Diorama Bases (1 Viewer)

[bradleyl30]

I have been experimenting with diorama bases recently.

I have a few threads going where I am showing the use of serving trays with terrain mats to create mobile scenes.

Below are some things I am doing to create my own Lazy Susans.

I bought this off of Etsy, but after shipping it got too expensive to have many.

 

[bradleyl30]

Fortunately (or unfortunately), a Sawtoothed Oak in my front yard needed to be taken down. I had them cut me a few "cookies" or slabs from it as it was beautiful wood:

Here they are drying out, which they will need to do for another 6 months or so:





These are 13 to 15 inches wide including the bark. That will give at least 12 inches on which to create a diorama.

I coated them with plain wax to slow the drying and try and prevent cracking, which is working on the small ones.

 

[bradleyl30]

Oh, my shoes are size 9 US mens for reference :smile2:

 

[bradleyl30]

I got two big cookies which would create dioramas 22 to 24" in size. Where I would put that, I do not have a fargin' clue, but it is nice to dream.

I had to a lot thinner on the wax which did not help the top one. since a big chunk was exposed. You can see its cracking below:



The other one has less, but still a few cracks which can be filled. They will essentially have to be small tables or something.

 

[bradleyl30]

Here is the tree itself:



I think it is 7 individual trunks and potentially two separate trees. They seemed to be about 79 years old (if I counted rings correctly) which is a few years older than they house and neighborhood I live in.

In general it is about 5 feet in diameter, but close to 5.5 feet at its widest part.

 

[OzDigger]

A pity it had to come down, looked like a large tree and would have looked great in your yard, but they can be dangerous. Good luck with the seasoning, I guess you have the sections separated and stacked so air can circulate around each section. We have enough issues with our Hardwoods in Australia, I imagine Softwoods are even more temperamental.