Hey all,

I'm working on my first dio and since I'm new at making groundwork I was wondering which was better for this, wall spackle or the plaster? I was planning on mixing some acrylic ground color with either the spackle or the plaster so I also would like to take this into account when deciding which one to get

Thanks,

Rob

Rob
I would suggest spaclkle for your first attemp. It dries slower than plaster giving you more time to work with it. How ever it needs to dry longer before you sand it if you need to do that. In the end they both work about the same.

Spackle will crack which could ruin your ground work or leave you some significant repair work. You could try some of the new paper mache material as well. Any of them can be mixed with pigment or acrylic paint for color.

If you use Sculptamold (paper mache mixed with plaster of paris) you get a reasonable drying time but it does not dry well in heavy coats.

The Spackle issue Russ refers to can I believe be overcome by putting some PVA glue into the mix as well as water. This is again not good in thick layers as I understand it from other posts in the past.

Plaster of Paris has a short drying time but does set throughout regardless of thickness.

I suggest that if you need thick coats anywhere build it up with paper mache, plasticine, or the like and then any of the three products can be used depending on your requirements.

Thanks very much for the responses, everyone. I stumbled on a couple of cartons of Plaster of Paris today while at the hardware store and decided to get them. Haven't tried them yet but will soon. I was thinking I'd give the spackle a try first but I couldn't find a container big enough for what I'll need so I went with the plaster. Good to know about the short drying time. I'll post a pic of my progress once I coat the styrofoam base with it.

Thanks again!

Rob

If your base is large use short amount of PoP covering one area at a time...dont try to do it at one shot, it will get ruined as PoP dries faster (mentioned earlier in this post). if you get hold of Woodland scenics Earth Undercoat then mix that with the PoP, it will give a certain earth shade. if still not satisfied airbrush or use spray paint to paint the whole groundwork before proceeding with pasting grass or debris etc.

It's all going to be personal preference. I've worked with spackle, tile grout, palster of paris, Sculpt-a-mold and celluclay. My personal favorite is Sculpt-a-mold. After that, I go with plaster of paris.

I suggest you try all of them to see which is going to work best for your scene. For example, if your scene is going to have a slope, then you're going to need to build up the slope from somethign else before you start slathering on PoP or spackle.

Also, I don't recommend mixing acrylic colors into the mix. It takes a lot more paint to color the plaster (or whatever you're working with) than it does to spray some coats of paint on it.

Hi Rob,

I'm a big fan of wall filler (wall spackle) as this is a more flexible product than plaster of paris.
With plaster of paris it sets hard and as a base on a diorama you will find it cracking in time and movement on the diorama board.
With all the diorama's done over the years using wall filler I never had a problem .

Its easier to work with although the drying time may be a little quicker.
it works well if you blend with acrylics when mixing.The darker the better as it dries to a lighter shade.





Wall filler applied to the vehicle using water and a paint brush to the SPW


The brush is unusable but you achieve a great result.
Applied to the base with kitty litter and rocks


And here is the where I share the end result.
http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j170/strike_03/late%20nashorn%20build/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ24

And a much better image placed here the other day on the Nashorn .
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=276772109011189&set=a.273509239337476.69308.106751836013218&type=3&theater

Michael

The way to get around this is not to use the plaster directly onto the wooden base. The woood will absorb water from the plaster and warp when dry cracking the plaster. What I do is roughly shape a piece of expanded polystyrene foam to shape, glue that to the wooden base and then model the plaster over it. To slow down the drying time of the plaster just ad some PVA glue and acrylic paint.

Thanks much for the advice, guys. The more I read the more I'm leaning against using PoP. I did a search here on the forums yesterday and it seems, from the threads I found, that I might be better off using something else. I'll try to get the wall spackle next weekend and see how that goes.

Micheal, that's some amazing groundwork you have there. That's about the look I'm trying to obtain (perhaps a bit darker). Really impressive stuff!

Just so you know what exactly I'm working on, here are a few shots of the base I made for this small dio:







It's basically going to be a road with a ditch running next to it an a fence (with barbed wire perhaps) on the highest point. It will show a Russian ZIS 2 anti-tank gun somewhat off the road abandoned with some empty shell casings strewn about..

Rob

Hi Rob,

The base you have started looks excellent.

The foam piece is a good buffer for either wall filler or plaster of paris.

If you do want to go darker just use more black and brown acrylic paints.
Ending up like a dark chocolate look.
No matter what you use it will give a lighter shade so the more acylic paint the better .
Look forward to seeing more images Rob.

Cheers
Michael

Thanks for the nice words, Michael! Being that it's my first ever base with styrofoam, I'm happy with how it's coming along. I should have, perhaps, done the thing in an angle but I wasn't sure of the look. I'll share more pics when I get the spackle over it.

Thanks again,

Rob