The Edmontosaurus kit and base are completed as my non-entry into our forum’s Creature Feature contest. Since the last update chronicled the painting of the dino, this final update/galley will focus on the groundwork.

I took an unfinished round wooden jewelery box from Micheals and finished it with an Ebony Minwax stain. I wanted uneven terrain as most dino kits I see are on relatively flat and larger than the dino displays and  I figured I could do something cool with a small base that takes up less shelf space. I took the Dremmel tool to the box to make a sloped terrain then filled the box with plaster. While still wet I sunk and propped the dino (which had long screws sticking out of the soles of its feet) into the plaster leaving about 1/8″ of space between the plaster and the sole of the foot. When the plaster was cured and the dino in place I covered the plaster with a dry/thin Celluclay/grit mixture. The base has a very nice weight which makes the whole piece VERY stable and not likely to tip over without a lot of force.

While the Celluclay was wet I worked in a few small rocks and some tiny pebbles sifted from concrete sand that look like scale river rock. I added a large piece of root I saved a few years ago as a  warped and chewed-up tree. When the celluclay was dry I painted it with a water-thinned Raw Umber “Americana” cheapie acrylic from Michaels. Great moist dirt color. The thinness of the paint worked well in that it tinted the rocks only lightly, but darkened the celluclay to the color I wanted with ease. Once that dried I applied some thin washes of Medium Hauser Green for the small mossy stuff in the dirt. For the water I merely brushed on a raw-umber tinted glossy acrylic medium then wet-sponged it off the tips of the rocks so that the glossy wet looking stuff stayed in the cracks.

The foliage is where I’m really excited about this piece. I had made some paper leaves a few years back for a tree and decided to expand on that for this. Click here to view that as it has the basic technique and paper/paint products I used for the leaves. (and butterflies) This time, instead of a punch I had cut out all of my own leaf shapes. I lightly folded strips of the painted paper in half and cut the leaf shape in order to get them symmetrical. Then I used various dental tools to emboss them on a thickly folded piece of paper towel to get the bumps, veins and ridges. Then I applied any additional colors I need with sponge or brush such as the dead edges or the lighter mottled effects of the large elephant ear leaves. Plants were created a leaf at a time on the base using white glue. I think they turned out great and add a lot of visual interest. Moss was created by mixing fine ground turf with water and white glue, applying it, letting it dry, then lightly dry-brushing the tops. Ground-litter is composed of crushed up fall leaves and dried sheet moss.

Enough chat, here’s pics:

Well, it’s finally all done. Only 5 months of off-and-on work so not too bad. Now I just need to figure out shipping via an art shipping firm and pray that it arrives safely. Here’s the final images:

The diorama is in it’s final stages and almost complete. All I have left to do is to make some little crates like the ones Luke was floating around with the force right before he threw a hissy regarding the X-Wing being too heavy. Once the figures were completed I moved onto the seaweed for the X-Wing. The seaweed was made using stretched cotton ball pieces just like my “spanish moss” recipe. The difference was that I used a darker green-black and mixed more dark soil fine turf into the mix. This was strethed out and set into place with a soft brush loaded with Future.

Once the weeds were done I used 5-minute epoxy to mount the X-Wing onto the clear drip-supports and added the final drips using stretched clear sprue and clear acrylic gel medium.

I also finished the lighting using a flickering LED tealight candle that I converted to use wall-power instead of a battery.

Here’s the pics:

The ground leaf litter is a combination of Woodland Scenics fine “soil” and “earth” tone turf and crusted basel and autumn oak leaves. I never thought I’d be able to use that WS turf stuff for anything as with most application I’ve seen it looks like bad railroad scenery. However I think I’ve got it looking pretty good thanks to some great builds at the MIG forums.

To apply the litter I first soaked the area with “wet water” which is just tap water with a few drops of dish soap. This lets the later glue app flow nicely. I first sprinkled the surface with the dark green soil tone followed up by the dead-leaf earth tone. Then over that I sprinkled a fine layer of the crushed leaves. Then I used an eye dropper to soak the area with a mixture of Future Floor acrylic, water and Prepared Matte Medium. A ratio of 1/3 of each liquid is fine. Once this dries the area still looks wet, but is set pretty solid.

Once I’m done with the ground clutter I’ll blow off the excess, clean off the water pools, then coat the water with a few more layers of Future to really gloss them up and seal them.

Screeshot from the DVD. The ripples should hide all!

The first part I had issues with was creating a type of “Spanish Moss” growth from the trees and vines to really give it that swamp look. Also I figured that whatever I used for the spanish moss could also be used for the “seaweed” on the X-Wing. I got a lot of suggestions from forum members at Mig anf FFF and based on those I decided on the following solution using cotton balls and fine turf.

Basically pull some cotton from the ball and stretch/pull it into a long flat piece. Then add a few drops of whatever color cheap-acrylic paint. In this case I mixed up a pale green. Then using your finger, roll and dab the paint evenly over the cotton. A few drops will do. You want the cotton colored, but not soaked. In fact the dryer the better it’ll hold its stringy shape. Next take a few colors of fine turf from Woodland Scenics and sprinkle over it. Work in with your finger. Now just drape and shape over the branches. Secure with a drop or 2 of prepared matte medium then if that washes out some paint add a few more paint drops. Let dry and it’s done. You can pull and shape more when dry. I may still do that but overall I like the look. The spanish moss can also be applied on the roots and rocks for added “slime”. Also, here’s the completed R2-D2.

I also started prepping for the water pour. First I airbrushed the water pools with a brown-green swampy muck color. This will be the base and given enough muck in the water may or may not show through. Better safe than sorry though. My water pours will be thin and have varying degrees of paint mixed in to color the water. The final water won’t be this green I think. I also coated the paint and anywhere I plan to pour water with a coat of Future in order to seal the paint in and protect it from the water pour leaking out.

Once cured I added the heat-stretched acrylic rod pieces that will serve to suspend the X-Wing in the air. There are 5 main support pieces, but there will be many thin drip streams in the end so the X-Wing will appear to float with water dripping from it. Once all the water is poured then a layer of leaf litter will be applied to the bare ground.

About The Build »

So I heard about a MaK contest coming up whose deadline is the 12th of January. When did I find out? I think it was December 28th or so. Oops! I thought for a few days that it was too bad since that would be fun to participate in. Finally on the morning of the 31st I decided to put off the ScopeDog and try to build something cool in 12 days for the contest.

I decided to build up an awesome Hardboiled AFS conversion on a waterfall base with a large oak tree. Things were going smoothly until 5-days in when I was informed that the conversion kit I was using wasn’t “official” and would anger the Japanese. I had no idea when I purchased a few of them that it was considered “bad” so to the Japanese MaK community you have my apologies. While I still could enter the kit in the contest, the fallout would had been more of a mess than I wished on some friends of mine. Instead I decided to make this build purely for personal sport and see if I still could finish this in under 12 days.

When you read the progress page and look at the final images you’ll see that as usual I made something that should had been easy and quick into something way complex. Click Here for the progress and tutorials on everything I did on a day-by-day account for what ended up being a 10 day build.

Image Gallery »

So I heard about a MaK contest coming up whose
deadline is the 12th of January. When did I find out? I think
it was December 28th or so. Oops! I thought for a few days
that it was too bad since that would be fun to participate
in. Finally on the morning of the 31st I decided to put off
the ScopeDog and try to build something cool in 12 days for
the contest.

I decided to build up an awesome Hardboiled
AFS conversion on a waterfall base with a large oak tree.
Things were going smoothly until 5-days in when I was informed
that the conversion kit I was using wasn’t “official”
and would anger the Japanese. I had no idea when I purchased
a few of them that it was considered “bad” so to
the Japanese MaK community you have my apologies. While I
still could enter the kit in the contest, the fallout would
had been more of a mess than I wished on some friends of mine.
Instead I decided to make this build purely for personal sport
and see if I still could finish this in 12 days.

When you read below you’ll see that as usual
I made something that should had been easy and quick into
something way complex. Below is the build on a near day-by-day
account.

12.31.08 » Day One: AFS and Base Planning

I started by building my Wave AFS + Francesco’s
Hard Boiled AFS conversion. Talk about shake and bake. I spent
40 minutes getting the kit to a stopping point where I needed
to soak/clean the resin and let seams cure. Then later that
night I cleaned the seams and resin. (no pics)

I also started the base for it which will be
a summer waterfall scene on an unfinished hexagonal jewelry
box. For the water I’ll be using the castin’ craft clear resin
as I’m familiar with it and it’s drawbacks, gloss gel medium,
fishing line, clear plastic, and plastic wrap. Yeah… lots
of stuff! The plastic wrap will be to seal the waterfall holes/gaps
off from the pool so that when I pour the pool I don’t lose
all the resin below and make a mess. The clear plastic and
fishing line are coupled with the clear gloss medium to make
the splashes and drips and even the falls. Here’s my reference
pic:

01.01.09 » Day Two: Materials and Base Sculpting

Today I have the AFS wired into a pose and have
started the joint sleeves by forming a thin core of Ave’s
Apoxie Sculpt over the wires to hold their place and create
some bulk for the later folds and such. (no pics yet)

I also picked up some “Super Moss”
Preserved Mood Moss (MOOD MOSS!? WTF?!) at Michael’s today
as it looks like small sprigs of it will make for some nice
randomly placed weeds along with my usual moss stuff.

I also purchased something called a “clay
pot topper” which I swear looked like Silflor over a
compressed moss backing. At $1.99 for a 5″ disk I think
I’ll use them often. The reverse side looks like great leaf
litter.

Here’s the pics so far of the base. You can
see that I’ve cut some of the hexagonal box away to facilitate
the 3 levels of the waterfall and the rocks. The middle tier
will contain a small pool which has been dammed by a random
log based on my reference pic. This gives me a great way to
realistically add more water so that I can have the AFS interacting
with it. The AFS will be stepping out of that pool and onto
the level next to the tree. One foot will be by the tree while
the other will be lifting out of the water. right now I’m
not sure if the foot will be submerged but there will be splash
effects and many drips coming from the lifting foot.

The rocks were glued onto the base after I added
some odd rock in the base for filler. Smaller rocks and sand
was used to fill in the gaps and then just river-rock was
used over that to hide the sand.

I also made a to do list for EVERYTHING that
needs done for this build. Looks like a lot but I think I
can bang all this out in the 12 Days of MaKsmas! Lists help
me see where I’m at and schedule events to make the process
quicker.

Hardboiled AFS

• Cut and Sand AFS Parts
• Clean Resin
• Clean-up seams
• Wire AFS into pose
• Joint Covers Legs
• Joint Covers Arms
• Texture
• Primer
• Paint
• Additional Camo
• ID Bands
• Mig Filter
• Paint Chips
• Gloss Coat
• Decals
• Satin Coat
• Discoloration
• Wash
• Flat Coat
• Pre-Dusting
• Pigment General Dusting
• Specific Pigment Effects
• Rust spring cables
• Build All
• Water/Wet Effects

Base

• Stain Wood Base with thinned India
  Ink
• Clearcoat Wood Base
• Make Tree
• Paint Tree
• Paint Celluclay
• Paint Dark Dirt
• Paint Dirt with pigments
• Apply Gloss Gel as Sealant to water
  pools
• Add sticks and leaves in water
  floor
• Mount AFS if necessary
• Seal waterfall gaps with plastic
• Make Upper Waterfall
• Pour Main Pool
• Make Lower Waterfalls
• Pour Lower Pool if necessary, otherwise
  use gloss gel
• Make ripples in pools with gloss
  gel
• Apply a few leaves floating in
  upper pool
• Apply Leaf litter
• Apply Foliage, grass, plants, and
  fallen whole leaves
• Make Leaves
• Add Leaves to tree
• Add Moss and Lichen to rocks
• Add bird poop (deer poop too?)

I also created an animation showing my painting
and weathering process for the camo scheme I decided upon.

01.02.09 » Day Three: Base Staining
And Falls Part 1

I stained the base with water-thinned india
ink then sealed it with this Matt Varnish:

The upper waterfall has been started using the
gloss ge and stretched clear sprue.

After Maschinen Krueger saw this and mentioned
my “twig” which I was going to base the tree on,
I did some thinking and root searching. Having come up with
not a whole lot I decided to try something out I’ve been wanting
to try for a few years now. Making
trees out of wire based on an article at ArmoramA.

So far I have the tree trunk and branches done
and textured. Based on the article, I did the wire wrapping
then I covered the larger branches and trunk with a cloth-like
but untextured medical tape. Then I coated, filled and sealed
everything, even the thinnest wires with the Liquitex Stucco
Texture Gel. On the thinnest wire twigs it makes them look
like they have small bud-like bumps and on the larger with
some vertical scribing with a needle while wet it looks like
bark. Really looking forward to priming it.For the smallest
twigs I used really thin bead-wire glued to the smallest twigs
with CA Gel.

Looks great though and like a real scale tree.
(birch at the moment since it’s all white, but tomorrow it’ll
be a young oak tree) Thanks for the constructive criticism
BK… always helpful to have another set of eyes.

OH and that Zombie Green Mig Pigment is great
for moss effects! I also used thinned black/brown acrylics
and FFA to make the wet and darkened rock effects.

Then before today was over I got a lot of the
tree painting done. I sprayed it with dark gray primer then
hand painted it in thinned black apple barrel acrylic.. like
a thicker wash. When dry I airbrushed it with a medium brown-gray
mix AKA tree color. Then I gave it a few washes of black and
black-brown. Finally I drybrushed it with a tan-gray mix of
cheapie acrylics. I’ll refine the color and such later but
this is good enough to now set into the base.

01.03.09 » Day Four: Hardboiled AFS

Okay… been a productive day even though I
think I’ve spent less than 2 hours total on the paint not
including the drying times. Yesterday I managed to finish
the joint covers, pose and the texture. Even did a Hardboiled
Diaper like BK did on his.

I primed the kit about 9am this morning. Then
about 11-12am I did the paint and camo, even the octopus.
Really easy as you’re just hand-painting quick and random
small “c” shapes with a brush. I used Deck Tan for
the base and JGSDF Olive Drab for the camo.

Then after a few TAN filters (4 hours drying
time total) I masked off the ID stripes and used a sponge
with liquid mask to pre-chip them like I did with the Slave
1. And that’s it so far. I’m going to let it rest a bit then
later I’ll airbrush on some FFA for decals and sealing.

01.04.09 » Day Five: Working Hard

No progress to report, but working hard! Check
out how I do groundwork
here on my blog.

01.05.09 » Day Six: Mounted Tree, New Leaf Method, And Falls Part 2

No pics of the suit right now but it’s coming
along quickly and very nicely so far. The tree is ready for
leaves having finished a bunch of washes and drybrushes to
get that perfect tree color. Having some “twigs”
helps for reference. The waterfall in the front is shaping
up nicely as well. I’ve been using lots of stretched clear
sprue and stretched clear sheet to make the individual drips
and such. Dotting them with the clear gel makes for that realistic
rippled/drippy water falling look. You can see some un-touched
sprue ready to form a side waterfall that’ll shoot out from
between some rocks. I need to tame-down and attach the bottoms
then add the clear gel to do the drips and ripples. The main
fall is layered with sprue drips behind a sheet which has
more sprue drips and vertical gel streaks.

Not sure what to do though as far as color.
I’ll use very little cotton at the bases to help portray froth
but I’m debating on drybrushing the falls with gloss white
acrylic or not. Lots of the falls pics I’ve seen are taken
with a time lapse so they look white but those without look
a lot like what I have now which is perfectly clear drips.
Decisions decisions…

I figured out how to get green or autumn or
any colored leaves all year round. I really wanted to do a
green-leaved oak tree, not a yellow-leaved maple from the
yellow pre-punched leaves I already had. Plus my maple punch
is kinda small for 1/20 scale. Perfect for 1/35 however! So
I was thinking last night that maybe I could go to Michael’s
and use some sort of tinted parchment paper. No luck, but
I found some very thin, strong translucent green paper in
the scrapbook section. I also picked up a bottle of Folk Art
paint that was a very leafy color. The paper is awesome as
the light will still shine through the painted leaves a little
making it more realistic.

To start out I pinned the paper on the four
corners of a piece of plywood. I then sponged on random colors
of the 3 darker green tones UNTHINNED. This makes the paper
curls so the pins are important. The paper will also not be
flat but that’s not important either. After that first sponging
dries I used the green color I purchased and sponged that
all over the top. Kinda like Lin.K’s paint technique and gives
you some good tonal variations and a perfect texture.

Once that dried I turned the paper over and
sponged the back with a lighter sage green tone since the
undersides of leaves are lighter. Two other pluses to this
leaf method… No decay and no crispy breaking dry leaves!

I used my oak leaf punch and pinched out many
many leaves. In the final image, that’s all the leaves from
one 8.5″ x 11″ sheet.Might be enough or I might
need more.

Before putting them on the tree I’ll use a
razor blade to push a crease down the center for the main
vein.

Michael’s had lots of translucent colors so
I’ll be doing this again for an Autumn scene for my Gans.
The also works for any leaves I think. I’ll be buying a heart-shaped
punch at some point to do those large leafy jungle leaves.
Just scissor-round the point.

Leaves so far. Been attaching them with small
dabs of CA gel and accelerator. BKs method of matte medium
wasn’t working for me as it doesn’t dry quick enough… at
least not mine. I also used those Brita filter balls which
are a greenish color as young acorns and glued clumps of them
on many of the small branches under leaves.

Marvy is the brand of punch I use for the oak
(fiskars is the small maple) and it looks like Marvy
has a larger maple too!

Here’s the AFS as it is now (compare to the
last pic) with the weathering and washes and discoloration.
All that’s left is flat-coat and pigment effects. I think
everything is more blended in now between the tones. The chips
were done with a small brush then some sponge for the finer
scratches like on the side-eye.

01.06.09 » Day Seven: Finished AFS and Gel Sealing for Water Pools

HB AFS is done except for the spring hoses.
Wanna “blacken-it” them still. Also need to add
“drips” but will add them when I mount it.

Fuel stains! The blueish plasma burn mixed with
some grimey black, future and water work great for them.

On the first day of MaKmas my true love gave
to me: an AFS with a oak treeeeeee!

Yeah, that was awful… Here’s the HB AFS mounted
on the base.

01.07.09 » Day Eight: Water Water Everywhere

I wasn’t going to, but I guess I’ll explain
how I did the water as a mini-tutorial. Mostly because looking
back at my Hovertruck dio
there was precious little info for me to recall reading it.
Everything I read I had already remembered on my own. This
way I can document it as I have more spectacular watery builds
planned!

The first are the materials I used for the water.
Castin’ Craft Clear Resin, The Catalyst for the resin, Flat
Earth, Gloss Black and Clear Green Tamiya Acrylic Paint. In
a small cup I mixed 1 oz. of resin, 6 drops of the catalyst,
and one drop each of the paint. Stir slowly and deliberately
as to not froth up bubbles in the mix.

Next is the main water pool before the pour.
You can see that I did many thin coats of the clear acrylic
gel in order to seal the rocks. Otherwise bubbles will come
up or resin will leak out. I used clear plastic under the
tree branch dam to keep the resin in. It’s basically invisible
now. Apply the gel very thinly and try not to make it more
than 1-2mm for each application. It goes on white and dries
clear, but if it’s too thick you’ll get frosted patches.

I only did one pour as it was sufficient for
the small depth and area to be poured. I wasn’t going to but
the resin was pouring nice and the color was perfect. Keep
dabbing the resin after about 5-10 minutes until it firms
up and the ripples keep their shape. When it gets tacky you
can still add more texture with a cheap plastic brush. Use
the leftovers from your pour-cup to test before going to the
main model. You’ll find that at the beginning of the tacky-stage,
about 30-minutes in for me, the texture still will soften
after a few seconds. I made more texture at the bottom of
the falls and under the foot.

One problem was when I tried to speed up the
curing a bit (since temp is a factor) with a heat-gun. I had
it set to low and was far away but it curled a few of my drips
as you can see below. Easy enough to remove them though and
make new ones so at least it’s a minor issue and not a huge
peeling shrinking mess like the hovertruck.

Next I’ll be adding more ripples and drips on
the legs, water surface, and two waterfalls. I’ll add froth
with polyester polyfill. Fake cotton fill for pillows. It’s
clearish, shiny and should work well if used VERY sparingly.
I’ll also be tinting the water a bit lighter under both the
falls with some tinted gel. I’ll add some Tamiya “Sky”
which is a pale gray-green and Flat Earth.

Since next up is also the groundwork I began
looking through my bins and found some items I had forgotten
about or didn’t think would work. For one I found a bunch
of oak leaves I had punched out of fall leaves god-knows when.
These will be great in the ground litter.

I knew I had some “Model Scene” 1/35
dandelions that might work which are made from laser-cut paper
but I forgot I had a ton of other plants from the same company.
All 1/35 scale plants and leaves but should work anyway here
as they’re large enough for small random plants. I think they
just need a slight semi-gloss finish. Right now they’re too
matte for real-fife. Thanks to Jindra for sending me all these
great laser-cut items.

01.08.09 » Day Nine: Plant Life and Completed Water Effects

First up the last of the water effects. The
Castin’ Craft has some issues but all of these are workable.
One problem I had with the Hovertruck base was that the surface
of the water seemed tacky forever. Well there’s a reason for
that. Apparently after doing some searching, this type of
resin will not cure completely where exposed to air. That’s
right… air. What to do? Well there’s sprays and stuff to
use or a waxy thing that ruins the clear effect. My solution
is my solution to all of modeling’s woes…

Future Floor Acrylic. Simple! Let the resin
cure for at least 8-12 hours on its own in a dust-free place.
Then simple brush some FFA over the surface. The future will
begin to cloud which freaked me out on my test pour but just
dry it with your airbrush or let it air-dry and it goes back
to crystal clear. Apply it in several thin coats. So there’s
something else to help you and me in the future when I wonder
again why my clear resin is tacky.

First on the images is the waterfall in-progress.
You can see how I used dabs of Clear Acrylic Gel to attach
more stretched clear sprue pieces. It goes on white but dries
clear. Once dry you can add more “dots” to the stretched
sprue pieces to make them look like falling water.

I did the same thing for the foot. Below is
the dry and clear water effects. At the bottom of the main
falls I added a very little bit of polyfill. (used for filling
pillows, toys, etc) It’s clear and simulates the tiny splashes
at the base. I added some clear gel dots to it as well.

Lastly for the base I applied the plant-life.
Moss was used for the random small plants in the leaf litter
and between the rocks. I also used the Fiba laser-cut plants
which I’ll describe below.

Roots were used for two small vine-type plants
branches. Each used my leaf technique as described above.
The small maroon leafs are from a Fiskars Maple punch. I just
dabbed on a semi-gloss maroon mix to my oak-leaf paper before
punching. The other bush also used leftover oak paper. These
leafs were made using those “pattern scissors” used
for borders on paper. I simply cut one loopy edge of lined-up
1/2 circles, flipped the scissors over and cut again. The
result was lots of these small eye-shaped leaves.

The leaf litter is just crushed-up fall leaves
with some punched fall leaves mixed in. TO apply it to the
surface I mixed some dark soil colored pigments with some
Matte Gel and brushed the dirt with it. Then I poured on and
pressed the leaf litter into that. Lastly I applied some Prepared
Matte Medium which is watered down matte medium. This seals
it, lets it keep it’s fullness but invisibly glues it all
together. Glue some full punched fall leafs to the top for
contrast and to cover up bare spots.

Now back to the laser-cut Fiba paper foliage.
I used “hart’s tongue” and “burdock”.
The burdock is the larger one in the pic. These are easy to
use but need some prep IMO before placing on the base. First
the paper looks like paper… very flat and well… like paper.
Plants are smooth so I airbrushed on a few thinned coats of
Future. Not to gloss it but to semi-gloss it. Afterwards it
looked much better. Then you simply cut them out of their
paper-sprues (easy) and take a rounded tool and press the
vein creases into them. Laying them on a soft surface makes
this easy.

Once “planted” I thought the burdock
was too green. A few coats of Mig Productions Tan Filter solved
that. Apply them with some Matte Gel.

01.09.09 » Day Ten: Completed Tree

Last night and today I completed applying the
leaves to the tree. This was a painstaking process with a
few learning curves. The first thing I learned is that CA
gel is wonderful stuff for this. I usually use the liquid
CA aka Super Glue, but the gel clung to the leaves and branches.
Small dabs of accelerator and the leaf was affixed. At first
I tried Matte Gel but it took too long to dry and the leaves
wouldn’t stay up on their own.

The other thing I learned is to work from the
inside out and from the bottom-up. The first few branches
I applied leaves to I applied them all over and at first this
was fine. However as I got more leaves on I began to knock
others off while trying to use the tweezers and a rod to apply
the leaf and CA accelerator. Since each leaf was added one
at a time this was very annoying and a hard-learned lesson.

Lastly I learned that trees have a LOT of leaves.
I made one sheet of leaves and thought I’d have plenty. Then
I thought with my second sheet of leaves would be enough.
Then it was another 1/2 sheet. In the end I used almost 3
letter-sized sheets of punched out leaves. This was a lot
as I am quite frugal with the punching getting them as close
to the next as possible. So make more than you think you’ll
need then double that. You can always use any leftovers for
a later project.

Lastly is the additional moss and lichen. I
used my own tutorial to make this which
can be found here. The only difference with the moss is
that I applied it thin first then added some thicker patches.
Then as it started to dry I stippled it with a stiff brush.
This teased up the fibers in the flocking and made it look
more natural and carpet-like. I sparingly added a brown-black
wash when near-dry the sparingly drybrushed it with a bright
light green to simulate the new growth. I changed my lichen
application as well by adding it sparingly and as dots as
per my reference photos seen again below.

Yay! Ten days from start to completion. I’m
very proud of myself for doing this piece in that amount of
time and then sticking with it after I found out I couldn’t
enter it in that contest. I even have 2 days to spare! Sweet!

01.10.09 » Day Eleven: Photos Uploaded!

The project is done and photographed. Click
here for the final photos »

About The Kit »

This is a diorama I had planned for quite a while before actually doing it. This time was spent collecting the kits and stowage that would be needed as well as researching materials for the groundwork such as the Silflor grass and the Castin’ Craft resin for the water. I used prior builds as testbeds for what I wanted to do here such as the Briegel base and the stowage on the Hovertank.

The kits used were two UC Hardgraph Gundam releases from Bandai. The Hovertruck and the Zaku head. I used a few figures from the Hovertruck set and others were from Dragon and Tamiya German figure sets.

I
can’t describe how glad I am that Bandai started
doing a 1/35 scale Gundam line of support vehicles
and ground troops under the Universal Century
Hardgraph (UCHG) name. Really fantastic releases
so far and lets me do Gundam and 1/35 armor at
the same time which just rocks. Best of both worlds!
I’ve had my UCHG releases on my shelf for a little
while now while working on other projects and
planning for this one. This project will be a
diorama of the Type 74 Hovertruck and the Zaku
head.

All of my recent projects have allowed
me to test certain elements of the terrain and
building that I’ve been planning for this amd
now I get to put them all together. The terrain
will consist of a dirt road, a grassy slope and
a rocky stream. The hovertruck will be sitting
on the road while the severed Zaku head will be
resting half in the stream. This will give me
the chance to do some nice rusty effects to the
head. The figures will be resting and taking a
break while on the road delivering supplies or
maybe just making camp for a few days while out
on maneuvers. Below is a diagram I did to map
out what I’m planning. As usual the actual terrain
will probably be modified and shifted as I adjust
to fit the elements into place. Each square is
1 inch so as you can see, this will be a rather
large piece.

I started on the hovertruck first
as I think that’ll take the longest to complete.
I decided to add an interior to this since the
kit does not have one. Pretty surprising since
there’s so many openable hatches and doors. I
found some reference pics of the interior from
the anime and source books thanks to some helpful
folks on the forum. I’m using these mostly as
rough guides and am not going to kill myself making
it anime-accurate. There’s really no need since
the hatches in which you can view the interior
are actually not that big. I guttet out a wall
that had been placed between the driver/nav area
and the rear communications/gunner areas of the
interior as it wasn’t there in the refs and would
allow more visibility of all the work I’m doing.
Here’s some images of where I’m at. Mostly I’ve
got rough parts and areas installed and will detail
them up more later. I had to order some diamond-plate
textured styrene sheet from the LHS since they
were out so much of my next steps are waiting
on me installing the flooring. The chairs in the
front are leftovers from my 1/35 Cobra since I
got resin updates for them.

Lastly is the stowage I’ll be adding
to the rear bed of the truck. I only had 1 of
each of the 2 gas cylinder sizes you see below
so I ended up making molds so I could cast a bunch.
While I was at it I made molds for some other
resin stowage bits and radio equipment from armor
kits to use on the truck.

06.14.2007 » Base

I finished most of the part removal
and nub-sanding for the hovertruck and zaku head.
Still some seams to sand down however on the HT.
For now though I’ve been focusing on the base
as I need it partially ready before I can start
the damage mods to the Zaku head. I started with
some scrap plywood for the base and added some
other scraps to build up the base for the roadway.
Leftover sprue and citrus netting was used to
make a frame for the hillsides and then paper
mache towels were added. Rocks are temporarily
in place until I add the rest of the celluclay.
I used Balsa sheet for the sides of the base and
stained them. I’m in the process of adding the
successive coats of polycrylic to seal them. Once
that’s done I can add the rest of the celluclay.
You can also see how I’m using some wood molding
glue to partially seal the inside of the balsa
from the future wetness of the additional celluclay
which may warp it.

While for now it just looks like
a boring HT and Zaku head, I think it’ll be the
modified figures and their actions that will make
this very interesting. That and the rocky stream.
That’ll be VERY fun and challenging to create.
Here’s some pics:

06.17.2007 » Base
and Stowage

I’ve been making some simple one-piece
molds to create additional stowage for this project.
There’s a lot of room in the truck bed for stuff,
but most stowage sets available for armor don’t
really have what I want, enough of what I want,
or just plain don’t fit right. The Italeri Modern
Battle Accessories set had 2 different sizes of
gas cylinders, but only one of each. Growing up
I lived near a Corning Glass Plant and saw many
trucks carrying loads of gas cylinders. They always
intriqued me so I wanted to recreate that here.
I first made a mold and cast 4 cylinders. Then
I took those 4 (of each) and made another mold
so that I could cast a bunch at one time. I added
a barrel and some small canisters too to fill
up the space. The hovertruck also came with 2
large ammo boxes. They have openable lids, but
for my needs that wasn’t necessary. I took one
and glued it shut and filled in any gaps. I made
a mold of it (and a beer and water bottle) and
made a bunch to use here and for later projects
as well. These are large enough to look good on
1/20 MaK projects too. The beer and water bottles
will be cast in clear resin, having made a new
mold to cast a bunch at once. Then I can paint
them with clear green or brown and the water bottles
will have just a clear blue lid. The resin I’ve
been using mixes clear and dries white. What’s
great is that you can see any air bubbles in these
simple molds and tease them out with some wire
before it sets. Below you can see my truck bed
filled.

Also I finished applying the celluclay
to my base. Now I can start on the damage to the
Zaku head!

06.19.2007 » Figs
and Damage

Next up for this in-progress report
is the Zaku head damage and the figures. I’ve
used figures from a few different sets for this
project. I’ve used the squatting figure from the
Hovertruck (unaltered) and the “relaxed”
figure who will have a new head (gotta sculpt
a new neck) who is laying on a rock. I used two
figures from the Dragon Afrika Korps set as well.
As far as modifying them, they both have caps
that match the Hovertruck figure (included in
the Afrika Korps set, but for the other 2 figs)
and the one who is fishing has a new right hand
that will hold the pole better. The fishing poles
will be scratchbuilt. The tan figure from the
Tamiya German Tank Loading Crew set will be carrying
bags of ice and has had his hair removed. The
box below him will have a tarp inside, and bottles
of beer, bottled water, and ice.

The Zaku head is almost done now
too. I just need to clean up the “d-rings”
and add a rough cast texture. I might dent up
the “nose” too. To make the damage I
used a Dremmel, candle (to bend the plastic out),
and pliars. I made a dent on the top left of the
head by heating that part with a candle and pressing
it in with the handle of my pliars.

Painting and Weathering the
Zaku Head

06.21.2007 » Head
Rust

After the primer on the head had
cured I began the painting and weathering process.
The process of weathering and painting the head
to look rusty and damaged will be a little more
complex than what I do for normal vehicle weathering.
First the parts were primed/textured with a dark
gray Krylon primer. After that cured I sprayed
it unevenly with a rust colored mix of Tamiya
Acrylics.

When that dried enough (a few hours)
I applied mapping and drybrushing with Tamiya
XF-12 J.N. Grey. What is mapping? It’s creating
larger areas of paint and stains to give a multi-dimensional
look to the weathering. Imagine that you’re basically
painting small islands on a map. Below you can
see wone of these spots/islands. Later when I
apply more effects, washes, discoloration/fading,
etc… they won’t be so pronounced. You begin
blending these in by drybrushing around and on
them with the same color.

After the XF-12 mapping I applied
another coat of mapping, but this time with Tamiya
XF-71 Cockpit Green (IJN). This has a great Zaku-esque
color to it and contrasts the rust nicely. This
time the mapping and drybrushing was applied with
bits of sponge where the prior coat was applied
with a few different brushes. After the XF-71
green had dried I drybrushed some more XF-12 over
it to dull the look and help blend it in. Then
small brighter spots of XF 12 were applied much
like negative paint chips here and there. These
greens will basically be whatever paint is left
on the Zaku after the initial damage and sitting
in the rising/falling water for a few years.

And lastly for this update I applied
a gloss then satin coat of Future to seal it,
an earth colored wash, and a flat coat of Future.
Next up is more washes and staining to bring out
the rusty effects and blend in the leftover green
paint.

07.02.2007 » Head
Progress

The head is pretty much done. After
applying some oil paint rust streaking, a wash
or 2, and a flat coat, I applied the pigment powders.
I still think it needs some more, but I wanted
to get it affixed to the base first. Here’s some
pics:

07.04.2007 » Busted
and Rusted

The head rusting is pretty much
done. I tweaked it a bit and added more light
rust streaks. I also added some waterline dirt-marks.
They’re not showing up well in the pics however.
Next up is the scary part… pouring the water
and potentially ruining the head. Scary scary
scary.

Painting and Weathering the
Hovertruck and Stowage

06.21.2007 » Primed
Interior

Here’s some shots of the primed
interior of the hovertruck. When the primer is
cured I’ll be painting this in Tamiya Deck Tan
and weathering it up. I’m using the light deck
tan so that once it’s all closed up you’ll have
a better view since it’ll be a lighter color.
That’s the hope anyway! Plus a lot of real armor
have very light colored interiors. Here’s the
pics:

06.25.2007 » Such
a SHAME!

What a shame… what a shame. The
interior of my Hovertruck is all painted and weathered.
It looks great! The shame is that now I’ll be
closing it up and you’ll only be able to view
it through some little windows. I airbrushed the
entire interior with Tamiya Deck Tan. Then I hand-painted
all of the little details, consoles and such with
various colors. After a gloss coat of FFA, decals
and a satin coat of Future, I applied the paint
chips and then gave it all a light earth colored
wash. Then I gave it a flat coat and added some
stowage, water bottles, maps, modeling mags, and
the Mig FAQ. Here’s a bunch of pics.

I also painted and weathered all
of the stowage since I needed to add some inside
before closing it up. I think all of my recasted
gas cylinders, barrels, and ammo boxes turned
out great. The large wooden box was scratchbuilt,
while the others were from a Tamiya set. Those
were also fun to paint and weather. Overall I’m
very happy with the results. The various colors
and tones of the stowage will add a nice bit of
visual interest to the piece.

07.02.2007 » Fish
and Chips

The hovertruck has been painted
using Tamiya Khaki Drab as a base then lightening
the panels with a lighter mixture of the khaki
drab + khaki + white. After that was done, a gloss
coat and decals were applied. Then a light green
filter followed by the paint chips. I still have
some paint chips to do yet then onto the fading/discoloration.
Since this is a truck/utility type vehicle I want
it to look somewhat “broken in” and
worn.

07.03.2007 » More
Chips

The chips are all done. The scraping
on the front part of the HT was done first with
a brush, then with a sponge. The longer thinner
scrapes are done by drybrushing with the same
sponge.

07.03.2007 » More
Chips

The fading and wash is done for
the hovertruck. The first pic shows just the fading.
The second two show the hull after the wash. The
wash is a dirt color and not real heavy. The dusting
effects with pigments will show off the dirt and
dust later.

07.07.2007 » Weathering
with pigments

Now that the wash has cured, a final
flat coat has been applied and weathering with
mud and pigments has begun. First I did a pre-dusting
using a mixture of Tamiya Flat Earth and Buff.
Then I mixed some my my sifted dirt that I used
for the base with some water and used a thick
old brush to spatter it all over the underside
andwhere else that the turbines might blow mud
and water. And finally I’m in the process of adding
dusting here and there with pigment powders. To
do the crew footprints I made a mold of one of
the Hovertruck crew’s feet which have treads molded
in. I then poured more silicone in that mold and
made a “foot stamp”. What’s cool is
that it “erases” or places pigments
depending on where you use it. It erased from
the bed and the collected pigments from that it
released when placed on the roof.

07.08.2007 » Pretty
Much Done

The truck is pretty muc done except
for a few minor things like painting the rest
of the lesnes and applying the mirrors. I think
I’m going to use some chrome window tint for the
mirrors. It’s thin sheets and thinner once the
film is peeled from the clear backing. The stowage
is all added and the weathering is all done. The
stowage adds a fantastic and much needed splash
of color and visual interests to the monochromatic
scheme. Here’s pics:

Display Base, Figures, and
Final Touches

06.25.2007 » River
Rock

I finally, after much searching
and testing found the perfect cheap and nicely
scaled river rock for my creek/river bed. I had
first tried dyed cat litter and it looked okay,
but not perfect. Talus and ballast was too uniform.
But then my neighbor had his driveway paved. The
pavers had poured construction sand all over the
asphault which at first I paid no mind to. However,
after a good rain, all the littlest sand particles
had washed away and what was left was what you
see below. I went to Home Depot and for under
$3.00 got a 50 pound bag of the stuff. After some
sifting through fine mesh to remove the sand,
all that was loeft was the rocks. About 5 cups
of sand yeilded 1 cup of rocks. Below is a pic
of some in a Crystal Light cup which I save tons
of and use for mixing washes/resins.

07.02.2007 » Figs,
Ducks, and More Rocks

First up is the base progress. I
applied the dirt using my dirt tutorial to the
base. I sorted the riverocks via a strainer into
a small and large sized rock piles. Then I started
adhering the river rocks by first pouring on the
larger rocks and then over them the smaller ones
filling in the gaps and such. I wanted larger
ricks near the shore and the smaller ones out
in the actual water so that under the water they
look smaller and deeper. I didn’t go all the way
up the slope with them since that’ll be grass
and such. The Zaku bullet casings were also added
on the shore as if they were washed up by waves/floods.
The weathered Zaku head was attached to the base
using 5-min epoxy then more rocks were applied
around it to make it look more sunken in. The
rocks were then given drops of “prepared
matte medium” from ScenicExpress.com. I applied
it using an eyedropper and applied it liberally.
Now the rocks are set and are not going anywhere
without some effort.

I’ve also been painting the figures
using oil paints over an acrylic base coat. They’re
just about done. They need a little of the fading/discoloration
technique, a little bit of a wash here and there
just to pop certain things, and a flat coat. The
eyes also need done. Also, a few days ago I was
thinking about the guy squatting at the shore
and why he’s right on the waters edge looking
in. I decided that he needs to be looking at some
ducks swimming in the water. Maybe he’s wearing
the gloves to try and catch one for dinner. Who
knows? So I started sculpting some small ducks
today. Here’s the progress so far.

07.03.2007 » Duck,
Duck, Duck, Duck…

No geese. Ducks are about finished.
Just need to clean up the males beak a bit.

07.04.2007 » Water
Tests

Here’s my tests of the resin over
the past few months. Basically any time I knew
I’d be pouring clear resin I had a test ready
for the leftovers. The first tests were to see
how different glues would work to hold down the
rocks which in the beginning were going to be
colored cat litter. Later I tested colors mixed
in the resin to check for reactions. And finally
I checked my final glue and water color mix. Lastle
is the ducks sitting on my final test. The ducks
will be sat into the resin a bit in the end. THe
resin I’m using is called Castin’ Craft.

07.06.2007 » Tests
can’t account for everything.

Well, just when I thought that I
knew just about everything that could go wrong
with the water pour, took measures against such
disasters, and believed all went well… of course
there was a problem this morning. Let’s start
from the beginning on the pour process…

First I followed the advice in the
Mig FAQ and used clear tape to make a wall to
hold in the resin. This worked well when pouring
the first layer of resin as seen below:

The tape wasn’t tall enough so I
added more and poured the second layer. This also
went well, but the tape started to warp a little.
No biggie as It wasn’t a look I was against as
it looked liquidy.

I poured the final layer and waited
for it to firm up some so I could to the ripples.
I had practiced the ripples on the previous 2
layers so I knew that part would go fine which
it did. After the resin began to firm up I added
the ducks. Again, all was good at this point.
A few hours later the resin felt hard enough to
remove the tape which I did. I had noticed a small
fissure between the resin and the base in the
front and didn’t think too much of it. I covered
the water/base with a box to keep out dust untim
it was no longer the slightest bit tacky which
can take a few days sometimes. This was all yesterday.
This afteroon I checked on it and noticed the
fissure had spread and that the side of the water
opposite the head had come up. I can only assume
this is due to shrinking of the resin during curing.
At the front corner it’s raised about 1/8″
or so. Grrrr. The side of the head didn’t raise
up and I can only assume that the head which was
anchored to the base VERY securely held the resin
in place. Next time I’ll add a few small d-rings/staples
under the water to keep it down all over. Lesson
learned and passed on. Enjoy! Also if I ever have
the need for water like this again (which I certainly
will) I’ll try the Andreas Miniatures water instead
of the Castin’ Craft as I hear it’s supurb.

Now, I could sit around and be pissed
off about it, but I have an easy fix. I was contemplating
adding another wood boarder around the base as
a decorative feature, but decided not to. Well…
now I have to. I bought some thin basswood and
just finished staining it. When that’s finished
I’ll glue the strips around the outside edge.
This will add some nice edging to the base and
cover up the gaps. Whew. Glad it’s not a round
base! Here’s the pics. Next I’ll add some ripples
on the sure and around the head using gloss gel
medium and FFA.