My first project is a simple small diorama with four or five figures. It's a scene of US soldiers digging up an Iraqi weapons cache.
This is the nearly completed diorama base, with the figures I've decided to use placed in their approximate locations. I will be going through many steps in the construction of this piece, particularly since I changed my plans mid-stream and made the project larger than I originally intended. The figures in this display are all Verlinden resin figures. The weapons are a mix of resin and plastic pieces from various kits, and the crates are from an old plastic tank kit.
The base is constructed of floral foam blocks cut into a circular shape and coated with a water based foam sculpting plaster I found at HobbyTown USA called Foam Coat. It sets up very quickly so you have to work fast and in small batches but it's great stuff, has almost no grit and is also great for pouring into molds. The foam pieces were glued together with hot glue and then coated with the plaster. The retaining wall corner was built from 1/4" thick foamboard and styrene stock coated with a thin coat of the same plaster to resemble stucco. The base of the display is 3/4" thick MDF.
The original design was actually quite a bit smaller, and rectangular. I decided to expand it to give myself a little more space for the figures and to give the diorama a more finished look.
It took a little searching but I found the photos from when I decided to modify the base. You can see where I added the additional floral foam after gluing the diorama down using hot glue. I also extended the corner wall with some more foamboard.
Once the glue was cured, I covered the exposed foam with more Foam Coat and painted it to match the rest of the base. I then made the tarps on the ground from tissue paper soaked in thinned white glue and painted it once it was dry.
I'm still playing with the figure layout, and I have done a little more painting on the base recently.
.
