Lanthanotus' dioramas [updated: Bases for Seismosaurus and Edaphosaurus]

[ceratopsian]

That's a really imaginative base.  I'm most envious of your skills!

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for your approval all.

I've to admit I did not bring the icelandic sand with me for that special purpose, but the nice black coloration made it a proper choice for that diorama..... however, the thing being a bit too bulky for my small desk, I build a much smaller base lacking a" thrilling" backstory, just a first diorama/base attempt with Sculptey. Need to get some more color.

[Shuvuuia]

Both of those bases for the Plateosaurus are excellent.

[Lanthanotus]

A small update on my "dinosaur related" work.... I guess you're all aware of the impressive Fauna Casts Allosaurus on  Carcass but the thing seems to be unavailable right now and while I like the somewhat archaic and simplistic style of the piece, I recognized some things I'd changed like the enlarged claw or the comparably wide strided stance of the Allosaurus (but I have never seen the model in person, so I may have a wrong impression in these cases). A lot of books show the scene in varying forms and I deceided to throw in one more as concept for a sculpture. The scene takes place at the bank of e dried out lake and I added some details and tried how small I could sculpt a Peteinosaurus for the roughly 1:40 scale. But as I plan to possibly make a mold once (or if somewhen) it's finished, I guess a more planar sculpt would have to do for this tiny flier.




The biginning of fossilization

[irimali]

That's an awesome detail! 

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for your interest in this thread and a special thanks to those who voted for my entry on this year's diorama contest. It was the first time I participated in the contest (I just registered to the forum not even a year ago) and with competition of such a great variety of dioramas this year I did not really expect to win, least of all the 1st place.

While I immideatly deceided to participate in the contest when it was announced (big thanks to the hosts!), it took me a while to choose a motif. The original intention was to use my interpretation of the classic Allosaurus on carcass, but as I couldn't refrain from posting progress pictures, this was not possible anymore.

Being a great fan of the art of Zdenek Burian and always up to build a small desktop diorama for my most treasured "dinos", I deceided to give my Bullyland Edaphosaurus a new home that could actually find a place on my desktop after photo shooting. I considered several ideas and finally deceided to create an interpretation combining of several themes from Burian's paintings, as can be seen here:

Edaphosaurus

Meganeura

Salamanders

Frog

Unfortunatly I did not make any photos of the work in progress, so you'll have to deal with written descriptions... the base of the diorama is made from cardboard as used in architecture models and then covered with cement. Two layers of glue, strewn with sand were added and made the base for first detailing. A thick mixture of glue and sand aided in fixing the cornifere trunks, horse tails and the likes to the base. Batting, covered in a mix of glue and paint made for the underwater roots though most of them can hardly be seen in the final diorama. The front side of the diorama was painted with burrowed molluscs, worms and a cave digged by an amphibian for its spawn and all the animal figures were fixed to their designated positions expect for the Edaphosaurus. The Diplocaulus, frog and Meganeura are made from Super sculpey (Medium blend), for the dragonfly I also used wire (legs), transparent foil (wings) and hair (antennas). As preparation for the final step a piece of acrylic glass was cut, heat bended and fixed to the open front and side of the diorama base. Then a 1kg pot of cast resin was prepared, a faint bit of color added and the resin poured into the diorama,...now the waiting began...

.... after a few minutes is became clear that the submerged wood contained lots of air which made their way up to the surface and became stuck in the hardening resin, but while this added some realsim to the murky swamp, the now developing cracks did not! Despite a carefull search for a cast resin fitting for this purpose (casting up to 3 kg at once, minor heat development, minor shrinkage) the product didn't stand up to its promises at all. More and more cracks opened and basically ripped apart the whole "water body" - the diorama was lost....

... no need to say I was mad and disappointed (and am still are, as I received no reply to my question to the technical support of the resin seller/producer to this date), but I deceided to try once more, though now with no sure plan on how to do the "water". Luckily some parts could be salvaged, for example the frog, the Meganeura and most of the centre piece wood.

So to make a long story short, I built the diorama once more, more or less identical. After collecting more information about several materials and the deadline approaching I deceided to coat the diorama with epoxy and fill the pond with actual water for the photo shooting but also shoot it "dry" and without acrylic glass to let my wife combine the features of both photos in PS. After all the background sky had to be added this way anyway. So a good deal of the honour goes to my wife for honing the final picture to what it is, a big thanks this way.

Now, after all this tl,dr, here's some photos....

Details like resin dropping from a cornifere trunk may not be visible in the photo, but as the diorama was intended to find a space on my desktop, I had to add such.


Underwater roots, made from cotton wool, paint and glue.


The Diplocaulus pair, now both grounded since my two year old son broke the tail of the male.


Horse tails made from wooden skewers.


Ferns were made from alder cones and custom leaves, made as described by irimali from wire and a mixture of paint and glue.


The frog,... some may have missed it in the final shot...


... also most details of the Meganeura are not noticable in the entry photo.


While a more elevated angle would have been more interesting, the horizon would have been more difficult to integrate.


Shot without acrylic barriere and water,...


... same angle, but with acrylic glass and water. The combination of these photos (made with sequences of exposures) and the background (photographed with my cell phone camera during a festival this summer) made the final entry photo.

[irimali]

This is really awesome!  What are those little guys burrowing in the mud?  any close-ups?

[Lanthanotus]

Hi irimali,

you mean these...



The red ones on the right are supposed to represent some tubificid annelids (aquatic worms), the sandy yellow ones shall be some mollusc or mussel, the dark cave shall represent the nest of some amphibian. I also used different colors of sand to have sediment layers in the ground. But due to fact that the cast resin didn't serve as a water body, the original intention of having an educational diorama on my desk is obsolete and the diorama stands in a corner collecting dust until I find a final solution to create the water body.... if someone got ideas...

[Doug Watson]

Great details! This was one of my votes and my number one choice! One question, what are the dimensions of the diorama?

[Halichoeres]

Very cool! Definitely got one of my votes. I always assumed resin was poured in layers for dioramas, maybe a centimeter at a time, but I don't actually know as I've never tried it. I suppose you would have just had extra layers of bubbles.

[Silvanusaurus]

I haven't had time to read through all of your post yet, but from what I've gathered from a brief scan and the photos; I must say this endeavour is a work of genius, and incredibly inspiring; the meticulous attention to detail, the cohesive combination of different elements, the visual effect of the water (without a hint of it being contained in glass), and the claarity with which all that work is apparent in the final image; it's blown my mind. I knew when I first saw it that this was the one to beat, but of-course nothing could! Marvellous!

[stargatedalek]

Very impressive.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/diorama/diorama-water-and-water-effects.htm I use Scene-a-rama water, but I've never tried it for anything deep.

[Lanthanotus]

Thank you all ....

.. the Bullyland Edaphosaurus being a small figure the diorama just measures 17.5 cm wide, 12 cm deep and 20 cm high (without any background).

Yes, resins are often poured in layers especially when used to set some thing in them, like insects or such. Also most such casts are comparably small in vloume/mass. That's why I did an extended search for the right resin, as most develop much heat, shrink for several percent and therefore can't be used in great volumes at once. Bubbles aren't the problem, shrinkage and heat development are. Creating layers however was no option, as the main view from the front would have made these layers visible as faint lines within the body of "water". While I (better, my wife) could have removed these in PS for the final photo, the model itself would be ruined in my view. I still found no product as I'd need to pour almost 1 litre at once. Weirdly enough I ran into a cheap tourist souvenir on a flea market, a massive resin cast with shells inlaid. It just had one faint line of layer within were the shells were laid in, the  upper resin body had way more than 1 litre volume and was perfectly clear and lacking any imperfections.

[stargatedalek]

If you used the resins "native" colour it would go a long way to hiding any layers.

[Doug Watson]

Thank you all ....

.. the Bullyland Edaphosaurus being a small figure the diorama just measures 17.5 cm wide, 12 cm deep and 20 cm high (without any background).

Yes, resins are often poured in layers especially when used to set some thing in them, like insects or such. Also most such casts are comparably small in vloume/mass. That's why I did an extended search for the right resin, as most develop much heat, shrink for several percent and therefore can't be used in great volumes at once. Bubbles aren't the problem, shrinkage and heat development are. Creating layers however was no option, as the main view from the front would have made these layers visible as faint lines within the body of "water". While I (better, my wife) could have removed these in PS for the final photo, the model itself would be ruined in my view. I still found no product as I'd need to pour almost 1 litre at once. Weirdly enough I ran into a cheap tourist souvenir on a flea market, a massive resin cast with shells inlaid. It just had one faint line of layer within were the shells were laid in, the  upper resin body had way more than 1 litre volume and was perfectly clear and lacking any imperfections.

That souvenir you saw was probably acrylic. When I was with the museum we did a lot of acrylic embeddings of insects, mosses, flowers etc., using methyl methacrylate and an autoclave that cured the resin at high heat and pressure. Done properly the line is almost imperceivable (not inconceivable, that's the Princess Bride). What was cool was you poured one layer and placed the object or objects you want on that layer. If it was something soft like a dandelion seed or a moss of course it would flatten out. Then you covered it with the second layer. At this point you can't see the objects because the resin is opaque milky white. Pop it in the autoclave and when it comes out it is clear and the dandelion seed or moss is puffed out in all it's glory.  You still need to buff it but it is amazing what a $5,000.00 dollar machine can do (1970s prices). I have a reject piece with three mosses in it that had some colour bleed that is 3 inches thick.
Unfortunately without that machine layering is the only option for embedding with resin and usually 1/4 inch is the max depth per layer and only really works when viewed from above. There are now some water clear urethanes that don't generate as much heat as polyester and don't yellow over time but they can produce bubbles if not cast in a vacuum.
If I was doing your diorama I would use a variation on a method I used for a life-sized lake diorama I did. For that I had a sheet of smoked plexiglass that cut the above water view from the below water view. On that I poured a thin layer of clear polyester resin. I had experimented with catalyst amounts to achieve a degree of rippling. For our purposes we wanted the view to be clear so we just had clear glass butt up to the water surface. For your diorama if you put it in a shadow box with glass in front you could airbrush the below water portion of the glass to give the desired effect or you could have a second sheet or a continuation of the top sheet of smoked plexi bent on a 90 degree to give the looking through murky water affect. Having said that the solution you and your wife came up with was amazingly effective.

[AcroSauroTaurus]

I love the fact that real water was used! Also, I hope you still kept the male Diplocaulus despite the broken tail. (bitten off perhaps?)

[Doug Watson]

Since you did ask for ideas on how to do it without water I had a thought after my last reply. Since you already have a plexi surround all I would do is cut a piece of smoked plexi to fit snug against the two sides and corner of the water window. You would also need to cut a groove in your shoreline for the plexi to fit into. Not too deep even just 1/8 of an inch is enough. Before cutting the top piece determine where all your plant trunks will break through the water. Cut them on that line. Then you can fit and cut that top piece of plexi. Once it is cut and fits in the groove of the shoreline mark the holes to drill for the trunks. Drill your holes so the trunks can match up. You will need to sand and polish your cut edge that butts up against the window. You wet sand plexi working down to very fine wet sanding paper. When it looks clear with water on it buff it with plexi polish. Once you have everything ready airbrush the viewing area from the back side to make it as murky as you wish, use a gloss mix so it doesn't flatten the view (do some tests on scrap plexi). An alternative would be to make a new surround out of some of the same smoked plexi as the top. If you can't find smoked plexi the colour you want airbrush the bottom of your top piece and the insides of your surround. Next you assemble the diorama use some of your soil material mixed with your bonding agent and seal the plexi edge into your shoreline. If you can get a hold of some plexi glue seal the outer edge of the water to the plexi surround. Then you can use 5 min epoxy to glue the upper halves of the trunks in place making sure to seal the hole so your resin doesn't leak through. You could even run a little along the plexi joint to make sure you don't have any leaks. Before pouring your resin on the surface do some test pours on pieces of the same plexi and experiment with the amount of catalyst to get a ripple effect if you want one. Don't put less than the suggested amount start there and go up. Once you have it down say a prayer and pour.
There are two other ways to do it:
option 1. sculpt a water surface the size you need with ripples, make an mould and cast your water then all you need to do drill your holes blend it into the shore and glue the top of the trunks in.
option 2. Cut a thicker piece of plexi and carve your ripples into the top then use plexi polish and buffing wheels to bring it to a clear shine then follow the same steps for installing it with the plant trunks. I am not a fan of this method since it is labour intensive but one of my colleagues used this method for a free standing water and loon display and it does avoid the use of resin.
I have some detail shots of my poured surface only diorama if you would like to see them.

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks very much for your ideas, Doug, really appreciate it. During the second build I tried the method of a plexi pane and cutting out the shoreline and spaces for the trunks, but due to the comparably complicated "geography" of the diorama, the result did not convince me. It may have been turned out better if planned this way from the very start and working in the pane and having "separate" world up and down were I could have glued things or fit them in, but the original idea of a solid water body sat in my head. I found two pics of the calamity on my camera....




... if not for the massive cracks, the result would have been as perfect as intended (the bubbles wouldn't have me bothered that much). After having talked to a clerk in the local art supply store suggested the use of "crystal soap", an almost (but not perfectly) clear soap that can be heated and poured, however that would have left me with an opaque and somewhat gummy water body.

Currently I think of layering the epoxy and hiding the layers by introducing water plants and careful position of logs, trunks and submerged animals.

Yes, I am always interested in methods to make artifical water and surfaces. Read some on several model maker forums, but unfortunatly surfaces is of much more interest and importance there than depth, let alone profiled water bodies

PS: Yes, I still have the scarred Diplo, maybe I'll just glue him

[Lanthanotus]

I enjoyed the (probably) last day of summer with biking to the Rhine river. Had some prehistoric figures with me for some outdoor photo shooting. As I also made some underwater photos (prepared for a future review on the blog) remaining water, wet and flying sand and the glaring sun made it very diffcult to judge the photo quality right there, so when at home I realized blurrings and missed focus on most photos. So that's my excuse, but anyway, here are some results....

Bullyland Protochirotherium



Kabaya Seismosaurus



CollectA T.rex and Deinocheirus customs

[postsaurischian]

1. Lanthanotus, you are a worthy winner of this years' diorama contest. I knew you would be since I first saw your entry.

2. These are two beautiful CollectA repaints! They now almost look like Dinotales figures .

Cool! I also live near the Rhine river.