Topic: Clonehead's dioramas

[Clonehead]

Four more desert dio shots.

[Phatty]

Lookin' slick Clint!  This is shaping up VERY nicely!

[Clonehead]

Lookin' slick Clint!  This is shaping up VERY nicely!

Thanks, Pat! It's coming together more quickly than I would have imagined.

[Tamer]

reminds me of Saudi Arabia and Iraq!

[Clonehead]

reminds me of Saudi Arabia and Iraq!

That was kind of the idea, buddy, although I've never been to those places.

[Clonehead]

Let's get along with the contest mando's little dio, shall we?
   As I mentioned, I want to incorporate some clumps of desert grass into our dio, here. I'm using another Woodland Scenics item, Harvest Gold Field Grass for our grassy clumps. This stuff is finer than human hair but makes for a nice effect when all is said and done.
  First, I am using a 1/8 inch drill bit to bore some holes into the groundwork. "I drilled 5 holes in random locations away from where the fig was to be placed and I just spun the bit with my fingers" Then, one at a time, I squeezed a generous drop or two of Elmer's white glue into one of the holes. Using my fingers, I grabbed a bundle of about 8-10 strands of the field grass,grouped and spun them together and using scissors, cut a 1 1/2 inch bundle. "It makes things easier for placement if the end of the bundle has strands that end together and cutting is the easiest way to do this" I then place a small drop of the glue on the cut end to help hold the strands together and poke that end into one of the pre glued holes. After placing two or three sprigs like this in each hole, I kind of fan the fibers out evenly with my fingers or a pair of tweezers. After I placed clumps in all 5 locations, I added another drop of glue at each location to help fill in the rest of the hole and to hold the clump strands better.
 

[Clonehead]

After the glue dries, we will trim the clump strands to a more desireable height and then paint the strands to make them stronger and to give them some more definition. At this point, the strands are still so fine that they are hard to see and with some paint, each strand will get thicker and easier to see. That will give me an excuse to use the same color as the armor plates on the mando for the grass which will visually pull the piece and figure together even more. "it's nice to be able to do the camo mando first and then talor your dio's colors so that the figure's camo is more convincing" We need to touch up the areas where the drilled holes and the glue are, anyway, as well as the now trimmed foot peg.

[Clonehead]

First, you have a pic of the two dios together, one is painted but not quite done and here is this other diorama brownie. What will I do with that one, you say? I have decided to paint it more of a Ryloth/Mars rusty color so that I can make it work for the Ponds figure that I plan to list on Ebay, this weekend.
   I started by mixing a watery rust color lightened with some white and then thought that it might look more like the pale rust color of Ryloth if I mixed in some flat yellow, as well. I brushed on this watery mixture over everything, including the rocks allowing it to soak into the diorama snow as I went. I then drybrushed on the same color of light brown that I used for the contest mando's undercoverings, concentrating on the rocks, big and small, and lightly drybrushed the sand/snow groundwork, also. The plan was to do this and then mix a lighter rust and drybrush it, also but after drybrushing the brown, it looked good to me so I left it like it was.

[Clonehead]

In the third shot, the flash makes things a little too bright but in the last shot, the colors of the two dios are right on.
  All I have to do now, is trim and paint the grass and touch up on the desert one, cut the footpeg shorter and paint it on the Ryloth one, strip the tape around the borders and stain the borders on both, and I am done with both.

Man, when the Ebayers see Ponds on that Ryloth dio, they are likely to crap eggrolls. That auction will put me back on the ebay map, for sure.

[Clonehead]

Well, I got the grass painted and did the touchups on the contest dio and then, trimmed the footpeg wire and touched up the Ryloth dio and now it's time to trim off the protective tape from the bare wood border of each dio. Using a hobby knife, I carefully cut around the parameter and then, peeled off the tape on each. All that's left now, is to stain the parameter of each dio. Wouldn't you know it, I haven't a drop of stain in the house so I will have to make a run to the hardware store to get some.

Got one teaser shot there, of the contest dio with painted grass detail.

[Clonehead]

I returned from the hardware store with some Colonial Maple colored Minwax brand Wood Finish which I shook, opened, stirred, and brushed onto the exposed edges of our dioramas. I didn't get too sloppy so no wipeup of excess stain was required. I'm liking the color of this stain.

[Clonehead]

Two more inside shots and then, some outside shots.

[Clonehead]

Four more shots of the contest desert dio, outside. I like those last two shots with the sky in the background.

[Clonehead]

Here's some shots of the Ryloth diorama inside but in the sunlight. I kind of like these shots with the subject in the sunlight and the dark shadow background.
  I am going to post the rest of the Ryloth dio outside shots in my customs thread.

[Clonehead]

Outside shots of the Ryloth diorama with the Ponds figure.
Man, that Ryloth dio didn't take much effort and the longest part of it's production was waiting for the Woodland Scenics snow to dry.
  That does it! I'm going to Hobby Lobby, tomorrow, for more wood plaques.