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I've been planning a jungle diorama for some time , something with trees and fallen logs , and in general a footprint that poses some serious problems for a diorama for playscale , or 1:6 scale figures . My completed Leopard Girl custom has some rather size oriented accessories , a leopard , a spear and a 15 inch tall gorilla , and using Frazetta's classic cover art for Eerie Magazine as inspiration with it's writhing tree roots means a base that measures 22 inches by 24 inches . At that size , with that number of figures to accomodate , you need to have a base that is both strong and sturdy , but also lightweight - afterall unless you're planning on making it an installation to your living room , you will eventually have to move it .  Having been creating dioramas for over thirty years I have developed a rather irritating habit of keeping every piece of styrofoam packing material from every large appliance I have ever purchased , having realized very early that you can never guess when you just might need a large piece of foam . As a teenager I was constantly creating extremely large " playsets " , from a 3 foot by six foot cavern to a five foot by four foot battlefield . My dioramas shrank as I moved from GI Joes and Megos to 25mm miniatures but I continued to save the styrofoam even though I rarely had any specific use for it . My one storage closet is practically a styrofoam packing crate warehouse . Since my reentry to 12 inch action figures , my dioramas have , as a result begun to get BIG again . For my WIP Cool Girl HQ , I have specifically designed it to be an installation piece , one that will serve as a both a major display in my living room as well as a room divider . My successive dioramas , the South Western Living Room , the Dark Mausoleum and now The Leopard Girl's Jungle have all shared the necessity of being able to accomodate a large number of figures while still being light and mobile . For The leopard Girl's Jungle I was fortunate to have a rather large and thick piece of styrofoam perfect for the requirements of carving out a jungle terrain while still remaining lightweight and strong enough to support the figures that will be displayed on it .  My introduction to the usefulness of styrofoam came about in grade school art class , and it has been a staple of my diorama construction ever since . As a basic construction form it's hard to beat , being not just lightweight , but solid and really easy to carve . The only real drawback to it is the amount of " junk " its use results in , during a project such as this your workroom literally becomes filled with little white pebbles and your skin and clothes get a fine layer of white pebbly embellishments . God bless vacuum cleaners !  You really don't need to do much to get suitable contouring for a terrain base using styrofoam , and depending on a project's particular needs , the amount of work given can vary . For the Leopard Girl's Jungle the details at this stage really only need to be gross contours , since the detail work will come about later , through use of terrain foliage and silk plants . This entire base will be given a plaster cloth coating that will serve to strengthen and cover the base form with a hardshell outer surface that can then be carved , sanded , painted , sculpted upon etc. etc .  A terrain modelling medium that can serve as an alternative to carving styrofoam packing crates is a 2 part foam casting material called Mountains in Minutes , that can offer outstanding rocky terrain by simple chemical reaction . Mixed up it soon begins to expand and depending on how you pour it , can allow you to sculpt your terrain in real time . The end result is practically perfect , and with slight applications of the hobby knife once it has hardened , you can achieve some rather amaxing rock terrain features with a minimum of effort .  Painted and with foliage appled , the terrain created with Mountains in Minutes is remarkably realistic in appearance . 2 part Polyurethane Foam 2 part Polyurethane foam  RigidWrap , plaster infused cloth is used to cover the styrofoam base giving it a hard and durable surface . Once dry , the plaster surface may be painted and covered with scenic foams , lichen , or whatever else you might want to add . The plaster while adding a great deal of strength to the base adds very little additional weight which makes it perfect for a diorama this size . | Jungle Diorama | | Diorama Accessories | The Dark Mausoleum | New Dioramas | darkmausoleum_part2 | diorama_technique | LeopardGirl_Diorama | shoji diorama | Shoji Groundwork | Mayan Triarama | Diorama Technique2 | | Mail-O-Rama | Geeb's How To | Head Sculpts Using Polymer Clay | Customizing The Batcycle | 1/6 scale diorama | terrain diorama | 1/6 Scale Boots | Re-Rooting Hair | BimBott | Read_A_Book | WorksInProgress | Aki Ross Repaint | Gun-Bashing | painting heads | | Return Home | Updates | The Archive | Gorby Site Map | Geeb-O-Rama's Model Workshop | Geeb's Toy Box | Geeb-O-Rama Goodies | Movie Madness | World Of The Bizarre | Cool Beans | |
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