hi everyone it's Andy from hoppy
headquarters today we're going to be
building our stream diarama this was a a
great project that I had a lot of fun
building we got to use our handmade
trees that you got to see in a video
previously as well as using water effect
and dirt and static grass and bushes all
other kinds of cool stuff this was like
I said a lot of fun to do and this is
going to be the first of many more
diaramas so let's get started on
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it
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okay to start out we have our hardwood
board uh it does have a rough Edge that
uh probably wouldn't look as good but
once we get the entire base done I can
always build a framework around it of
molding to cover up all of the edge uh
the board we're using here is 24 in by
11 and 1/4 in is that's what they had at
the at the Home Depot when I went in
there also picked up some of the high
density pink foam that we're going to
lay on to it here now my idea for this
video is that I'm going to have a stream
and the stream is going to BCT the uh
the board here approximately here and
this will be the other side I also plan
on having kind of a shallow area where
when the stream gets really high this
kind of fills up I've been looking at
pictures of European streams and this
will all be rocking through here also I
plan on having through here this will be
another second level so it'll be a
little bit higher and this has got a
little bit of a of a side edge going up
and then the the kind of the trail that
we have will kind of be going through
here maybe a little bit about that side
and these are all just rough drawings
I'm putting on it right now uh cuz we're
going to carve all this foam out so now
that we have all that into place let's
carve out the foam and then we can get
to gluing it onto the
base and the pink foam Cuts really easy
easily so we're going to cut this right
here and we're going to sand down this
level to keep it so it's still so it
still has a little bit more dep a
littleit more height than the the center
of the river and then we'll cut down
this area
to okay and once I cut those we just
snap those off and now we'll take this
and add this over to here this is going
to act as our
Edge it's a matter of snapping that
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off okay now that we have the uh the
general surface that we want we can
still do some more fine refining with uh
the Sandpaper in a little while uh I've
roughed up the back of the uh the foam
here and we're going to use some Gorilla
Glue which works good on all these kind
of
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surfaces now the foam in that glue
expands by quite a bit so we're going to
have to put some weight down on
it
and that's when a tiger track comes in
really
handy because if it moves with a 60 lb
tiger track on it then it is way
stronger than I thought so we're going
to let that set up for about a couple
hours and come back take it off and then
we can do some refining sanding on it
okay now that the uh the foam has all
set up and uh all this is all glued down
tight we can now use our skull
mold and we've mixed up a little batch
of that and we're going to start
applying it to the
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surfaces
so I let the uh the plaster dry after we
smoothed it out but just before it was
completely dry I pressed uh some tiger
tracks into the uh the dirt we also
carved out a little bit of erosion lines
going down on the side of this this edge
here and then I just painted a dark
brown color for the base of the lake or
excuse me the Stream So now that we have
that on we're going to put a coat of
paint over all of this and this is
basically going to seal this up to keep
all the white from showing cuz we're
going to put more product on top of
that so we're going to use some Woodland
scenix just their base paint it's just a
dark color paint and I'm going to give
this just a spritz down with
water
now that the undercoat has dried we're
mixing up water 50/50 with Modge Podge
the matte uh finish and we're going to
mix that up really well and give it a
liberal coat over the entire model and
making sure you're getting into all the
little nooks and crannies uh now when I
say entire model too everything except
for the the stream bed we want that to
uh to remain smooth when we actually put
our water effect on
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it
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another reason that I like to use Modge
Podge instead of like a white glue is
white glue has a tendency to set up a
little quicker this gives you a few more
minutes to actually coat the entire
diarama before it starts to set
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up
now that we have the uh the piece
entirely coated what I'm using right
here is a little sanded grout that I
picked up at a home improvement store
and just using a little Shaker we're
going to go over and make sure we coat
the entire surface that we want to have
the coating on complete and really
putting uh all over the place and don't
worry about getting any on the river bed
you can actually just wipe that off
later and that's why we want to make
sure there was no glue in that
area
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now that we have the entire surface
coated what I like to do on this would
take the Modge Podge again but this time
3 to one water and mix it up in a squirt
bottle and Mist it on over the entire
surface this way we get a nice solid
surface and then the the texture is
going to be really
firm and after you let the grout dry for
a couple hours you'll get a nice hard
surface on there really hard to break
through into the uh the white base
that's
underneath you'll also notice that I've
placed one of the uh the pre-made trees
that I have I have a video uh on my
channel as well that shows how to make
these from
scratch and now that it is completely
dry we're going to take our airbrush
using multiple colors of brown starting
with the darkest first and working to
the light we're going to start to add
some highlights to the river banks as
well as to the
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tracks
[Music]
okay I finished up the uh the airbrush
effect that I wanted to get on some of
the darker areas to make them look a
little wetter than some of the top areas
that would be a little dry as well as
the tracks I also um I started doing a
little test on some static grass I have
a new static grass applicator and
putting some weeds and stuff on and
forgot to film this part before I
started putting that stuff on as my test
bed but kind of give you a little 360
I've also attached the uh the tree in
place using some Gorilla Glue and I've
just started the process of filling in
the areas on there but it is attached
really nicely and firmly and what we'll
do now is we're going to start working
on Weeds grass and you know things like
that and Dead Leaves all that kind of
stuff we want to do all that stuff
before we start working on the water
that way none of it falls into the water
and ruins our surface on
it okay okay now we're going to work on
a little bit of our grass and weeds and
to start off I'm just going to work on
this area up here and we're just using a
little Modge
Podge thin with just a little touch of
water in it just to make it flow a
little bit
easier I'm going to kind of do it in a
blotting
area
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next what I've been doing now too is
I've been taking one of my grass mats
that we got from uh Mig a while back and
you're able to pull the little toughs
off of these Bunches of Weeds now I
already actually have a few so what
we'll be doing now is just taking a few
of these little weeds and pushing them
into place
just randomly over the entire
surface next we're going to use our
static grass applier and we're going to
put a little bit of grass all into this
area as
well
now we'll let that dry for a little
while set up and come back and we'll
vacuum off and blow off the rest of the
excess grass and show you what it looks
like decided to uh put some more tree
some medium size not as large as this
one right here so I poked a little hole
into our foam base and I used a little
bit of Modge Podge as a f mixer to it
and we're going to glue
this deep inside there we'll let that
dry and then we'll do any little
touch-up we need around
it okay as you can see here I've uh gone
ahead and I've put the first coat of our
Vallejo water texture drown acrylic
water texture I damned up both sides of
the uh the stream here with masking tape
and it held back the uh the fluid pretty
well now I a little bit of a a white uh
start to form and I may have been cuz I
may have poured a little bit too thick
on the uh on the water portion of it but
all this is going to be covered with
water plants anyway and we're also going
to put multiple layers down on this now
so for the next layer I'm going to mix
maybe a DOT or two of acrylic paint into
it to kind of darken it so it's not so
Crystal
Clear okay as you can see I've poured a
uh actually two layers of water in there
the very first layer of water I put in
there and I got a little bit of white
hazing on it when I when I put it in
there so what I did is I went over with
a little bit of green dye poured it in
there kind of rippled and and then a
little brown around the edges and then
poured one more layer of the uh clear
water from Woodland scenix so I am going
to do one more layer on top of that to
give it a little bit depth but what I
thought I would do right now is we're
going to grass in this area with some
tall field grass so I got a uh big
container some taller field grass we're
going to go ahead and use and we're
going to get it set up and use our
static and see what we can comes out
like so applying a layer of Modge Podge
onto the uh dirt area and it's just a
touch of extra water in it just so it
flows a little bit easier than just the
thickness that the modge podge comes in
now I want this to be more of a field so
I'm going to apply one big uniform coat
over the entire little area as well as
some areas up on the top of the hill and
the other side of the riverbank as
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well now I'm taking my static grass uh
sifter and touching a wire probe to the
actual glue we're shaking on nox 12 uh
mm long grass and we want more of like a
long rough Meadow looking on the edge of
the uh the
road now I've let the uh glue sit up now
for a couple hours enough that it's it's
firm so what I've done now is I've taken
a vacuum and just gone over it lightly
over the tops just pulling off any of
the excess grass through it in through
these areas now I also before I did that
took a few little toughs and I just did
the toughs by grabbing a little pinch of
the the long grass and dipping it into
glue now there's a little bit of white
there that's the uh the modge pod that's
going to dry clear and we've also added
some bushes up into these areas and
bushes in here and on top of that we
sprayed a little Modge Podge water
mixture and then this is a product that
just called weeds I'll kind of just
sprinkle a little bit it's basically a a
crush type foam and we can even take
this stuff and sprinkle it on top of our
grasses and it adds a little variation
in color and texture and most of it just
sinks right inside there and it's held
in place pretty well just because it
falls in between the blades of grass now
like I said on top of the weeds we did
put a little bit of the glue just so
it'll stick and it'll give it a
variation in color as well also in the
back over here we took a Fallen Tree um
Branch put it into the water as if it's
being flown Downstream and then and hit
the rock hit the side of the uh the uh
stream also decided I'm going to make a
little leaf litter and this is a
complish just by taking real leaves real
dead leaves that are out in front of my
store here and smashing them up and just
putting them through a sifter and you'll
get this real fine looks like dead
leaves in here that will just sprinkle
underneath all the trees you can even
put some up around the river bank things
like
that and what I thought I would also do
is just give you one more quick little
view uh I'm going to not going to be
doing any more work on this tonight I'm
going to let this fully cure overnight
but I thought it looked really cool to
get an eye Lev view of the grass how
it's all sticking up as well as leading
right down into the water the water has
a a natural Rippling effect that looks
really actually really well uh
especially with the light reflecting off
of it between the grass and the river
effects it's turning out pretty well now
what I am going to do I've been going
back and forth on it and I think I am
going to put one more layer of water
inside of this just to rise up the uh
the Water a little bit higher make it
meet all of these uh River grasses that
I put in here as
well and after we do that if we decide
we can even put more Rippling on it and
we can show you a technique using the
gloss Modge Podge uh which I think I
probably will because I want I do want
to have a little bit of motion appearing
in the water as if it is moving not fast
but that it is actually moving rather
than stagnant
water so I've gone ahead and poured the
uh the second coat of water on top here
and just as it was starting to get tacky
I took some of our ground up Leaf
mixture and kind of spread it around the
edges in between these weeds and up
around and back and through here too
especially next to that Deadfall tree
kind of put some in there cuz you can
imagine weeds or leaves and debris all
accumulating over in the
corner now while the water was drying we
went ahead and took some of our fin Leaf
foliage from Woodland Scenic some of
these branches they kind of look like
their uh moss covered and we're going to
put those into place areas like that
kind glue them down of course too but
kind of make it look like there's
branches that have fallen off
trees and also went ahead and sprinkled
some fine ballast all around the side
edges of the road it's kind of giving a
layer effect now I've gone over it
slightly with my airbrush just to kind
of blend it all in so nothing looks too
Stark against another
color okay now I flipped the uh the dire
be um around so this is the back of the
diarama and I do have a small amount of
wakes in the water right now but I want
to create a little bit more uh Motion in
the water so we're going to use our
Modge Podge but this time we're going to
use a
gloss and what we want to do now is
start stippling it
on not very thick just doing working in
small
areas
okay now after you've completed about 2
or 3 inches of the modge podge area on
the diarama you want to take your
airbrush set at about 20 pounds of
pressure and then just lightly start to
push the uh the product down the river
as if it's flowing down and what this
will do is it'll start to create little
wakes that'll give the appearance of
moving water and like I was saying you
don't want to do too too much at a time
because it does start to set up and get
tacky and it won't want to want to move
at all so just do little small areas you
might want to experiment on something
first before you start putting it onto
to your
River I'm making some little Clump trees
I'm using Woodland scenix fine Leaf
foliage and I've just sprayed it with a
little bit of our uh Modge Podge which
is with a little water in it and now
we're just going to take that same stuff
that we used earlier the weeds and this
is a lighter color cuz the green is just
way too monotone to look like a a proper
tree so we're going to sprinkle a little
bit of this on it to give it some
variation in the uh the type of leaves
that are on there that are some are some
are dying some are
older pull this little extra piece off
try to move that up there now you can
adjust these slightly cuz these are like
a real product so you want to try to
find one in the box that's as close
close to looking like a tree as possible
so this one looks pretty decent right
here and might even put a little more
foliage down on here and we'll make a
few of these now and put them over the
rest of the
diarama and once we decide where we want
the uh the tree to go I'm just using a
flat screwdriver poking a hole into the
uh the
foam and we'll just put the tree into
place there and we'll fix it with a
little bit of uh White
glue kind of get it to the direction
that we want
first and now we'll glue it into place
and I'm going to do that over the rest
of the diarama as well with a few other
trees we've also taken some of our fine
Leaf foliage and done the exact same
thing as when we were making the trees
but these little shorter ones look more
like bushes and we've got them kind of
hanging over the edge of the uh the
hillside here leading just over the
water and looking at a lot of pictures
of European streams a lot of this is
pretty common to have it where it's it's
grown right to the edge and starts to
actually grow right over the side of the
water and you can also see that we have
a little German Soldier hiding out in
there right up on the uh the Hillside
and his camouflage smok Blends in pretty
well in
there so I've let the uh stream set up
now for a couple hours it's uh not 100%
dry but it's dry enough to the touch
there's still a few little areas that
need to completely go clear and see
through and that'll take a few more
hours possibly even overnight to get it
fully that way
but uh now that we're at that point you
can really see the uh the water and the
motion that it appears inside there that
as if it's moving Downstream now that
that area is set up we don't have to
worry about damaging it we're going to
take some of our Vallejo pigments and
I'm going to be using two different ones
the desert dust as well as the light
Sienna which I use so often in the uh
the tracks that I do and I've started to
do it in through here just taking a soft
brush we're kind of blotting it into
some of the sides of the area areas that
we want to appear to be a little bit
drier than some of the other areas
around we also want to put it around to
give it some highlights to uh the the
roads as well as down in here and it's
simple enough just taking a little bit
on the
brush and just start blending it
in and this is just like I said going to
create some areas that look a little bit
drier give it a little bit contrast so
everything's not so
monotone and those colors are obviously
completely up to you however you want
your diarama to look I'm doing it a
little bit in here and I'll do a little
bit on the road as well as on the
outside of the road too as if it's a
little bit drier out there not to
mention the other side of the road as
well so so far I think it's coming along
pretty well um like I said we have a few
more hours to wait on drying of that and
then we can do just some of the uh the
final Little Things to the actual
base so I finished up uh putting the
pigments along the sides of the uh the
the BM here as well as the uh the road
leading just close enough to the water I
didn't want to get too dry near the
water cuz that would still be kind of
mois and through
there kind of give you a little bit of a
360 view I've got this thing teetering
on my normally kind of small little
turntable but I think I've got it
balanced enough to show you guys
everything on
here now when I started this diarama off
I really didn't have any specific type
of uh diarama I was making other than
the scenery itself now I did put tiger
tracks in there because I just happen to
have an extra set of tiger tracks and it
always looks cool to have a tiger in a
diarama now this is going to be more or
less just be a display piece uh that I'm
going to use for showing off other
vehicles if you wanted to attach the
vehicle down what I would recommend
doing is taking some of the uh the paste
like Vallejo mud and putting it all
around the bottom down here just mainly
towards the bottom of the tracks and
then pushing it down into the pre-done
tracks uh marks we already done a little
bit of it will ooze out to the side let
it fully dry and then you can go back
over it with your Valle hoo pigments
like we did on the side here that that
way it won't look like a wet mud because
nothing else on this area is wet over in
here but it will give the vehicle the uh
the impression that it has some weight
in it that it's sinking into the ground
it's a 56 ton vehicle so it's not going
to be riding up on top of but for our
purposes right now like I said it was
just more or less to show off doing
scenery well here we are here's our uh
completed diarama and I've got to say I
had an absolute wonderful time building
this it was so much fun being creative
doing the uh the hillside the water the
grass trees all that kind of stuff uh
did take a little bit longer obviously
than a normal model kit to build this is
a a couple of weeks work I'm working on
just a little bit here and there and
that's mainly because you put something
down and then you're letting six to
eight hours sometimes or more of drying
time for each thing so but definitely
had a great time and you'll be
definitely seeing many more uh diaramas
in the near future and this is a quick
uh a quick note about that many of you
still ask about the uh the train diarama
uh that is not getting built uh it was
going to be too large for my store and
actually I've sold all the train pieces
off to a collector a while ago so the
next couple of diaramas are going to
come out are going to be this size or a
little bit smaller just so I can
actually keep them in my store so also
for the next uh 30 45 seconds after I'm
done talking I took the diarama outside
and filmed it in some natural light to
let you see what natural shadows and
stuff look on it really really adds a
lot to it so I want to thank you as
always for watching and uh please stay
tuned cuz we have many more videos
coming