OMG! – A 28mm Diorama (Part 1)

by theimperfectmodeller, posted in Fantasy, Uncategorized

In my recent Miniatures and Musings post I made reference to a new project – OMG! – a working title which may or may not change in due course.  To those of you of an older generation OMG! is short for Oh My God!  I’m sure most of you were well aware of that but I will hold my hand up and say most of these text abreviations have had to be explained to me by my lazy kids who cannot be arsed to type something out properly.

At this stage I cannot be certain how many posts this project will run into, best guess would be half a dozen at most.  It isn’t the biggest project by any means but the nature of the build will require a fair bit of drying time which may well stretch things out.  What that will allow me to do though is run a few other things in parrallel while I am having to wait.  I know some of you like Work In Progress posts so the aim here is to work bottom up and end with the finished model.  At this stage I don’t want to give too much away, partly because all to often there is a need to adapt things part way through due to unforseen circumstances.  However, start we must and here is the first post.

The base I am aiming to create is essentially a gorge.  I want cliff edges left and right with a waterfall slightly off centre and a tree somewhere on it too.  The tree and the gorge are intended for scale which will become more obvious I hope when the model is completed.  Having said that it wont be really true to scale as to do so would require an enormous base but the illusion is all I am looking for and hoping to achieve.

I decided that I didn’t want a big base but it did need to be dramatic.  I managed to find a nice wooden base on ebay from a guy I have bought from before which had the dimensions 255mm x 155mm.  It is now on order and should come within the next week or so.  I didn’t need the base to get started so my first job was to dig out some styrofoam blocks from my modelling boxes stored in the garage.  I also dug out some plaster board while I was there too.

As I have mentioned to a couple of people recently, plaster board is in my opinion great stuff to work with.  In this instances I wanted it to clad the styrofoam blocks.  The image below is of two base blocks glued together having first been shaped to outline the gorge.  An elastic band was used to pull them together and cocktail sticks were used at the edges to stop the elastic bands from biting into the styrofoam.

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As I wanted the build to go higher I set about working on the next level while the first was drying.  Cocktail sticks would be used along with PVA glue to eventually attach the upper build to the lower build.

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A rough outline of the gorge in styrofoam was completed.  Time now to start on the cladding.

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Sections of plaster board were bit by bit glued to the styrofoam blocks.  Each was roughly carved to create the cliff like appearance that I wanted to achieve.  Gaps between the pieces at this stage is not important as they will all get filled in due course

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Piece followed piece followed piece until eventually the blocks were covered to the extent that they needed to be.

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Now it was time to set everything to one side so it could all properly dry out.  The base and figures I ordered are due to arrive next week which means I can work on them as I wait for future parts of the build to dry.  For now though it is time to go off and do something else while I wait.

TIM

 

 

 

28 thoughts on “OMG! – A 28mm Diorama (Part 1)”

  1. Looking interesting Dave, I now know what you are talking about for sure when you talk about your plasterboard thanks to IRO ,and seeing your photos of it all makes sense to me now .The only problem now is getting some to experiment with as last time I had to deal with it when I was in the building industry it came in bloody great sheets !!

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    1. It comes in sheets over here to Pat but I got lucky. They demolished an old building near me about a year or two ago to put up a couple of new houses. I just helped myself to loads of it from the builders skip! 😊 As to the model itself I hope if all goes well that it will all become clearer as it progresses.

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      1. Keep it a bit of a mystery mate , that’s what we all like , and like yourself I’ll keep my eye out for some as they are doing that around here , one house turned into two or a bloody Hugh one 😲

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  3. So that’s what OMG means! I always thought it meant Operational Manouevre Group and was impressed that my wife could distinguish between tactical, operational and strategic military settings! It now makes sense, since she usually says it when she sees how much I’ve spent on paints, minis etc. on my monthly Visa bill! Anyway, that’s an aside, Dave – nice to see your diorama progressing! 🙂

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  6. Pretty neat. It looks like something you could use for a lot of games. I could see anything from a bunch of dwarves and such fighting in front of it to get inside the mines to relieve their comrades, to a bunch of WW2 rangers scaling the thing only to find the guns have already been taken out. I could also see where you could make a modular waterfall that you could take in and out, that goes into a lake or river (another project?) and introduce a nautical/swimming option to your new piece of terrain.

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    1. I don’t know, as if I didn’t have enough to do up you pop with a load of other very good ideas! 😉 For me this will just be a one off diorama piece but you are right Ann, there are lots of options for a piece
      Iike this in total or in part on the gaming board.

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  9. Pingback: OMG! – A 28mm Diorama (Part 1) — The Imperfect Modeller | Scent of a Gamer

      1. Nope not that one. It’s a gorge with a waterfall down the middle. A wood slate ‘bridge’ (almost ladder like) across the front and a tree at the back on the left edge of the waterfall. I’ll take a print screen and link it in my drop box (as that’s about as techie as I can get)

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      3. Well I’ll be buggered! How on earth has that got there? It is the model although incomplete as no figures yet and without them OMG doesn’t really come into play. Having managed to get ahead of myself (isolation is a wonderful thing!) I have scheduled OMG parts 2 and 3 for the weeks ahead. The image you have seen is from part 3 but how? Blowed if I know! More to the point do you like it? Still can’t get to find it on my tablet or phone though.

        Liked by 1 person

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