Water Front Diorama Weekend Update

I did a partial update post early Sunday morning for the work accomplished over the previous week through that Friday. I have day on Saturday and accomplished a ton of work on the project. So here’s that bit of an update. Returning to the base itself, I started laying down the groundwork for the “water” part of the water front. I needed to lay some wires down, so I taped some wires down and laid plaster cloth over the area. I typically use plaster cloth as a start point for terrain, wrapping it around cut styrofoam as the basic shape. Here’s I’m just using it as a surface prep as well as to hold down the wires. I will be adding some paper clay on top of this so the plaster cloth acts as a intermediate.

The plaster cloth is measured out, cut, and dipped into water to “activate” it. One wet, the stuff is just laid out and using wet fingers, the plaster is spread along the water area.

The base is left to dry. While this dries, I can focus on the two other “actors” on this stage, the Zeeks.

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Some light wiring work

Work on the diorama continues. Some areas slow down a bit as a good deal of work is not overly visual, at least from a progressive standpoint. Getting tired of just the white base coated base, I masked off a small parking spot, then painted on some yellow. Then masked that off and sprayed a light grey over everything. I failed to snap pictures of the masked off base and the results after I painted. With a project this size, I end up juggling things so that while one area sits and cures, I can focus on another area; but also keep from working on too many separate pieces so that it becomes overwhelming. I learned this lesson last year around this time when I really wanted to push this sucker out. I simply got overwhelmed and the interest to even work on it died. I currently have an outline written out for this project. This is the first time I actually wrote something out; the help with organization is amazing, and I can see that certain things should be done before other things. And with areas of the project are completed, I can cross those off as being done and keep the focus. Currently, I’ve finished the containers, the GM’s, and recently, the base light that I had trouble figuring out the last time around. That’s at least 40% of the players for the diorama completed.

As the title says, I had to do some wiring work. I previously wired the base up; but as the build progressed, things changed and the wiring scheme must also evolve. I have a video of the re-wiring process after the jump!

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Tools of the Trade

I often overlook the importance of the tools I have in my workbench. We’re often asked, “what do you recommend for tools?” That is a bit of a loaded question. There is a missing quantifier there. I’ve built my current set of tools over a period of 16 years, and it’s still in the process of building. But I’ll do some quick breakdowns for the tools I have for basic building, to some more specialized tools and their uses.

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Weathering takes time….

The weathering process takes time. Granted we’re not putting the object outside so that it can sit for a few years to naturally achieve sun/rain/wind damage and get all rusty and dirty. But the process isn’t instant and done in a single model session. For your typical object, the paint can chip and crack; it can get weather damages such as sun, wind, and rain; and it can also get dirty and rusty – just here, there are three layers of weathering that can happen. Applying the different techniques one on top of another can create some very dynamic weathered look to your object.

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