Guys,

Finally figured how to use the digital camera, well at least enough to take photos. Sorry about the lighting and the lack of close-ups due to being technically challenged and 30 cm being the closest I could get respectively. Photos are in my gallery, I hope.

Still a long way to go especially in painting faces. The second dio is in its last stages ( the wife is the happiest as I will leave her kitchen cum my workshop alone for a while). At any rate some of the grass was done by her despite her messed up kitchen.

Any comments would be great for my future "overly ambitious not matched by talent" dios. Thanks

Mannn...
i like your dios. "ronin" looks great to me, but the figures is too clean
and for the other dios, what sort of trees do use for the dios. looks like tropical trees there

CheerS
Ricky :-)

It seems that having a wife around can be helpful, I want to get one too! ohh, and about the dios, I do have a comment on that second diorama, it has too much empty space that really has no objective in the main idea. in your next diorama you could try to get some balance. and about your figures, I don't see any lack of skill

I love the new smilies hahahay!

Really nice dios beachbum. Very unusual dio ... shogun types in the snow. Is this a particular scene from history? One tip would be to have more snow on the trees. The ground has a very thick layer of snow, yet hardly any settled on the trees.
If it is a particular scene, a little description in your message is helpful, because most of here wont have much experience of this. But most would be interested in the background story though.
The second dio is very impressive.


I dont agree here. Some times in a desert scene, where there is only flat sand, adding ground cover fills up dead space. Here the terrain is beautifully depicted... and is very relistic. The long grasses, the trees and the cracked mud. Excellent all of it. The open space "without the usual rusty barrells" is so well made it doesnt need items placed to fill space. This is excellent ground work. I believe the ground work adds to the remoteness of the scene.

There is a photography forum here as well beachbum. Maybe if you ask some particular questions about your type of camera, you might get some help. Close ups of detail are hard to beat. WE are all detail junkies!

Cool! You get bonus points for a unique theme! Ice, trees, figures (Lots of figures), ambitious. I would personally want to read the placque you have in front of it to make any statement on the scene itself.
Techniques are nice - agreed, more snow on the dark green pine tree would help that out. Can't tell about foot prints in these photos. The flash looks like it 'took hold' of some of the bright colors.

I like the second diorama very much, nice ground technique, great trees and grass. The figures look like they were done well.
IMHO the size is a bit to big for the number of figures, I kept looking for more figures.
Good 1st and 2nd dios.

Thanks a heap for the useful comments. Apologies on the lack of background data so a bit of history on the 1st. dio. It's a really interesting real story which is basically about how 47 masterless samurai took revenge for the death of their master by killing a corrupt official which caused his death. What's interesting is that the revenge was:
1. Carried out after 19 months after their master's death because it made the corrupt official relax as the latter expected an immediate reprisal.
2. During thatt time they all pretended to be drunks, beggars, shopkeepers and drifters to allay any suspicion of revenge. The leader, Oishi Kuranosuke even divorced his wife and pretended to be a drunkard and womaniser to throw off the scent.
3. They didn't really have to carry out the revenge as their time marked the decline in samurai principles.
4. After killing the corrupt official, on a cold wintry night at his home (what I've tried to depict here) they gave themselves up to the Shogun (the military leader and real power in Japan) who actually admired them but gave in to the law and had the ronins commit sepukku (ritual sucide).
5. 47 of them stormed the place which had more than 60 guards and yet they defeated them all with no serious injuries.
6. To this day even in the psyche of modern Japan these ronins are still honored annually with a special festival carried out at their graves and forever immortalized in one of Japan's most famous kabuki play, Chusinugura.

If anyone wants to know more just get in touch with me and I can provide webpages for more info. By the way I had to keep them clean because they actually wore brand new clothes on the night of revenge and smuggled relatively new weapons as no one was allowed to carry long katanas in the open in Edo (old Tokyo).

The second dio is a tropical setting. The trees in the background are red mangroves and the one in the forefront without prop roots is a black mangrove. The taller grasses are suppose to simulate cordgrasses while the ones nearer to the river were spike grasses. I intended to draw attention to the stealth and secrecy of the SBS landing their klepper in a remote area. Its still WIP, I had a couple more photos but my gallery was full.

Thanks again for the comments Guys.

If I recall the story of Ronin has one last part...

The masterless samurai served their master when he was alive. After he was killed they commited themselves to avenging his death. Once victory was achieved they had no master and no focus. They felt their lives no longer had purpose and all commited ritual suicide after avenging their master's death.

Where did you get so many samurai figures? THose trees on the right side of the kayak dio are awesome. Any info on how you made them?

Hi ShermiesRule,


Thanks for adding to the Ronin story. The trees you see in the WIP 2nd. dio were made of upside down heavily pruned twigs. I had to scour my entire office compound, the adjacent University compound and around my home before I could find a suitable twig that closely represented the prop roots of red mangroves. The plant I used is from the Ficus family. Its a short shrub with small, dark green waxy leaves,
Actually any twig will do as long as the plant has been trimmed regularly like a hedge. Most plants will tend to branch extensively when trimmed frequently. The tricky bit is how to prevent the delicate branches from breaking.
1. I used the good ole wood varnish (clear) to strengthen the wood. The were murderous to stick on the groundwork because the roots would overlap.
2. Stick another branch on the inverted one to provide the shoot portion. Add branches if needed.
3. Paint it with brownish gray as red mangroves have a grayish bark over a reddish skin and also to cover up any glue joints.
4. Stretch steel wool over branches. Slap on PVA and use CHINESE PARSELY spice leaves.
5. Paint the top dark green and gloss it and the undersides pale green (matt) as in the real mangrove plant.

Black mangrove has no prop roots but the same color and shape of leaves (the plant in the forefront of my dio). Unfortunately it was too difficult for me to do a "layered look" for the canopy which characterizes mangrove plants and my prop roots were a bit too high. My only consolation is the red mangrove grows to about 80 ft. so I guess prop roots that a bit too high may be possible.

The 2 epiphytes on the fallen log were made by sticking individual dried plant leaves and applied with gloss finish to give it a wet look.

The ronins were from Tamiya which produces 2 sets. 4 in a box with Oishi and 8 in another with the son. It doesn't show up well in the photos but I placed their individual signalling wisels on a string around their necks and added additional forearm armour plates (see archer) on some of them. The Japanese writing on their white sleeves were written with a very fine artline pen. The hakami (shorts) were frustrating to paint as they all had unique and elaborate markings which I could only manage to paint in some of them.

Let me know if you need any info on the trees. Thanks for the interest.

nice builds. I agree the second dio is big for 2 figures. Building a dio with samurai kit is a very good idea.congrats and please keep sending your works