Not Sure What To Do

Sounds grrrrrrreat gents....thanks for the help.

I agree with you Al.  The plain dirt looks O.K. for desert or a dirt road.  For a rutted field or other ground, a little Celluclay or something else to make some relief looks better.  Just offering up a simple solutions for a descent first dio base.

I have to disagree with my friend, Gino. I always use at least a little Celluclay for my bases, just to get an organic feel to the base. I mix it with a good dollop of white glue, some fine railroad ballast, some brown acrylic paint and some water to get an oatmeal thick paste. I also drill holes in my base to give it more bite. I keep the depth to less than a quarter inch if at all possible. A plain piece of wood without some added ground work will look unnatural unless you're depicting a paved road surface or a football field.

First off, you need to stain and seal the wood with a good varnish or eurathane.  This will keep the wood from warping by absorbing any water from the process.  If you are looking to just do some basic groundwork of dirt and grass, all you need to do is use some white glue (Elmer's) and cover the base with it, then sprinkle on some dirt, add static grass, and paint.  For more relief, you can use products like celluclay (a paper mache-like product), Durhams' Water Putty, pieces of cardboard covered with plaster, etc. to build up the relief for the ground.  Then cover it as above with dirt, static grass, paint, etc.

Hope that helps.  Good luck.

Vartan041,

Shep Paine recommends Celluclay for groundwork. Lynn Kessler, in his diorama book, recommends Sculptamold. Both are powdered papier-mâchè products that are mixed with water and glue to adhere to the base.

These links will take you to a couple of FSM pdfs about diorama building which might prove useful.

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/objects/pdf/fsm-hd0107.pdf
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/objects/pdf/fmd1004.pdf

Hope this helps.