Spaceship Crash Site part 2

I never did finish this. I was really liking how it was turning out, but I never was able to find HO scale backpacker figures that I was satisfied with. Also, for some reason, I painted the ship green.  I grew to hate it as I continued working on it, but since I had started the ground work, it would have been difficult to change easily. In any case, here's where we last left off...

I thought the ship hull looked a bit stark, so I decided to have a go making some panels. In order to get them to conform to the compound curves of the hull, I vacuum formed them. I printed three instances of this portion of the ship and then arranged them with a triangular plywood spacer, so the plastic wouldn’t have to be drawn as deep, preserving a bit of material thickness in the final parts. 

                               

                                         Movie:

The deep undercuts weren't a concern, since that portion was to be cut away. This was my first attempt at scribing panel lines. I must say, scribing an ellipse wasn't the best idea for a first try. That said, it turned out mostly ok.

For the terrain, I used a mix of paper pulp and plaster. The paper pulp is an entire roll of toilet paper that I shredded with an immersion blender (in water to keep the dust down). Then I spread it on an old window screen and let the water evaporate. I just add it to the plaster mix by eye, as needed. The right consistency is similar to loose porridge. I applied it in stages, letting it fully dry in between. This process took a while, since drying times were a bit slow. I really like the texture that the paper pulp brings and hope to use it again soon. 

After the plaster work was done, I left it alone for a week or so, to be sure that was it completely dry. Then I applied some fine dirt. This was just dirt from pile at a job site near where I work. I grabbed a couple yogurt cups full and then later sifted it through a wire screen to get rid of rocks and plant debris. I applied some glue with a brush (Mod Podge matte) to the plaster. A nylon stocking was stretched over the yogurt cup and shook over the model, salt shaker style. Only the finest powder made it through the stocking, so it looks reasonably in-scale. 

I added some grass and some mud and weathering and this is where it was left. I'd say its 95% finished, but I'm not sure if I'll return to it. I had a great time making it and learned quite a bit. I hope to make more dioramas in the future.