Large Update- 10/3 WIP- PG-117 Soviet Dock Diorama

The duck is a german spy, get it!!

But really, that looks really good, the only issue I have with it, is it seems the guy is going to walk off the edge of the boat, he doesnt seem to be watching where hes going

Thanks Bodge, PanzerGuy, Nick Steve & Smeagol.

Smeagol: I see what you mean about falling off the edge.  The figure in question is only temporarily tacked on for display purposes, and will most likely not be his exact final position.  Thanks

IanIsBored2000 wrote:

Thanks from all of you! The splahing water effects are a mix of 5 minute epoxy, clear caulking, CA glue, and strands from cotton sawb/ear cleaners/Q-tips coated in clear nail polish to make drips. Doog:  You're completely right.  Somehow I missed that when I was planning the scene, but it should be easy enough to lay in some rough concentric circles around the perimeter of the boat's hull with more clear caulking.  The difficult part will be the areas where the hull's waves are spreading out perpendicular to those heading towards shore, and moving the water in all kinds of weird directions.  Still debating whether or not to put some water in the bottom of the boat and a guy bailing water with a bucket.

Thanks guys!

Birdman....I used a variety of grass on this project.  The tall yellowish patches are Woodland Scenices Light Green Field Grass.  The lower, greener grass is a "grass mat" from one of the companies like Noch or Silflor, can't remember which, but they're pretty similar.  I always had problems with my static grass standing up, so I tried a "grass mat".  They're essentially pieces of thick paper with longish static grasses somehow glued on so that every piece stands on end.  If I remember correctly, it's about $14 for like 2 square feet of it.  The only problem is since it all stands perfectly up, the border between grass and no grass is too clear cut and unnatural looking, from dirt to lush grass on a perfect line.  So I just scraped off a little grass from a seperate, unused area of the mat and sprinkled it along the border, which made the flow from dirt to grass more realistic looking. 

Hope that ramble makes a little sense!

They're great to work with.  Plus, since they're all glued in a standing position to the mat, they don't come loose when you drybrush lighter shades on.  I'm still on the lookout for some taller grass mats, in the 10mm range to make convincing fields, I think the ones I used were somewhere around 4mm high, to give you an idea of different heights.  IMPO, anything below 4mm that isn't supposed to look freshly cut and maintanied, like a yard or city park, just doesn't look natural.  

Now I'm giving myself ideas to make a dio of an overgrown city park/playground, that was long since abandoned after bombings dropped lawn maintenance to the bottom of the city's prioritities...weed covered swing sets and old rusty slides covered in leaves, with a ragged teddy bear or hat left to hint at the absence of children playing...now I'm just getting off topic.

Nice job so far Ian I realy like how the water is spraying up around the goose.

Thanks Dwight & Stick Man

Birdman:  I just cut to shape with scissors and then glue with diluted white glue like you said.  You will probably have to do another thin layer of whatever ground material you originally had to cover the edges of the paper backing the grass sits on, and bury the grass into the dirt a bit so it looks like its growing out of it, not on top of it.  If you don't have any luck finding grass mats, let me know and I'll find out what company and website I got mine from. 

EDIT:  They were either the Heki brand or Noch brand from this website I beleive: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/departments.asp?dept=1051  Cruise around that site and I'm sure you'll find some great stuff.