Winging It: The Adventures of Indiana Frog: The Final Touches

I am in the process of winging the creation of a "round rock chasing Indy through the ancient temple access tunnel"diorama with which to make an image with my Kermit The Frog/Indiana Jones hybrid action figure.

I have no idea what I am doing, and no plan (just a finished shot in my head), but that isn't slowing me down.

Last post I got the dirt roughed in.

I wasn't super thrilled with the colour of the dirt, but I decided to just go with it. Either its gonna work out in camera, or I can futz with the colours in Photoshop (yay movie magic!)  The dirt, which is real dirt from my back yard, is only held with glue from below.  It needs to be held in more firmly. I sprayed the entire diorama with a mix of water and white glue (approx 3 parts water, 1 part glue), and left it to dry. 

While waiting I decided to tackle the big ball of death.  I had left it with a black undercoat as I wasn't sure what colours I wanted to paint it at the time.   I now had a much better idea - the same basic rock look, but a lighter grey than the rest of the tunnel.  I started with the same dark undercoat I gave the rest of the rocks.

I then used the same drybrushing technique I used on the rest of the stone, except this time I finished it off with a vanilla colour to give brighter highlights to the ball.

It looks pretty good.  I like the stone texture that came out of it.  To add a bit more realism, and tie it in to the rest of the diorama, I lightly rubbed some of the dirt I used everywhere else onto the ball.

That sorted it is back to finishing off the tunnel. The glue spray mixture has dried.  I have never used that technique before so I was nervous the glue residue would ruin the look, but seemed to do exactly what I hoped it would do:  lock in the dirt, but otherwise dry transparent. It worked like a treat.

Now all that is left is to add some vines and other vegetation.  I have a small collection of moss and other vegetations I picked up along the way from visits to various model stores and dollar stores.  I rarely use them, but I have it, so might as well take advantage of it.  My other option is to go spelunking outside for bits, but I am doing this at night, and its humid as hell outside. (seriously, I let the dog out and my glasses immediately fogged up)

I attached some fake spanish moss to the ceilings to act as vines using hot glue. I also added some other bits to the base of the rock.  I sealed that in with another good spritz of the water/glue mixture.

I think this is done. The ceiling still looks like crap, but as mentioned in a previous post the ceiling isn't going to be in the final shot.  Its sole purpose is to give the vegetation something to be glued to.  In that mission it serves its purpose perfectly.

I am considering this finished, and ready for the camera. However that glue spray still needs to dry, so I am going to let this sit for now.

Stay tuned for the results of