I figured if I don’t write this now, I probably never will come back to it. And even though I am not sure, if there is anyone who would be interested in the making-of-process, someone out there might be (and would probably not know they could -or have the time to- ask) and it might come in helpful to know how it was done, in case someone else was doing (or wanting to do) something similar and needed advice… it’s really not that difficult, you just have to be willing to play around a little and maybe get your hands a little dirty.
So, you may have seen the post, where I showed my latest creation- a Playtable for Dinosaurs (and their explorers). If not, you can see the whole finished table here in my last post.
This is a more detailed explanation on the HOW TO…
Ok, here we go.
First things first, obviously, I started with a quick sketch and finding what I could get and where (and order here and there a few things. I wanted it to be made relatively reasonably cheap. You could of course go and get a few things even cheaper, or (as always) more expensive. It was meant to be for kids to play with, so I didn’t want to make it too expensive, since there is a possibility for it to get destroyed while playing… as it usually is the case with kids. Yet, I was trying to make it as good and as sturdy as possible. Let’s hope it will last as long as it can.
Most of the things I bought at Hornbach (a local store with building materials). Then I got a few things from an internet store for dioramas/model building materials, like the grass carpet for the base, water effect paste and a few greenery add-ons, like islandic moss and such. And as said in my previous post, artificial plants from IKEA, as they were cheapest and best looking and they also had small ones that were ideal sized for this project (from what I could find).
After the sketch on paper, there comes a “sketch” on the table, to determinate where what might be (it wasn’t in the end) and how big which object might be, a.k.a. how much place it will take up on the table. Of course, it ended up being somewhat different, but after all, it’s a kind of sketch.
Volcano
I started off with the volcano.
I took the “sketch” of how much place I wanted it to take up on the table (approximately), and drew it on a base plate and cut it out. Then I took some old newspapers, made big chunks of them, and “built” an approximate hill. This was taped down to hold with masking tape.
Then the fun part started. I took plaster bandages (ordered online from a pharmacy), cut them into smaller stripes, so that it would be easier to work with them, prepared a bowl with some water… and there we go. Soak each stripe of the plaster bandages, to get it properly wet (just into the water and take it out is quite enough), and place it on the newspaper hill. Repeat, until you’ve got the whole mountain/volcano covered. Don’t worry too much about some texture of the bandages it might leave, that will be taken care of later.
Once it’s all covered in plaster and it’s still wet, you can go over the the little holes the bandage leaves and try to get the plaster spread more evenly around. Most of all, you can try to cover the parts where the bandages are joined and you can see the line between them. Still, if it doesn’t get to be covered entirely, don’t worry, there’s a trick for that later.
(Sorry, no photo of the plastering process, as my hands were all dirty and I couldn’t take a photo of it.)
After it dryed, I tried the hardness of it, and though it would hold, you could kind of bend the plaster a bit if you pushed harder. I was worried, they could make a hole, if the dinosaurs would get too agressive at each other (one never knows with dinosaurs), so I chose to make another layer with a second bandage. Same steps as before, just make sure you get the first layer (which is already dry) a bit wet before adding more layers, so that the layers would bond better. You may use a spray with water if you wish, or just wet it lightly by hand (like me) if you don’t have one.
Once everything is dry, you can take a sealant (also called putty), f.e. a wood sealant is really good to work with. Just take a little on your fingers and go over the places, where you can see the texture of the bandages, or ridges or where the joints are showing… Anything you don’t want to be visible later on. Play around a little with it until you are satisfied with how it looks.
OK! When the sealant is dry, you can start painting!
I can only reeeeaaally recommend WET WASHING! You take a little bit of colour and a LOT of water, and go over everything. It should wash (as the name suggests) your object with the paint, and if done with enough water, that will actually help the paint get into all the little nooks, and it looks really great!
Believe me. I (re)learned the hard way, hah! I didn’t do it right (not with the volcano, anyway) and it didn’t go quite as planned. So I put on about ten layers of paint, until I got more or less happy with it. There was a lot of black (since it is a hot, kind of errupting volcano) and greys, but also browns and some greens.
But, even if you don’t do the wet paint right, there is one more thing that really does the trick! And that’s the opposite of it- DRY BRUSH!
Dry brushing is really what it sounds like. You take a dry brush (no water!), and just a teeny-weeny bit of your desired paint, and just very lightly go over the top of your object. This really brought my mountain (volcano) to life, I dare say… Suddenly, the dry brushing highlighted just the very tops that stood out a bit, made it look like cracks and such, and that really just helped it look realistic.
So, once all paints are dry, you want to add sands or any other texture you want up there, before you start making the lava. After I did that, the Lava was next. I used a hot glue gun, with which I made the lava. Though, I admit, it didn’t go exactly how I had imagined it (most of all, the top didn’t want to stay and “pop”, but it always rather kind of fluxed down) and I used up almost my whole package of glue gun cartridges, it still made quite nice, thick lava-ish strands, flowing down the volcano hill.
After many attempts and additions to make the flowing lava, when dry (and cold), I first painted it all with a white Acrylic Primer. Then I painted it, trying to mix in orange, red and yellow. After that, dry brushing it a bit with black paint (where the lava might be getting already cold and hard).
I admit, I got a bit frustrated with those colours. I played around with them for quite a bit, and every time, when I finally thought it looked good and left it be, then to come back to it a few hours later/or in the morning, only to find out, they dryed in a different way than I expected and my good feeling was kind of gone. Also I was by that time running out of time, and just had to stop trying to make it better, as I had to finish it all up slowly.
So, last but not least, the lava got a layer of varnish, to make it shine nicely.
Cave
The cave was pretty much in a very similar manner made as the volcano. Here too, I made a cardboard base, how I wanted the cave to be approximately, then took the plaster bandages, and covered it in them. Only this time, I had to make an inside layer too, of course. Makes it a bit more tricky, but not too much.
Again, I then took a second bandage and made another layer, to make it sturdier. I also took some cut outs left from the lake (since I had to wait in between steps for the layers to dry, I would make another step with another object in the meanwhile) and added them to the walls of the inside of the cave, because I found it was too plain before. I made the plaster bandages go over the styrofaom parts as well, to make it all hard.
Once the plaster was dry, again I would use the sealant to go over parts I didn’t like or want to be seen as they were. Then I painted the cave. Here I went mainly for greys and browns and a bit of green, but also some light pink-ish and yellow-ish in the inside.
I was really happy when my friend, who is a geologist praised how I painted the cave. Seems like I have done at least something right! :-)
Next up, add some texture with sands/stones/greenery, glued to it… and finished. For now.
Lake
Here I chose a bit of a different approach. I took some styrofoam – a rather coarse one, which my father had left over from something he built around his house – from which I cut the size of my desired lake. Then I cut out the inside (not even trying for it to be even, since I wanted it to have a feeling of uneven ground or waves) and left some edge, which I later cut into stone looking smaller pieces. Since it was a coarser form of styrofoam with bigger pellets, I just took and chipped them off here and there, to get more of an uneven natural stone look.
Once I was happy enough with how it looked, I made som plaster (no bandages this time), and put a layer of it on, with my bare hands, so that I could control it where it went and if it went into all the nooks. Let it dry, and then you can paint!
Here I finally did a good wet wash on it! I was so happy how it turned out right away with it. The runny paint streamed nicely into all the uneven little holes and nooks and cracks and made the stones look beautiful and natural. I also added a bit of brown-ish and green-ish colours.
Next on I went to make the water.
First I made a layer with toilet paper (yes, you saw that right, haha) and wood glue. I saw that as a perfect technique to make waves and water-y ground feeling… Actually, I only later realized, I kind of did that unnecessarily, as I had the uneven ground already by the way I had cut out the styrofaom ground. This technique is rather good when you want to make waves and a water-y feeling on a straight surface, say if you are for example making a diorama on a wooden or other board. Too late did I realize that, and it took about 2 days to dry completely, which I should have rather used for more layers on varnish… but about that later.
So once the previous layer dryed, I painted it with white Acrylic Primer, and once that dryed, I painted it it with thick layers of blue, green, torquoise, and some brown and black… I was actually really unhappy how again it would dry into quite a bit of a different hue of how I left it while it was still wet. But after a few attempts I let it be as it was and started with the next layers (days were running out and each layer had to dry for at least a day!).
Hence, I added a layer of varnish, then a layer of wood glue to add depth, then again more layers of varnish, I think it was 3 layers. I wanted to do at least 4 or 5, or even more, but I grew out of time, since each of these layers had to dry out completely first and that usually took about 24 hours, which I didn’t exactly realize in the beginning, it would take so long, and I left the water part of the lake for the last week to finish I think.. So that didn’t leave me with enough days actually. Oh well.
I have to say, though, once the varnish was on, it really gave the colour of the water a nice touch back suddenly, and I liked it again!
Last thing I did with the lake was to add a layer of water-effect, which I only got to do the evening before my friends would come pick it up. The next day when they came (before noon), it actually still wasn’t entirely dry, so I didn’t even see the final look of that…
TREE WITH TREEHOUSE
Here I started with cutting a little wooden base, onto which I glued some toilet papers, cut and formed into the shape I wanted the tree to be in. I also had a paper shade cut out in the size I wanted the house and watch platform to be, so that I could check approximately if it would fit together.
(Wanted to put in a photo of me making the toilet roll base.. I know I had one… but I can’t seem to find it..)
Once I had the shape, I made some little twigs out of wire. I took some Air-Drying Modelling Clay, which I put around the whole form, put the wire twigs in and wrapped those with clay too. Then I made some ridges with hand and a dining knife into it to get the form of tree barks.
Bad news was, when the clay dryed, it cracked, quite a lot, and I was really worried it wouldn’t be stable enough or hold together enough for kids to play with it. BUT.
Good news was, I covered the whole thing with a sealant/putty, making sure, it would go into all the cracks, but putting it also everywhere else. And also putting an extra layer on those twigs, since they looked like they would not hold long if played with. When the sealant was dry and firm, I covered the whole tree with wood glue, to give it more strength and add a bit of flexibility, make it less fragile. I wasn’t sure about this step, but once it dryed out, it really seemed to hold much better and stronger and I was really happy I did that.
Finally I could start painting the tree. First I gave it a layer of white Acrylic Primer, then I painted it with different light and dark browns, a little bit of red and some green. Again I tryed around for quite a bit, until I was more or less satisfied with the outcome. And again, a last layer of dry brushing added the missing extra something to make it look good!
In between the different layers and drying them, of course I started making the treehouse and watchout platform as well. As a starting point, I drew the plans for walls, ground and roof on a thin cardboard. Then I took some balsa wooden sticks (those that look like sticks from ice creams), cut them to size one by one and glued them (with wood glue) onto the cardboard. Might have done it differently- without the cardboard layer, I guess – , but I wasn’t sure if the sticks would hold together well enough and I really wanted to make it sturdy to be played with.
When the individual walls were ready, I glued them together with a glue gun. Then I prepared the other accesoires, like the rope, ladder, and swing, and prepared it in place where it should go.
Next up, I glued it all together with the glue gun to the tree. Finally, I attached some Islandic Moss as greenery/leaves to the tree and it was finished!
FINAL TOUCHES
As I said before, I bought some fake plants from IKEA to be used as more trees and shrubbery. I decided to use only half of what I got, because I didn’t want to make the table too full, but rather leave space for play. After I decided which parts to use, I basically took the fake plants apart (most of all to get them out of the fake flower pot). I made them little base holders out of the air drying modelling clay, so that they would stand on their own and also to be able to glue them to the table later on.
Even though this time the clay didn’t crack as it dryed up, I still put on some brown sealant, just to be sure – after my previous experience with the tree. Moreover, the sealant was brown-ish, and therefore it wouldn’t mind if it would be peeking out through the grass carpet, if it didn’t cover it entirely. Hah.
As I (think I) said before, I had this IKEA LACK table, which my friend (who I was making this for) bought and wanted it to be made on it. I had the grass carpet already cut out to it’s size.
Now was the time to decide what would go where definitely. After playing around for some time with it (again), I kind of decided on the final places.
Then came the process of carefully cutting out some little bits or holes into the grass carpet, so that I could kind of make it work together and it wouldn’t feel like just two different things just… glued on top of each other. Rather than that I tried to make it feel like it was one… as much as I was able to.
I used mainly wood glue for both the grass carpet and for the individual pieces, warily, little by little, bit by bit, glueing them down to the table for forever. :) (This was a request by my friend, who wanted it to be permanently attached to the table). The only thing where I used a different type of glue was the big tree with the treehouse. I was worried, if it would be stable enough, so I used Mamut glue- a special type of glue that can hold 200kg (or so) :-D Haha, I wonder if anything would knock that down ever, now…
Last but not least, I also made this kind of wooden sidewalk that went from the tree to the cave. It is made out of the same wooden sticks as the tree house. It took me about two hours to cut each piece and sand it’s edges! Once that was done, I made a base out of wooden toothpicks, which I glued together (woodglue), and glued the little planks on top of that (with wood glue, again).
(Sorry, forgot to make a photo of this while in the making.)
Ok, definitely the very last, but not least! Finishing touches! Adding sands, and texture and fake grass/green-thingy-something and a stone here and there, to unite the grass carpet and the segments and everything and make the transitions more integrated.
Finally finished!
And if anyone ever reads this whole post, my heartfelt, warmest congratulations! I have no idea how you could go through with it! :-)
Liv Inspires 