November 09 2007 | Why caring?

To explain what follows here is a picture I took this summer -it's more or less the kind of effect I want to acheive with this diorama.
When the water is flat it *is* flat.
the problem with the resin is that it *shrinks* which produces a crap effect when you immerge partially elements in it. Even more worrying is the fact that it never looks like a flat water. it creates some sort of uneven bumps -which ios really okay when you want to create a sea, but not it you want to create a pond-like water!

November 09 2007 | A Strange device to get the stuff flat

So here's the mess I did to be absouletely sure the water would be flat :
-create a box around the diorama
-pouring the resin with some excess that will run on the wooden borders
-press a glass surface on the top and keeping it on place with some of the devices that you can see on the picture (des "serres joints" en français).

I have been doing that 3 days ago. It's mostly a success but I don't have any pictures yet!
to be followed..

November 16 2007 | Finally the resin is done

Here's the final resin block that has been left to dry outside for a good week. It smells less this way.
It looks flat, it's actually a bit twisted!

November 16 2007 | Finally the resin is done II

Here's a close-up of the final result. You may notice the problem with trapped air bubbles. there's a big one on the top that I will have to cover in some way.
The water look opaque and so it will stay until I coat it with some kind of varnish like Clear Quote for instance. BTW you may notice some place near the air intake where you can see better through the water, well i have been treating it this way as a try.

November 16 2007 | Finally the resin is done -the video!

I plan to film through the whole of my next diorama! here's a single try i have been doing a few hours ago by a raging cold. it basically show the resin block -and also some not entirely unexpected mistake that will be soon attended :)

Below is a picture of the craddle simulation..

November 24 2007 | Painting the ground cover ... at long last

It has been quite a few time I didn't update this -got tired of my diorama. I can't believe it's been 7 months it's been started, i already dream about the new one.. oh well.

And then i made some major changes to the website, 1 year after i launched it! It should be a bit lighter when it comes to bandwith.

Yet today, i started it again -and considering the awful weather outside, i am likely to keep on working on it tomorrow!I start working again on the ground cover -i had already underpaint the ferns in green, and here i am paiting them individually.
Trying to play with a few green mixes and also some brown/leather tints to add some variation.Of course some final colour corrections will be needed once everything will be in place..

 I keep on playing with video too. So here I am basically painting a few leaves. It doesn't have much interest to be honest but well..

November 30 2007 | The small groundcover is painted

Just that one single picture today -I finally ended up painting all my tiny ground cover bits, a mix of various valejo greens + some light vrown for dead leaves.
I have been doing 2 series, the first is darker so that the leaves will be in less sunlit places while the second series is lighter. Of course, a lot of colour correction will have to be done when these ferns will be in place so that the "logical whole" rule is respected.
Now half the reeds are done, but there is too few light now for me to take them in picture. next will be the washing bucket too which is already half done..

December 02 2007 | This is the red day. The Bucket for a start

Yes, this is the day were I will be fixing up everything on the resin surface -hopefully.
I will set up my tripod, take that camera i was lent to do the movie, then putting everything in the garden shed to get started. So let's see the different elements
-First the bucket.
Just a few plastic parts, including the rim which was bent out of the side plastic length.
The grips were done out of that photoetch fret I made earlier + some hardened green stuff handles.