Hi All,
When I made my 1/6 Shrine of the Sea Devil with Indy in Deep sea diver outfit I always wanted to make this diorama from the comic book cover of the same title.
RECIPE 1: Figure & Octopus Tentacle - Indy legs, torso, head and upper arms are from the TOD figure and the forearms are from KOTCS figure. The figure was repositioned and then the joints superglued and once dry the joints were puttied up.
The bag has had the plastic straps removed and replaced with thin leather strips and the knife was the ROTLA Monkey Man figure which as had the tip reshaped. The Octopus's Tentacles were made by cutting up a wire coat hanger and shaping them and then air dry clay was used to mold around the wire until I was happy with the thickness.
The suction cups were also made from air drying clay and small ball were made then pressed onto the tentacles and then I used a tooth pick and scribed around each suction cup to get the desired affect.
2: Base - The base was cut from some left over High Density foam I had lying around and once cut the tentacles were attached by using superglue. The wrecked part of the ship were made using different thickness's of balsa wood and once built it was painted and then Indy was attached and then I used model ship string for the ropes.
Once the wrecked ship parts were ready I dug out some of the foam and inserted the pieces, this was also done to give the impression of the parts being deeper in the ocean. Once I had everyting inplace and attached I used a mixer of 60% plaster of paris and 40% PVA glue and mixed both together until I got a pancake type mixer.
Once the mixture was ready I scribed lines into the foam so that the plaster would adhere better and started spreading the mixture over the base, I gave some areas thicker amounts then others so when I make the waves it would look more natural. The waves were made by lighlty wetting a teaspoon and lightly pressing and then flicking the plaster so the the plaster would raise.
Once the waves were doen I let the plaster start to dry and once it started hardening I then got an old paint brush and started dabbing it around the wrecked parts of the ship and the tenacles to simulate foaming from all the movement. Once the plaster had dried I gave the base two coats of dark green paint and let it dry and then a wash of watered down dark green and flat white.
The waves and foam were done by lighlty drybrushing the tops of the waves and foam with white and continuing until I got the desired affect. Then I used Woodland scenics realistic water and covered the entire diorama with three coats, I then used Woodland scenics water effects and made some strips to simulate water running off the tentacle and the wrecked ship.
Ron
INSPIRATION
