Indian remodel in the new building continued...

Sorry about making everyone jump from page to page but this is a diorama build so I think it belongs here.

I have taken some photos, the first is the new building. It is much smaller then the workshop, the workshop is over 3000 square ft, I keep all of my woodworking tools and supplies there, it also used to house the African and Indian dioramas. We also have an indoor shooting range for handguns and small caliber long rifles, it is one of the most interesting things in the shop and it will give you an idea of how big 3000 sq ft is.

Anyway, here is the new diorama display barn, I call it a barn even though it is just a small building but I am going to paint it to match the two barns that are on the property.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here is the inside with the new table I built in place for the base of the diorama.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

For now this is the last shot, it is the table with the foam board that will be how I shape the landscape I am thinking of.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Tomorrow I will carve out the river, it will be a lot bigger and deeper then the original dio, this one will have 3 types of river flow in it, there will be some deep, quite pools where some animals may be bathing, there will be an area of rockwork and some quick flow, and finally there will be some shallow areas where the summer or early fall water levels are low and the gravel and rocks are just barely wet.

Hope you enjoy these, as the build begins to shape I would love any comments or ideas, the less is done on the model the easier it is to get something added rather then have to take a bunch of pieces apart and redo the whole area.

WOW! WOW! And WOW again

This is serious business, - Holy macrel

Are you going to have several dioramas/habitats in there, or just one ?
What colour is the walls going to be ? There could be ( a) map(s) showing where the diorama is, perhaps?

It is SO exiting! I can`t wait to see how you proceed
Thankyou very much for letting us in on this unique project

Phantastic!! A own hobby house!!

I have done a little work on the diorama in the last few days. It has been my "down time" recently, not only do I enjoy it but it is how I have been unwinding after the day. I have been so busy with the live animals, making some palms for Amy (aandmkw) some for ebay but also there is a dollhouse show this weekend and a friends mother sells miniatures and she asked me to put some of my trees on the table with here other items, so I've been working on a group of larger trees. Most dollhouses are in 1:12 scale and all of the trees I make are 1:22 so they are a little too small for them.

Here is the progress up to now, in the second photo I put some bamboo up just to give it an interesting look.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The black lines in the photo at the bottom are the level of the water, I use a laser level to try ot figure out where to put the bank, I decided to raise it up a little but I am not sure if that will work because with the slope the difference in the water level coming up the sand bank it too large.

Hope you enjoy and in the next few days I should be able to start putting the ground cover on.

very promising Phil I can't wait to see work in progress pics

Arrrhw ! This is so exiting

I hope you will show lots and lots of pictures as the landscape develops. Please ?

It has taken me a few days to get more work on the diorama, I went to my first miniature show, if you haven't gone to a miniature show I have to say it was very interesting! I sold some trees and had a great time, there were only a few animal (and except for my items there were very few plants or trees) dealers or artists, a lot of people had Schleich, many retired figures were available at reasonable prices so if you are a collector it may be worth going but it is NOT an animal figure highlight, especially if you are like me and want something different or custom.

Anyway, over the past few days I started casting extra rockwork, painting parts of the model like the river bottom and rockwork, things like that to get the landscape ready to start adding the ground foliage. Here are several shots of the progress, hope you enjoy...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Looking fantastic Phil, can't wait to see more!

This is enormously interesting to watch !!!!
So much attention to detail and so much work !

How do you know hat it must look like? Do you have photoes, or is it from a "picture" inside your mind ?

Like Harriet, I am very exited to see how it dvelops!
Thankyou very much for sharing

Phantastic Phil!!

Thanks everyone, I am really happy that you all like it, I will keep posting photos as I make major additions or changes. With that in mind, here is my next portion. It will take at least 6 steps to complete, I finished the first two today and here are some of the photos and explanation of what I am doing and the steps I will take to get the look I want. One thing that I hope you all get out of this is how it goes from something that is just rough looking to something that resembles a piece of nature to something that looks real by the end. Each step brings the dio closer to a realistic look but the interim steps look as if I will never get there!

For those of you who don't know my thought process I get many ideas from nature. When I am travelling I take tons of photos, or I see something that I remember and would like to incorporate into the diorama. Here is a photo of the creek by my house, I love the fact that at some point the tree across it fell but did not die, it now is a healthy tree that has grown across the creek and make a natural bridge that to me looks so fantastic that I wanted it in my diorama.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is the first vision on the original Indian dio, the tree was done by a sculptor who has done several of my trees before I began to make them myself. It was one of my first custom trees I ever ordered. I love the look and I decided to do it again on this diorama but the shape and height of the river bank would make this impossible so I had to think of another idea that would be an overhanging tree.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Well, while in Hawaii I saw a lot of banyon and strangler figs and at one site they were growing into a cliff face with the roots hanging over and growing into the cracks in the rocks which in turn gave the tree the support it needed to grow. The tree was then growing over the cliff face and over hanging the bank. It would have made an impressive display but I had no reason to change the diorama at the time so this seemed like the perfect situation to try to make my vision of the fig on a rockface.

First I made the wire tree frame itself, and separately I made the roots. Once that was done I began to put the bulk of wood (clay) on the frame, this is what I have done so far, after this sets and is dry I will make the bark and sculpt all of the details. After that the tree will be painted and once that is done I can begin to combine the roots to the tree. I couldn't do it all as one piece because the roots have to grab onto the rocks and grow into the surrounding dirt. Here are a couple of photos of where I ended today.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I had a little extra time today so I did another step in building the tree, I added the bark and roots as well as painted it. Here are a two photos of the tree today, tomorrow or the next day I'll start to add the foliage.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Cant wait to see all!!

It's great to see the progress in Your wonderful project Phil! Thank You for sharing

It's looking amazing, I love seeing photos of your progress too

the tree (and its roots) are really awesome Phil! It's great that you're sharing the progress of this with the forum; it's a lot of fun to watch. Thank you!

I have been doing some work on the Indian diorama, it has been slow going for several reasons but I finally finished the tree and added some details to the riverbank and shoreline. Here are a few photos of the progress so far.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I still have to paint the fallen stones to match the rock work, clean up the loose pieces and start laying the river rock in the bottom of the river before I start to fill the water in. I also have to finish the mud bank on the left side between the hard rock that is showing and then plant the bank. I did lay some of the grass that is growing up the dirt areas of the hillside, I also have to add all of the plants that will populate the cliff side and waters edge, right now I have several different types of reeds and some water loving palm species that I'm going to use.

It is AWESOME

The way the roots cling to the rock ! And the fallen stones !

your diorama will be very realistic.
I want to make one but I cannot find material ,nowhere.

It is fantastic when such a talented person shares the progress of his work with others!
Everything is looking so perfect and promissing!

Very good development

Thank you everyone, I am so glad you all like it and enjoy following along with the build. I have had a great time building the things I see in photos and from my travels and I love to recreate them in miniature. I am trying to decide if I should finish the cliff base and plant it or if I should begin to finish the rest of the terrain before I start to add the plants.

Álvaro/schleich wrote:

your diorama will be very realistic.
I want to make one but I cannot find material ,nowhere.

PM me and I'll get you to the correct websites to purchase the supplies you will need, the main thing to remember is everything I make is from scratch, I don't buy kits or pre-made items normally I just buy the supplies and make it myself. There are a lot of placed including ebay that have ready made plants and materials that make really nice dioramas. I enjoy making the trees and scenes myself and I do it all from imagination and photos of different plants. I start the trees with a species in mind and then they are made of wire and clay, I just sculpt the tree like it was any other animal figure except it is much easier to make a plant then an animal because there is no such thing as a mistake when making branches. The foliage is also bought as a preserved natural material that I airbrush the colors I need so I just have to paint, cut and shape it then glue it to the frame of the tree. I have been helping Amy (aandmkw) with tips and advice, she has posted some of her trees and plants here on STS.

Landscaping and rock work is the same, for the grass I use bleached horse hair or goats hair that is then dyed the colors I want and cut to the correct length. On the rocks I either use a mold made out of silicon rubber and pour light weight hydrocast (a type of plaster) or I sculpt some of the individual rocks by hand out of clay, either way the end results are what you see in the photos when I'm done painting them.

There is a pair of books by OSPREY MASTERCLASS, called TERRAIN MODELLING and it's sequel ADVANCED TERRAIN MODELLING by Richard Windrow that are fantastic as far as ideas and help with actual techniques and supplies. I wish I had them when I started, I just recently got copies of both. I learned the hard way by wasting a lot of time and supplies (ie money) and making mistakes to find out what didn't work more often then what worked.

At last, we are going of on a new trip to India

Everything is said about the fallen rocks, the beautiful tree and roots, the great grasses...

So I will speak about the travel itself. I like the way you show us the building of your dio.
It is like going to India by train or boat, we have time to think about it, we can build our dream and thought before you say: We have reached your holiday destination, the company hope you have a good travel with us...

Thank you

Philter4 wrote:

Thank you everyone, I am so glad you all like it and enjoy following along with the build. I have had a great time building the things I see in photos and from my travels and I love to recreate them in miniature. I am trying to decide if I should finish the cliff base and plant it or if I should begin to finish the rest of the terrain before I start to add the plants.

Álvaro/schleich wrote:

your diorama will be very realistic.
I want to make one but I cannot find material ,nowhere.

PM me and I'll get you to the correct websites to purchase the supplies you will need, the main thing to remember is everything I make is from scratch, I don't buy kits or pre-made items normally I just buy the supplies and make it myself. There are a lot of placed including ebay that have ready made plants and materials that make really nice dioramas. I enjoy making the trees and scenes myself and I do it all from imagination and photos of different plants. I start the trees with a species in mind and then they are made of wire and clay, I just sculpt the tree like it was any other animal figure except it is much easier to make a plant then an animal because there is no such thing as a mistake when making branches. The foliage is also bought as a preserved natural material that I airbrush the colors I need so I just have to paint, cut and shape it then glue it to the frame of the tree. I have been helping Amy (aandmkw) with tips and advice, she has posted some of her trees and plants here on STS.

Landscaping and rock work is the same, for the grass I use bleached horse hair or goats hair that is then dyed the colors I want and cut to the correct length. On the rocks I either use a mold made out of silicon rubber and pour light weight hydrocast (a type of plaster) or I sculpt some of the individual rocks by hand out of clay, either way the end results are what you see in the photos when I'm done painting them.

There is a pair of books by OSPREY MASTERCLASS, called TERRAIN MODELLING and it's sequel ADVANCED TERRAIN MODELLING by Richard Windrow that are fantastic as far as ideas and help with actual techniques and supplies. I wish I had them when I started, I just recently got copies of both. I learned the hard way by wasting a lot of time and supplies (ie money) and making mistakes to find out what didn't work more often then what worked.

Thank you very much for giving me tips to make a diorama.
I have been very helpful

I did a little more work on the terrain, I added more grass and painted the rubble at the bottom of the hill. Here are a few more photos...

Painted rubble.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Some ivy growing up the rockface.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The beginnings of the grassy area of the diorama.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Except for the fig on the hillside the trees are not attached to the base at this point, I just put them up to give the photos some interesting scenery. As soon as I finish both riverbanks terrain I'll start to pour the water, when that is done I will begin to attach the plants to the base where they will be permanently displayed.