Beached Pirate Ship Diorama

[durangod]

Hey everyone, hope everyone is doing well.

Well i dropped my pirate ship on the floor by mistake and it broke some stuff so i thought i would just make it a positive and make a beached ship Diorama out of it. I have the base drying now, see pic.

My idea is to use some expandable spray foam from the hardware store to make the beach mounds and then cover the foam with pva glue and sprinkle fine sand on top of that, then set the ship between the mounds and place the parts in the sand around it.

Fine modeling sand is so expensive. I have read i can use hamster sand from the pet store or play sand from the hardware store (this one is the least expensive and you get more of it).

Questions:
Is play sand a wortly alternative to fine modeling sand?
Will pva glue stick to spray foam?

Thanks

 

[Jakko]

Fine modeling sand is so expensive. I have read i can use hamster sand from the pet store or play sand from the hardware store

If you live near a beach, just go get as much as you need there Sea sand is usually much finer than river sand.

But for a beach diorama, I wouldn't use any sand myself unless you want to replicate a pebble beach. In any scale, sand grains will look oversize for actual sand. It will look better, not to mention it's much easier, to just apply filler or plaster and smooth that down, then paint it in sand colours.

 

[scottrc78]

You can look at using masonry sand, which is like beach sand, at the hardware store.

 

[Jakko]

Really? Over here, sand used in building construction is usually very coarse and pointed, whereas beach sand is fine and rounded.

 

[durangod]

Yeah ill get some fine sand. I really want to use sand because i dont like the look of painted ground surfaces in most cases.,

Well i got the ship supports inserted and the foam sprayed, will sand it and shape it better after it cures. If the foam does not work i can just break if off, sand the bottom and im back to a good surface.

 

[scottrc78]

Really? Over here, sand used in building construction is usually very coarse and pointed, whereas beach sand is fine and rounded.

We have fine paver sand that is beach sand, also I have used tile mix for railroad beds.

 

[WtShark]

Wow, talk about making lemonade out of lemons, great idea and I think it will be amazing!
Hopefully, it will wind up being one of those happy accidents.
Best of luck- I'll be looking forward to updates.

 

[BarleyBop]

Really curious to see how the foam works out... somehow always have half a can on hand that ends up useless the next time I need it!

 

[durangod]

well i sprayed it with primer and i had to thin it slightly to get it to spray. It reacts with the foam is spotty. I assume the thinner and not the paint is doing this. Maybe i need to do thinner coats and wait 30 min between coats, i dont know.

The idea is to mix sand and have bolders and rocks around, with ferns under the ship and a few palms. So the black rock is fine because it looks like lava rock.

I wonder if i should blow a heat gun lightly over it to evap the thinner after each coat, or just use a brush.

thanks

 

[Steve Ski]

Excellent recovery, Ruckin Onward, Dave! Remember, you can also use baking soda from a sifter on top of freshly sprayed white glue water mix. I've done it many times, and airbrush the color tones.

This is gonna be sweeeet!

 

[durangod]

Thanks, yeah brushing primer on right out of the bottle works great.

 

[BarleyBop]

That is some magic!
Did not see it coming.
Now the suspense is killing me!

 

[durangod]

I will keep you updated. For now im going to let it sit for a day or two and let it completely dry. Then ill start painting. I need to build palm trees and ferns anyway.

 

[durangod]

Here are the ferns so far. Cut them out of paper. I still need to fluff the edges and figure out leaf vein color i have seen brown and yellow. But not sure if i like brown or not.

One trick i taught myself is that the leaves droop once wet w paint, so for some of them i mixed the paint w pva glue and then hung them upside down. When they dry they stand up.

 

[Pantherman]

Hey everyone, hope everyone is doing well.

Well i dropped my pirate ship on the floor by mistake and it broke some stuff so i thought i would just make it a positive and make a beached ship Diorama out of it. I have the base drying now, see pic.

My idea is to use some expandable spray foam from the hardware store to make the beach mounds and then cover the foam with pva glue and sprinkle fine sand on top of that, then set the ship between the mounds and place the parts in the sand around it.

Fine modeling sand is so expensive. I have read i can use hamster sand from the pet store or play sand from the hardware store (this one is the least expensive and you get more of it).

Questions:
Is play sand a wortly alternative to fine modeling sand?
Will pva glue stick to spray foam?

Thanks

View attachment 167320

I use kiln dried sand from the builders merchants, one small bag will last a lifetime.

I have used white glue on foam and it works well. Pantherman

 

[durangod]

Ok here it is, i left off the big pieces of sails that broke off for these pics because it was too crowded.

 

[durangod]

more pics

 

[BarleyBop]

Crazy! Like you knew what you were doing from the start... including... the shipwreck!

 

[durangod]

Crazy! Like you knew what you were doing from the start... including... the shipwreck!

Thanks everyone When we get older we realize that things happen for a reason and this is no exception. This happened right about the time i began to get the scale modeling bug again, so yeah i agree i think it was meant to be.

I think it would look better if i had some grass texture, one day when i get some (or make some) ill add it. It also would be nice to be able to keep the sand in place. The bottom layer is glued but the top layer is lose sand. I thought about hair spray but i dont want to risk it.

To fill the large sections of sand i had a small container left over of what i call mortar sand (the stuff you sweep into cracks of stone sidewalk, wet it and it hardens) and i mixed that 2 parts play sand to 1 part mortar sand, added just enough water to get it damp and packed it in the large sections. I hope it dries out and does not rot my wood base. If my idea works it should get really hard and dry out on its own. I suppose maybe spreading some elmers glue on the bottom first or painting the bottom may have been the way to go just in case. Alot of it has primer on it but some parts under the foam do not.

Here is a photo of play sand vrs what i call mortar sand, in the bowl is my mixture 2 to 1. In the square container is the mortar sand itself.

I am very happy with how it turned out, the pics dont do it justice, it looks so much better in person.

 

[GCB]

Great job!

 

[Tommergun]

My eyes are moving all over it trying to pick out all the details. Well done.