I used the pink foam board as panels (on end, not flat) and followed the contour of the shed. I then just took an exacto knife to it and started slicing and ripping bits and piece out of it. I glued on more foam in the thicker areas. I put a cap on the panels at the top of the cliff and built up the ground from there. the back is hollow. In order to match the panels I laid them flat and cut the two adjoining areas at the same time. Then stood them up and curved them and glued it all in place with hot glue. One nice ting about this is fewer seems. I will have to go back and fill the seems and blend them in before I paint.
Dan Hilyer said:
Although I know this will be part of your indoor layout, this is turning out to be a nice looking diorama in its own right. I think you may have even stated that as your intention in an earlier post. I know you are taking lots of photos. What do you think about putting together a short slide show at the end, sort of a time lapse of the build process. Would be cool to see all the pieces come together. Just an idea. Keep up the great work and slow down why donāt you. Your making the rest of us look bad!! Lol.
Yea, especially me, since I have been butt sittingā¦7 hours of driving today, and then I come home and sit some more. My butt is getting a workout.
Dan Hilyer said:
Although I know this will be part of your indoor layout, this is turning out to be a nice looking diorama in its own right. I think you may have even stated that as your intention in an earlier post. I know you are taking lots of photos. What do you think about putting together a short slide show at the end, sort of a time lapse of the build process. Would be cool to see all the pieces come together. Just an idea. Keep up the great work and slow down why donāt you. Your making the rest of us look bad!! Lol.
I could probably do that. Yeah Dan all the stuff for the indoor will be more or less ādioramasā until I get to building the thing. I have to finish the outdoor first and then finish the addition to my house before my wife will let me remodel it. She seems to think remodeling something before it is finished the first time doesnāt make any sense. lol.
The idea is to make the pieces then put them together. Modular thinking
Dan Hilyer said:
Although I know this will be part of your indoor layout, this is turning out to be a nice looking diorama in its own right. I think you may have even stated that as your intention in an earlier post. I know you are taking lots of photos. What do you think about putting together a short slide show at the end, sort of a time lapse of the build process. Would be cool to see all the pieces come together. Just an idea. Keep up the great work and slow down why donāt you. Your making the rest of us look bad!! Lol.
Yea, especially me, since I have been butt sittingā¦7 hours of driving today, and then I come home and sit some more. My butt is getting a workout.
Add some modeling and you will be keeping up with your namesake
Devin, I tried making the substrate for the stone columns, and my first attempt failed. So now I am onto plan B for the columns. So I did some modeling while I was sitting on my butt. Does that make you happy?
Well got some work on the rock cliff. I needed to paint it before I sculptamold the bottom. I used s dry brush technique with several layers. I started with a base of a muddy brown that is a mix of brown black and white paint. Then I heavily dry brushed on black. Then a heavy coat of brown. then a light coat of tan. I then stippled on some green trying to look like moss or lichen.
Base coat of brown
Close up of brown case (still a little wet)
After the dry brush treatment, the part that sticks out is dry brushed the part of the flat wall is not so you can see the difference. Well you can see the green but it didnāt pop like I wanted. The wife at first said add more green. Then she asked if I had some moss or something. Well I had just made a whole bunch of flocking.
So now it has moss or lichen.
Close up.
Now I also worked on a making Bear grass. For those that donāt know what bear grass is, it is a sub-alpine plant (not really grass) commonly found in open areas on rocky hill sides and yes avalanche chutes.
So how to recreate it. Korm used hemp twine and made grass bundles. I had some hemp rope and so it seemed like a plan. I inserted it into the bundle some heat shrink for wire connections. Leaving about 1/2 to 3/4 inch out each side. I needed to make a stalk for the flower so I twisted some wire from a old printer cable after stripping it. I inserted it into the bundle so about 1 inch stuck out each side. I then shrank the heat shrink with my butane torch on air mode. Cut the bundle in half and supper glued the bottoms and the top where the rope went in the tube. I then spray painted them green. To finish it off I used medium CA glue and added a blob of my homemade golden rod flocking. Here is the results.
They are not where they will be going. thatās just to show them off. I will have to wait for the snow to see how may I need and where to put them.
Nice work Devon, you are tearing it up this year. Love the bear grass and that rock wall is impressive. The cool part is I know the whole look and feel of it will change when the snow goes down.
Randy Lehrian Jr. said:
Nice work Devon, you are tearing it up this year. Love the bear grass and that rock wall is impressive. The cool part is I know the whole look and feel of it will change when the snow goes down.
Yeah I actually really want to jump the gun and do the snow. I think that is going to work out great. And I am even surprising myself how fast I am getting this done. Its a testament to no longer having to do homework. I have way more free time than I thought I did.
And my first wire form bush with my homemade flocking. I sprayed the wire form with clear matte finish and then sprinkled on flocking. Repeated several times to build it up. Then a final coat of matte clear.
Dan Hilyer said:
Thanks for that informative information. I am going to attempt to cast some more stones using Daveās as the master. If I am successful, I am considering making some corner stones and casting those also. Weāll see how the initial test goes.
I made a mold using Daveās as a master and it worked out very well, I poured some today. . Making some cornerstones would be cool.
Well I was playing around with this after work, I canāt use the saws everyone is asleepā¦ So I come up with this. It is only a one cavity mold.
I beveled two stones from Daveās that he sent to us. I then built the mold box ( plexiglass) and a drop of super glue to hold in place. then poured the mold and let it set up, removed the pattern , then poured resin. this is my first attempt at really makin anything with molding stuff. Thought you might like to see the results Devon. If ya donāt want this in you build log I can remove itā¦
Devon, your modeling skills are truly shining. The mountain looks great as do the bear grass and bush. Iām looking forward to seeing all these individual pieces come together.
well I remember reading a thread about how you should only be SELLING your ideas, and heaven forbid that you are not using authentic origional blueprintsā¦ anyway sorry for the Thread Drift. Looks good Devon