 Hey all and welcome back to another exciting tutorial. My name is Luke and today I'll be showing you all the steps it takes to build an absolutely amazing diorama that you can be proud to display for all to see. So let's not waste any more time and get started building the model. The base I'm using is a glass dome display, which you should be able to find from a lot of home decor type stores. The base is built up further by adding foam insulation board. Simply trace around the dome and using a hotwire foam cutter you can very easily cut out the circular shape so it fits perfectly inside the dome. It's important to go nice and slow when using the foam cutter. That way you'll get nice even cuts and avoid making mistakes that will mean starting again. The finish on the edges isn't perfect so to tidy it up I lightly sand the edges until they are smooth and the circle fits inside the dome without getting stuck. I use polyurethane glue to fix the foam to the base but I first roughen up the surface of the foam to give the glue something to grip onto. The glue expands so be sure to weigh it down as it dries to prevent it from moving. Next I move on to building the tree. For this I'm using a piece of salt bush. Basically any small shrub that has good definition will do. Sage brushes another common natural plant that works really well with this technique. I break off the smaller branches until I'm left with a trunk and a few main arms. Next I cut away the excess trunk from the bottom and drill a hole so I can insert a piece of wire that will act as a mounting pin. Adding branches is done by breaking smaller twigs from the main piece of salt bush. Then using a pin vice I look for a good spot on the tree to add the twig and carefully drill a small hole. The twig is then simply glued into position. This process is repeated many times until you get the desired coverage of branches. Here you can get an idea of scale with the H.O. scale man standing next to the tree. If everything is going to plan the tree should fit nicely under the dome and this is confirmed by giving it a test fit. I'll be raising the surface of the foam a little further with sculptor mould and I want the tree to be in the same spot so I temporarily place a long piece of wire in the same position that the tree was in. Now I can add the sculptor mould and build up the terrain. But first roughen the surface so the plaster has something to grab too. It's like adding icing to a cake. Just gradually build it up until you have the contouring you want. As the plaster begins to set I continue to smooth the surface with the spatula and finally once it's set after about 15 minutes or so I go over it with my finger to get it very smooth. The long wire is then removed and the tree is pressed into position creating an indentation and a final test fit of the dome is done just to make sure everything fits just right. Once dry a light sanding around the base maybe needed to remove some excess plaster. This comes off quite easily so only a fine grade of sandpaper will be needed. Because this is a graveyard diorama I'll need some gravestones. I made these using a 3D printer and a design program that's free to use online at tinkercat.com. The completed model is then exported and loaded into a slicing program that prepares the model for 3D printing. Once it's been saved to the micro SD card it's simply a matter of loading the file into the 3D printer and watching it go to work. Some sanding may be required after printing but overall they come out looking quite nice. I painted the gravestones using a base coat of June followed by a misting of jasper and finally a misting of sandbank. Adding multiple colours gives a more realistic texture. The coffin that we'll be able to see on the side of the diorama is made with strip wood. Pulling the strips through steel wall helps remove the stray fibres leaving you with a nice smooth piece of wood. Using a tool like the micro mark chopper makes light work for jobs like this. Cutting multiple pieces of wood all at the exact same length is a breeze making assembly much faster. Just take your time and you'll eventually have a pretty good looking coffin but remember to leave one side open so that we can see inside. To add a bit of age to the wood I weather it with a diluted mix of India and can water. Only a very light coat is needed and if I'd soaking the wood because it can possibly weaken the glue whilst it's damp. Now that's done we can start planning out where to position the graves. Here looks good for the visible coffin and to mark out its position I lightly press the coffin against the foam leaving an indentation. A rotary tool makes light work of hollowing out the whole but a sharp hobby knife will also get the job done. Just go slow when using the rotary tool because it doesn't take much to make a mistake. And we do the same thing for the open grave on top. Mark out a suitable position and again with the rotary tool work your way down until you get to the depth you like. Next to the hole I use a little more sculptimal to build up the mound of dirt. Before getting too much further into the build I decided I wanted the base to be matte black. After masking the top I sprayed the base with rustolium flat black. This could have been done right at the beginning which would have been much easier. Now I just need to mask the black base whilst I complete the rest of the diorama. The openings are painted a dark brown. Usually dirt that has been dug up is much darker than surface dirt. I used burn umber for the grave openings. I also painted the sides using burn umber as well. I made sure to put a liberal coat on the sides and whilst the paint was still wet I blended a much lighter color down from the top to give a gradual fade from the light surface to the darker layers down below. The lighter color paint I used was called Fawn from Jusonius acrylic paints. Basically a light brown and this is the color that the top of the diorama is painted with. Before adding the dirt texture to the top I needed to prevent the glue from filling in the indentation we created for the tree. Blue tech seems to do a good job so I used it to temporarily fill the hole so I can remove it later. The method I'm using to add dirt is the same method I've used in nearly all of my dioramas and that is to first apply a thin layer of glue over the surface quickly followed by sifting the dirt texture over the same area. The initial layer of glue helps the dirt stick to the hills and slopes. Then follow up by misting isopropyl alcohol over the sifted dirt and while the areas still wet from the alcohol missed over a final layer of glue. The alcohol helps the glue penetrate into the dirt as it dries resulting in a much better and more durable bond. Excess glue can be soaked up carefully with a paper towel and glue that runs down the sides can be brushed away with a wet paint brush and soaked up with a paper towel. After removing the blue tack I quickly test fit the tree to make sure it still fits perfectly. The grades can now be glued into their final positions. I decided to use super glue to fix them down as this area will be getting soaked again and craft glue has the tendency to weaken when soaked. I don't want these graves to move. Grass is added using a homemade static grass applicator. The first layer of grass is 5 millimeter late for mix from mini nature. It's placed into the hopper ready to be applied. Mod Podge matte is my glue of choice and I dab it around the model in small patches with a brush. This will create the effect of many small grass tufts. Next just shake the applicator over the surface. To remove the excess grass you can vacuum it up or for small die ramas like this just flip it over and shake away the excess. Next I add a shorter 2 millimeter static grass with a mixture of about 75 percent late for and 25 percent early for colors. The shorter grass is more widespread on the die ramma filling in most of the gaps between the 5 millimeter grass tufts were created earlier. The dirt is completed by first painting glue over the mound then using a darker shade of dirt texture I sprinkle that over the top. I have two different shades of fine sifted dirt and a darker shade of medium sifted dirt. It should be noted that these three types of dirt are all quite a bit darker than the dirt we previously applied over the entire die ramma as you can see. They all blend together to create a realistic looking mound of dirt. To add more definition and texture to the grass areas I lightly sprinkle over some of my homemade leaf texture. It's basically some dried leaves and bark that has been put through a blender and sifted to remove the larger pieces. This gets applied over the entire area with a focus on the edges of the grass near the pathway. I also add some of the fine dark sifted dirt randomly over the area as well and to avoid having the leaf texture just sitting on top of the grass I use a dry brush to push it down and bet it in between the grass fibers. I also removed any unwanted dirt from the pathway and from the hole where the tree will be placed. To hold all that dirt and leaf texture in place I once again missed the area with ISO Propoil alcohol and then lock it all down by misting the glue over the top. Now everything is dry I can start by highlighting the dirt pile with the same colour we used as the base coat on the diorama which is Joe Sonia's fawn. It only needs to be a very light dry brushing. Also some of the darker spots along the path get a similar treatment with the dry brushing technique as well. And we don't need the base masking tape anymore so we can remove it. To create the hand rails that run up the small slope I use some small pieces of strip wood that get weathered in a similar fashion to the coffin using India ink diluted in water. You can dunk them a few times until you get the colour you want. The small hoops that will hold the chain are made with 32 gauge jewellery wire and looped and twisted to form a circle. The circle of wire is then trimmed, inserted into the wooden post and glued using a small dab of super glue. Holes for each wooden post are drilled out evenly spaced up the slope and once you're happy you can glue them into position. The chain I'm using has 0.8mm links which is about as small as I could find on ebay. I cut a length that will fit along this slope and then to weather the chain I carefully prepare and mix a solution called ferric chloride. You only need to dunk the chain for a few seconds. Then dunk the chain in water to remove the ferric chloride and set it aside to dry. It's a corrosive substance so you need to handle it with care. With a lot of patience I carefully thread the chain through the small hoops. Then with it threaded through all the hoops I allow a small amount of slack so the chain drops between the posts and once I'm happy with the way it looks I dab a small drop of super glue on each hoop so the chain won't move. Once it's secured I can cut away the excess chain leaving a fantastic looking rail. Next I turn my attention to the pathway which gets a light dusting with some yellow ochre pastel to give it some highlights and the appearance of being walked along. As you can see here when I remove the masking tape it calls some damage. I'm going to hide this by painting a black line around the bottom making the yellow foam much less obvious. And then I fade the black line in with the brown by airbrushing the sides. The man in the coffin got a new suit and a haircut as well. He had a couple of small dubs of craft glue applied to his back and set into position inside the coffin. Up near the dirt pile I added a wheelbarrow that I got from a Bachman H.O. Scal workman figures package. And I also added a track worker with a pick and set him inside the hole making it look like he was digging the grave. The last little detail I needed to add is a small ladder so our grave digger can climb out of the hole. Again with some strip wood and the micro mark chop it I cut some small strips of wood to piece together a ladder. It was then painted a light grey colour and weathered by dry brushing a brown colour over the top making it look a little dirty and used. And lastly all we need to do is place the tree in its position and set the glass dome over the top. And that's it we now have an absolutely fantastic looking diorama that will be sure to get the attention of whoever comes across it. If you'd like to help support this channel and help fund future videos please be sure to check out my patron page. I also have some extra perks for those who help support the channel. Cheers and thanks for watching!