Now presenting Dr. StrangeBase or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Build a Diorama
As promised, here's my first-ever base. I followed the directions in James K. Wechsler's Building and Detailing Realistic Sherman Tanks
The setup:
I used a sheet of .080" thick sheet styrene, 6" x 12". I had considered cutting a second sheet in half and gluing the two sheets together, but after placing the model on the one sheet I felt like it was a good enough fit. As instructed, I scored the sheet in a crosshatch pattern using a razor saw in order to give the plaster mix something to bite into (note: this generates a lot of styrene dust, more than I was prepared for). I painted the base hardware store brown spray paint, but I'm not sure it's even necessary.
The goop:
(Sorry for the blurry image). This is a mix of Plaster of Paris, Grade A Pennsylvania backyard dirt, Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement, white glue, water, and a mix of black, brown, and rust acrylic paints. I didn't measure anything, just kind of threw it all together until it was the consistency of pudding.
The spread:
At this point I spread the plaster on the base, which was very much like icing a cake (I almost licked the knife once or twice). After this photo I went back and smoothed it out a bit more, but it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.
The sprinkle:
Here I sprinkled on the rest of my dirt. I think it looks a lot like a crumb-topped cake at this point (drool).
The grass:
The last step was to sprinkle on some greenery - I used Woodland Scenics medium green "coarse turf". I spread it out as best I could (it tends to clump), and pushed it down gently into the wet plaster. I'm pretty pleased with it at this point, but I may go back later and add more grass using the scenic cement.
Overall, I really enjoyed doing this. It was a lot easier and more fun than I expected, and I like how it turned out. Thanks for reading.