Build & Animate an ULTRA-REALISTIC Diorama – Realistic Scenery Vol.16

[Music] hey y'all and welcome back to another tutorial packed full of tips tricks techniques and some awesome animations this is by no means a quick tutorial so grab a large cup of coffee sit back and relax while I step you through the creation of this fantastic diorama the first thing we need to build is the corner store this is the Rosco store from branchline it's a great kit even a novice would have no trouble putting it together and there aren't many parts to the kit the first step with any wooden kit is to prime the parts I use for Laiho primer but any good primer paint will do just remember to prime both sides of the wood to limit the amount of warping if it starts to warp while painting just give it some time to dry and the parts were usually straight now when it comes to assembling the building you'll want a good glue a sharp hobby knife and some sandpaper as a minimum having a couple of squares and machinist blocks will help in keeping everything nice and square laser cut kits like this usually require very little sanding [Music] I do however make sure to dry fit each piece before gluing just to make sure each piece fits perfectly together the glue of choice for me is helm our super tech glue mainly because it's strong and dries very fast you can see here how quickly it grabs I give each wall a couple of minutes to drive before moving on to the next piece before you know the main structure will be complete in areas hidden from view I had a little extra glue to help reinforce the building lastly I add the roof to ensure everything fits properly before painting the initial color I chose for the walls was the scale modelers supplier sand which is conveniently shaken up in my recently constructed paint shaker however this is not the final color of the building after applying the paint I wasn't really happy with the final color so while the camera was off I applied a second coat using light stone also from the scale modelers supply the window ders and doors couldn't be easier to assemble the peel and stick works exceptionally well and makes building them a breeze even though there was nearly twenty windows the process was over very fast I ended up choosing Vallejo green Brown for the windows and doors it was a nice contrast to the rest of the building and seems to be a quite a common color scheme especially around railways to highlight the detail on each window frame I gave them a light dry brushing using Vallejo off-white it helps give them the look of aged and a faded appearance now we can add the window glazing which simply presses on to the back of the frame the footprint of the building is made using some one and a half millimeter plywood this piece will be used later as a base when installing the finished building into the final scene once it has been measured and cut I put it aside until I'm ready to start on the scenery the windows and trim are all pressed into position taking advantage of the peel-and-stick feature the building as it comes is supplied with a shingled roof however to give the building a more Australian feel I'm using corrugated iron instead to make the sheets of corrugated iron I'm using the Brunel hobby's corrugated iron maker along with some of their thick tin foil sheets the foil is first smoothed out by gently pressing and dragging the back of my fingernail across the foil next the sheet is cut to the size I want for each corrugated panel now with the foil lined up on the corrugated maker base very lightly passed the top handle across the foil only use a very light pressure and make multiple passes until the corrugations of here if you press too hard on the first pass you'll end up tearing a hole into the foil the sheet is then flipped over aligned with the grooves and the handle is dragged along the back of the sheet as well to further emboss the foil with the corrugations doing this also helps straighten out any warping to stick the foil to the roof I'm using 3m super 77 spray adhesive I've tried a number of different spray adhesives but for this job the super 77 certainly works the best now it's just a matter of lining up the sheets onto the roof sections and pressing them down just remember to only apply a light pressure and pressing them down to avoid ruining the corrugations in the foil once the first sheet is on you'll need to align the grooves of the following sheets so they all line up a small amount of spray adhesive is also sprayed on to the back of the foil sheets as well so they all stick to each other on the overlapping areas any excess foil is cut away [Music] obviously it's too shiny right now but a coat of paint will soon fix that I've decided to paint the roof a nice oxide red I ended up using two parts for Laiho German red brown primer and one part of white primer with some Vallejo thinners paint and foil don't really go together all that well and it's extremely easy to scratch away the paint to help prevent unwanted scratches the roof gets two thin coats of testers dull coat this not only helps protect the paint but it also provides a nice matte surface for applying the weathering effects later the interior of the shop needs floors so with some 0.5 millimeter styrene I cut and sanded sections to act as flaws to detail the floor some wood textures found online are printed and glued down then each floor section is glued into the building because I'm not going to be detailing the entire inside of the building I hide the interiors black glueing windows and curtains that were also printed from images online some of the blinds are left slightly open however there is another image of an interior also attached to the window giving the illusion that there is something else inside shop interiors are added using random images found on Google if they don't have to be perfect but you do want to try to find images with a good perspective here is an example of a good image for the back wall it implies the back of the shop is much further back than it actually is and here is one that will work well on the side wall once you have a selection of images that will work there copied and scaled down accordingly so they look appropriate to the scale you'll be working in for me that's hecho scale each photo is measuring cut to fit perfectly on each wall once they are perfectly fit the image is glued onto the wall with some white glue some of the images are first glued to foam board to add a more three-dimensional effect [Music] branchline also have an interiors kit it's technically designed for the Dubois stork it however the parts work for just about any interior I find the shelves are much easier to paint while they are still in the laser-cut sheet I just add a random color to signify different products nothing too fancy just enough to sell the illusion piecing them together is straightforward and when they are ready they are glued into the interior of the store the kid has tables chairs shelves a shop counter and some restaurant booths which I didn't use we've put all this effort into detailing the interior we need to light it up so people can see it some micro LEDs are wide in parallel and glued on to a makeshift roof the same is basically done for the two smaller shops on each side as well [Music] before attaching the shopfront some small posters and science get glued to the windows I also want to have a large painted sign on the top of the front facade to do this I had to remove some of the peel and stick detailing the sign is printed onto tissue paper but first it will need to be taped to some regular printer paper so that it can make it through the printer the image for the sign was made in Photoshop and scaled down so it would fit perfectly in the space and then printed once the sign has been trimmed so that it will fit perfectly I sprayed the back of the tissue paper with super 77 spray just like the foil roof I found the super 77 spray works best for this particular technique it's important to get the sign perfectly lined up just take your time the spray adhesive has a long working time so there's no rush once the top corners are down I use a paint brush to press the tissue paper into the weather boards working from the top and making my way down the sign while dragging the brush along the boards I use the back of the tweezer to further press the tissue paper into the grooves I only press down very lightly as you don't want to accidentally tear the tissue paper finally any imperfections are covered up with paint we can't have an empty shop so the last thing to add are some people and now the shop front can be attached the rock foundations are added and the last bits of green trim are installed as well the roof is glued down with super tech glue but before you do this I want to be sure everything inside the shop is just how we want it because we're essentially sealing everything inside once the roof is glued down to add the roof capping I use some 0.8 millimetre styrene rod along each peak once that was down a 0.25 by 1.5 millimeter strip was butted up against the point eight millimeter rod additional roof details like this evaporative air conditioner an aerial and a kitchen bent was 3d printed painted and glued onto the roof all of the 3d printed files are used in this project are free to download from my website if you too want to make a building like this rust effects are applied to the capping using Vallejo rust and a sponge and further rust and streaking effects on the roof corrugations are done with MIG oil brushes this is the first project I've used these on and they are a breeze to use and very clean there is really no mess or no wastage simply use the attached brush and add oil in the desired location and don't worry if you put too much on because it's very easy to remove then with a brush dipped in the MIG enamel odorless thinners gently press the brush over the oil and drag down in the direction you want the streak to appear extra cabling detail is added to the aerial with some copper-colored easy line it's quite fiddly but the easy line adheres very fast with superglue and after a further minute to cure the excess line is trimmed away to finish off the building I give it a dusting of medium earth colored weathering powder I focus on areas around the base of the building where dirt and grime may be kicked up from the ground as well as under the roof overhang where dust might collect and to add a touch of shading a small amount of rust colored powder is added to the roof as well that's pretty well lit for building the corner store now we can move on to actually creating the base and building up the terrain on the diorama for that I'm using the tried-and-true extruded polystyrene the basic layout of the diorama is drawn onto the foam an excess foam is removed using a hot wire foam cutter I've been using the hot wire foam factory tools quite a lot recently but for this job I decided to give my homemade hot wire foam cutter a run whenever I work with foam I always add a sturdy frame to help prevent warping over time a simple frame made from pine is measured and cut I used a polyurethane glue to glue the foam to the wood frame and screws are added for a good measure and once it's all done I had clamps in appropriate spots until the glue cures while the glue is curing I also weigh down the foam to prevent it from moving for this back road corner Street I simply used to hecho scale vehicles to get a rough road width to make the surface of the road I have to consider how the Magna rail system will work I chose to use 0.9 millimeter thick sheet of plastic from the local office supply store the good thing about the plastic being transparent is that I can easily transfer the road I drawn to the foam onto the sheet of plastic ready to be cut and this stuff was really easy to cut with a hobby knife now here's where the fun starts the Magna rail system is a way of getting cars to operate on your layout the basic starter kit has everything you need to get a small loop of road animated but if you want to do a large area you can order additional sections as needed the instructions are very straightforward each part comes on a sprue and once they have been removed and the excess flashing removed you're ready to start assembly because I'm working directly on foam I had to make a few modifications to how the track gets installed it's designed to be screwed onto a wood base however I decided to remove the screw tabs from the sections of track and instead embedded them into the foam all the components that form the track are traced onto the foam surface and with the center of each Lane marked I traced the track onto the foam working along until it connects in both directions I added a little bit of an overshoot on the corners so the larger vehicles could get around without sideswiping any pedestrians standing on the corner to carve out the groove for the track I'm using a dremel with our router attachment the depth is set so once the Magna rail track is installed it will sit perfectly flush with the surface of the phone now it's just a matter of following the lines traced earlier starting from one end I lower each component into the foam and gradually connect additional sections of track until I reach the other end you can see here that one side of the track just so happened to match up perfectly with the turning loop however the other side didn't quite match up perfectly it was easy enough to trim away the extra length and send it back to a perfect fit the wiring components consisted of an on/off switch a switch to reverse the direction of track a speed controller to speed up or slow down the vehicles and a power socket and a battery it can also be powered with a 12 volt power supply as well I wired everything together so it can be accessed from the front of the diorama once it's all connected I give it a quick test just to make sure it's all working the links are easy enough to connect together small magnets are pressed into the links at the desired locations just make sure the polarity of the magnets are around the right way I had a small sensor on a bicycle that had the magnets already attached so I used that as a guide to make sure I was being consistent with getting the polarity the right way around as I installed the magnets with the magnets installed I can start placing the links onto the track when it comes to getting the links to join up perfectly you may need to swap out some longer links for shorter links or vice versa until you get a perfect length there should be very minimal slack once it's all connected before gluing the road I make sure to use a wire brush to roughen up the surface of the phone and I also lightly sand the underside of the road so that the glue will be able to hold the road down firmly I used 5 minute epoxy to glue the road to the foam however this probably wasn't a great idea it did work in the end however the epoxy cured very fast which meant I had to rush to get the road down in time the road surface was flexible enough to allow me to bend it up and work in sections at a time however in future I'll try to find a glue that has a much longer working time to make the job a little easier just be very careful that you don't accidentally glue the road mechanism any excess glue is removed from the edges so that there is nothing in the way when it's time to add the guttering now is probably a good time to talk about getting cars moving these metal sliders have a small arm that is bent up and two spots for the magnets to enable the small arm to connect to the vehicle I added a small piece of brass rod just big enough so the arm on the slider could fit into it magnets were glued to the slider whilst it was sitting on the road over a magnet this way I can be sure the polarity is the correct way around and that's it you'll also want to make sure the wheels on whatever vehicle you're using turn freely that's a great thing about this type of car system you can pretty well use any type of vehicle you have and getting working on the layout it's especially useful for those working on smaller scales like and scale to get a good realistic looking gutter I decided to 3d print them these two are available on my website if you wish to download some for yourself for the sidewalk I'm using three millimeter thick PVC board it's basically a very dense foam but is still easy to cut with a hobby knife it's cut to match the shape of the road and then the 3d printing gutters I've glued to the edges the gutters were designed to be the exact same height as the PVC foam board and also take into account the thickness of the plastic sheet used for the road surface to judge the width of the footpath I placed the building in its position and chose a width that looked about right then the excess PVC is cut away leaving behind only these sections of footpath that I wanted as I work along I continuously test different components like the building just to make sure I'm not making any big or obvious mistakes to add a bit of visual interest I decided to cut away some of the foam landform to create a storm water drain this proved a little tougher than expected due to the thick pine frame however once I had the contours of the drain marked out onto the side of the wood frame and the electronics masked so they don't get covered in sawdust I used the jig saw to remove the wood the rest of the foam was cut away with a knife and the dremel with their sanding drum was used to smooth the edges of the wood and have it blend in nicely with the rest of the diorama as with most of my dioramas the landform is built up using sculptor mold I'm actually using a modeling mix from office works however it's basically the same stuff with very similar properties it's mixed with water to make a thick paste and apply it over the foam I work it with my fingers to get the desired contours the stormwater drains are pressed into position and the plaster is continuously worked and smooth as it starts to harden to build up the rest of the landforms on the diorama I first finished the building slab that will sit next door to the corner store so that I will have a good idea of where I do and don't want small Hills it's made using the same three millimeter PVC board that was used for the footpaths now that I know exactly where all the structures will be situated I can finish the rest of the land forming using a scrap piece of bone board helps allow me to build up the plaster right up to the edge of the footpath without actually having it in place a dremel was used to create the transition from the footpath to the road it's really easy to make a mistake here so I set the Dremel to a low RPM and only apply a very light pressure as the cutting is slowly sanded away the expansion joints on the footpath are made using a pin and a ruler the foam is quite hard but it's also soft enough to create the joints by pressing the pin firmly and dragging it to create the line it's hard to see on camera but the lines are definitely there and once we apply the weathering bail will show up nicely the base color is woodland Scenic's concrete applied through the airbrush it's quite a thick paint so you'll need to thin it down quite a lot the textured look is made using a sponge the first colour applied is a mix of the concrete and the black to create a nice warm grey only a small amount of paint is needed on the sponge a bit like adding rust effects you just want small individual speckles to be transferred from the sponge onto the footpath next using the exact same technique I apply some Vallejo off-white for the weathered look I apply an oil wash with MIG oil brushes and a final blending with Vallejo basalt gray the oil gets thinned down with the odorless thinners only a small amount of oil paint is needed and it will need continuous mixing as you go because the oil pigment settles to the bottom quite fast the mixture is liberally painted over the entire footpath and I deliberately allow some areas of heavier application and areas of lighter applications so there is a subtle variation in color along the footpath lightly dabbing it with the paper towel helps remove any excess but it also helps give a mottled look and an older weathered footpath to tone down the color and give it an older grayer appearance the entire footpath is lightly airbrushed with Vallejo basalt grey just ensure to do this in very thin coats because it's easy to cover all the hard work we just did I decided to paint the gutters with pale grey blue however in hindsight I probably would have just left them the same color as the footpath if I was to do this over again now it's time to paint the road rust-oleum flat gray primer and satin hail him what is the colors of choice but it will work with a range of other colours it can be a bit messy so make sure to cover anything in the vicinity to protect it from paint the foam around the road will not take spray paint well so it gets masked to prevent it from melting away the grey is the base coat and it gets applied over the entire road surface the white is the texture layer so it is applied from quite a distance away it leaves a speckled texture on the road surface I'm basically just dusting the road with this color because it's applied from a distance away some of the paint will dry before sticking to the road this dry dusty layer is wiped away before the next step weathering the road is basically the same technique we used on the footpath just be aware that the thinners will soften the rust-oleum paint layer so avoid spending too long in one spot with the paint brush I keep moving along the road applying the wash leaving heavier spots and lighter spots as we did on the footpath to change the color tone of the road are used for Laiho dark sea grey it's a very thin layer of paint being sure not to obscure the details underneath road markings are painted onto the road surface it takes time to do all the masking but in the end once you finish it will make a huge difference and is definitely worth the time and effort masking is really important remember to take your time and ensure everything is masked properly to avoid getting paint where it's not wanted when mixing the paint try to avoid thinning it too much you don't want the paint to remain runny as it gets applied otherwise you'll find the paint will soak under the masking tape road repair patches are simply added with a paper template and a sponge I find the woodland Scenic's ashphalt color is a good fresh tarmac color I'll make sure to create a few templates of different shapes to avoid having it look unrealistic when multiple patches are close to each other to whether the lanes of the road a light dusting of a dark earth pigment is applied with this powder a little goes a long way only a light application is needed to make a big difference road cracks are drawn on with a felt-tip pen and by using a pencil I can add cracking to the painted lines and you can also simulate faded paint using the pencil as well now that the road is complete I seal everything down with three coats of testers dull coat the reason it gets sealed with three coats of dull coat and no less is because the Magna rail system uses small sliders that are dragged over the road surface to prevent the paint from being scratched away it needs a good layer of protection and so far the dull coat has worked well a brown base color is painted over anywhere dirt will be applied I started with the raw Sienna but added some black to darken it and a cream color to make it an earthy gray color I didn't really need to paint right up to the road here but just in case there are any gaps in the footpath I decided to cover all of the surface area with the paint the footpath gets glued using five-minute epoxy being careful not to get it on the road the cement construction slab as well as the corner store plywood base are glued down as well the dirt texture I use is real dirt scooped up from outside the dirt alone is too dark some some Devco corn sick grout from Bunnings is added I have a couple of different grades of dirt one a very fine grade and a coarse grade for rough textured terrain once again before sprinkling dirt all over the place I mask any areas like the footpath and the road so dirt doesn't obscure them the dirt has a hard time sticking to the hills so to keep the dirt on the slopes I painted a diluted mixture of Mod Podge matte with water [Music] now when I sprinkled the larger dirt texture over the area the larger rocks are able to stay on the edge of the slope without piling up at the bottom then on top of the coarse layer I apply the fine dirt texture using an old spray can lid and a stocking this helps blend into larger rocks so they don't look like they are sitting up high on top of the ground but rather they are protruding out from the ground while still embedded in the dirt to fix all this down I use isopropyl alcohol and my cynically mixture which is made using one part Mod Podge matte three parts water and a few drops of dish soap the alcohol is first applied to wet down the dirt once it's reasonably soaked I apply the glue the alcohol helps the glue soak into the dirt layer better and it helps prevent the glue from beading up on top of the dirt layer once the area has been glued I make sure to promptly remove the masking off the road sometimes you'll find white patches where they glue and alcohol has reacted with the dull coat this can be fixed by misting alcohol over the white area and it will clear the white patches now it's just left to dry overnight after the dirt has dried I wasn't entirely happy with the final color it was just a little bit darker than I wanted so I applied a light of dirt mixture over the top in selected areas especially around the work site where there would be a lot more movement in action after the excess is removed from the road using a brush I mask only the edges of the road and use some paper for a barrier so that as the alcohol and glue is applied it will not get on the road surface it was a much thinner layer of dirt so a lighter application of glue was all that was needed to fix this layer down the road shoulders were detailed with woodland Scenic's a fine grey gravel it's similar to ballast but much finer and does a great job for adding the gravel commonly seen along the edges of roads it's also great for creating gravel roads and driveways it gets fixed in a similar way to fixing ballast by first applying the alcohol and then applying the glue using an eyedropper now for the fun transformation applying static grass for this I'm using the new woodland senex static King and some of their two four and seven millimeter static grasses I mostly use a 50/50 mixture of seven millimeter light green and seven millimeter medium green grass but I also add a small amount of formula meter grass as well using the same color it's super easy to use static grass once the applicator is ready with the hopper full of the desired grass color I simply apply the static grass glue in spots where I want the grass applied and spread the glue out with a paint brush the glue tends to dry quite fast so I only work in small manageable areas at a time next it's just a matter of turning the applicator on touching the grounding wire close to where you are applying the static grass and shake away it's amazing that just a very small amount of static grass on a model can make a huge difference in the overall appearance once the area has been grasped the excess is vacuumed up with a piece of stocking over the end so we can collect the grass and use it on other sections of the diorama the static King can be used by connecting it to a power outlet or by using a 9-volt battery that is installed inside the handle I generally prefer using the static King connected to the power outlet as it gives a stronger static charge however for portability and getting into their hard-to-reach places on a layout then the battery is perfect to mix it up a little I decided to use my homemade static grass applicator to apply some of the two millimeter grass around some of the longer grass to add a bit of variety [Music] it's no secret the one of my favorite ground coverings to use is dried leaves that get blended and sifted into a fine grade I also supplement the leaves with a variety of woodland Scenic's foams to add small bushes and weeds on the surface the leaves get sprinkled over most of the area around the grass as well as directly over the grass as well to add more texture you may need to use a brush to help vet in some of the leaves so they don't sit up on top of the grass fibers I make sure to remove any material from unwanted areas like along the footpath or the road this layer of leaves and ground foam will also need fixing down now for the final time I mask the road surface and lightly mist alcohol over the scenery followed with some scenic glue to hold it all in place now we can start adding some of the finer details road signs are made in a similar way to previous tutorials however this time instead of printing on photo paper I printed the signs onto white decal paper and transferred them onto 0.5 millimeter styrene sheet they are then cut out painted silver on the back and installed into the scenery I'll have a separate video on this coming soon temporary chain-link fencing is installed around the building site I have a previous tutorial on the method for making this fence there is a link in the description the main difference here is that each fence panel is separate and I 3d printed the concrete blocks that were painted using yellow ocher other details for the construction site were also 3d printed like these pellets the oil drums the cinder blocks and even the portable work lights were all 3d printed on the street corner I also have a few 3d printed details like the fire hydrant post box and dumpster all the files will be available to download on my website and there's also a link in the description the phone booth was made using a combination of techniques the main shell of the booth including the lower mesh screen panel was photo etched from brass I've a photo etching tutorial that describes the process in detail from start to finish so you too can make awesome photo etched details at home it's a lengthy process with many steps however getting ultra fine detail like the mesh screen is hard to get using any other method even resin 3d printing can't get detailed that fine other details on the phone booth like the roof and the actual phone handset with 3d printed the files for the 3d printed elements can be found on my website and also the CorelDraw image file for photo etching the main structure will also be available on the website as well for those of you who are interested in trying this yourself power poles are another important detail I made these using five millimeter dowel the stems are roughly curved to introduce some irregularity into the pole and then lightly sand it to remove some of the harsh lines left behind from the knife this diorama is in hecho scale so I cut the poles to a length of roughly 13 centimeters the cross beams are scale 4 by 8 strip wood which is cut to size I opted for a small beam up the top and a slightly large one below which matched to the photo I was using for reference the wood is then dyed using some black and tan shoe dye that is mixed with isopropyl alcohol for a cup of alcohol you'll only need a few drops of shoe dye the crossbeams turned out great however the dowel poles didn't look so great so after using the dye I ended up painting them with a grey acrylic paint and then a funnel dry brush of off-white in the end the poles ended up about the same color as the cross beams that were dyed using the shoe polish the cross beams are glued on with halma super tacky glue trying to be very careful in getting them to be perfectly centered using the cutting mat grid was actually very helpful for doing this the high voltage wire insulators were 3d printed on the any cubic Photon and fixed in position with super glue and the transformer that sits just below the cross beams was also 3d printed and glued in position with super glue the wires running from the transformer up to the insulators was added using very thin lead wire this stuff works great as it holds its shape which is perfect for this type of application all it needed was a small drop of super glue to hold it in position just be gentle though as the wire is only 0.2 millimeters thick and breaks very easily an installation wire was added at the bottom of each pole making it much easier to install it into the scene high voltage wire between each post is optional depending on the layout they can be very fragile so I'll usually leave them till the very last thing that I do these trees are Backman pate inch maple trees and as they are they look okay however I wasn't entirely happy with the visible twisted wire trunk so I made some improvements the first order of business was to remove all of the foliage once the bulk of the foam was removed I set the tree on fire this actually helps remove the rest of the foam that is stuck in the glue and burns away the poly fiber strands leaving behind the skeleton of the tree to hide the twisted wire I make a bark mixture this comprises of some wood glue some modeling paste and some very fine sawdust I collected from the small bag attached to my sander it gets colored using a mixture of brown grey and cream colors until I get the desired bark color it starts off very thick so a small amount of water is added to make it slightly thinner but not too thin as we want this to build up in thick layers over the trunk as the mixture begins to dry you can drag the brush over the trunk creating a rough bark texture to reapply foliage I'm using Hecky CMOS the excess wire is trimmed away from the branches leaving a shorter stump to make application of the branches much easier I'm using some hobby tack adhesive from woodland Scenic's and after it has been applied it's left for 30 minutes until the glue becomes very tacky while the glue is drying I prepare the small branches when it's time to apply the branches they simply press onto the tacky glue that was applied earlier it should be enough to hold the branches in position however as an added measure after the branches have been applied I also put a small drop of super glue for added strength where I live it can get very hot and humid and sometimes the hobby tack adhesive alone is not enough to hold the branches over time the branches are further blended in with the trunk by spraying them with burnt umber to match the Australian environment I'm adding the burnt grass course foam colour when spraying the tree with the adhesive try to avoid getting the adhesive on the center section of the trunk the foam is then pressed into the branches I ended up applying two layers of foam to build up the volume of the tree by adding more or less foam layers you'll be left with a more or less dense foliage the final detail is added with noch medium green leaves this is applied in the same fashion as the foam layer a final overspray with matte varnish is applied to remove the tackiness left behind from the spray adhesive installation is straightforward just bore a hole add some glue and press the tree into position don't forget to add some leaves around the base of the trunk to help hide any gaps and glue them down as well smaller shrubs are added with a new product from woodland cynics called briar patch I really like the brown color for the Australian scenery it's very similar to the finely foliage however it's got a much denser application of foliage applied the desired amount is simply torn free and glued in the desired spot other smaller trees are added by applying noch leaves directly over the Hecky seamos and added to the scene as desired now we're getting close to the end the corner store is finally glued in place making sure to push the wires through which are also connected once the glue is family holding the store in position a small amount of water is added in the drainage ditch by first creating a dam using masking tape and as an added measure I run a bead of wood glue around the edge of the tape just to make sure it holds the resin I'm using is envirotec slight it's super easy to use and can be colored with water-based acrylic paint it gets mixed in a one-to-one ratio the color I added was one drop of the woodland cynics murky Brown and two drops of yellow ochre just try to avoid adding too much of the acrylic paint as it will result in a rubbery surface once the resin cures two or three drops for this much of resin is about the limit as for bubbles they are removed using a small soldering torch unlike the tree however we don't want to set the scenery on fire so avoid holding it too close in one spot for too long the small lip left behind along the tape can be trimmed with a sharp hobby knife small ripples are made using Mod Podge gloss it gets applied liberally over the resin surface and then an airbrush is used to create the ripple effect the Mod Podge also dries quite fast so again just work in small sections at a time to give the diorama a nice finish the edges are sanded to remove any bits of glue or plaster and it's painted black to help frame the scene the very final detail to be added are the power pole wires you can use a whole range of products for this like lead wire for string but for me I like to use the easy line it's an elastic material that is very thin it may even be a bit too thin for this scale but I want the wires to blend in with the scenery and only be a very subtle effect and we're done the scene truly comes to life with the moving elements and I really love the Magna rail system because it can be basically made to work with just about any hecho or even n scale vehicle even this tiny forklift looks very cool running along the street and not to mention the bike riders I hope you enjoyed watching this very long and detailed tutorial and I hope you manage to pick up a few tips and techniques along the way if you like what I'm doing here on YouTube and you'd like to help support the channel be sure to check out my patreon page Cheers and thanks for watching

Channel: Luke Towan

Views: 3,066,880

Keywords: Model moving cars, building the ultimate diorama, how to build model building kit, laser cut model kit, how to build model railroad scenery, how to build scenery, building realistic scenery, building realistic scenery from scratch, model railroad scenery, model railroad, realistic forest tutorial, how to model a grass field, magnorail, river tutorial, luke towan, boulder creek railroad, realistic scenery, static king, woodland scenics, envirotex lite, field grass system

Id: M4EOT1XXc_Y

Length: 46min 0sec (2760 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Xenon787]

Luke Towen is so incredible. His videos are both informative and deeply relaxing

[u/dexecuter18]

And a little disclaimer. He does advertise certain products. But in many instances you can substitute those products with cheaper ones.

However its worth researching because cases like with paints, different brands can have wildly different ideas of what shade a certain named color represents. And many of the tools used can give really sub par results if cheaped out on.

[u/Ihatethesefeels]

The level of patience and meticulous work this takes is too much.

[u/Theycallmelizardboy]

Holy shit that looks so real.

[u/TheMightySwede]

Didn't think I'd watch through the entire thing but here I am. Very fascinating.

[u/Osiris32]

A new Luke Towan? Yay, my day is off to a great start!

[u/lorealjenkins]

So much dedication and attention to craft. Very very impressive.

[u/murkleton]

Aww man, I love Luke Towan. He's such a talented artist. I've always wanted to start modelling but I have too many expensive hobbies already, so this is the next best thing.

EDIT: Holy shit. 45 minutes long! Noice.

[u/Horg]

I always get happy when I hear the intro music :3