Bryan's Diorama

For English class, Bryan had to creat a dioama of the hillside which is the setting of a book they have been reading as a class. Here is the diorama's journey from newspaper and foam to a rather impressive miniature terrain.

This is the picture in the book.

Styrofoam and newspaper form the foundations of the model.

We just dug the river out of the foam.

We begin to cover the newspaper with a plaster-covered fabric we picked up at the local hobby store. Just get it wet and lay it on.

Hey! This might actually work!

Some green and sand colored spray paint, and the model begins to come alive!

We added a layer of green-grass-dust and then sprayed the whole terrain down with clear coat to affix it all in place. A scenic spray glue might have worked better, but this seems to have done the trick.

The riverbed gets a layer of sand and rocks.

The hollowed out log, which serves as the home for the main character, is created from plasticised modeling clay, pressed and carved with a wood texture, baked at 250 degrees for 20 minutes, dipped in Tire-Black, dried and sprayed with a matte clear coat. I'd say the result looks like wood!

We custom made the other trees on the layout with florists wire, tape, and broken up green sponge. This tree was too big to use, but serves well to demonstrate the technique.

Ta-Dah!

The river was poured with a clear latex-like material called "Real Water" and had a great wet-look.

The little reeds by the river were cut from an old paintbrush, the rocks are from the yard and the school parking lot, the moss came from the floral department at WalMart and the green sponge from the railroam section of the hobby company.