanja.

	3D gravirani natpisi koje normalno koristim podosta su skupi (10ak € po komadu) i zahtijevaju pripremu pa naručivanje u nekom studiju za graviranje pa čekanje da oni to odrade. Tako da mi je do sada praksa bila jedna do dvije narudžbe godišnje, uglavnom prije našeg Black Queena. Drugi glavni nedostatak je da su ti natpisi plastični te se ne mogu savijati što automatski isključuje okrugle baze.

	  

	Nakon malo istraživanja, rezultati su pokazali da minijaturisti dosta često koriste printane natpise na papiru. Ono što sam uživo vidio jest da su to jako sjajni (glossy) natpisi, a online istraživanje je pokazalo da su to natpisi na foto papiru. Stoga, sam odlučio isprobati kako to funkcionira. Prvo sam napravio dizajn natpisa.

	  

	Prije potrage za foto studijom, odlučio sam isprintati prvo na običan papir da vidim kako to izgleda.

	  

	  

	Čak i kada sam postavio te natpise na običnom papiru, rezultat nije bio loš.

	  

	Najteži dio cijelog procesa bila je potraga za foto studijom. Nevjerojatno je koliko ih malo ima (a da nisu fotokopiraone). Uspio sam naći jedan relativno blizu mjesta gdje radim te naručio izradu dva puta po dvije fotografije 10x15cm – odlučio sam za svaki slučaj svaku fotku dva puta napraviti tako da ako nešto pođe u krivo da imam rezervu.

	  

	Sveukupno su me 4 fotografije ispale nešto ispod 2,00€ (jedna petina cijene jednog plastičnog, graviranog natpisa).

	  

	Završni rezultat na bazama je više nego zadovoljavajuć! Would bang 10/10.

	  
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Marko Paunović, 24th September 2026

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