A new diorama base

I just got a book about modeling terrain for dioramas and in it was a chapter on a forest diorama. I actually new this tutorial was in the book and it is the reason I bought the book, titled Advanced Terrain Modelling by Richard Windrow. The book has several tutorials that help me, one on model gardens, one on an English castle which has a wheat field that will help with my grass flat dioramas, all different kinds of ideas. It is fantastic for what I do so I am very happy with it, in fact it was purchased new for 1/3rd the normal retail price even with shipping.

At the end of the chapter on the forest there is a chapter called Techniques which has 3 tutorials one on snow, one on perspective for the diorama, and the most important one of all mud. After reading the chapter I have decided to do 2 mini dioramas one a tidal river at low tide and the other a dried pond with a bunch of dead aquatic vegetation. I have finished the base of the tidal river, I still have a lot to do but here is a photo of my progress.
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There is a place about 2 hours from my house where there is a tidal mud flat and the scene is very similar. There is a bunch of green plants that form a carpet over the dry areas, and in between these are large "ponds", I am making a river rather then a mud flat so what I did was to dig out the channel that has a little water left at low tide, and where you see the unplanted brown spots in my dio I will dig out individual mud holes that would be full of water when the tide is high. The river area is very low in this scene, but when the tide is high the water level will rise to the edge of the plants. I am very happy with the results so far, I just have to dig out the mud holes and add the mud, depending on how deep a particular hole is will determine if it is just wet mud or actually has some water in the bottom of it. Along the back side there will be tule reeds and along one side some trees, here in California there are euchalyptus trees which are not native, but I have to decide what I want to do, I could also line the far edge with several types of flowering bushes that are also common. There will be some taller grass growing in the bulk of the short saw grasses and I will have mostly brackish water birds like coots, cormarants, and tall wading birds like heron or egrets depending on what area of the world my scene will depict.

I have not started on the dry mud scene yet but I got the idea when I made a large tree for India, I wanted one more large tree, this tree has some damage, about 1/2 of the tree has fallen a long time ago and the tree seems not to be bothered by it. I used a wood putty for areas of the bark where it is falling off the dead parts of the trunk and as a way to rough up the base and parts of the branches of the tree. Here are a couple of photos to show the size and look of the tree. As this dried it cracked and tightened up which made the look just like the pattern in the dried mud that is rock hard and edges the remains of a water hole at the end of the dry season. I want a small amount of water in the middle and it will be covered with duckweed and maybe some other plants that were lucky enough to be in the remaining water, and the area right around the still standing water will have dead plants rotting along side what is left that is wet. I haven't put any foliage on yet, it has taken about a week to get to this point although I was going to start on the foliage tonight.
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Hope you enjoy these, any comments are welcome.

Congratulation for the book and the new works Phil

As usual, could you share more pics, details.... It seems the first pic is a little bit blurry. Could you ? I love to see more things about what you are doing, it is unique among us.

Phil,this is not the kind of thing I'm planning to do, not because I don't like but surely I'm not able but I enjoy seeing how do you built everything, your detailed descriptions and the realistic results at the end! I only can say Thanks for share it with us! ...and this book found the right home! :)

Most impressive , WOW !!!!

I admire your fantastic stamnia in always finding new and interesting techniques, plants, figueres .
The tree is marvellous, - does it have to have leaves on ?
I would be a perfect place for woodpeckers or horbills , - and insects, but insects are too small, I know that

Thankyou again for sharing, I look so much forward to seing more

your amazing talent deserves better camera:scratch:

The tree does not have to have foliage but it is going in a certain spot where all of the other trees have a full canopy and I want this tree in
that spot so I am going to add the foliage during the week and I'll post some photos as it gets finished.

Here are a couple of better photos of the base, I have added the water so now comes the bushes and trees.
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Thank you Phil.

It's like one will loose his boots in the mud... Incredible !

That is fabulous !

And the grass looks very real also

Take care Phil, or you will owe Christophe a new pair of boots

It looks absolutely fantastic Phil, this new base looks so real!

Always impressive your work Phil.
What joy to see your extensions

What for a great work again!!! Congratulation- a very nice Diorama-Base!!!

lucky luke wrote:

Always impressive your work Phil.
What joy to see your extensions

...I agree absolutely!

nice project!
cant wait to see it finished

MD1985 wrote:

cant wait to see it finished

me too! except of course, projects like this are never finished. they always grow and evolve.

more! more!