From a young age I’ve always been very fond of the vast unknown above our heads, beyond the Earth’s outermost atmosphere. Therefore I decided to sculpt a small circular chunk of alien terrain, of my own imagination. —This is the first sculpting project I ever did, scaping the barren surface of an extraterrestrial planet. And I must say, I am pleasantly surprised with the final result of the diorama. As from the point of which I had started, I wouldn’t have thought this project would have turned out the way it did.
As you may have seen from this first picture, the colors of the soil is rather grey. However, very sparsely, a hint of beige is also noticable upon looking more closely.
The cable or tube, I haven’t made up my mind upon which it would be, is running slightly elevated above the soil. It has been painted in a weathered metal-like color. Though, by looking at this project again as I write about it, I feel like this didn’t turn out as good as I had hoped.
When trying something metal-like in the future, I’ll add most likely more colors and highlights in area’s where it should be. But as this has been my first project, and more or less a test piece, I do not mind making a mistake or two, as they are a great learning experience.
Painted the sides of the diorama in a matte black, this is done to draw the attention of the eyes to the terrain. And to blend in with the plinth on which it stands for display.
The Beginning
The picture on the right is the first picture I took of the project. After a great deal of consideration, I wanted it to be a circular base. So, for that reason, I had to come up with a way of making it. And as I had chosen to make it with a two-part epoxy putty called ‘Milliput,’ I needed a sort of casting molt or a form to take the shape of and let it cure itself in.
To my luck however, an old plastic bottle was just about the perfect size in diameter. And the wooden tongue depressors I had laying around doing nothing were an ideal way to stabilize the flimsy plastic form from forming an imperfect circle. That was quite the tongue twister now, wasn’t it? Haha.
Now, of course the baking paper underneath is as to not let the apoxy putty adhere to the surface of my working space. Cause that would’ve been a disaster. Three to four hours later, the circular base was dry and ready to be unmold from the plastic form it had done it’s purpose in.
As I was thinking on how to continue on, the next logical step seemed to me to not have it be a boring old flat surface. So, I added more putty and shaped a gentle slope. “But just a slope could also be quite plain.” – I told myself. Therefore, I grabbed some slate rocks that I had carefully collected some time prior on a holiday, and puzzled with various shapes and sizes until satisfied.
To me, slate rock is a great material. The details and textures are just so stunning to look at. And I feel like it fits well with the image I had in my head, of what this project would look like.
The Final Steps
And so now that the beginning steps were over, I could focus on putting the final details in place. Starting with adding more rock-work. Now, while I could very well just glue some rocks to the just created white surface, it wouldn’t look any good. Because, you see, rocks don’t just lay on the surface of the ground. Well some might do. But most of them are imbedded into it, they’re part of it. Therefore, I had no choice but to apply more putty around the rock-work to embed them inside and make them be a part of the surface.
The cable, or tube like thing. What was I thinking adding that? Well, I wanted to try to add something man-made, or perhaps made by extraterrestrial life. Something to think about. The tube is made from a brass rod, some plastic scraps and the cut off parts of a plastic lollipop stick.
Next up was sanding the surface of the putty, this is done in order for the glue to adhere better. I then started to glue the sand to the entirety of the base, and carefully all around the rocks and there sometimes difficult to reach nooks and crannies. And so, transforming the project into a beautiful little circular diorama.
