I didn't even notice... and the diorama is ready for paints! (Patreon)

My friends! Today (and yesterday afternoon) I managed to do some progress on the diorama and somehow... I just realized it's ready for painting!

After the last post, I laminated the sides with 0.6mm veneer and cut them precisely to show off the contours of the ground. This time I plan to skip the traditional black sides, and instead go for some nice woodstain and varnish. Just to see how it looks like :) 

Then I quickly textured the groundwork with Real Earth from My Garden (TM) and small pebbles. I gave the rutted road a quick coat of AK Texture paste as well to tie things together and hopefully make it more sealed for the upcoming water in the ruts. 

The next big step was the tree. It was surprisingly fast and easy! I used dry rosemary shrubs I collected in Spain. At least my friend Oscar told me it's rosemary - the countryside is littered with them! I chose the main trunk, and then broke off smaller twigs from other pieces, securing them to the tree with superglue. I used Tamiya two-part putty to blend these areas, and added some quick bark texture with a hobby blade. I also made the trunk thicker with this putty. Smaller branches were added with sea foam trees, and these were blended with diluted AK texture paste. Boom, just like that, the tree was done! 

Finally, I added vegetation to the ground. More broken twigs and some small trees from rosemary, quickly applied grass with static grass applicator, and then longer tufts of grass planted with a pair of flat tweezers, and the final layer consisted of long grass cut from a large paintbrush. 

I considered adding a wooden fence, but it would make the diorama too busy for my taste. Just a small detail in the form of a spent shell on the road, and when I added the unpainted figures, the composition looked just right! 

So now I can start painting. Not sure where I should start - treating the wooden sides, or spraying the grass? I'll decide tomorrow :)