Another diorama finished!

My friends, it took me a couple of days, but I wanted to do a final reveal with the water and figures :) Also, take a look at the first two pics - how a simple block of foam can be transformed into a busy diorama. That's something I'm always concerned about when I'm creating the initial layout - is this basic shape gonna be interesting enough in the end? 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. My first big goal since the last post was creating the completely flooded road. This is something I wanted to do for a very long time. I collected a handful of reference images of modern tanks on similar looking roads and always wondered if it's doable. Well, this prominent feature gave me quite a headache! I was doubting myself at several points, wondering if I took the right approach, but in the end, I can't think of a better way. I taped off the sides, and mixed 6ml of resin, tinting it slightly with Tamiya Khaki. After pouring it carefully with a pipette, I noticed how it started beading up on the edges. This was, of course, expected. But I was quite shocked when it hardened into a strong greenish color, as you'll see at the end of the gallery. I don't know why it happened, but my guess is some kind of reaction with the enamel paints on the ground. After all, all my previous water dioramas didn't have this issue and the base underneath was always acrylic. 

Well, I proceeded to the next step, which was planned even without this disaster, and that was leveling out the surface with tinted Still Water. This, thankfully, changed the color to a more pleasant tone, and I was quite happy with the outcome. At this point, another doubt entered my mind. I was happy with the radical look of the diorama, but I kept wondering how it would look if I limited the water to a few places - the deepest ruts and holes in the ground, and kept a good portion of the road without it. To this day I think it would look more harmonious, as there would be "just right" amount of everything. However, the downside of resin is that there's no going back. It kept bugging me all day, and thoughts like "this could've been my best, most perfect diorama ever" kept ruining my mood. But hey, this was my original plan from the beginning, it turned out alright in the end, so why is it such a big deal that I had an even better idea when the deed was done? As they say, everyone's a general when the battle's over! 

So anyway, then there were the figures, and these took a LOT of work to finish. Of course, I kept painting them as the resin and Still Water was drying, but there was still a lot to finish when the groundwork was already rock hard. For example, I'm always surprised how much work it is to paint weapons! Especially the DT machine gun was a real chore! I finished the soldier on the tank first, and the moment I've put him next to the diorama, I knew I had to show you the finished scene with figures (see photo 3). I think they really add to the scene, not just by telling a story, but somehow I think the color palette on this diorama just clicked together really well. Even the blue tanker, at least to my eye, doesn't stand out in an unnatural way. 

I also added a fair amount of mud on these two soldiers using the same enamels as I used on the tank and the ground. Mostly using the stippling method using a very dry brush. 

At this point I could superglue them to the scene, and the last addition was a few extra leaves floating on the muddy water. 

Gotta say, my friends, I'm so happy with this diorama. Not only it was a reasonably fast scene to finish, and I'll have a video ready for this Friday, but I'm very pleased with the composition and colors in this one. Oh, and I can't help myself, but the wooden sides have really grown on me. I think the scene would look a bit worse if they were painted my usual black! What do you think?