Not sure how RU-vid knew I needed these videos in my life but I've been watching as many as I can you are awesome I can not believe how realistic all of your designs look very impressive
The thing that always amazes me is how few steps it takes to go from looking like a bunch of stuff glued in a pile to a vivid and realistic terrain piece.
Let me know below if you like this style or not, just having the music and no voice over. Not something I plan on permanently in the future by any means, just thought I'd give it a try.👍☺️
Almost a year and a half later this is still my favourite scenery/terrain tutorial on RU-vid. The diorama is absolutely stunning. I want to build an entire model railroad in this style. :)
This in combination with your medieval house build looks like it would make for an excellent watermill, so that's going on the to-make list right after I finish shamelessly copying your house design. These tutorials are truly excellent!
Haha go right ahead and copy away! That’s an excellent idea, you’ll have to post over in the FB group your work of art when u get her finished! Thanks for taking the time to watch, truly appreciated.🙂
Well, after literal months it's finally in-progress. I messed up slightly in my first attempt (not enough dry fitting and too much over eagerness to get started), but I'm trying to channel my inner Bob Ross and planning to more or less "cover over" my happy accidents with a second layer of plaster - my cliffs may be a bit higher and narrower then anticipated, and the water to my mill may have to be carried via a slue rather then natural flow.
A suggestion.. buy a couple of rubber plaster bowls and plaster spatula from a dental supply company (size to suit your needs) cleanup is a breeze you can let the remains set in the bowl, then squeeze and flex over the bin and tip out the remaining set plaster. The spatula is just designed to mix up plaster easily. For mixing plaster try putting water in the rubber bowl and sprinkle the plaster on top, don’t mix straight away leave it until you see the top surface appear damp. It is counter intuitive waiting, but this way you won’t get any lumps. If you do this the plaster bowl lends itself to being held in the left hand and the spatula in the right whipping the plaster like whipping cream. You’ll know your ratios of water and plaster. Stir or shake the plaster first to lighten it ( if it has settled in the packet, this stops a big lump falling into the water and splashing every where. Last thing letting it dry and emptying into the bin will save your waste pipe in the sink blocking over time. 50lb 25kg bags of plaster of Paris aren’t expensive just keep it dry! I had a dental lab for many years and mixed up loads of plaster. Adding a tiny bit of Borax slows down the setting time (a little goes a long way !) Salt accelerates the setting up to 5% then retards the setting. Old plaster in your bowl accelerates the setting as the old plaster acts as crystallisation points and it rapidly sets. This also applies if you find you need to add plaster to a thin mix this will set faster than the correct ratio. I know nothing about your amazing diorama skills but do know a little about plaster :) finally there are a couple of different plaster types you may find of use the white plaster of Paris and there is dental stone I forget the trade name British gypsum make it for uk dental labs. across the pond there will be similar, it is used for making dental models of the mouth from impressions and once set it is incredibly hard and would allow you to have much thinner sections without breaking.
Wow, fantastic info man. Thanks for the info! You sure do know your plaster alright. Going to definitely take your advice. I'll sure be looking into the rubber bowls and spatula. Indded I see the cleanup being a breeze by just letting it set then crumple out, not having to worry about the plumbing in the process. This dental stone is quite intriguing as well. Going to have to find myself some of that. All the tips on the plaster setting are great too. Definitely learned my lesson trying to add new plaster with the old still left over as well. lol This is the great thing about posting on the internet. So much new and awesome advice out there I would have never figured out on my own😊.
Lol, the information goes both ways, except mine was only a couple of minutes typing. Not sure which part of the world you’re in, re the dental stone in the US I think it is an ADA type3 plaster, (American Dental Association) it is normally used for casting models after impressions of the mouth are taken. It is strong and when dry very strong. Btw the white plaster virtually doubles in strength if left to dry for 24 hrs. Dry plaster is much stronger than damp. There are harder crown and bridge synthetic plasters that are stupidly strong ( and stupidly priced). Just look for plaster made for model casting not general purpose soft plaster of Paris its just a little more expensive.
The finished product is a piece of art. One thing I do that makes things a bit easier and saves a lot of headache and retouching is to, once you have "ground" levels established, finish the sides and paint them black. Then do all the groundwork, i.e. flocking, static grass, foliage, then the very last thing is the water. Doing the water last avoids getting any flock or scenic glue or anything that could ruin all the hard work you do getting the water to look real. Just a friendly tip. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Very true. I'm bad for jumping around and wanting to get to the next step before I'm done the current stp I'm on lol. Which isnt good when you have to put it into a cohesive step by step video lol
Real Terrain Hobbies Gotcha. I can imagine when I finally decide to start "filming", I'll probably make mistakes and missteps O' plenty. You do good work and the results are usually amazing. Thanks for taking the time.
Fantastic presentation, Neil. I really liked being able to concentrate exclusively on the visuals - the editing was so tight that I didn't have a single question about any of the processes. Way to put in the editing work, my friend. I know that was a monster job. Thank you for demonstrating the most effective whitewater effects I've seen.
Thanks Heather! You give the best and most thoughtful compliments. And yes you are right on the editing part, oh boy...😏 Trying to do my best to be more strategic with what I shoot with the camera and not have hours and hours of footage to go through. That is still, a work in progress, however.😋 Thanks for stopping by again and giving such thoughtful feedback.
I like the use of the sanded grout. Sets up solid and has a nice fine texture. I like how you added some paint under layers of envirotex for deeper water 'froth'. I think you did a great job capturing the movement of the water. A great piece!
Thanks Mike! I think I mucked up with the paint on the ridges on the waves/Liquitex gel trying to make the water look more turbulent, making it just look a bit odd. Next time I'd use some of the techniques discovered on the ocean board.
In a newer video, you mentioned how far your videography has come; you're quite right! I'm glad you moved away from the house music, and your videos in general are a lot more relaxed with you in them describing your process, and your time-lapses have gotten even better.
Absolutely awesome. It is so gratifying to watch a craftsman at work , and see the model come together with such a realistic appearance. Thank you for sharing .
Well, the initial foam bits had me thinking, what in the world is THIS going to look like. Throughout the video, I was increasingly intrigued as to where you were headed to create the rapids shown at the beginning. I just wasn't seeing it. About 3/4 of the way through, your vision had me wondering. And then, like magic, you suddenly brought it all together to create one fantastic rapids and cliffs. I'm currently working on a landscape with a river and your idea will work great. This is my first project, so let's hope I can achieve such a wondrous scene as you have. Thank you for revealing this great concept. I love it!
haha, yeah it was a little messy at the start. I had the idea in my head where I was going but certainly hard to see that at first Something I should maybe try to improve upon in future videos to help ppl see where its heading. Thanks for the great response and best of luck to you and your future build!
wow and YES I was like " wait what r u" then the pop up! Lol.. They Look Look like rocks, Amazing. This is the Color and kind I need for my big project HO scale RR! GREAT JOB THANKS SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS!! ; )
Adding toilet fine chopped toilet paper to your plaster or pulped newsprint (non glossy) will help with molding and such and adds strength and chip resistance.
Incredible !!! Here am I trying to work out how to make a little realistic pond for a farm. I was so ingrossed in your amazing video I missed my dental appointment :) So well presented. What talent you have, so many tiny details. Wow, words fail me. I could watch this again and again, and probably will ! Thank you Neil.
lol sorry to make you miss your dental appointment! And thanks for the kind feedback, it's very much appreciated. Best of luck on your pond and farm scene! Sounds like an interesting model. :)
i found you a couple of days ago just as i was wanting to make some scenery for warhammer and when i saw this video i was blown away!!! your stuff is the best homemade scenery i have ever seen!
Wow, great job Neil! The rocks look amazing. I really liked just watching the video without the commentary. You captured it well; no need for explanation. Tegan was telling me about how you showed her what you did in certain parts too. 😊
If it was me, I think I'd be plastering the sides (finishing touches) before putting anything else down on the diorama. Also, I'd probably put the ground cover materials on before pouring the waterfall, so as not to get any bits and pieces on the envirotex (which can be scratched when cleaning detritus off) and especially avoiding getting any PVA on it which can cloud it up. That aside, it looks bloody awesome! :)
I’m a big fan and this was incredible! I did panic a bit at the yellow!! I can’t believe how you transformed that flawlessly. Neil keep the videos coming as you have sheer talent! I just see this channel go far fast:)
So cool my friend, thanks for the Inspiration. The Bridge and the last tree you placed really made that piece of Art worth looking at. Thanks for being you.
I don't have any rock forms so i just use clay and roll over piece with aluminum foil. They turn out ok and look close to rocks but not as detailed as these. Great video.
Stunning... Inspiring!! Thank you for going through all of the extra effort to film, present, edit, and post for us! Your diligent patience and tenacity truly is virtuous.
Welcome on board! Yea, that's really awesome Terranscapes (Mike) recommended me. Wasn't expecting that, nope! lol Major honor to be mentioned by him, that's for sure. He's an absolute legend. Glad you decided to come over and check things out. 🙂
You must be a clone of Luke Towan, you have the same skills. Great stuff. I enjoyed watching you creating something unbelievable and I still can't believe someone is able to create this kind of scenery.
Fantastic video. Thanks to a buttload of spare time recently (no prizes for guessing why) I have really gotten excited by all these landscape dioramas I have seen recently and have decided to get into it. I will be using this video as a guide for my first project as it seems to use less resources and tools than a lot of the others and is an excellent starting point for me to start learning some of the techniques and building up my tool collection. My wife has even agreed to us getting a carport built so I can move my car out of the garage and make myself some space for the smelly/dusty parts. :)
Te quedó Genial!!! Quedé maravillada, cuánta paciencia, Gracias por compartir. Felicitaciones!!!Sería bueno que también pongas subtítulos en español para entender mejor los materiales y saber buscar. Un Abrazo desde Perú.
Superb work on the water man. I had no idea you could make white water with (i call it) santa-beard-cotton. This has made me super pumped to make my own small dioramas
Stunning water effects! Well done! Also the rocks really turned out well, although they looked like "yellow snow" when you started painting the first layer, hö hö. The wonky tree at the side of the rock is well placed too! I think a little more higher vegetation like high grass or bushes on the top of the rocks and maybe another tree next to the bridge would give even more life to the scene. But that is just my taste. :) Thank you for the video!
