I've got this idea for a dio, but need some help on deciding how to do it. I want to show a couple of Vietnam U.S. soldiers walking up a muddy embankment of a creek while it's raining. I'm going to use some EZ water for the river and have the soldiers in ponchos. The only problem is trying to figure out how to make it look like it is raining. I figure while it's curing, I could take the EZ water and poke it with a toothpick to make upward splashes where the rain is hitting it. But I want to show actual heavy monsoon type rain falling down. I thought maybe getting some flexible sheets of transparent plastic (probably off of a plastic bubble on a box of something) and wrapping it around, then painting streaks of rain coming down around that. Will this work, or is there another way of doing it? If so, what?

I'd forego the actual rain. Imply its presence as you said with splashes in the water, rivulets in bank wall, vegetation bent over with water dripping off, glossy finish on everything, darker than normal colors on the figures and again, dripping water on the ponchos and helmets. Unless it's a box dio, you'll have a hard time maintaining the illusion of rain since the viewer can see from more than one angle.

However, if you feel you must have a visual representation of heavy rain, the only way to get the effect in all perspectives would be to use vast amounts of clear stretched sprue as the rain drops themselves, but you'll still have the problem that the rain will be cut off at some point.

Gotta agree with Al - try to forego the actual rain.

But here are my 2 cents - try fishing line 'tracers'. Cut fishing line into various lengths 1mm, 2mm, 3mm and stick them in the middle of your splashes to give the drop 'length'

I think it will be very difficult. When you finish your work put photos on internet, I want to see how it looking like.
Good luck

Agree with above. But mabye by having the G.I.'s and the mud under tall vegetation with drips of water falling off the leaves will sell it more effectively.
capnjock

Whil I agree with all the above comments, I am quite interested in how to make the effect you are talking about. This is because a few days ago I started thinking about how to make something like that in Nordmandy.

If you do not make the rain itself, not the splashes, too, but the dripping water, it would look like a time section just at the time the heavy rain stopped. t would look quite rational.

But the problem of us is that we HAVE TO MAKE RAIN, right? I thought about stretched clear sprue, and fishing line, too. The void created by the framework of the model can be filled with straight clear fishing line, representing the heavy rain. But I am just thinking loudly, this has to be tried first. You can brak the uniformity of the fishing line by scratching it at intervals. The output of using a fishing line would be, in my opinion, like the effect when you get when taking a photo during a rainy day with 1/5 sec. setting. Everything that is still stays still in the photo, but moving objects are blurry and they have a trail.

i also believe that is kind of difficult not to make tha rain look effect but to be realistic. Maybe it would help if you put the figures under tall trees and full vegetation so you have to make the rain under the trees which is less amount and not so difficult as falling from the...sky ? there also should be havy mud every wheresome small pots of water here and there, also some water gathered over yop of barrels for example or other areas that water will gather immidiately after the rain starts.glossy look everywhere, protected weapons, and all the small detailing that will make one believe that is actually raining. I also believe that the fishing line will not look so good though i never tried. but i hope some one does it and we see. Good luck !!!!

There are two things I normally stay away from in Diorama building, because I've never seen them done well.... RAIN and the other is FIRE/SMOKE...

But I'd love to see someone figure this out! I like the idea of stretched clear sprue coming from the splases to show "depth"... and maybe water running off of tree limbs, buildings, etc... man, I get excited AND exhausted just thinking about this one!

its mind tiring ..just think of all the thousands of rain sprue drops you ll have to add....!!!! could be much fun after a couple of
maybe i ll try to doit in a small smal l vigniette with just one figure before i go for a dio , i ll see

Here's a thought - take a plexyglass box and apply a misting from a windex bottle of clear varnish to it. Spray it so it streaks and drops like rain. Put the box over the diorama and you are forced to see the diorama through the rain. Maybe put the rain on the inside of the plexyglass...
Kinda like a reverse shadow box affect????

Don't know how well it'll work....

Dear Captain,

I have been deciding if I have the guts and talents to show rain in my "Tri-orama" of Kelly's Heroes, the scene at the beginning, in the farmhouse. So, I bought every type of gloss gel, medium and liquid. I'm planning to try them for a waterfall scene and for the farmhouse scene. I'll be putting them on a Teflon sheet and, with a timer, start picking at them after one minute, two minutes, etc. I'll also test Woodlands Scenics water and water effects. I don't like the EZ-water. If it is not a total disaster, I'll post it on this web-site.
I have taken some of these products, draw a bead on the Teflon and taken my hobby knife and made a gazillion lines perpendicular to the bead. I ended up with something that could be water dripping off a roof, or even icicles in a winter scene (if white or white/blue was added). This is a lot faster than individual sprue stretching.
I need to do this for my dio, so I'll be experimenting in the next few weeks. Will report back.

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

You could do the river like above, and then spray everything on the dio with Future to give it that wet appearance. Do it anyway, I am curious how she will turn out!

~Chip :-)

Here is another thought use real water it might be to costly but use a small pump like in those mini water falls if it has enough pressure buy some garden water misting nozzels mount them in the top and camofluage them some how seal the shadow box well make some kind of drain in the ground work and you might have youre rain.