Crimson Alizar and the Death Leeches of Dashur

Hi everyone,

Working with water is a treacherous affair for me.  I always encounter problems.  I had problems with my werewolf diorama – and I had problems with this one as well.

The problem, once again, is with the products.  The culprits were the ‘Scenic Cement’ from Woodland Scenics and Vallejo’s ‘Water Texture’.  On their own, they are great products, and I use them often.  Together though, is a whole different story.

After I used the scenic cement to attach all the rubble in place, I let the river bed dry; and then I painted the whole thing.  Later I added a very thin layer of Water Texture to seal everything in before pouring a slightly thicker layer.

The next day everything turned a bright white.  I contemplated self-immolation for 30 seconds, then tried to salvage the situation.

I let the diorama dry properly for two days, then I repainted the river bed – and let it dry again for another two days. Since I used a thin layer of Water Texture, the rubble detail was still pronounced enough to be seen. I decided this time to seal everything with UV Resin and let the whole thing cure overnight after using the UV torch.

Everything seemed stable, so I added some green paint to the resin and poured two layers,and once again let the whole thing cure for a day.

Unfortunately, some whiteness, still came through, but I knew it would be subdued when I added white water to the scene.

The rest is in photos.

The white water is the fun part of water modelling.  First, place some ‘Water Texture’ on plastic and let it dry to create the splashes.  Peel them off, cut them into shape if need be, bend them and glue them into place with the UV resin.  Then add some thickness with the UV resin.

Next, add some artificial snow to some heavy gloss gel and mix thoroughly. Before placing it on the diorama, do some tests to see how much ‘snow flakes’ you need to add.  Some artificial snow brands turn transparent when added to gel – others turn yellow!  So be warned.

All that you have to do now is add the mixture and ‘sculpt’ it on the splashes to create agitated white water.

Now that the water is done, I can focus on the jungle vegetation.  I might have to divide that into two posts, because it takes a lot of work, and is the most demanding aspect of a diorama like this.  The vegetation will sell the illusion or sink it.  Time will tell I guess.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.