"Eat your veggies" retouched

Due to this diorama was made in a rush for participating in the annual IPMS contest back in 2015, there were a lot of things that I didn't like about it: The ground color, some color spots on the road, the same color and exaggerating dusting of every bush etc. etc. Although I don't touch a model after it's finished, I made an exception here. I corrected literally everything, from the highlights and shadows on the figures to the asphalt color and the variety and color of vegetation. Some more streaking on the ad. , more dust on the car surfaces, better ground color variation ( I hated that ochre tone ), changed the places of the figures, added a road sign, made darker the left overs of the eaten bodies and so on.

"Eat your veggies" dio finished

I made a change of plans and decided to add a bit of humor to my zombie apocalypse diorama. NO living things except the vegetation and everything dusty and abandoned. I 'm afraid Rick and Carl will have to wait for my next P.A. dio.

Some conversion of the initial design of the billboard...

The base of the billboard and the diorama. Wood putty for the "cement" cardboard and wall putty for the ground with some N scale ballast. Cork for the base and the rocks. Sandpaper ( 150 & 400 ) for the road.

 Before adding grass and bushes. I prefer to design with oil color the underneath of these to create the illusion of a fully grown up nature. After finishing the bushes I make darker the area beneath them with raw umber oil to create the illusion of shadows.

The figures have been reworked with oils for highlights and shadows. The sign is a personal composition at photoshop. Much of the painting is done with diluted oils and wet on wet technique. Here 's the finished project :

Zombie Apocalypse pt.02

I made some progress on the figures and one of the vehicles ( I 'm thinking about using only 1 to keep the size of the dio small and focus the attention of the viewer rather than wandering around ). After some filters, repainting details , highlights and spray with mat varnish they are close to completion. Some need more "live" blood - i.e. gloss varnish on points - and I will close this chapter soon. The station wagon was airbrushed with highly diluted Modelmaster Africa Dunkelgrau '42 from above to immitate the dust on the upper surfaces.

After I saw the photos I scrapped the bandage from Rick's leg 'cause it looked too thick. I 'm gonna use something else than thin thread. During the process I broke the left hand from the wrist down and lost it in space. He 's gonna need a prosthetic surgery.  :)

Before airbrushing I sanded the upper surfaces of the car and a bit of the sides to have something for the paint to bite. The "glass" was airbrushed from the outside, first with mat varnish and then with the diluted Dunkelgrau.

Still alot of work to be done.

Zombie Apocalypse pt.01

Inspired by the TV series "The Walking Dead" ( How cool is that ??? ) and the 4th season I decided to build a diorama at 1/87 scale so I can use figures that easily "describe" the character they are representing ( Rick , Carl , walkers etc. ) in a scale with many options for cars and without having to sacrifice a lot of space. For this task I 'm using the 16343 Preiser set of " Passers-by and spectators " , a couple of Busch vehicles that have a small cost ( we 're goin' here for some abandoned ones so no need for the best - and very expensive - cars ) , a Ratio HO/OO 501 "Grounded coach body" with some modifications and scratchbuilding to represent an old American highway diner building and some details that I will figure out during the construction.

Inspiration.....

So I started with the figures, by altering heads, hands and poses, to match the look I 'm up to. Some details like the guns of Rick and Carl were done with Evergreen plasticard, the texture on the walkers by scraping the plastic of the "clothes" and bodies , adding some plastic on places to look rotten and eaten and using Humbrol liquid glue to blend them on the figures. The dark figure is from a Preiser set of Nato soldiers.

The basic painting and "weathering" of the figures is done, but I still need to add depth and richness with more tones and variations.

They look quite odd but mind that they are zoomed in here and look a lot bigger than they are in reality ( more than twice the size ). That 's all for now, see yah.