Hi! I'm new to the group and wanted to showcase a few of my dioramas and get opinions/suggestions for them. I am amazed by some of the pieces I have seen on here, stunning! My favorite aspect of diorama building is most certainly replicating realistic bodies of water. I have spent alot of time trying to perfect this skill but still have a great deal to learn, I think this group will be of great benefit!! I'd look very much forward to conversing with other people with like interests, I had no idea such groups existed! Here are a couple of examples of my work:This is a desert oasis diorama:

Here is another desert oasis, this time with a larger body of water and more dramatic waterfall. Created using woodland scenes EZ water and water effects gel:




And a reef diorama modeled on the Red Sea using two part mixable resin, woodland scenics pourable water and varnish:





Thanks for looking!! :-)

Chrome Lotus, first welcome to armorama, I am sure you will love being a member of this group Secondly let me commend you on your beautiful work. Could you please explain your water making techniques in detail? I for one am most interested. Cheers Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you so much on your kind compliments I used to work exclusively with woodland scenics EZwater for the reason that it was cheaper, safer, less toxic and quicker curing than two-part mixable resins. I have had a pleasing amount of success using this material but I have started to go off it for several reasons. Firstly, I find that there is a great deal of shrinkage, I have found a way to rectify this but it still causes extra unnecessary work IMO. Also, and I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else has found this, EZ water seems to be more brittle and more prone to cracking over time. Perhaps it is more sensitive to temperature and humidity changes than other resins causing more drastic expanding and contracting and consequently cracking?

I first paint the water bed turquoise with acrylics, with a slightly more green hue in the shallow areas/blue hue in the deeper areas. I then pour in the melted EZ water into the waterbed area and allow it to start to solidify. Depending on how much wave movement I plan to give my water, I disturb the top with an ice cream stick until it holds its shape. I do not worry if the waves look a little crude at this point as I melt them down again with a hot air gun afterwards to 'mellow' them out. I then leave the resin to cool until it is completely cold as it tends to shrink/crack away from the edges of the pool without fail (or it does for me anyway!) Instead of messing around with a heat gun trying to seal the resin to the edges, I pour woodland scenics pourable water between the edges of the water and the banks. If it seeps away under the EZwater after a few minutes I repour, and repour, until it is level and dried. I find this seals the water to the bank perfectly! The ripples are painted on using a fine paintbrush and Woodland scenics pourable water. I build this up in layers until the rippling starts to take shape.

The Red Sea diorama was created with a two part mixable resin. I poured the mixture in the base which had been thoroughly sealed with silicone sealant and allowed it to cure. During the curing I blew bubbles in it through a straw to create the impression of turbulance caused by the current. I disturbed the surface a little in the later stages of curing to create a slight waviness. I'm not sure if this is the normal way of doing this. I didn't have any problems caused from the heat of mixing this amount of resin and accelerator together but I know many people opt to do it in several layers. Again, after curing, many layers of pourable water were built up with a paint brush for the ripple effect. I used a little white acrylic and a drybrushing technique to create the white foam on the beach and then acrylic gloss to give it, and the sand immediately above the break, a 'twinkling' wet look.

I would LOVE to see other people's sculpted water, please do share as its always a huge pleasure seeing other people's stunning work! I would love to hear your opinions on EZwater vs. two-part mixable too!


Kris

Hi Kris,

First, great natural dioramas. I especially like the topical beach.

I only tried to simulate water once, on my Schwimmwagen diorama, and just used what was on hand, 5min and 12min epoxies.







The water was built up with several layers of 5min and 12min epoxies. I used the 12min epoxy when I needed more working time and to allow it plenty of time to level out.

The last layer was 5min epoxy and just as it start to gel, I manipulated it with a stir stick to add ripples to the surface. Once the epoxy starts to gel, especially 5min, you have very little time to manipulate it.

To simulate underwater growth, I painted the base with various greens before applying the epoxy. Once covered in epoxy, everything looked like very convincing bottom growth.

Since epoxy likes to creep up obstacles. I kept the dam to the level I wanted for that pour. This ensured the water's edge at the base perimeter was as level as possible. The dam was made from cardboard covered with heavy duty plastic sheet. This plastic easily peels off the epoxy and won't leave any foreign matter.

Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol) will break the surafce tension of epoxy, so I used an eye dropper to drip some on before the epoxy begins to set. This made the epoxy's surface since and smooth and shiny. The alcohol can also be used to help minimize epoxy creeping up things.

Here are pix of the whole diorama

Ken

Kris,
Those dioramas are awesome. I love the water. I am brand new to modeling having just started my very first diorama. I plan on having water in it. Great Job. BTW, how did you do the palm trees, their great.
Mary

Wow those are great but where are the tanks and Marines? Just kidding...

That is really great work Ken! All my dioramas so far have been very serene and idyllic, partly because it gives my mind an opportunity to escape from the miserable winters of England, but also because they are made for displaying model horse resins at live shows and an idyllic scene is called for. My next projects is going to be a rougher trail scene with murkier waters and mud, I'll certainly post up my efforts here!

I realise now that I have been missing out as the mixable resin I have been using takes upto 48 hours to cure! I chose to use this resin as it dries to the consistency of very hard rubber and is less prone to cracking if a considerably large amount is used (like on my Red Sea diorama.) I will most certainly get hold of the quick curing epoxies, this will make my job a great deal easier! Thank you for sharing your methods and stunning photos! That is really a stunning diorama! :-) :-)

Kris

Well, they parked the tanks and went for a swim!! :-)

Kris,

Your second diorama is my favorite. IMO two-part resin works a lot better than EZwater. Whenever I make a body of water this is what I use.

Would you mind sharing with us how you made those gorgeous palm trees. They are outstanding!

BTW, welcome to the big "A".

Hi Mary! Nice to meet another gal involved in diorama making! The palm tree fronds are made from the same material that is used to make silk plants. The trunks have a strong wire centre wrapped with plaster bandage to the desired shape and thickness. They have epoxy bases which slot into holes on the base. The trunks were drybrushed with acrylics and sealed with Testor's dullcoat. I hope this helps!

Kris

Thanks Marty!

FOA - Welcome to the best diorama forum on the internet. You have already gotten posts from some of the best around.

I like you ideas they are very nice, new and crisp.

I'll take it a picture at a time.
I like the rocky area with the shrubs around it, very nice and natural looking. The beach is well done too. I'd like to see a bit more sand piled up against a few of the rocks as a transition from beach to oasis (blown from the wind). IMHO I would like to see the trees taper a bit to the top. The back area is nice, fades away well.

The second one is really nice. I love the trees, good texture, fronds, color. The lower rocky area and sand are really nice (maybe a bit of blown sand).
The water is very nice, I like it a lot, the flowing part.
The rocks look a bit white for my tastes, maybe tone them down with some sand color pastels.

The red sea water is great. The reef is well done and the transition to the beach looks very well done. A few bubbles here and there but that the product not your work. They actually look good around the reef.
The trees don't quite make it for me. The shape is not quite right, they bulge to much in the middle. BTW - where'd they go in the last image?
So when I go to your red sea I'll just enjoy the sand.

Nice job.

Here are some of my water works for your critique

and


more here
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/photos/showgallery.php?cat=12054&ppuser=242

I used the stuff in this feature
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/150

Look forward to seeing you around.

Well first i wanna welcome u in the Big Armorama family. Second i d like to congratulate u for the total of your work and the long experimentation i think u have done on water items for dio purposes . your addition and help here in a multi talked item as water is a very nice one and u ll be helping out as much as u can be helped from everyone here.
I see that u can write very good and in detail so making a feature about different techniques of water making would be nice and useful
Feel free to ask anything u d like

Greetz from Greece

Costas

Stunning work Scott! Thank you for your tips, I do agree with you on your points, especially on the rock colour. You would presume the rocks would be sandstone so should have been coloured more similarly to the sand.

I actually meant to put bubbles in the reef! I blew them in with a straw during the curing and some were released from the coral too. This was one diorama in which bubbles were required :-) The palm trees are removable for easy storage and transportation to live shows. I took them out in the last photo for aesthetic reasons, I wanted the cross section of the sea to be the main focus. My dioramas are made for people who create and show model Arabian horse displays. This has always called for a very clean, crisp scene and I think my dioramas have always been a touch on the 'serene fantasy' side to achieve the iyllic look required. Here is a photo of an Egyptian wall diorama I created complete with horse to give you an idea of what my work is used for. The horse and costume are by other artists:


A customer has just asked me to work on a rougher, country trail scene so I want to incorporate new techniques for a more realistic, muddy trail. I really love the earthy colours in your display Scott, I am extremely keen to try something like this on my next project. May I ask you your basic method for achieving that colour/texture of terrain or is that a question best posed in the 'terrain' forum?

I'm really enjoying the big A, thanks guys!
Kris
:-)

Hi Costas!!

hi kris,

your work is very impressive, particularly the red sea scene. which resin did you use for it? i have some deluxe materials scenic water, but it only comes in small amounts.

cheers

joe

Hi Joe,

Thank you so much! I used aquillusion. Its fumes were awful and it took several days to cure completely . I did it in two pours and had no trouble with melting or heat damage but it was unspeakably expensive, 15 litres cost me £300 but I could not find the stuff anywhere else in the UK!!!! I should also mention that I aimed to have bubbles in there and purposesly added extra ones but if carefully mixed and poured you can get a dead still effect with no bubbles. Add some acrylic gloss varnish to the top of this and you get a marvelous reflection. I used this resin to create a reflective watering fountain on my Moroccan stableyard diorama (the horses are by another artist):



I'd love to hear what resins everyone else uses. I am particularly keen to get my hands on quick curing 5 minute water resins!

Kris

Hi Kris.
Only attempted water once. As I used polystyrene trays (the ones with meat in supermarkets) for the buildings and bridge i didnt want to attempt resins. I used paint and lots of layers of clear gloss varnish to achieve the morky water of an inner city. This method works well for this, especially if you have embankment walls to reflect in it. The waves were made using super glue clear gel. They base was painted dark brown and the varnish layers were tinted with alternative blues and greens and then straight clear varnish for the last few.
One advantage of this is the total depth is less than 1cm.




8)

Absolutely STUNNING work Frank! I am extremely impressed! Its incredible how much 'depth' you achieved using this method, the water truely looks deep, dark and murky. The problem with my dioramas is that they are 1/9th scale so I have to use deeper layers of resin to make it look correct (as I am doing completely clear bodies of water where the bottom is visable).

Now here's a question for you guys! If I were to make a sea/beach diorama with a horse running through the waves what would be the best method of achieving suspended splashing water in mid air?

Thanks for sharing those pics Frank, I really enjoyed viewing them!

Kris

Kris, have you ever worked with gel mediums acrylic paste, I have some here and havent gotten to use it as of yet but from what I understand ship buildes like to use it for making waves and wakes, maybe it could work for you. Does any one here have any knowledge of the use of this for water? cheers Kevin

Kris- First let me say Welcome to the Big A!
I think you'll find that this is just about the most helpful & informative group of gals & guys on the 'net!
Love your work, very Idyllic- not something seen very often around here!
As to your question, Ive had some (limited, but I'm still learning...) success using 2-part casting resin or 12-minute clear epoxy. The method is much the same as your wave technique. instead of gently smoothing, use a thin gently pointed object(I use an old #30 knitting needle but a toothpick is fine) to pick up a short strand of the resin. Do it in several areas at the same time, and "culture" them into position as they cure. If you don't like the effect, cut the pick off with toenail clippers and refill the area with resin,then start over. If you place the horse before your initial pour, you can give him/her some modeling clay "socks"to keep the resin from closing around the hooves, then remove horse& clay to sculpt your splash.
HTH,and again, Welcome!

[EDIT] p.s.-be sure to check Santiago Tre's "Seal Team in the Mekong Delta" in our features section for some results of a true expert using this technique...

Thanks Kris. Believe me, I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers before pouring the epoxy on my base.




One thing to be aware of is that epoxy is rather thick and its hard to eliminate air bubbles caused when mixing in the hardener. Since I was modelling recently disturbed water, the bubbles were a bonus.

You might want to experiment a bit with epoxy by trying to thin it with isopropyl alcohol, after you've mixed in the hardener. This may help minimize bubbles.

Ken

I know the feeling Ken! Pouring in that resin is scary stuff!!

The small shop has two products called icecoat and snowcoat, and not only can they be used for snow and icicles, but make great water splashes. The owner Alasdair Johnston had a dio recently with a BMP falling down a cliff and a tanker falling in the water. Excently made. The pics were posted on a few sites.
Here is a link to the pics on IPMS Stockholm

Thank you so much Frank, I have come across this product and it looks great! I'm definately going to give it a try!

Kris