WIP - "Every Last Drop!" - Update Nov 14, 2009

[Brad]

Well, here goes...my first attempt at a diorama.

THE STARTING POINT


The base is a blank pine plaque picked-up at Michaels, unfinished for a few dollars (I won't do this again; being a soft wood, it has warped slightly. Next time I'll use a hardwood such as maple, oak or walnut). I stained it and sealed it.

THE PLAN
Utilizing fuel drums, jerry cans and two of the four figures provided in the Academy - German Tank Supplies and Crew Set, my scene will show my Kettenkrad pulled up to a mini fuel storage area. One figure will be using a hand pump to get the last drops out of one of the barrels while a second figure is holding a hose that's filling the final jerry can that can fit on the back of the Ketten.

Ground work will be Celluclay tinted with acrylic craft paint. The ground will be flocked with various shades of green grasses from Woodland Scenics (railroad section at Hobbyworld) and I may attempt a bush or two to "close-off" the back and left-side of the base. The pile of coffee stir-sticks currently shown will be glued in place prior to laying the Celluclay down...I want a slight elevation change there (it's hard to call it a hill...but a mini-hill) and I don't want to try doing that with Celluclay alone...the extra thick area wouldn't dry/cure at the same rate and could cause an uneven surface or cracking. The area defined by the 'sticky-tak' sausages is the boundary of the trail/road the Ketten will be on...that will be dirt...source undefined yet.

I'll try to keep posting updates as they occur...at my current pace of building, I hope to have this completed by 2011...

Cheers

[Brad]

As predicted, progress is slow with no work done on this project through the summer, however it was revisited today and the ground work was started...

I actually worked on making some rocks for this diorama a few months back, but forgot to post the pictures...so here they are as well;

Using a Woodland Scenics rock mould obtained from the railroad section of Hobbyworld and plaster of paris & acrylic craft paints obtained from Michaels (thanks to their 40%-off coupons ) this was far simplier than I thought it was going to be.

Mixing the plaster of paris:


Water mixed with a few drops of dish soap was used as a mould release and then the plaster went in...note that I only partially filled the mould as I didn't need as many rocks as it was capable of making:


Half a mould yielded this many rocks!


Getting ready to paint using acrylic craft paints diluted with distilled water, as we're aiming to give the rocks washes as opposed to painting them:


The highlight colours are dabbed on randomly and into features on the rocks:


The here's the finished product (note: poor lighting results in the rocks appearing darker than they really are, as can be seen when they're shown again in the next picture):


And now onto the progress made today...starting the celluclay ground work:

Using the majority of items that will ultimately be on this diorama, I made a mental plan as to how the celluclay was to be laid down. Note the sticks were now glued down and I added a lot of partially inserted staples (staple gun held slightly away from surface) to act like "rebar" for the celluclay. The whole kit-and-kaboodle was then sealed with Minwax's Fast-Drying Polyurethane Clear Satin to protect against the moisture in the celluclay:


Here were the materials: celluclay and acrylic craft paint (the latter to act as a tinting agent and facilitate less painting in future steps):

...and here's the mess you end up with:


Although this looks/sounds crazy...the next step was to apply Elmer's glue to lay the celluclay down upon:


(I have to admit that I used about 30% too much glue here...but the excess was easily wiped away as required)

And now the fun part...wet your fingers and start spreading the celluclay. The glue, in conjunction with the staples should assure this surface will not lift or warp as drying, or over time.



And finally...after forming the mini-hill and some semblance of a roadway (not seen clearly due to the camera angle) the base has been set aside to dry:


After this photo was taken, the rocks were lightly pressed into the surface (and removed) prior to drying to leave impressions for subsequent glueing...the next steps will be to attach those same rocks when everything's dry and to start adding the grass flocking, the fuel barrels, logs and finally, the figures (that I haven't started yet)...

Hopefully the next update won't take six months like the this one did...

Comments welcome

Cheers