Violinist diorama base work part 7 (and figure)

Bubble, bubble

With the resin ‘water’ in the fountain now dry I started adding the many layers of Vallejo Water Effects to the pool of water and the spout of water.  The spout of water is a piece of clear fishing line glued into place and then water effects painted over the top to make a water stream.  For the pond I tried to make the turbulent water nearest where the water stream hits.  There probably needs to be another 3-4 layers to call this one finished.

For the main base it was a bit of two steps forward, one step back.  I glued on the wooden board onto the foam (to make a more solid base for all the rest of the components to glue to) and then started the dirt ground work with some DAS modelling clay.

Cork rocks in the ground work

 Then I glued on the foam stone ground work sheet.  At this point I realised I had trimmed the stone work too much and there was a small (.5mm) gap on two sides.  Secondly the ground work would need to be raised more than I imagined to meet up with the level of the stone ground work.

Flagstones glued one, pond retaining wall done, edging being glued..

So out came the milliput and I filled in the gaps between the stone ground work and the base edge.  While I had the milliput out I also made up the stone retaining wall around the pond.

I planned to cover all the layers of the base by putting styrene sheet around the edges of the base.  So I decided to do that next so I would know the level that the ‘dirt’ ground would have to be at.  For the edges I used 0.5mm styrene sheet glued onto the foam with Shelleys Allfix glue (one of the few glues that doesn’t damage foam).

Another job going backwards is the wall that the fountain is on.  I found the right edge (originally edged in black) will need to be repainted to look like the corner of the wall instead.  That edge of the wall and the fence weren’t working together how I originally planned.

Violinist at last getting some paint love

I also got some figure painting done (finally).  I’m pretty happy with the face (but will continue to fiddle for a bit) and I blocked out the inner shirt, pants, stockings and shoes.  So far I’ve shaded the pants to near completion.  Like all my major figures I spent a few hours doing colour map work on paper first to try and sort out shading and highlight colours.  These aren’t always final but they do help me trying to get a consistent colour feel.

Painting notes - yes it really is worth the time :)

Next week will be finishing off the edging of the base and then fixing up the dirt ground work.  Some more water layers on the fountain and maybe painting the pond brick work.  Also some more figure work I hope.