Diorama base .. Ideas on creating Water ie Pond, Lake, Bogs

[milwguy]

Hi,
New here; and looking for help. I want to create a realistic "water" pond/bog base to re-create the X-Wing crash scene from Star Wars ESB. I will be partially submergering the nose of the craft, but want to be able to sort of see it thru the murky water so a Solid Solution won't work.
Any Thoughts ???
Thanks, this is a great community, keep up the superb work!

[photoguy]

Ahhhh, the Partially Submerged X-Wing in the Swamp....
For it to be well submerged as it appeared right after Luke "landed", the dio is going to be pretty deep. Or you will need to shave off the lower section of the ship and have it disappearing into the murk.

Either way, you can go to the railroading section of your LHS and pick up some "EZ Water" to fill the base. It's a bag full of low temperature plastic that turns a kind of translucent sickly yellow when heated, poured, and allowed to cure. (just perfect for a swamp) The only problem is that even as a "low temperature" liquid, it is still pretty darn hot, and has the ability to soften and warp plastic. Shouldn't be too big of a deal as your X-wing will be submerged in the stuff, never to be removed; but you're going to want to devise a clamp system to hold the model in position while the stuff cools, so it doesn't move around and distort too much. The directions say that it can be reheated and worked into ripples, etc, but I have found it better to add your surface detail with ModPodge (deco-page medium available at the craft store)

You could also use Epoxy, but you're going to need a LOT of epoxy - at least a quart.

[Chacal]

And a good way to make the X-Wing disappear into the murk is to add the murk in layers, pigmenting it more the deeper it lays. Mix a first (bottom) layer with a dark pigment (which will make the 'water' more opaque) and some dye (brown, green, black — it'll depend on the kind of 'water' you want). Gently pour that layer preferably over a bottom painted the darkest color of the 'pond'. Mix a lighter batch (less pigment, less dye) and pour it. Deep doing it until the last layer, which should be either left clear of dyed a very gentle color, with no pigment. The more layers you add, the more natural the water will look.

[MillenniumFalsehood]

If you want to do it really cool, 'mold' the water so that when you remove the molding material it leaves the edges of the water exposed and you can look through the 'water' and see the X-wing . . . and perhaps a Dragonsnake.

[eeun]

You could probably get all the information you need for a Dagobah diorama from the amazing one Fichtenfoo recently completed: linky.

[bluesman]

You can use easy water from Woodland, tinted resin or liquitex get medium with some paint mixed in.

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

I used 30 minute epoxy...
Bottom picture... Left is the pond, right is more boggy..

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1tf1s/

[NNYGamer]

I recall someone suing a sheet of glass for the surface, cutting the X-wing along a line made by dunking the model in water with ink? on top till it was in the right position. Painting the inderside of the glass gave it a murky look

[milwguy]

Lot's of Great Ideas,
Thanks,
I'll test then out, pick what works best for me and send pictures when it's done.
Thanks again,
This is gonna be really cool on my desk....
There is no try, do or do not!