European pond

Hello everyone. Let me show you my diorama.

The first version of the diorama was made in 2014 for my children. They liked to play with Schleich toys but they missed some kind of lake or pond. The pond is made to suit well for Wild West, Africa, Medieval Europe, Bayala, etc. That is why it was made to be solid and without too many details. The shape of the pond facilitates fitting with other parts of the terrain.

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My children finally grew up and stopped playing with Schleich figurines.I decided to turn a geographically indeterminate pond into a typical European pond and I found inspiration along the Tisza River.

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I will now briefly describe the process of making my diorama.

TERRAIN - The diorama is very heavy and made on a strong wooden board, 2 cm thick. The frame of the pond is made by gluing pieces of dry bark. The terrain was made by mixing starch glue for wood and plaster (ordinary gypsum) and poured over the frame. For pond water I used highly transparent Epoxy Casting Resin WATER-CLEAR + Hardener W 300. I didn't add toner or anything else.
PLANTS - Before complete drying of the pond frame, some plants were driven into the soft substrate, and later holes were drilled for the other plants. I did not make any plant from natural plant material. I made most of the plants from Chinese plastic greens by cutting, gluing and painting. Each cattail plant is composed of five different parts, my creation. I just painted common duckweed on the water surface. The stump and branch are also made of plastic and I just did some dry brushing. The stump  ( kingfisher`s) is from The Lost Temple of Akator Playset (Indiana Jones Hasbro); the long dry branch is from some Chinese plastic flower arrangement.
ANIMALS:
7 fish - I simply cut off fish of Chap Mei figure (play set Ice Quest Wild Arctic Polar Mission;  Polar explorer carries two fish on its belt, so I had to buy few same explorers on flea market)
8 mallard ducks – Schleich, Collecta and New Ray. Mostly drakes. Obviously I haven't bought all the ducks yet, and I especially miss female mallards.
1 common teal – New Ray, probably some juvenile drake.
1 common kingfisher - I cut it out of the bouncing ball. The figure was poorly made and the species of kingfisher was not recognizable. So, I painted it to look like common kingfisher.
1 Eurasian otter – Collecta.
2 water voles – Originally, they have been rats on some ruined walls in Chap Mei playset (Chap Mei Simba Masters of Mystery Beast Raider ThunderThor & Tower).  The rats were very bad and ugly, so I significantly reshaped their heads and tails before painting.
1 European pond turtle - I have no idea where I got it, maybe I took it out of the bouncing ball (I often take out tiny and rare animal figures from cut bouncing balls). But in any case, originally it was not a pond turtle. It was long-snout snapping turtle. I shortened its snout and painted it like a pond turtle.
1 Eurasian grass snake - I have no idea where I found  it and when. The figure is made of rubber, which I don't like to paint.
1 European common frog – Again, I have no idea where I found  it. This figure is made of rubber  too.
3 dragonflies - They are completely my creation, made of glue, transparent adhesive tape (wings) and pieces of plastic grass (tails). I painted dragonflies to look like common species -
broad bodied chaser and common darter.
5 buterflies – I cut out butterflies of printer paper and painted to look like common species
large copper, white admiral, two red admirals and purple emperor.
6 Burgundy snails - I used miniature snail shells that I found in a pile of masonry sand, and then added the body.
1 green bush-cricket - Yes I know. It has 6 legs but that is not noticeable and he is quite distorted. I made it of thin wire and plastic.
1 European mantis  - eating white admiral butterfly. I made it of thin wire and plastic.

Well that's all. Enjoy the pictures.

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Very nice. It looks like you are using Postimages, which I do too. But it looks like you selected the 'thumbnails for forum' option rather than the 'hotlinks for forums' and hence your images are awfully small in the field of view :)

I want to welcome you on forum even if we already talked before.
Blaine is right, you are using the wrong codes and we have to click each picture to see the extraordinary work you have done. I can fix it but I have to change the codes individually, you can just revisit where you uploaded it and copy the code Blaine mentioned. Otherwise, you can upload them again at once and choose the correct code. If you have troubles managing it, you can always ask or I can fix it for you.It is a wonderful topic, I'd love to see your pictures in a more confortable way.

That is absolutely beautiful.

Wow, beautiful work!

OK. Thanks, this is really much better.

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Wow wow! Now I can see the little fish and insects so much better. What a dream diorama!

That's the most incredible diorama ever seen in the whole history of STS forum!!!!!!!!!

Pardofelis wrote:

That's the most incredible diorama ever seen in the whole history of STS forum!!!!!!!!!

I completely agree !!!!! WOW !!!!!

All the details ! It must have taken ages to make

It could be around here
I would have said "except for the turtle", but neigbour even found one some weeks ago

Wonderful,wonderful model!!

Thank you all for your kind words and great compliments. I'm glad you all like the diorama. Sorry, I am a member of a forum for the first time in my life and I am still technically limited in communication, but I will quickly improve those skills. I will be more communicative in the near future. :)

Just gorgeous, can you make me one

Stunning. I can't come up with words to describe these!

OMG how beautiful!!!!
Have you made some of the models by yourself, too?

That is an absolute work of art. The submerged plants!

I think I never already saw a so detailed, realistic and beautiful dio!

Advicot wrote:

Just gorgeous, can you make me one

Adam, I'm not sure I sent you this message successfully few days ago. Don't blame me for the repeating of it this way. The pond diorama is not the right choice for you. A diorama with the following description would be better for you: a fight between a hedgehog and a badger on a thick forest litter, with blackberries around, one adder and two dueling stag beetles.  

Duck-Anch-Amun wrote:

OMG how beautiful!!!!
Have you made some of the models by yourself, too?

Thanks a lot. I don’t make models like real masters who are well known to everyone on the STS forum, for example Danny or Ana. But I make a custom version of everything I need. I am preparing a post about some of my plants soon. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

pipsxlch wrote:

That is an absolute work of art.  The submerged plants!

Thank you very much for your support. I really made submerged plants, but I didn't make the best choice, because I avoided natural materials. Now I make a pond for a friend and use drab colored Iceland moss. I recommend it as a better solution.

Caracal wrote:

I think I never already saw a so  detailed, realistic and beautiful dio!

Thank you very much. I am currently learning to use the available means of communication on the forum. Unfortunately, unlike you, I'm also learning to photograph my dioramas and customs. So far I am not very happy with the quality of my photos. But one day I will reach the desired perfection!

..but your pictures are already very good and show very well the beautifulness of this dio!

Caracal wrote:

..but your pictures are already very good and show very well the beautifulness of this dio!

Your composition of a herd of zebras and lionesses is visually very impressive ...and it is very similar to my idea. The difference is that I will put zebras with much more vicious beasts than lions (.... ???). Around the animals I will place a modular diorama, composed of some plants. I won't do that in the next few weeks, but I will for sure. I hope you will like it.

The idea with the hedgehog and badger sounds amazing too!

Komodo wrote:

Caracal wrote:

..but your pictures are already very good and show very well the beautifulness of this dio!

Your composition of a herd of zebras and lionesses is visually very impressive ...and it is very similar to my idea. The difference is that I will put zebras with much more vicious beasts than lions (.... ???). Around the animals I will place a modular diorama, composed of some plants. I won't do that in the next few weeks, but I will for sure. I hope you will like it.

I am very impatient to discover it!

Wowww, amazing dioramas!
Perfection in every detail and made it with great sence of art.
Everything is alive .. and it is breathing like a real ecosystem !
Really well done !