Pixies ! I saw pixies ! Pixies everywhere ! I must be mad !

[sweetking]

Step one :

Find a wooden board:



Step 2 :

Rough sketchs and a few nails as anchor for the PU foam:



Step 3:

Create the landscape with PU foam, plaster and a good knife :



Step 4 :

First paint, in order to have a better sight of what it will look like:



Step 5, 6 7 or was it 7,5 and 6 :

Better paint, rocks nearly completed, herb on a part of it, some trees and plants...






Lets see the final version :

















































I really do like pixies and I will therefore buy all future ones. It was fun to create this diorama, which can be reused for pirates, dino expedition or any scene in a quite deserted land.

[Wolf Knight]

 

So this is how a great diorama is set up!!! Many thanks for the step by step pictures!!!

[skypurr]

This is super!   
I love the effect of the water. 
Thank you for taking us step by step through the set up. 

Could you tell me what PU foam is and is the plaster - ordinary wall plaster or plaster of paris?
When Junior made a space landscape he did it with paper mache and it took ages to dry, does this foam and plaster mix dry quickly? 

Where have you set up the diorama?

Elaine

[flatcat]

Absolutely amazing

And great as well that the board can be used for so many other themes

Damo

[sweetking]

This is super!   
I love the effect of the water. 
Thank you for taking us step by step through the set up. 

Could you tell me what PU foam is and is the plaster - ordinary wall plaster or plaster of paris?
When Junior made a space landscape he did it with paper mache and it took ages to dry, does this foam and plaster mix dry quickly? 

Where have you set up the diorama?

Elaine

Regarding the effect on water, its an accident ! I used a air-stiffening transparent polymer from Faller brand, but it did crack a lot when drying. on a more whitish blue, it would make a nice floating ice area

PU is Polyurethane, which is often used as insulation stuff in house building (mainly around windows). You can find it in spray-cans in any shop I believe. Main inconvenience : the two compounds used to create the foam (isococyanate and polyol) are known as cancer-initiator products. PU itself is safe but when burning (creating cencer-initiator smoke...)

I would now recommend to use PS (polystyrene) foam plates.

Plaster : i used plaster from Paris as you can find it in 1 kilo box when stand plaster is 10 or 15 kg bag minimum... and I used 2-3 kilos only to compensate some holes in the foams and make the surface more rigid. Plaster was added after the foam was solid enough.


I used a bit of paper mache (strange to read this french word "mache" in English... means "chewed paper") on it to compasate some planearity issue under the buliding and did dry really slowly too. PU foam did dry in 24h hours, as did plaster. Paper mache needed 3 times more.

I showed this diorama first for the playmobil "convention" at La Capelle in France, but everything was created first in my lounge and on my 1.5m² fake balcony.

[Tiermann]

Great display and thanks for the step by step. Here in the US it's common to use extruded polystyrene sheets for diorama bases. It can be found at hardware stores and is the pink board used for insulation. Some paper mache or plaster is recommended if you want to spray paint it - the spray paint will melt it otherwise.

[sweetking]

Great display and thanks for the step by step. Here in the US it's common to use extruded polystyrene sheets for diorama bases. It can be found at hardware stores and is the pink board used for insulation. Some paper mache or plaster is recommended if you want to spray paint it - the spray paint will melt it otherwise.

I fully agree : whatever the material is (PS or PU) you have to isolate it by covering it with plaster, paper mache or a layer of glue for wood... otherwise paints or warnishes will destroy it.

[Gis]

Thank you so much for for sharing this Sweetking. How-To guides are really useful and it certainly gave me some good ideas.

The diorama is very beautiful, and I will definitily be showing these pics to my daughter!

I loved seeing a piece of Huysmans2005 road in the background!

[Klickus Mobilius]

Very impressive!  Thanks for sharing the steps!

[Jimbo]

Great job, Sweetking.

That is a perfect setting for many Klicky type adventures.

Jimbo