Saturday, August 15, 2015

Playing in the sand


Continuing with the massive Scale 75 diorama, it's time to start adding some trees.  This means I will put a paper clip in the bottom of my carefully selected tree branch so that it is easier to anchor in the bark and base.


I really wanted that branch to hang over what will be water.  That took some manipulation of its positioning, but well worth the effort!


On the 'back' side of the diorama, I decided to fill in some of those gaps with additional pieces of bark texture.  I had to shave these down in order to make them fit.


This is the mortar for the entire construct.  Along with super glue, I add plenty of this material in between the layers.  It fills those gaps, and helps to lock those layers in place.


Here's an image of that process.  Once the piece is where I want, I can work the extra paste material to look like sand, or even sculpt it a bit to resemble the additional pieces.


This broken stump was melded into the original branch by using that same sand paste to mimic bark.


In order to have that desired "composition triangle" of three differently sized and shaped trees, I added two more to the back of the diorama.  This would be a 'curtain' behind the figure.


The other two trees are now pinned and in position!


Now for some gravel, including the fine medium and heavy ballast.

I always put down the heaviest first, and the fine sand last.


More of the finer foliage branches will be added as this base moves along.  These branches are dried foliage from Michael's art store.

I waited for all of this ti set up, and then began to add more items.  Stay tuned for the next episode!!


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