Slate tile mold from Diorama Debris

Hello guys,

Today I sat down and made a review or the Slate tile mold from Diorama Debris; a UK based company that produces many architectural molds for many scales, but their main focus as of now is the 1:35 scale diorama builder.

The first thing I would like to say about these is, WOW these are amazing molds! I was completely blown away at the detail and precision mold making skills shown by Diorama Debris! The molds are flawless with no air bubbles like other molds on the market.

OK, now for the review and pics!

Here you can start to see the detail of the mold:

 And here is a close up of the detail, AMAZING!

Bringing life to the model

The last couple days I have had limited time to work, however, I was able to get a start on the windows and doors. At this point, the windows are done and I just need to work on the front door of the house.

Italian House Update

It has been some time since I have been able to work and post on here. THere has been a lot going on in my personal life that has kept me away from the hobby. BUT, now I am back and kicking into gear once again.


This update is a bit of a "working backwards" type update. The reason is that now that I have most of the house put together, a company called S.W.S out of the UK has contacted me expressing that they want to purchase this to reproduce and sell as kits. So in order to do this, it was time to get out the straight edge and scalpel and start cutting it up so that it can be cast.

As of this point this is what it looks like:

And now back to work!

Hansa Systems, Roof Ridge Tiles

 Today I received a product that I am very excited to do a review on, the roof ridge tiles from Hansa Systems.

For many years I have tried almost every method I could think of as well as methods others have used to simulate the Spanish roof tile so common in European Countries. In almost all cases, I have failed to simulate them to my liking. The one time I got close was to make every individual tile out of two part epoxy putty; the problem with this is that it was hard to get good quality control so that the tiles fit together properly.

Well, for all those who have wanted a way to simulate a realistic Spanish tile roof, I have good news for you! Let me introduce you to Hansa Systems USA and their part #127 - Roof Ridge Tiles!

Fountain base and ready for Casting

So today I was able to put in a little time on the Italian Fountain. I worked a bit on the fountain its self and then the major work was put in on the fountain base.

To start with, I needed something to support the small overhang from the pillar base on the sides. At first I was going to continue the pillar all the way down, but I thought that would take away from the element at the top. So in scavenging around my studio I found the perfect piece to use.

AK interactive Pigment Review

Today I was able to sit down and put the AK pigments to the test. I will be demonstrating these pigments to create the ground effects of a diorama. In this review I will be focusing on three pigments; AK-081 Dark Earth, AK-042 European Earth, and AK-041 North Africa Dust.

I will be using celluclay for the base and will add the pigments to it in order to get a nice color that goes all the way through. This will help in the event the ground work gets chipped, it will not expose a bright white color. This technique can also be used with plaster if that is your medium of choice when it comes to groundwork.

The first thing I noticed about these pigments was the very fine grinding. There are no clumps and when rubbed between my fingers it gave a nice smooth covering of color. This is a very good sign that it will be easy to add the pigments to figures and vehicles to blend them into the base.

Aged Italian Fountain continues

Today was a very bust day in my studio, however, I was not able to get much more work done on the fountain and no work on the Italian House. What I was able to get done I will show you here.

The work I was able to do was to make all the wood and plastic parts look like stone. It doesn't matter what colors you paint it, stone doesn't have wood grain and is not perfectly smooth. To transform these parts into stone I used some quality tissue paper and applied it to the model with diluted wood glue. After the paper was in place, I smoothed it out a bit with more diluted wood glue and a brush. I added tissue paper to the center as well to simulate a smoother stone or that perhaps it was covered with a smooth stucco. Once the paper was dry, I applied Spackle wall paste over the paper. This will help enhance the stone look. When the Spackle dried i sanded it smooth with fine grit sandpaper. All the pink areas are were I added the tissue paper. I also added an electronics wire to the bottom and top of the simulated pillars to enhance the look.