Best material for diorama basework?

[Cave_Dweller]

Hey guys,
been doing some dioramas lately and what I've been using to build the ground is cheap spackle from the hardware store. It dries ok and can be sculpted and contoured fairly well. But I was wondering about its longevity/durability, and if there's anything else better?

I want to do a new dio here soon and want to make sure it's done right.

Plaster of paris worth a try?

Thanks

 

[spud]

my recent one i used some left over aroboard from packaging and laced some plaster of paris over it. you have a limited working time with it tough.

 

[Grendels]

I have been using celluclay. It works good, but will shrink when it dries. I have been considering the use of something else.

 

[the Baron]

Styrofoam and foam insulation panels make good bases. The material can be carved, especially using a heated knife blade or a pyrogravure tool, and then you can apply a puttying material like spackle or Celluclay as a finished layer over top of it.

I've used Celluclay, and I've found that mixing a little white glue into the mixture, and not using too much water to mix, help avoid excessive curling/warping/shrinking, as it dries. I once tried to force it to dry by heating the oven to its warm setting, then switching it off, and placing the base (Celluclay directly applied to a wooden base) in the oven. That dried it too fast, and the edges lifted away from the base. Letting it sit for a couple of days to dry slowly helped avoid the warping, too.

Hope that helps!
Brad

 

[Grendels]

You probably nailed the problem I had with celluclay. I put it in my garage which at the time was near 160F to cure. Dried it up too fast. I also didn't use the white glue when in the past I had used half white glue, half water.

If I am making a large project, I use the insulation foam panels for the base.

 

[austin132010]

I used plaster of paris for a dirt runway on a diorama I made. The bad thing about using plaster of paris is that it can crack and/or chip easily.

 

[Junkie]

You can add brown paint to your plaster of paris so that when it chips you don't see white.

 

[the Baron]

You can add brown paint to your plaster of paris so that when it chips you don't see white.

That's a good point, Scott. You can do the same thing with Celluclay, too, or even add dried paint mix, like the stuff we had in school in art class.

 

[geegad]

Real soil And pva use pigment to change to any colour you want and it sets like cement

Geegad