Though a bit late, here are the pictures of the results of my dio until today. The dio shows a small café's terrace with a fountain. The diorama name is "café Les Trois Diables" (the three devils), named after the three gargoyles spitting water into the fountain.
Since my first attempt to this diorama had a nasty accident, I completely remade it.
For the base, I mangled a Monroe Perdu, adding a fountain and walls.
The walls were 'scribled" in a piece of plaster, using a steel ruler, an X-acto knife and a scribling tool
I bought from micromark. I then made a silicone mold and cast plaster copies. (for more details on making molds, see my "xeroxing ammo boxes" article in the features pages, under "general modeling). The cast was made in a tough ceramic plaster, which can be made almost as liquid as plaster before casting. http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RADpAvwSfG2Z8auQxHgU8o1mg1Hb6siA9U1O5*s5dsKK70ds20j9AEmA!0m2rpvGsAAECe*RjhWxplvM4OoM*AsTy0pFo2uJQ1JBOqMCyU4/DSCN3201.JPG?dc=4675422546625775964
The top of the wall and the top of the fountain rim, was first made from plastic. A piece of half round sprue was sanded till it became a half circle diameter. Then it was glued to a piece of plastic stripe, barely wider than the sprue. The edges were a bit sanded. I made a silicone mold from this, and casted plaster copies. The plaster copies look more "real" stone than the plastic original. They can be easily sanded, broken, dented and treated like real pieces of stone and maconry. I'm happy with the result.
The water was first filled with plaster (BIG MISTAKE ! I'll explain why hereunder). On top of the water came layers of paint, later mixed with clear coating. The top coating is only coating without paint. The procedure was described in other Splash dios, and I think it was Keenan who convinced me to work this procedure after showing his superb example.
The water jets that are "spit" from the devils-heads gargoyles, are clear plastic fibre. I drilled a small hole in the gargoyles, a small hole in the fountain "water" and added a small drop of CA glue. In the water, I added several consecutive smaller drops of CA glue to give the impression the water is stirred up where the jet splashes down. The CA glue, drying faster than the still-a-bit-wet acrylate coating, turns white and looks very convincing. To top it all off, I added a very thin layer of clear poly-urethane.
The combination of a clear PU top over plaster, is a wrong choice. The plaster still holds water molecules that evaporate and try to get out. Now they are trapped by the PU top, they form small air bubbles under the surface. Though the surface looked very good first, it now starts to get a bit bubbly. See picture below :
The terrace is supposed to be filled with tables and chairs, but that's not done yet. I'm not happy with the earth coloured sand at this moment either, so I hoped to redo that before I discovered the end date for this dio was 15/5 instead of 31/5 as I thought it was !
I still have to paint my figures, too. I converted them yesterday, but I'm not sure I'll get time to do that in the coming weeks. I have a huge load of office work, and other domestic things to take care of first.
About the total result ? I think a friend put it very kindly : "you make fine dioramas and you"re a great scratchbuilder, but you're a lousy painter". I can live with that - for now.
Sorry to be so late with these pics. The result isn't all done, but I liked to share it with you - even if it isn't finished and even if the new Monroe Perdu ground base will outprice the diorama limits if I use resin figures.
