Advice on creating subtle 3D "cratering" on very simple first diorama

[Murewa]

Question/advice...

Currently building a 1/48 scale pair of mk1 hurricane and spitfie for Battle of Britain pairing. I'm going to try and make my first "diorama" - kind of.

 

I'm planning to use a 100mm by 300mm wood base with 2 aircraft in flight on brass rods above. On base will be either a 1/144 (although after building it, wow that's small) or 1/72 BF109 crashed for forced perspective. Idea is it will appear like the models are "passing" or banking away from a crash landed victory below.

I've bought some grass scatter material and have pva for top of wood base, but I want to make a basic 'build up' I can paint brown around and behind the 109 to make it appear it has belly landed and come to rest after a scrape through field/mud.

How might I go about that? A basic home grout? Clay (work in primary school so plenty of that about)? What would be easiest/most practical way to to add this effect?

 

Separate question - thought about a line of bushes like the traditional English hedge-line going across kinda randomly nearby, though not as set upon this, just wondered whether the base might look a bit bland all in grass. Again..what might be the easiest way to make a simple hedgerow?

 

Forgive the simplicity of these questions ... I have never done anything even diorama-ish before. Very much an experiment. 

[Badder]

Hi Murewa,

 

I think I understand the layout you are going for, with the camera 'looking down at the pair and with a landscape and 'crash landing' below.  I would have thought a base 10cm by 30cm is perhaps a bit on the small side? Effectively, your base is going to be a backdrop, but on the horizontal plane rather than the vertical. I could be wrong but any photo taken from above would largely be taken up by the 2 planes and the base would be blotted out. I personally would make the base much bigger for those 'viewed from above' photos.

 

As for your 'ground' I'd go for plaster of Paris. I'd score the wood surface deeply with a heavy duty craft knife, slicing across at various angles. The rougher the better, to provide a good 'key' for the plaster. I'd then pour on the plaster and use the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread the plaster about, making sure to get it into the deep grooves. I wouldn't smooth it out dead flat, I'd create a small amount of slope and some undulations. We're talking not much more than 5mm difference from lowest point ot highest.

 

Once that's dry, I'd colour it with poster paints/water colours; browns for soil and green for grass.  It's then a matter of doing the grass and soil. Coat the soil areas with dilute PVA and sprinkle a mix of sand and grit over it. You can mix up neat PVA with the same and use it to create ridges/ruts/tracks/skid marks. When that's all set and dry you can apply washes and dry-brush to pick out details.

 

For the grass areas, I'd be tempted to buy a roll of 'grass mat'. It's available in various 'grades' so go for the finest grades that might be used on train set layouts. You can stick that in place using PVA and then 'rough it up' scraping at some areas with a sharp knife to remove fibres,  use washes and dry-brushing to add variation in colour. But if I were determined to use 'scatter' I'd go for the very finest scattered over dilute PVA, and then apply washes and dry-brushing.

 

For hedgerows use the clumpy foam-type 'foliage' by Woodland Scenics and 'seafoam' for trees.

 

 

Hope that helps. If not there are dozens of WIPs to gain inspiration from.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Murewa]

On 07/06/2020 at 19:16, Badder said:

Hi Murewa,

 

I think I understand the layout you are going for, with the camera 'looking down at the pair and with a landscape and 'crash landing' below.  I would have thought a base 10cm by 30cm is perhaps a bit on the small side? Effectively, your base is going to be a backdrop, but on the horizontal plane rather than the vertical. I could be wrong but any photo taken from above would largely be taken up by the 2 planes and the base would be blotted out. I personally would make the base much bigger for those 'viewed from above' photos.

 

As for your 'ground' I'd go for plaster of Paris. I'd score the wood surface deeply with a heavy duty craft knife, slicing across at various angles. The rougher the better, to provide a good 'key' for the plaster. I'd then pour on the plaster and use the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread the plaster about, making sure to get it into the deep grooves. I wouldn't smooth it out dead flat, I'd create a small amount of slope and some undulations. We're talking not much more than 5mm difference from lowest point ot highest.

 

Once that's dry, I'd colour it with poster paints/water colours; browns for soil and green for grass.  It's then a matter of doing the grass and soil. Coat the soil areas with dilute PVA and sprinkle a mix of sand and grit over it. You can mix up neat PVA with the same and use it to create ridges/ruts/tracks/skid marks. When that's all set and dry you can apply washes and dry-brush to pick out details.

 

For the grass areas, I'd be tempted to buy a roll of 'grass mat'. It's available in various 'grades' so go for the finest grades that might be used on train set layouts. You can stick that in place using PVA and then 'rough it up' scraping at some areas with a sharp knife to remove fibres,  use washes and dry-brushing to add variation in colour. But if I were determined to use 'scatter' I'd go for the very finest scattered over dilute PVA, and then apply washes and dry-brushing.

 

For hedgerows use the clumpy foam-type 'foliage' by Woodland Scenics and 'seafoam' for trees.

 

 

Hope that helps. If not there are dozens of WIPs to gain inspiration from.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Hi,

 

That's really useful advice, thank you. I'm gonna bookmark this page so I can come back to it. 

 

I know what you mean with the size of the base. It's intended for a shelf in my study so I might extend the width to 20cm to give it a tad more depth. I'll mock it up on the 30 x 10 I've got when I've finished the models and see. At worst, I can have a first go at the techniques on that base so my final one doesn't look as bad. 

 

Thanks a lot for your advice 🙂