Diddl Diorama

Marko Paunović, 15th November 2021

In this article, I will describe making a diorama for probably the silliest figure I’ve done in recent years - a Diddl mouse driving a car. I will use HD styrofoam, plaster, sand (two granulations), PVA glue, pins and palm trees. As for the tools, there will be drills (pin vice and mini electric Proxxon), scalpel, pliers, candle. So let's go…

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I made the base on two levels from HD styrofoam. I carefully cut it with a scalpel and carved the texture of the rock.

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The miniature of Diddl in the car is actually a pencil extension and between the wheels it had some bump with a pencil hole. I didn’t like that part and it actually prevented the placement of the car on the base so I decided to remove it. I decided that the fastest way would be to use Proxxon drill with a mill. Unfortunately, I didn’t find an adequate mill bit so I used a regular 3mm drill bit. It served its purpose.

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To give the HD styrofoam strength, I decided to cover the entire volume of the base with plaster. I mixed a little into the cup and coated the base with a brush. To keep from flowing and potentially sticking the base to the table, I pinned the base to a makeshift skewer stand and the rest of the styrofoam.

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The texture is added next. Here I decided to leave the stone parts / rocks without texture, that is, to leave the plaster texture. In addition, there are two other areas - road and "terrain". I covered the road with the finest sand (chinchilla sand), and I covered the "terrain" with GW textured sand. I glued both sands with PVA glue.

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Now it was time to plant palm trees. In order for the joint to be as strong and strong as possible, it is necessary to pin the trees. The simplest way to pin plastic trees is to heat the pin. As it enters the plastic, so it cools and when it cools, the connection it makes with the plastic tree is hard and durable. Then use a drill (in this case, a pin vice) to drill holes in the base for the pin. Then immerse the pin protruding from the tree into the PVA glue and push it into the designed hole.

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I placed all the bits in their place. I was satisfied and I proceeded to paint the diorama and add vegetation.

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I painted the base with Pebeo Deco paints: Black, Brown, Ocher and White. I painted the road with Pebeo Deco Black and a dark gray mixture of Black and White. The line is drawn in Pebeo Deco White. I painted the water with Scalecolor paints: Arctic Blue and White as well as a Citadel one - Sotek Green.

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I decided to paint the car with a mixture of metallic and matte paints from Scalecolor. I mixed in a mix of Dwarven Gold and Fuchsia and Speedd Metal and Sunset Purple. I painted the chrome parts with GSW Chrome, and I first painted the breaking lights in Chrome and then covered it with Tamiya Clear Red. When the paint dried, I made a calotte from Ammo Acrylic Crystal.

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I painted the palm tree brown, covered it with black washem and made highlights. I painted the leaves with Scalecolor paints.

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For the very end of making the diorama, I left adding the resin. Given the round base and a slightly more specific geometry at the points where the terrain merges with the base, I opted for a UV resin that allows me to work without making a dam around the base. GSW UV resin is very easy to use. Since it is gel-like, not liquid, it can be easily placed on the base and when you are satisfied with the look, it is just "baked" using a UV lamp. Its only drawback is that it cannot be tinted with acrylic paints.

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In the end I placed Diddl 1 onto the base

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