Hi everyone. I wanted to do a little update to show where my latest diorama is at. I have did the river bed and can hardly stop myself from doing the water but have decided to wait till i have all the grass work out of the way. I have also done the "yard" grass and fences for this dio and have been experimenting with tree stumps and sculpting. I will be going back to work on figures again for awhile as I am waiting for grasses and plants to arrive so the base is at a standstill. Also decided to do something I hadnt seen before it is in last pic :-) So please let me know what you think both good and bad!!! Fire away.



the fences have been inked but not washed yet so they have a ways to go.




on this pic you will notice some weird things going on with the arm on guy with canteen it has been fixed right after this pic

Remember any comments you may have are welcome and appreciated Cheers
Kevin

Kev i think that u re doing an outstanding work so far !!!!Your buildings, groundwork, setup and details on river bank and the bridge are forecasting a superb winner dio . Not much to say as u improve on groundwork and figures. just take good care of figures setting to show a nice picture from above , make em nice spread nicely to show the area covered in best way .
I like so much , coloration and all touches show nicely and when u add more plantation, tres and figures will be superb. Go on man

Costas

Superb job Kevin i like it. The childrens is great.

Kevin I am really amazed at this diorama of yours it looks so realistic its not funny. When you get the other vegetation on it will be very cool:-)

Kevin, you're doing an outstanding job with this dio here

everything is great!

keep us posted!

Looks pretty cool to me. The only comment I have is tht the boy with the straw hat looks more like a character of one of Mark Twain's books than like a Russian boy to me.

Very very nice. Grass has never looked so good and the whole elevation with the stream underneath really gives it an excellent 3-D feel to it.

My only nitpicky comment is that your rocks along your stream is slighty big and jagged, at least for me. If the rocks were carried by the stream instead of being exposed from erosion or fallen from the banks than it would have to be a very fast moving stream to move such large rocks around. Prolonged exposure to moving water also tends to smoothen rocks.

It's no big deal though as its a small point when compared to the overall fantastic eye candy in your dio and that's even before the 30 odd figures are in too.

Kevin, This one is looking superb. I like everything about it. Keep up the great work!...The watches on the figures is a nice little touch and like you said ..I don't recall seeing that before

incredibly good . river bed and stumps are super.why i dont have the fence in my received files folder,you made it as a secret.
.... congrats bro.this will be a winner for next year.

looking good so far.
To support the size of the rocks at the edge you could embed a few in the hill.

First I want to thank everyone for the positive feedback Secondly, Nexy, the children were done for me by Costas (Major Goose) since I have so many other figures to do and he is such and expert and volunteered i just couldnt refuse. Thanks again Costas!! Beachbum I do realize that the smaller rocks are sharp. I was limited with my resources and there are only so many shapes kitty litter comes in LOL
Engin, I didnt hide fence from you...I did both fences and grass work last night. Its you that is in hiding Scott, I'll look into some rocks in the hill but have to wait till grass supplies get here to see how it will all work out first.
Again thank you for comments guys! Cheers Kevin

Kevin:

The diorama is looking very nice. Several questions for you: what type of grass did you use by the house and fence? How did you paint the log sturctures and get the white filler in between the logs? Finally, did you airbrush the ground? What paints/colors did you use?

Keith

Keith I am glad your liking how this one is coming out. To answer your questions:
1)The grass is hudson and allen summer turf glued down on the first layer, over this is verlinden static grass. Will be experimenting with heki grasses on the slopes and along water edge in places.
2)the logs in the homes after rounding, texturing, and assembly are given a medium gray ink wash on outside surfaces. this gets wiped off after a short time(depends on how old you are going for) followed by wash of burnt sienna, then wash of raw umber. After the washes have dried you can drybrush if you choose to. I havent on this yet.
3)the filler between the logs is just caulking out of a tube. I use a syringe for refilling printer cartridges with a tube on the tip for ease of placement.
4) The only thing Air brushed is the buff color on the roads and foot paths. When I do my cellulcay work I sprinkle fine sand I picked up at a beach in florida and press this in for good texture. When this is dry I basecoated it with cheap earth brown acrylic craft paint, this was followed by floquil earth. once this has dried I start with a wash of burnt sienna followed by raw umber heavy wash...then another mixed wash of raw umber and burnt sienna. this is followed up by just drybrushing the floquil earth right from the bottle. Keith, I hope this answers your questions. I cant wait for the grass products to get here I am really wanting to get busy on the water. I'm hoping to make some good looking water with those paints you had sent me. I havent gotten to experiment as much as I would have liked as its a fair sized stream bed and dont have a lot of water supplies to play with but I hope it comes out well

Answered my questions Kevin but leads to more. So, just so I am clear, most of your groundwork is brush painted? Do you seal your groundwork before applying washes? I have problems with my washes just soaking into the groundwork. Where did you order your Heki grasses? I have been having an email correspondence with Scenic Express in PA. as they are the only dealer I have found in the US. In fact, I was just about to phone in an order when I saw your post. Which products did you order?

Keith

Keith, the only sealing on the base comes from the floquil enamels used in the painting. and yes I brushed it all on by hand. Some of the washes soak in but I fell that adds a variation to the overall color. Add this variation and the differrent colors in the washes along with texture from the sand that pops out with the drybrushing and I feel it ends with an attractive surface for dirt. I also use windsor newton oils for the washes and gemini masterpiece thinner.
As for the Heki products. I wish I would have known about scenic express. I ordered from "Eurorail Hobbies" in British Columbia. the products I have ordered are wild grass mats(the height of the grass is between 5-7mm) I have the meadow green and mountain meadow mats coming. I cant wait to get my hands on this product either. I'll keep you posted as how it works out. Cheers Kevin

Sorry if I was too picky on your cat litter, Kevin. Anyway I've got a whole pile of smooth pebbles excellent for 1:35th from my local nursery. I'm not sure whether plant nurseries around your area carry them.

They're relatively inexpensive and come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps the garden section in Wal-Mart or any supermarket over at your place may carry them.

Its a good thing Kitty doesn't exactly sit on their litter.

Kevin, great work as you well know from our PM's. I think all is looking really well. I will be interested to see the other plants/weeds and so on. You are breathing good life into your work. Scott is right but if you are goingcover it up with grasses and greenery I wouldn't be too concerned about the stones on the bank, if anything I would incorporate only a couple in the areas where the soil would be erroding, (paths worn by foot traffic to the waters edge) and with that, only tops of the stones would show, as they would barely appear. I think the scene you have created, the stream, this area would not have had heavy traffic, and there would be a lot of greenery on the banks emerging from the winter thaw. Caution, in your discussion earlier here, I see you have ordered mattes of grass, I hope you will not be disappointed. I have had some of those and didn't like them for the scale. That is not to say these may not be better, but if they are like what I have gotten in the past... They will take some extra work to use with 1/35th. Good work my friend, keep it up!

Thanks again guys for commenting. Beachbum, i wish I had that info a bit earlier but these rocks are on there solid. Next time I do a river or stream I will look into these. Thanks for the tip. Paul, as far as more rocks go i have to see what happens with the grass still. And as for the HEKI wild grass mats, they are excellent stuff. I can't wait to get my hands on them. I sent you a link to a dio that uses them for the grass work and its amazing stuff. If any one else would like to have a look just pm me. Its pretty rare stuff here in the good ole USA with only two distributors in north america that I know of. I'll keep you posted how it goes with them. Cheers Kevin

I wish I could do that. Everything is excelent.

Great work so far - not to sound redundant - but - test that water stuff before you pour it into this diorama.

Congrats Kevin!!So far so great!!Keep the pics coming!

Thanks guys for the comments. I have made a little more head way but will save that for another post. All I will say is those PE flowers are a pain in the @$#. Scott I will do what I can as far as testing and trying out the paints. maybe I can use a couple little cough syrup cups to test in. Any one have any thoughts on this? Please share it will be appreciated. Cheers Kevin

When I was testing I made a few little "tubs" of kitchen foil. Dropped in some 'debris' and poured away. I tried various shapes and sizes to mimic my dio layout and debris in the water to see how it would flow and to get a decent idea of how much I would need and to get a good feel for 'working' time of the product.

That is one fine looking dio since the last time you posted pics

Scott, did you glue the "debris down in the little "cups" so it wouldnt float first? Thats an excellent suggestion you have there. Alan, thanks I am glad you are liking how its turning out. This is going to be a very colorful dio I think! Cheers Kevin