Project Update: Wicked Wanda's by Bar Mills

This is another project that is in the works currently. I finished Wanda's building almost two years ago and then set it aside until I get parts needed for diorama. I thought it was going to be one or two weeks before I get back. However, I got caught up in doing another kit, then one more and so forth. Later on I decided that I wanted a shed then few other things. Finally, about a month ago I got around making that shed and started diorama.

First I made a tree out of one of sagebrush twigs I collected in California in 2010. It turned out to be too tall for this diorama and I wasn't happy with overall shape of it.  

Therefore I made second one out of another sagebrush twig and super tree material. Only picture I have is of very early stage - bare trunk and roots. I thought of taking picture of the tree already "planted" but I messed up whole thing before I had a chance to take a picture. I'll tell all about it a bit later.

Then I glued Cellfoam 88 on 1" thick blue foam to get some elevation. Idea behind was that to have flat surface for structures and track and fill the rest of it  with Sculptamold.

Then I found my first batch of Lou Sassi's Goop I made two years ago and decided to use it since it was still good. I had just enough of it to fill spaces in between pieces of Cellfoam. I let it sit for a few days and discovered that it had shrunk creating hilltops and valleys. I thought of making another batch but then decided that zip texture would fill all valleys. Zip texture was something I wanted to try. The whole idea of building diorama is to learn new techniques anyway. So I mixed up plaster and tempera paint for the zip texture and proceeded. I wanted to have old abandoned track with ties partially covered with dirt and grass so I applied zip texture over the track as well. After everything dried I ended up with way too coarse surface and track looking like one big mess. Well, not exactly what I really had in mind. I have to redo everything using Sculptamold and old good dirt. I hope I can cut out and save the tree. Back to making the base and weathering track tonight.