Totoro’s Prehistoric Putterings during the great Pandemic Pause

[Totoro]

Hi all,

Since the pandemic and it's associated boredom is what brought me back to this forum after I let life's distractions draw me away nearly a decade ago, I'm formally dedicating my new diorama page to it!  Since I'm now working from home and find I need a 3rd hobby to distract me from screens, I'm unpacking the dozen or so Shapeways figures I boxed up to ruin with paint in my retirement and will get busy ruining them now!   

In my past DinoToyBlog life I posted crude small dioramas I was making from polymer clay to use as scenery for my growing chocolasaur collection.  I'm going to probably keep most of my new dioramas small scale, but plan to expand them a bit in size and also launch off what I started to do with the chocolasaur dioramas and look to use mostly natural materials.  I'll try to avoid plastics and foams, etc. and use my magic coffee/spice grinder to create ground covers and faux foliage out of teas, herbs, pine needles, lichens, bark, etc...whatever I can come up with.  That's part of the challenge for me. 

Comments and suggestions are welcome as long as you understand I'm gonna kind of doing my own thing.  That said, as a professional biologist, I would like to strive for scientific accuracy, so especially welcome ideas and critiques on those things. 

So, here's a start to one:

"Browsing Brachiosaurs"


The base: black flagstone


3 small holes drilled for trees


Coat an area with glue


Sift rock dust and ground hemlock needles to create a base ground cover


Brush off excess cover materials from edge and rock cliff with dry paintbrush


Adding some small rocks and a couple trees


Top view


Adding in a creature (Krentz Alamosaurus, 1/144)


Top view

[indohyus]

A simple, yet elegant piece. Alamosaurus looks pretty amazing to, well done!

[ceratopsian]

The paint scheme on the Alamosaurus has a very Kaiyodo vibe.  It looks really striking.

[Totoro]

A simple, yet elegant piece. Alamosaurus looks pretty amazing to, well done!

Thanks.  Just started on it, so it'll get more complex, and the trees aren't finished, etc. 

I figure if I chronicle it a bit, then I can get some pointers and insights from some of the other members that do such amazing things.  I am considering trying to make the bases a bit interchangeable, so have drilled the holes for the trees (will add more), and the rocks aren't attached.  That way I can remove them for storage and transport when I retire and move away from Portland. 

I'm pondering how to make some small scale realistic looking cycads and tree ferns out of natural materials.  Making fern fronds without plastic is a challenge.  I'm scoping mosses to find something I might dry to resemble fronds, so I can avoid the piping approach used by Irimali. 

Thanks for looking and commenting.   

The paint scheme on the Alamosaurus has a very Kaiyodo vibe.  It looks really striking.

It kind of does, doesn't it.  I hadn't noticed that, but now that you say it.  

That is the first figure I have ever painted and just kind of made it up as I went along, so it's pretty crude with all brushwork and still no dry brushing or anything.  I have a lot of room to improve, so will hopefully get better with time. 

[Jose S.M.]

Even if it doesn't have a lot of brushing techniques I think the dinosaur looks great. The paint scheme also reminds me of Safari's Diplodocus a bit, but in an darker blue and more elaborate and interesting with the darker markings on the back and the red in the throat.

[Justin_]

I'm pondering how to make some small scale realistic looking cycads and tree ferns out of natural materials.  Making fern fronds without plastic is a challenge.  I'm scoping mosses to find something I might dry to resemble fronds, so I can avoid the piping approach used by

Acacia leaves like these would make good cycad leaves if you can do something to preserve them, as they get brittle really quickly. They are popular garden trees in my part of the UK, however they'd be too big for the scale your working with here.



Due to their fractal structure, the tips of ferns when they've recently fully opened can be used for modelling whole large fronds, however again you need to find a way to preserve them.

How old is the slate you're using as the base? Did you find that locally?

[irimali]

I haven't tried these methods yet but here's a how-to on preserving leaves:

https://www.wikihow.com/Preserve-Fall-Leaves

Other sites show the first method (decoupage) with watered down PVA glue or Mod Podge instead.   

Here's a video on the glycerine method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2qOrDAiENE

This guy shows how to color the leaves before preserving them (otherwise they'll turn brown). 

[Halichoeres]

This is great, from the flagstone base to the ground-hemlock moss to the strikingly painted sauropod. Thanks for sharing!

[Totoro]

I'm pondering how to make some small scale realistic looking cycads and tree ferns out of natural materials.  Making fern fronds without plastic is a challenge.  I'm scoping mosses to find something I might dry to resemble fronds, so I can avoid the piping approach used by

Acacia leaves like these would make good cycad leaves if you can do something to preserve them, as they get brittle really quickly. They are popular garden trees in my part of the UK, however they'd be too big for the scale your working with here.



Due to their fractal structure, the tips of ferns when they've recently fully opened can be used for modelling whole large fronds, however again you need to find a way to preserve them.

How old is the slate you're using as the base? Did you find that locally?

Great suggestions, Justin.  Lots of options for different scales, I think.  The trick will be finding and recognizing them when they present themselves while I'm out working in the field, I expect.  Then there is the preservation element.  Will check out Irimali's link soon to see what options are available with that technique.  I think mosses, lichens, club mosses, etc. probably offer the best options for me at my scale. 

The stone was acquired at a local rockyard, where they called it black flagstone, but, yeah...looks like slate to me, and cracks/splits like it.  I bought a ~2' x 3' piece for ~10 bucks and broke it into about 8 smaller pieces to use for diorama bases.     

I haven't tried these methods yet but here's a how-to on preserving leaves:

https://www.wikihow.com/Preserve-Fall-Leaves

Other sites show the first method (decoupage) with watered down PVA glue or Mod Podge instead.   

This guy shows how to color the leaves before preserving them (otherwise they'll turn brown). 

Thanks, Irimali!  Leave it to you to discover the cool techniques!  I'll look forward to checking out the video after work today. 

This is great, from the flagstone base to the ground-hemlock moss to the strikingly painted sauropod. Thanks for sharing!

My pleasure, Halichoeres, thanks for the kind words.    More to come.

Even if it doesn't have a lot of brushing techniques I think the dinosaur looks great. The paint scheme also reminds me of Safari's Diplodocus a bit, but in an darker blue and more elaborate and interesting with the darker markings on the back and the red in the throat.

Thank you for the gracious words, Jose.  It was a fun first stab at painting.  I'm sure I'll look back on it and grimace, but enjoyed it more than I expected, so will look forward to doing more.  I actually had some $ to burn, so scoured Shapeways for some small scale figures I liked and ordered a bunch.  Most of these will probably wait until I retire to ever see a brush, but I will probably select a few to work on.  I'll probably reveal the figures in a recent acquisition post when they arrive in August. 

[Bokisaurus]

Those are absolutely awesome! Very creative , I really like the stone base.
Nice colors on that sauropod 😃 can't wait to see it all complete.

[Justin_]

Please ignore! I was fixing the image link on my earlier post and somehow made a duplicate here

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Looks really good! I am looking forward to more. Your Paintjob on the Sauropod is really flashy and well done. I wish a was that good. I don't know why, but seeing your Diorama Base with a Sauropod, i kind of get Jurassic Park vibes. Maybe it is because of the overall openness and the solitairy Trees. *adds another Dioramathread to his List of interest and for learning*

[Totoro]

Please ignore! I was fixing the image link on my earlier post and somehow made a duplicate here

Aw, go on, @Justin_, you're too kind!   

Looks really good! I am looking forward to more. Your Paintjob on the Sauropod is really flashy and well done. I wish a was that good. I don't know why, but seeing your Diorama Base with a Sauropod, i kind of get Jurassic Park vibes. Maybe it is because of the overall openness and the solitairy Trees. *adds another Dioramathread to his List of interest and for learning*

Thank you, @Kapitaenosavrvs!   Yeah, I know better on the paint job, but these are my first ones, so am keeping my bar of expectations low for a while. I'm in the experimental apprentice phase.  Now if only I had a master to show me the path to improvement!   

I'd love to see some dioramas from you!  We can have fun sucking together! 

Those are absolutely awesome! Very creative , I really like the stone base.
Nice colors on that sauropod  can't wait to see it all complete.

Thank you B @Bokisaurus!   I'm having a bit of fun, and also like the stone base.  Really hoping to swap in natural things wherever possible. 

I don't know if my bases will really be complete.  Am thinking more of having foundations of a sort to be able to tailor and modify by swapping locations and types of vegetation/rocks, etc to fit with different dinosaurs.  Who knows how that'll work. 

Anyway, have been busy with work and a new kitten around the house (I am the pet-nurturer of the House ), but did find a little time to goof around a bit more with a different painting scheme on another Krentz Alamosaurus that I had.  I thought it might be cool to paint it in a style that would allow me to couple it with a couple Kaiyodo chocolate-Brachiosaurs I had, which are smaller.   I'm pretending they are juveniles, sauntering through the savanna with dad. 




Such a lovely afternoon they are having.  But...someone may be coming to spoil the picnic...

[Shonisaurus]

The diorama of the Totoro alamosaurus looked great on you. I think it's a good idea to spend the time making that kind of diorama, I also really like the diorama of the pair of brachiosaurus from Kaiyodo. Those miniature trees give a very realistic effect to the diorama.