Full size Indian diorama

[ quote = "Wild Heart " ] Wow ! The diorama is awesome ! My favorites are the canary and the bamboo reeds !
Tip : Try painting some woody details ( like fur) on the banana trees.They 're trunk is not smooth at all
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WH, Thanks for the complement, I like the canary reeds and bamboo as well, the Asian bamboo that I got from Danny is really nice, but I did not get a good close up of it , the ones I made were from the Japanese kits That I buy. On the banana I'll get a better picture , the flash washed out the plants , but the trunks are folded thin clay that is wrapped around the trunks to simulate the dead leaves that make up the " bark "of the banana tree. In person and some of the earlier pics, (look in the custom animal figures forum under some plants that I made) you can see it better. It is my photography skills that are the problem, I love my camara, but it is new and I do not know how to use it , I am using these as practice because it is my camara and dive until I can get back in the water I need to use it as much as possible .

Your Diorama is looking brilliant !

I love the little bird by the bamboo.

Looking great Phil, all the trees and bushes on the raised up area look fantastic.

I began to add plants and while doing so I looked at the Magic Water. On the mini diorama I added the water last, but the directions to Magic Water say to add it first because of wicking. For those of you who don't know what wicking is take a glass of water, put a piece of cloth and hang the cloth over the side of the glass and in a few hours there will be water on the table. What happens is the cloth absorbs the water and it slowly rises up and over the rim of the glass until the cloth is completely wet, or wicking. So with that in mind, I added the Magic water, and let it dry for two days. I didn't take a picture of it, but in the next few photos you can see some of the river and the shine of the water.

What I did do was to start adding the smaller plants to teh upper areas of the raised river bank. There will be one big tree up there, either the banyon tree from the mini dio, or a strangler fig that isn't here yet. This first photo is of the cattails and you can see the water in the back.
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This photo is of one of the small palms, and a vine that I made myself, again there is the water in the background
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It is looking awesome Phil. The palm trees are great and the water and cattails look great.

Great rocks and plants! And water looks excellent

Wow Phil, it's really coming to life! The water is fantastic, so real looking and I love the plants, everything is awesome!

I wish I was there to see it in real life!It would be a dream come true!

I started putting plants on the Indian dio, the water is fully cured and looks good so I added rocks, I didn't put them into the water like I did on the mini dio because I may want it to look deeper so I can have elephants swimming in it, and I have already planned on a wild water buffalo almost fully submerged so I want to be able to move the rocks around, or maybe even take them all out.

Here are some pictures of the raised river bank as it looks now, I have not attached any of the plants permanently so I have the option of moving things around, in fact in some of the photos you may notice things missing or added, once I am ready to put the animals on I will glue the plants down.

Hope you enjoy,
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It looks brilliant! I really love the water, everything is really coming along beautifully. I like the idea of an elephant in the water.

Congratulation Phil, I can see the Indian dio is on its way

Could you tell me where are the Japanese plants and/or leaves ?

[ quote = " Kikimalou "] Congratulation Phil, I can see the Indian dio is on its way: D

Could you tell me where are the Japanese plants and / or leaves ? [ / quote ]

Kiki,
I am not sure what you mean, if you are asking where I buy them, I get them from Miniature Military Warehouse. There is another online store over in europe that has them as well, TASCA MODELLISMO CO, LTD that also sells them for about the same price (around $10-15USD per set), but those are the only two online shops I have found that carry all of the kits.

If you mean which ones are the Japanese kits in the photos, in the first photo the only one is the canary reeds by the monkeys, in photo two there are some ferns near the roots of the banyon tree, photo 3 and 4 the palms, philodendrons and the light colored bamboo are all kits. The other plants are either from Danny (the dark bamboo on the raised bank toward the back) or ones I made myself (the vine, the cattails and the bananas).

Hope that answered your question.

[ quote = " HKHollinstone "] It looks brilliant! I really love the water , everything is really coming along beautifully. I like the idea of an elephant in the water.
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Thanks Harriet, I still have some work to do on the bank, fill in the spaces between the bank and the rock, and add the dirt to all of the spaces between the rocks, things like that.

My initial idea was to have a really deep river and just the top of the elephants head and back would be visible. After actually making the dio, I realize the river is too small to look good so I will have 2/3rds of then sticking out of the water as they bathe. I also was going to just have the head and shoulders visible on the wild Asian waterbuffalo, now I will have about half of one out of the water, that way the depth appears much more realistic in the size of the dio.

Philter4 wrote:

[ quote = " Kikimalou "] Congratulation Phil, I can see the Indian dio is on its way: D

Could you tell me where are the Japanese plants and / or leaves ? [ / quote ]

If you mean which ones are the Japanese kits in the photos, in the first photo the only one is the canary reeds by the monkeys, in photo two there are some ferns near the roots of the banyon tree, photo 3 and 4 the palms, philodendrons and the light colored bamboo are all kits. The other plants are either from Danny (the dark bamboo on the raised bank toward the back) or ones I made myself (the vine, the cattails and the bananas).

Hope that answered your question.

You answered Phil, thank you very much

Looks awesome Phil. Keep the pictures coming.

Wow, these photos show really amazing diorama. I can't wait to see the final effect, but what is done now-is very pretty

Thanks everyone for the compliments and thoughts. I have added 15 more stalks of simon's bamboo, and started to do the grass flats. I have made a "game trail "right up to the river , I am not sure if I like it or not , but it is easy to add grass over the trail. When I was looking at it on the model I liked it, but now that I see the photos I am not sure. IMO it is too streight but when out in the animal nature trails are as streight as they can be, easier for animals to get to and from places where there is no cover.

I also have several new birds , Danny is sending me two species of hornbills , and I am talking to Ana about a couple of species that I want her to make with the next set of animals that I am ordering. There will be species from both Africa and Asia , so there will be things to see in the near future. I am not putting up the animals like I do on the African dio because right now it is not on the table where it is going permanently.

Here are two photos of the new grass, and I think there are a few new plants that I made that may be visible in the photos as well.


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It looks like the sandy river edges where me and my family used to go picknick!
Great work!

Looks wonderful! I really like the worn pathway to the river.

[ quote = "Wild Heart "] It looks like the sandy river edges where me and my family used to go picnic !
Great work! : Face : [ / quote ]
WH, I modled it after a creek by my house, on the east side is a raised bank with a fallen tree that is still growing and on the west is a rock/mud/dirt bank with shoreline plants growing. I live in the mountains so the plants are very different then a tropical habitat, but the idea was from nature.

By the way, I posted the photos of some animals you asked about for trade or sale, so take a look.

Wow, i love the trees! they look great!!

I like the path Phil. It is coming together very good.

I decided that the game trail was too wide, so I added grass to it and thinned it out. I also extended it as when I get more grass I will add more to the earth at the front of the diorama.

Here are two photos of the new trail, and one of the banyon tree in it's most probable place.

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I agree the path looks better smaller.

Grass, water, trees-everything looks beautiful Thank You for photos and can't wait for more