I know I've read about this on the forum before, but can't for the life of me find that content again...

I'm about to put some groundwork (my first in a long, long time) on a wood (pine) base I've made. What's the best way to ensure that the wet celluclay doesn't warp the wood? I plan on staining it, of course, but should I seal it somehow too?

Maybe a better question is: what's the best practices for creating wooden bases for dioramas?

Thanks!

Make sure it's a solid piece of wood. I've bought those pine shelves before to use as bases and just cut them to size. But they are made of strips of wood glued together and they curl like a potato chip. I seal mine with varathane, usually a couple of coats. I also have found adding a generous amount of white glue to the celluclay mix helps to stop it pulling away from the edge of the base as it dries.

Jake,

Some suggestions if I may.
1. Don't use Pine. I found that even with a sealer. it still warped. I recommend a hardwood such as Poplar or Red Oak.
2. If you're stuck with using Pine, then use a marine grade urethane to water proof. Such as Minwax Spar Urethane. Not the spray-on kind. At least 2 coats with 24 hour cure time between coats.
3. Groundwork. Ditch the Celluclay. Every time I use the stuff it always peels up at the edges when it dries, every time, no matter how much white glue I mix in or how thin I make each layer. I recommend using either Sculpt-a-mold or DAZ Air Dry Clay.

HTH,
Steve

I second to stay away from pine, anything small I use Poplar, its relatively inexpensive, also second the sculptamold. (I follow with plaster)
- John

I recommend not building your terrain directly on the decorative wooden plaque. Build it separately and then attach it to the decorative plaque once both are finished. That way, no matter what materials you use for the terrain and groundwork textures, they cannot have any detrimental effect on the plaque.

Another advantage is that you don't need to mask the wooden plaque to keep it clean of the paints and other materials. This makes finishing the wood much easier.

I stain all my wood plaques and then give them several coats of rattle can gloss clear lacquer. The lacquer dries fast and can be sanded or buffed with steel wool in just a couple of hours after application. This makes giving the decorative wooden plaque a nice finish easy and fast.

This explains my techniques in more detail:

AMPS 3013 Int'l Show Bases and Groundwork Seminar Slides

Hey Jake, I gotta chime in on the subject. No pine like everyone says for the reasons. I seal whatever wood I use with two layers of paint where the dio will be. For my plaster I mix white glue and liquid dish soap. !st, the glue will help harden the plaster and hold it in place. Too much and you'll have a real bear of a time cutting away any you need to. The dish soap helps spread it easier into small areas, it wont harm the plaster at all. After I glue my styrofoam down on the base, I sometimes drill small holes in the wood where the ground level will be shallow and insert tooth picks which I break off to just under ground height. It just helps hold it all down securely. One thing I do all the time, after the school of hard knocks, is to pour in cheap brown water base paint to the plaster mix. The darker the better. This helps ensure that if a chip or break occurs later, you wont have white plaster showing and have to try and paint it to blend in with the first color. With this method I have not had any lifting or curling on any of my dio/vign. Hope this helps you some.