Rumble in the jungle (Patreon)

My friends, this is a story all about how I ruined an entire diorama and had to make another one!

It's also a good tale about the importance of good composition! And even though both scenes are similar, it's the small differences that are truly important. An example - the hill behind the tank was too small in the first scene, and because I'm going to add a couple of monkeys in the diorama, there was no space for them. On the other side, the recessed area in front of us was too large and I wouldn't have anything to fill it with. Not to mention the palm trees on each side of the tank looked really corny, and again, the hill was too small for both of them.

Sadly, I didn't have enough veneer to make another oval base, so the new one has to be rectangular. What I also didn't have enough were the photo-etched palm leaves from Aber. I thought one set would be enough for two trees - wrong! But I ordered two extra sets that should arrive on Monday, so I'll fix it very soon.

Speaking of trees, they're made from sprues wrapped in copper wire, and covered in a thin layer of Magic Sculpt. The bark was meticulously sculpted with a wedge-shaped silicone brush, and after it dried, I added the apical bud at the top. There I tried to insert the palm leaves into the putty, but they turned out to be quite heavy and they kept falling down all the time. So it's better to leave the putty to cure and make holes with a small drill.

The small palm with paper leaves is my first failed attempt, I just recycled it. My first palm trunk was too thick and out of scale, but the top portion was ideal for this type of plant. The paper leaves are from Model Scene and I used an entire set for this tree. Chances are this species doesn't grow on Saipan, but I'm not gonna be a detective! :)

Another thing I wanted to mention - garden substrate of any kind, or even peat, is the ultimate ground texture! But not for all scenarios, of course. It's great for jungle terrain, and I can imagine it working in a WW1 setting as well. I'm going to add the ground texture to this new diorama before I go to bed, and then it'll be about adding vegetation, starting with grass, weeds, ferns, etc.

It's also funny how I did quite a bit of travelling across Saipan on Google Earth until I found an area that looked nice for the diorama's setting. I based the setting on that specific real place - a tank coming out of the forest to a more frequented dirt road. I also messed a lot with the angles in the new scene - the main road on the left is going uphill, but also the secondary road with the tank is angled up. After all, King Kong is slowly climbing to the top of Mt. Tapochau.

Lastly, Prague trip was beautiful and very refreshing! So much so I managed to put the entire Easter Egg video on Monday and since Tuesday I was preoccupied with my diorama struggles. My sincere apologies for the lack of updates, but I knew I messed up with the first composition, and wanted to show you some REAL results, not failed attempts.