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Diorama Groundwork II

This evening I got some more rocks stuck on. I scored the baseboard and then used the hot glue gun to get some uneven surfaces to allow the basing stuff to hang onto. I got the Compound mixed up and splatted on. Once it was going off I tried smoothing it down with water. I met a bit of a problem in that as I have had it a good old while then the plaster went off a bit quicker than I expected. Anyway this is what it looks like after the messy bit…

The next problem I am expecting is warping of the MDF. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. Another conundrum I have come up with is how to cover the raw foam on the side and back. I may cover it in black card to begin with as it is easy to cut and will stick nicely with PVA. It won’t be very strong but this thing will spend its life living in a box so there won’t be much handling involved.

Talking of problems, I decided to scoff a couple of sweeties and shoved one onto my table while the other was in my gob. Bet you can’t guess what happened here with the plaster rock?

Tomorrow I hope to get some paint down onto the ground and then start work on the rocks… after that get some grass and things down… so here is a question for the diorama builders who have inspired me to have a go… do you put the miniatures on last or do you build them into the vegetation?

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Diorama… Starting on the Groundwork

Tonight I mooched around looking for some bits and pieces to make the diorama in the end I settled on some 10mm blue foam and some Noch rock moulds.

I ran a couple of dry fits to see which would work best…

On the above one there was more high ground but I felt it cut down on the space for the rhino so I pushed the hill back a bit and came up with this one…

Now to be honest I preferred this one so I took the bull by the horns and cut it, sensible me would have made the cuts using my hot wire cutter, but silly me decided to do it with a knife!

Anyway this is what it looks like from the other side…

I will build up the flat area a bit with the modelling compound and then build the hill up and blend in the rocks with it too. I will put an indentation into the lower part and make a small pond.

Next stage was to glue everything down and make it secure, which I did with no more nails, probably not the cheapest thing to grab but it was handy and needed using up…

I will see if I have any more rock bits to go along the bottom edge and if so get those glued down and then get the modelling compound on it.

I got called out of work early today as my son had a temperature and as we only had one car I had to leave. Luckily I had cover in as I was on my management day. Anyway I grabbed my thermometer and shot home to get him. Tested his temperature and it read at 35.4 now either it dropped in the hour it took me to get there or he didn’t have a temperature. Now to be fair his best mates Gran has developed Covid so I reckon they weren’t taking any chances and to be honest I would probably do the same if I was in their shoes. They had already had to close down one year group already.

He isn’t going in tomorrow temperature or not, we cannot take the risk of him being sent back home again when I am at work.

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Maids, Goats and the Witch King II

Tonight was another one where I had to force myself to paint anything. I had based up the goats earlier in the day, but really, really had to push myself to pick up the brush, needless to say I didn’t really get that much done overall.

For the first time ever I actually had to stir up a Contrast paint. The Apothecary White was a lump on the bottom of the pot, it took forever to unlump it (or should that be delump). Anyway you can tell the before and after effect in the photo above. The lady in the blue is the before and the lady in green the after.

So the bases on the goats were done today. I kind of think the bright green grass looks a bit out of place, but otherwise I am happy with them.

The strong wind totally knackered the old caravan, popped one of the windows and shoved in the side, ear the door. We have been meaning to take the thing down for about a year and a half so I think next weekend it really must come down (if it doesn’t come down itself that is).

So back to work tomorrow, I am going to have to remember to phone to get a hire car for Tuesday, otherwise my wife won’t be going into work for her meeting. One of ours is getting some work done for its MOT, so we are down to one car. It wouldn’t be so bad, but the nearest bus stop is 2 miles in either direction and we work in opposite directions too.

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Maids, Goats and the Witch King

Today we went to the cinema to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It was the first time any of us had seen it on the big screen. The normal 160 people was down to 40 for social distancing. The last time I saw it that empty was for a rerun of Casablanca.

We also eventually got round to sorting out my daughter’s Birthday Takeaway. She eventually settled for the chip shop after running through thoughts of going for Indian, Chinese or Nepalese.

I then unfortunately went down the YouTube rabbit hole and didn’t really get as much done as I wanted. To be brutally honest I couldn’t really be bothered to do anything, but pushed myself to get the goats progressed a bit.

The horns have in fact been painted, not that you can tell!

I was hoping to get some flock on the bases but the brown took ages to dry, so I will get that done tomorrow.

I managed to throw a bit of paint onto the maids and Witch King too

Hopefully I can get them finished tomorrow too.

The wind up here is rather strong at the minute so no Ferries either inter island or to the mainland. Hopefully we won’t have had any panic buying as I need to go shopping tomorrow.

On the conservatory front I managed to stop the drip the other day only to have it return today… as you can imagine I am now getting a bit miffed about this.

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Goats, Gatling’s and a Hairy Rhino (again)

Today I got my two new rhino off the build plate, I went for a turning one and as I said a a calf that is either dead or sleeping… I also located my MDF board and set up and idea of where the miniatures could go (one day I might actually make something).

I also printed off some Gatling gun thingies for one of the lads at the club, unfortunately the barrel of one went weird and I lost one too…

He just reminded me he only needed the barrels and not the magazines… whoops.

And finally, I slapped some paint on the goats…

Not a lot, but I think that is the first painting this week…

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Little Done

Tonight I was a bit pooped so I cleaned up the rhino and calf I printed this morning and then set to work printing off the dead calf and adult that is turning to the right.

Ooh look another wolf!

Having an early night tonight, so will get the print off tomorrow morning, but I will leave you with a conundrum that I received in an email today, it was to do with staff training…

If any staff have expired due to Covid, please reassure them that they can continue in 2021. Now I could be wrong, but I think that I would have to shout really loudly to reassure anyone who had expired.

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Wolf Pack

Tonight I remembered to take the wolves off the print plate. They were finished at 23.00 last night and only came of at 19.00 this evening. They don’t seem to have come to any harm though.

So I ended up with five wolves and they are in three different poses…

So this was going to be my rough plan, then Eloth suggested that I used the one turning and this came about…

I think I like the composition of the two adults trying to protect the youngster, however there is a dead, sleeping calf in the set, I might see about getting that printed.

The next thing I will need to do is get some kind of base board sorted to see how big it will need to be to fit things on.

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Diorama Ideas

Tonight I started printing a pack of wolves for the diorama idea. I will print off the rhino tomorrow, but basically it is going to have about four or five wolves and a pair of rhino, with one being a calf.

I kind of mocked it up a bit using some bits and pieces I had lying around…

Voila…. finished

It is not going to be a snowy scene, but further into the summer as the calf has been born. I will have them near a water hole and Mum is trying to protect the calf from the wolves….

High quality artistry here!

I have a couple of options for the adult rhino. One is the above one, other option is the first one I ever printed with the head turning, there is also a ‘leaping’ one which I don’t think would work. I want more of a stand off than a charge.

I have mirrored and fiddled with the size of the wolf that looks like it is slinking, this will allow them to circle the pair in the middle.

I will see how I get on with this idea as I have bucket loads to paint and make, but I do like building terrain so it might just be fun.

I managed to finish the rhino tonight and had a fiddle with a Wolf’s colouring…

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A Hairy Elephant With Friends

Tonight I wanted something easy so went for the hairy beasts…

Not really much I can say about them except they are rather large and not too bad to paint. Still some work to do on them, but they are getting there. So I survived my first day back in work. Spent this morning trying to sort out colleagues IT problems, which meant I dint get as much done as I wanted. Hopefully it will all work tomorrow…

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Return of the Hairy Elephant

Tonight I decided to mess around with the mammoth I started painting yesterday. I wasn’t happy with it as it was too dark. So I got some canvas coloured paint and dry brushed over the dark colours… to be honest I think I am going to leave it as is…

When I say leave it as it is, I will put a ways on it to blend it in, but I actually like the effect.

I also found some cattle and a spearman that had somehow been missed when I sprayed the rest. I glued these onto bases ready for the next time I need to spray something.

It was a pleasant afternoon so we met with our friends for a socially distanced walk…

Well that is my leave over with, back to work tomorrow, I have decided that I would much rather be a gentleman of means and leisure!