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Making a diorama
Chapter 1: Materials Continued

Materials needed for the landscape details:

For the terrain details I have purchased a variety of ready made materials from a hobby shop. You can creatively replace these materials.:

• artificial grass strands - you can easily make your own by using the strands of a discarded paint brush and painting them green.
• rough landscape brown materials - various lichen, moss and scraped styrofoam painted works well for this
• bag of small pebbles
• landscape green grass, you can dye sawdust green to make a suitable material
• the large bag is a kit to make trees - with some creativity you can use wire or actual twigs to make realistic looking trees.

Replacement materials:

This photo shows the bristles being cut off a paintbrush. You can wash these bristles in a thin green paint and they make wonderful grass.

Rocks, Stones and Cliffs

There are several techniques you can use to get great looking stone effects.

You can find small stones that will look great and granite is a good stone for this. You should avoid predominantly round and smooth stones. Small jagged stones look the best. They lend realism to the small scale of the model .

You can also purchase liquid latex rubber. You paint the latex onto an interesting stone and when it dries you carefully remove it. It is now a mold that you can pour your hydrocal or plaster of paris into.

You can also purchase ready made rock molds from a hobby store.(the black items in photo) you simply sprinkle baby powder into the mold then pour in your liquid hydrocal or plaster of paris and remove when dried.

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