This is my first diorama it looked good for about a month then the pond developed about a bazillion bubbles. Today I ripped the water effect out and starting again.

IMG]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r2/stoneferret/BP060.jpg[/IMG]

I welcome constructive feedback and comments. After all I came to learn from the masters.

As in every war, looks like there were no winners and plenty of losers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great piece of work and pays a tribute to all those guys that were probably best of friends over the garden fences but forced to take sides in a bloody and brutal civil war.

Nige

hmmm, very poignant

Overall a very nice diorama (subject is part of the area we model).
It's nicely tied to reality with the story inthe 2nd post.
A couple of pointer for the next one. I would apply a fine dust/tan colored pastel layer to everything. The Civil War was a dirty war, dusty, with horses kicking up dirt, men scrambling, gun poweder everywhere. You did get knees dirtied up - good, an overall dusting would add a bit more to it.
The cone pine trees in the back, if they are to stay or be used in another diorama I would vary the shape a bit. Take a pair of scissors and snip in at various angles and place to give them a more realist feel. ( I did notice they weren't 'on' a diorama yet).
Be careful blending figure bases into the diorama base and try to get figures to lay as natural as possible.

Slodder thanks for the sage advice. Is there anyway to seal the figures or diorama after pastel chalk dust is applied?

The dreaded sealing question..... You can, you just have to realize two things
1. You will loose a bit of the texture pastels give by sealing over them. May not be a huge deal, it may be more important to have a protected model than the extra fine texture.
2. Seal slowly in multiple light coats. If you blast on the sealer you'll blow off a lot of the pastel dust. If you use a brush you may brush away the dust.