What is the staanard fro making the base of the dio now days. When I leff the hobby I was using Cellucaly but I have noticed now all my Dio have shrinkage. I have thought about using Palster of Paris and dying it brown as I used it. Any suggestions on this or other ideals?

Yep, you can use a brown oxide (the type used to tint cement mix) from the local hardware mixed into Pof P initially... I use it alla time to do the basic base, then use a wood putty (that can be tinted also) which is a little longer to cure for further relief detail on the dry P of P... We don't (TTBOMK) have Celluclay or equivalent here in Oz, but it is kind of papier mache right?
Cheers
Brad

I use a pre-mixed wall spackel made for filling drywalls, I dont tint, but I guess that would be relatively easy to do.

Make sure your foundation/base is waterproofed, otherwise you will get a lot of warping, if your base is plywood or massive board.

Personally I prefer MDF board for my bases due to the nice weigth and the resistance to water.

The reason i use the abovementioned materials is, that they allready is in my house due to repair/rebuilding - if you dont have that kind of projects going, you might know somebody who has, they can be a cheep source of materials like spackel, drywall for ruins etc...'

Have fun!

I build up the basic groundwork using polystyrene foam on a cheap picture frame and then finish in plaster. I colour the plaster by mixing some dark brown poster paint into the water before I add the dry plaster.

Wanagun,
I have been using Celluclay for over 25 years. When you mix it, and some Elmer's glue instead of only water and mix it as dry as you can. The more water you add the more it will shrink. Also, drill some holes in your base (1/4 inch diameter or so) to give the Celluclay something to hang onto. Occasionally it will lift around the edges regardless of what you do after it dries. You can glue the raised edges back down with CA if that happens. I like Celluclay because you have a lot of work time and it takes details (tread marks, footprint, etc) really well.

Hope this helps,

Shaun

Where from in Indiana, by the way.
Marion here.

Hi Wanagun

I have had probs with Celluclay so I now use 'Bonding' which is the rough kind of plaster used before you use the top coat stuff.
I usually have some kicking around from household repair jobs, however a large 25kg bag is only about £6 pounds anyway.
I mix in poster paint and white glue and just use less water. Depending on the base colour you might want to add quite a bit of paint. If you add a lot of black it is good for recreating freshly dug earth.

HTH
Dus

Ola Wanagun

Well not sure how groundwork building is evoluted through the years but As long as I model I use the same technique for it. I don't know about celluclay because as far as I know you can't get it in Holland.

Easiest way for me is to built up all the levelling in your diorama with styrofoam or some other type of insulation foam. Light, easy to work with and above all cheap. Then I take wall spackle in a tube for filling holes in drywalls. Mix a bit Acrylic earthcolors in it and a few drops of white glue... You can even mix in birdcagesand at this point to give earth texture. Apply this to your base. And voila you should end up with a nice colored and textured ground work.

If you want to have tanktracks in it make the layer a bit thicker. sprinkle some loose birdcagesand on it to prevent the tracks from sticking on your mixture. Push in the tanktracks and there you have tanktracks. For rutted tracks and a road that is driven to bits by heavy traffic. it is pretty easy. make the layer even thicker, again sprinkle birdcage sand over it to prevent sticking. Run over it a couple of times with some wheels out of the sparesbox.. pretty easy to do

Hope this explanation is of some use for you.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker