Build an Awesome River Diorama – Realistic Scenery Vol.22

[Music] haolam welcome to this awesome bob ross inspired diorama tutorial my name is luke and for this project I'll be taking this Bob Ross painting and turning it into this awesome museum-quality diorama that is sure to turn a few heads the three-dimensional effect is really eye-catching and when it's framed inside a wall it creates quite an interesting illusion so let's not waste any more time and get started building like all good dioramas we need a base seven millimeter plywood was used for this project and it was cut so the diorama would have a visual depth of 400 millimetres but unlike most of my previous models this particular diorama will be enclosed in a box overall it measures 500 millimetres wide 350 millimeters tall and 400 millimetres deep there are no tricks to the construction just basic woodworking skills with some wood glue and nails to make life a bit easier when adding the scenic material I chose to make the base removable from the walls of the diorama that way I can add some packing tape around the edges of the walls so now that when it's time to add the ground contours I can do it with the sidewalls in place and then easily remove the walls again later when adding the scenery the opening of the front wall will be much smaller than the total width of the scene so to help position the scenic details I use a cardboard template to give me an idea of where the details should be positioned with that in mind I can start to build up the river bed the river has small waterfalls along its length as it flows down towards the main waterfall so to achieve this I use some PVC foam board to create these steps in the river each step in the river has a small 1 centimeter tall piece of plastic attached to create a small dam for each section of the river these get glued into position with some hot glue that way when we pour the resin it will step down from the back as it approaches the front of the diorama the river gets fixed down with styro goo now with the sidewalls in place I can start to build up the rest of the contouring some old newspaper can be used as a filler to build on top of it scrunched up into little pillows and masking tape is used to hold it down and prevent it from expanding too much once the newspaper is down and it's sufficiently covered with tape I move on to adding the plaster for this I'm using sculpted modeling mix it's a plaster powder that's infused with paper fibers similar to the popular sculptor mold it's great because it does a fantastic job of holding its shape so it can be molded as desired to build up the terrain it gets mixed with water until it's a thick paste and it's applied over the entire base of the diorama a light misting of water will help the plaster stick to the base as it's applied now it's just a matter of spreading out the plaster and building up the terrain as desired then use paper base will get squashed down a little so just keep that in mind I ended up needing a little extra plaster to build up the banks of the river so that it will be able to contain the water just keep working along and smoothing it out as the plaster begins to harden the front waterfall has a couple of plaster rough molds at it these are pressed into position using more plaster but just be sure to pre wet the rock molds to ensure they stick to the plaster properly once the plaster has had enough time to start to harden I removed the sidewalls the small lip around the edge can also be trimmed away if desired next I move on to painting the rocks these will be covered mostly with scenery so don't spend too much time here basically they are painted and medium great color and once that layer is dry a very dark gray wash is applied over the top which highlights all the small cracks and crevices the rest of the terrain is painted a muddy brown color so that it hides the white plaster underneath any paint that ends up on the clear plastic is removed now we can start texturing the riverbed I use a variety of textures some fine sifted dirt some coarse dirt with rocks and pebbles as well as some sand I use Mod Podge matte and paint that over the riverbed it will help some of the larger rocks stick to the shallow slopes of the bank the large rock textures are added first along the entire riverbed this layer is followed up with sand to fill the gaps and make it look like the rocks are embedded into the dirt now the fine sifted dirt is applied over the rest of the diorama using a spray can lead and a stocking some diluted Mod Podge is mist it over the area and the dirt is sifted on top the dirt I'm using here is some backyard soil mixed with light beige grout to get the desired color rose after this layer is further fixed down by misting isopropyl alcohol followed with the diluted Mod Podge applying the alcohol first helps the glue soak into the dirt layer making sure it's really secure and glued down properly and again I make sure to clean off the glue and dirt from the clear plastic the rocks along the riverbed are lightly dry brushed with Vallejo stone gray this will help them stand out after the resin gets added and help give the illusion of depth some Brown washes are added along the riverbed as well starting with raw Sienna mainly focused along the edges and then the darker Browns get applied along the center of the river to give the illusion of depth now for my favorite part adding resin firstly the edges need to be damned this is easily done with some masking tape and a bit of hot glue just make sure it gets a nice bead of glue along the entire length of the tape because we don't want any leaks I'm using a clear epoxy casting resin for this project which is perfect for small shallow rivers like this it gets mixed in a two to one ratio as for color I'm using some Burt amber and blue these two colors mix together give me a nice murky river color with a hint of blue reflection which I really like just remember to add the color sparingly as it's very easy to accidentally add too much like here on my first pour there was way too much blue and the resin was way too dark not to worry the resin iPod was removed with a syringe and I started again sure it was a waste of resin but at least it didn't ruin the diorama the second batch was a much better color and it was added starting from the top and letting it spill over each step in the river down to the bottom here you can see the masking tape bowed out a little but this was fixed with a couple of blocks to help keep it flush with the edge of the diorama you're more than likely end up with some bubbles in the epoxy resin and these are simply removed with a soldering torch now it's just left to cure for about 24 hours before removing the tape from the edges the trees I'm using here are Bachman eight inch tall birch trees they don't look too bad as they are but with a little bit of effort they can be improved the foliage is the first thing I removed and I also trimmed the longer wire armatures back a little as well any leftover green foam that remains stuck on the branches is burn away leaving a nice bare armature which we can work with to help hide the twisted wire trunk I use a mixture of Mod Podge matte and some very fine sawdust collected from my sander it's mixed into a paste and then colored with some various browns and grays to get a decent tree trunk color the paste becomes quite sticky which makes it nice and easy to apply over the trunk using an old paintbrush it fills in all the gaps between the twisted wires giving it a much nicer and more realistic looking tree trunk the tip of each branch will have a small amount of hobby tack adhesive pasted on after applying this stuff it's left for about half an hour until it dries clear it will remain very tacky once it becomes clear which makes it very easy to apply the small branches the branches that are added are gauge master sea foam the larger twigs are pruned so we have much smaller pieces these smaller pieces are then pressed onto the armatures of our tree until the entire tree is covered I found in the very hot and humid conditions where I live the hobby tack adhesive can soften and some of the branches will fall away over time to help prevent this from happening I had a small drop of super glue to each branch giving it a bit more strength so they won't fall off on the hot days Vallejo dark earth is used to color the branches and help them blend in with the trunk and finally we can add the foliage to the tree the branches are misted with some spray adhesive doing my best to only apply the adhesive to the outer branches while avoiding the trunk woodland scenic spent grass coarse turf is added as the initial layer depending on the density of the foliage you may want to apply multiple layers of the coarse foliage as desired I ended up applying two layers next I apply some noch medium green leaves I only applied one layer of this and it's used to give it a bit of texture and color variation to the tree finally I miss some cheap hairspray over the tree this will help lock in the foliage we applied and remove the tackiness left behind from the spray adhesive applied in the previous steps the trees positions can now be marked and the holes drilled but I'm not going to glue them in just yet one of my favourite transformations involves static grass for this I'm using the woodland Scenic's static King along with their static tack and some 6 millimeter spring and summer grasses from mini nature the two grasses are mixed to a one-to-one ratio giving me a nice medium green with slight variations in color across the ground the grass is then added to the static King ready to be applied static tack is applied straight from the bottle onto the terrain I try to apply unevenly leaving some bare patches of dirt the glue gets spread out across the diorama with an old brush and because the glue dries relatively fast I only work in small sections at a time now we're ready to apply the grass the static King is plugged in turned on and the grounding wire is pressed into the wet glue holding the static King about one to two inches above the surface I gently shake and the magic happens right before your eyes to remove excess grass I turn the diorama upside down and tap on the base the loose grass fibers fall away and it can be collected for use on another project to prevent the grass looking like carpet I gently tease certain areas and move some of the grass around with my fingers giving it a more windswept look further texturing is added using a variety of woodland Scenic's coarse turf phones as well as some fine turf as well it's applied randomly over the grassy areas leaving open patches where no turf is applied and in other areas it clumps together simulating thicker undergrowth the different colors help show different species of plants and weeds fine turf helps give the grass subtle changes in hue and will also help tie in the coarse turf with the rest of the scenery on each side of the waterfall some bonds will be added these are made with black poly fiber similar to what you'll find inside your pillow its teased out very thin and a light misting of spray adhesive is applied next some leaf material gets applied liberally over their fibers and finally to tie it all together fine turf it's sprinkled over the top the bonds can be pressed into the scenery as desired along the edges of the waterfall I even added some vines randomly further up the stream for a little bit of variation before all this gets glued down I'll make sure to remove any loose pieces of scenery from the river surface the surface is also masked up using masking tape now the scenic glue is applied in the same way we applied the glue to the dirt texturing we did earlier before the glue has a chance to dry the masking tape is removed and any glue remaining on the river surface can be wiped away with a paper towel what really makes this River pop are the ripples these are super easy to do by using a brush to spread some Mod Podge gloss over the river surface once the surface is covered I use the airbrush to push the Mod Podge around leaving behind the classic ripples you've seen in my previous videos to get larger ripples you can apply this technique multiple times building up the layers after the previous one has had time to dry while those ripples are drying I'll move on to printing the backdrop this was simply created using a couple of photos from the internet and Photoshop the photos get merged together to create a backdrop that will span the width of the diorama I'm also able to add the river just where it needs to be as well so it will blend seamlessly with the foreground scenery once the backdrop has been printed and the edges trimmed I line up the page with the river first so it's in the perfect position once it's been aligned I tape it down and use some 3m super 77 spray adhesive to attach it to the sides of the diorama with the first one lined up the others just press up against the next one moving along one page at a time any excess is removed from the top with a hobby knife now for the waterfall and whitewater woodland Scenic's water waves along with some knocks no seem to work really well for this the two products are mixed together creating an off-white paste the paste is then spread around in the areas you would expect to see rough water like in the areas where the river steps down and at the main waterfall using a brush will help spread the paste the waterfall was made by building up the paste so it connected between the top and the bottom there can then be shaped to resemble white water spilling over the edge after making the waterfall I wasn't entirely happy with how much whitewater I added it was just a little bit over the top what's great about using mod podge to add the ripples is that it creates a kind of mask so to fix the problem of adding too much white water all I needed to do was simply peel away the ripples layer and start over it's that easy to fix now I can redo the ripples and white water making sure it's just the way I want to add a little bit more depth to the waterfall some woodland Scenic's water waves was painted over the top of the white water we're almost done I noticed some gaps between the backdrop and the scenery these were hidden with some matching green paint now it's time to permanently attach the base and the sidewalls together only a small amount of glue is needed as I'll also be adding some screws as well once that's done I glue the trees into the holes that we drilled earlier some ground texture can be applied to the glue around the base of each tree if necessary because this is an enclosed diorama in a box I'll need some lighting this was done by creating a lid with a couple of lengths of pine glued to a piece of PVC foam board cut to fit perfectly on top of the model the lighting is LED strip lights cut to length and wired accordingly they're spaced evenly across the bottom of the diorama lid and stuck down the strips are self-adhesive but I find they tend to unstick after a while so I added a few drops of glue for good measure you might notice one strip is Wahb white and the other is bright white I alternate the two colors to get a natural white and this is what it looks like with the lights installed and here is my fake wall that will be used to hold the finished model spaces are added to the back to allow for the frame I'd love to mount this inside an actual wall at home but unfortunately we don't have any walls thick enough for this but kela model the frame is some old shape would cut at 45-degree angles to make the frame and it's painted black to provide some contrast to the white wall now all we need to do is install the lid with the LED lights so we have some illumination for the diorama also add some double-sided sticky tape to the back of the frame mount the frame to the front wall making sure of course it's perfectly straight and now sit back and enjoy our creation building a model like this is a real eye-catcher so far everyone who has had the opportunity to view this particular diorama in person has been absolutely amazed and really enjoyed seeing this great looking scene framed in such a unique way to make sure you don't miss more awesome tutorial videos like this don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you in the next video Cheers and thanks for watching

Channel: Luke Towan

Views: 560,740

Keywords: Bob Ross Diorama, Realistic Scenery, waterfall resin, waterfall epoxy, Realistic model river, how to make waterfall, make a model river, realistic waterfall model, waterfall diorama, waterfall model, recreating a Bob Ross painting, Bob Ross painting in 3D, HO scale river, HO scale waterfall, model railroad scenery, luke towan, boulder creek railroad, model railroad

Id: 1Mdz-DT_7d4

Length: 20min 20sec (1220 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 28 2020