Took inspiration for this diorama from my real-life neighbor, who is a hoarder of mechanical things (bikes, lawnmowers, etc), and fashioned the diorama with parts from an old Casio hand-held calculator/printer (remember those?). All the levers and gears from the calculator were originally opaque plastic. After washing them, i used liquid and powdered weathering products to age them. The cats were included as a way to contrast the slowly rusting items with the leisurely life of some of the felines seen in my neighborhood.
The rusty-looking cat is how it came from Bachmann, which supplies diorama-making products. The same cat in grey is after I sanded and repainted it, to look more like one of my neighborhood cats.
Fence from popsicle sticks (from the Dollar store - 100 sticks for a dollar.)
Static grass from Woodland Scenics, applied with my home-made applicator
Gears, levers, arms, and ratchets - all make for good weathering subjects to practice on.
Thanks, guys. CN, the cats are O scale; the stretching tabby is about 1 inch in length. The base is 3.25 by 4.75 inches, with the overall dimensions slightly bigger because of the leaning fence. By the way, my real-life neighbor has the best looking lawn after a rain storm. However, on closer inspection, his lawn is actually composed of all weeds!
Raualduke, thanks. Holding your popsicle stick flat against your work bench, then using a box cutter with a fresh blade, should see after repeated downward strokes random grooves being cut that the blade tends to follow. These will be the splintering that you see on my fence. Severe splintering can be portrayed by shaving down some of the sides of the sticks. For weathering, I use a wash of black oil paint from a tube, diluted with odorless turpentine, which will tend to congregate into the cracks. If you need to increase the shadows and depth, follow the oil wash after it has dried, with black pigment powder brushed into the crack, then dusted of excess. Raualduke, an old wood fence running through a static grass field can in itself be an interesting subject.
Pordoi, mainly things that I have seen while mountain biking, along with pictures of scenery that evoke emotion, and finally what might be transferable into a diorama that seems interesting and different, are the main things that influence my composition.
82, a diorama of a derelict lot sounds interesting. Along with the rusted lawn chair, maybe a discarded tire with grass growing through the middle, a shopping cart or bicycle sans wheels, assorted bottles, cans, and crates, and maybe a single figure shown bent against a north wind while cutting across the field - his trench coat billowing behind him - could draw your viewers in.
Mike, wanted to add that where the fence (or wood in general) meets a source of moisture (like grass), algae/mold/lichen can develop. I used my AK Slimy Grime paint set to add the greenish hue to the lower parts of the fence. If you have some oil paints in green, a diluted mixture of this should also do the job.
