Alps Diorama part 1

In the next two articles I will cover the making of the Alps diorama. The main “actor” of the diorama is a 1/87 scale oldtimer bus. In addition to it, the package also included a few figures (but more about them in another article).

The idea of the diorama is that the bus stopped at a rest stop somewhere in the Alpine serpentines and the crew of passengers got out to enjoy the view. To get the height, I used 5 cm thick polystyrene. In two layers (with the second layer just being the background).

After drawing the road, positioning the elements on the base, I cut the elements and got something close to the final relief look.

I rearranged the elements in the diorama to check if everything matched the idea.

The next step was to imprint the stone texture into the Styrofoam rocks. I used pieces of tree bark to imprint them.

Then I mixed in a thick mixture of modeling plaster to add to the embossed texture and to prot...

TOP TIP – Wooden Beam Flooring

Construction:

I used 1 mm thick balsa. I used a balsa cutter to cut the beams to 4 mm thick and cut them to 68 mm long (dimensions of the floorboards in M 1:35). I sanded the edges and placed them on a 2 mm thick balsa base. I glued everything together on a wooden base from swood.si .

Painting:

First I applied Sephia Wash, then sanded a little. Then I filled the cracks with Agrax Earthshade and stained the spots a little. Sanded a little harder and then repeated the Sephia Wash. When it was dry, I used a fine sanding sponge in a few places to simulate wear.

Back to Basics workshops at Zagreb City Libraries 2024

In 2024, we started a new program called Back to Basics miniature painting workshops for the youngest in collaboration with the Zagreb City Libraries. We held a total of four workshops during October and November with 29 participants, our youngest fellow citizens.

We held the first workshop at the Children's Department of the Medveščak Library on Saturday, October 12, 2024.

The second workshop, also at the Children's Department of the Medveščak Library at Zvonimirova 17, was held on October 26, 2024.

We held the third workshop in the VN Reading Room and Gallery (Vladimir Nazor Library) at Ilica 163-a on Saturday, November 9, 2024.

The fourth workshop was also held at the VN Gallery on Saturday, November 23, 2024.

During the workshop, the participants assembled a model of the castle, then painted it, and finally painted the dragon that guards the tower.

Easily available materials are used, as well as those obtained through the ...

Big Panda and Tiny Dragon drawing workshop

During this year's Interliber, the author of the books about the Big Panda and the Tiny Dragon, James Norbury, held several different events and meetings with readers. On Friday, November 15, I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop on drawing characters from his books. Since James is an illustrator and his works include abstract landscapes, fantasy art, SF and cyberpunk comics, drawings and graphics, it was interesting for me to see how the panda and dragon characters are created in the technique of Japanese Zen painters.

James drew with a felt-tip pen and explained the structure of the characters and their characteristics. For example, the dragon has no eyebrows, so the expression of emotions is partially limited to a couple of eye shapes and hand gestures. While the panda rarely has a mouth in his drawings, so his expression of emotions is also sparse. However, it is precisely through the position of the body, the relationship between the characters, an...

We visited: Slovenian State Championship in plastic modelling, Ljubljana 16.11.2024.

On Saturday, 16.11.2024. in Ljubljana, the Slovenian Nationals in plastic modeling was held. Our delegation performed in several categories.

After arriving, registering and placing works in the appropriate categories, the most important thing was to meet again and talk with colleagues from other cities and countries such as Slovenia and Italy.

It was a special pleasure for us to present and present several copies of our latest edition to our partners and friends from Back to Basics!

Also a real refreshment is the discovery of the (so far the only) manufacturer of real wooden bases and plinths in these areas - swood.si!

A little after 11:00, it was time to open the even officially and inspect the exhibits.

Given that, after several years of ugly we...

Making a window

In this short tutorial, I will briefly describe the window creation process.

As part of the diorama of Fićek from the National Class, I made a building that looks into the courtyard. I put a "hole" for the window on that wall. After thinking a bit about how and what to make the window frame from, I decided on L-profiles made of plasticard. That way I can frame the hole in the plaster wall (which I have to admit is not the straightest).

I measured the dimensions of the hole and accordingly calculated how long the profiles I need (to cut them at 45 degrees).

After cutting, I assembled the shape of the window, then glued it with plastic glue (and finally fixed it all the way with a drop of superglue).

Then it was the turn of the transverse beams. I cut them out of plasticard 0.5 mm thick. First, I made strips 2 mm wide, which I then cut to the required lengths. After cutting, I glued them using the method from the previous st...