Monster Diorama Help

[crunchy8022]

Hi guys. I'm planning and have been collecting supplies for a large monster fight diorama. I've seen Mike Wallace's method of foam on the bottom, duram's water putty on the sides, and the taxidermy stuff he uses to simulate rubble. My question is, what should you use on top of the foam if it's a flat surface like with streets and buildings? I heard from someone you use kitchen tile but that sounded too thick if you want to make impressions of monster feet on the surface. Any help would be appreciated.

Kevin

[raydrz]

hopefully we'll hear from mike wallace, dennis reid or bilal el-amin or all 3...i'm sitting here with a sharp pencil ready to take notes!!!

[DenZilla]

I use sheets of foam board I get from Hobby Lobby. I tried to find it on their site but couldn't. It's usually located in the framing section.

[kong33]

I use textured abs plastic. Used it in the old days when I was a custom car stero installer. I buy large sheets but you can get any size you want. Easy to cut and leaves a nice textured surface that is easy to apply street decals to. Takes paint with ease also.

[Jon LeGrand]

I just put the durhams on real smooth and flat on the top, I use a pavement kit from woodland scenics to add elevated concrete pads, etc.

[Hobby_Dude]

I use 1/2 inch foam insolation sheets from home depot. This allows me to layer them to whatever thickness I need. It's also easy to dig and carve into for monster foot steps and craters. For the surface, I usually cover the whole thing in styrene sheets. I like to glue them down using spray glue. It really holds the styrene sheets to the foam layers quite well.

Tip: I buy "For Sale" signs from home depot. They are made out of styrene, you can get larger and thicker sheets then the hobby store and they are less expensive. You are going to paint them anyway.

I like styrene because it's easy to cut out the ragged holes for monster foot steps and craters and easy to glue down other styrene detail parts like sidewalk, people mailboxes, street signs, building, etc that I get in HO and N scale from the model train store and ebay.

To simulate the texture of streets, I use textured spray paint, glue down sandpaper, or you can even buy styrene sheets that look like streets, cobble stone, sidewalks, curbs, etc. It all depends on the scale you are working in the size of your diorama.

I hope this helps.

Bilal

[crunchy8022]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. This is really helpful. Has anyone had any experience with vinyl composition tile? I think you can buy it at Home Depot.

[Hobby_Dude]

I have a little experience with vinyl composition tile. It's pretty inexpensive and breaks up into nice looking rubble because it's so brittle. If you are looking to use it for streets, I would glue it down to a foam or foam board "underlayment" to give it some support and they you can use a drill, hobby knife or dremel tool to carve out street damage (cracks and pot holes), kaiju foot prints, etc.

[crunchy8022]

I have a little experience with vinyl composition tile. It's pretty inexpensive and breaks up into nice looking rubble because it's so brittle. If you are looking to use it for streets, I would glue it down to a foam or foam board "underlayment" to give it some support and they you can use a drill, hobby knife or dremel tool to carve out street damage (cracks and pot holes), kaiju foot prints, etc.

Do you know if its textured? If not what would you do to make it look like pavement? Thanks.

[Hobby_Dude]

I have a little experience with vinyl composition tile. It's pretty inexpensive and breaks up into nice looking rubble because it's so brittle. If you are looking to use it for streets, I would glue it down to a foam or foam board "underlayment" to give it some support and they you can use a drill, hobby knife or dremel tool to carve out street damage (cracks and pot holes), kaiju foot prints, etc.

Do you know if its textured? If not what would you do to make it look like pavement? Thanks.

The tiles I see at Home Depot are very smooth. When you break them up in to small chunks they a nice broken asphalt look to it. You can glue piles of that down and then sprinkle some fine sand and debris and what-not to give it more texture. Then spray some watered down white glue to seal it all together. For a smooth undamaged section of city street, I decide on scale and choose to cover a smooth building surface like foam, styrene, plywood, etc. with something that has texture that matches your scale like sandpaper, or wet down the street surface with watered down white glue and then sprinkle down fine dust or chalk to give the road some texture. I usually use 20cm scale monsters and to me the slight grain I get from priming over my styrene and then hitting it with chalk dust and a little drybrushing seems to give it enough texture at this scale.

Here is an example of a dio I did using the floor tile as rubble. The base if that blue builder's foam that I carved out some depressions for MechaGodzilla's body and Godzilla feet. Then I piled on broken up floor tile, sand, bits of buildings, kit parts, etc to simulate debris. I used white glue, and durham's water putty to tie it all together. This project is about 7 or 8 years old. Today, I would not have framed it like a picture


Here is an example of a dio I did using 1/4 inch hard particle board as a base with styrene sheet glued down for the roadway. The rubble is from crumbled up plaster. This dio is also about 7 years old. Now I would have tinted the plaster a little bit more gray and hit it with a wash to tone it down. I'd also weather the street a bit more.


I did this dio a few years ago. I sandwiched two layers of the 1/2 inch builder's blue insolation foam between some "For Sale" signs made out of styrene. The top styrene sheet is what I used for the street and what I glued the buildings on. I was able to easily dig in craters for the monster's feet. The other nice thing about this is that it's easy to "edit" your work. The dio started more rectangular at first but as I started looking at things, I was able to cut away the foam / styrene base into a more interesting asymmetrical design. The other nice thing is that that it's very light and strong. It easily supports two solid resin monsters and all that other surf without bending or cracking.

[crunchy8022]

Thanks. Those are some great pics. I assume the bottom ones are from Final Wars? Thanks for the tips.

[Mike Wallace]

You can use the vinyl composition tile for your street surface and styrene sheets your sidewalks. The vct works great for scribing in cracks and fissures. You can hide it's thickness for footprints cutting out each footprint, breaking it up, and putting it back in pressed down a bit (like a puzzle). Hope that helps.

Mike W

[tohoboy]

I use the vinyl tile as well. Works well for me. Just be sure to remember that unless it is absolutely fresh asphalt (and even then), it is not jet black. It gets greyer over time, the car exhaust makes the middle of the road darker, etc.

[41Wolfman]

This gives me even more great ideas for my G2000.Great dio pics.Just have to make sure I get the building scale right.

[Emphantasy]

For footsteps, I've mixed Aves epoxy putty with sand, rubble, grit, etc. whatever the ground is supposed to be, and pressed the figures foot into it, having sprayed a release agent first.

[crunchy8022]

This gives me even more great ideas for my G2000.Great dio pics.Just have to make sure I get the building scale right.

Usually you use N scale right?

[41Wolfman]

This gives me even more great ideas for my G2000.Great dio pics.Just have to make sure I get the building scale right.

Usually you use N scale right?

I've never done a Godzilla dio before.I just got a KOC G200 kit and I've been brainstorming various ideas.It's 1/144 scale so I'm not sure what scale I should use.I saw the post for what to use for rubble,asphalt,concrete,etc.Plus the pics sure helped give a face to the ideas in my head.

[raydrz]

N scale is the ticket...approx 1:148-1:160...

[41Wolfman]

N scale is the ticket...approx 1:148-1:160...

Thanks for the hint.That'll help a lot.

[crunchy8022]

If there's foam for the middle, durhams on the sides, and tile of some kind on the top to represent street, do you guys use something on the bottom of the whole thing to make it stable? I'm thinking foam wouldn't hold the weight that great.

Thanks for the help.