Laputa – Castle In TheSky

Hi everyone,

This is the final post – I promise.  When everything came together, I was very happy with what I managed to achieve.  Before this project, the biggest models I had painted were 54mm scaled miniatures and tanks.

In fact, looking at the pictures again, I can now do a lot better with the painting, and I definitely would not do the finishing work with the airbrush – just the base coats and  the deepest shadows.

I will stop writing now and let  you make your own judgements.

So that’s it.  If I had to go back and revisit this diorama, I would maybe add some shadow and highlights with oils here and there, but that is it.

What I might do is add the boy in the movie – Pazu to the scene, since Sheeta and Pazu are nearly always together.  To be honest, that is how I intended the diorama to be, but at the time only this kit was available.

The good news is HLJ have the other kit in stock, and I have ordered it.  So when it arrives, I might go ahead and add Pazu to this scene, and make another diorama with the battle version of the robot in a 1/35 scaled diorama (making the robot seem even bigger).

I will have to see.  Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

The next step is to paint up the figures.  I remember I painted these models with my Badger airbrush. Then I went in with a brush and added some details to the girl’s face and added several enamel washes.

Back then, I did not use oils, I wish I could turn back the hand of time and repaint them in oils.  It would have made my life so much easier.

It the next part of this post I would like to show the process of making the stone water-way through pictures.  These pictures were in another file, otherwise, I would have posted them in the previous post.  I found them later when I was going through all the old pictures I took.  Please don’t ask me why I put them in another file! I could not tell you if my life depended on it.

Well that covers everything. On Sunday, when I have some time in the morning, I will post the final pictures of the finished diorama, and bring this little nostalgia project to an end.

Stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

Today I want to talk about making plants for your diorama with real plants.  This is the technique I used for this diorama.

The most common way to use natural plants, is to use dried-out plants.  With a coat of paint or varnish, they can keep for decades.

One way I like to use natural plants is with glycerine.  You take the plants you want to preserve and immerse them completely in a warm 50% mixture of glycerine and water.  Let the plants soak for a day and then let them dry thoroughly.

You might find that not all plants keep well with this method, and some might turn black or brown.  This is a little problem though, as you will be painting them up.

The next step is to make pots for your plants, if, like in this  case, you are building a garden.

For this you have to use your imagination, and keep note of the scale.  I use sewing thimbles, electrical components and a myriad of other stuff that comes to hand.

Sometimes you might need to use putty to sculpt them into a more pot-like shape.

That is all for now.  I will continue in a few days when I get a day off work.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

The next step of this project was to work on the models, especially the mild modification and fitting of the robot.

To be honest, this was not particularly difficult due to the size of the robot and the very simple shapes of the model.

The most work done was on the hand grabbing the water way, but the girl was very simple to build.

After everything was fitted, I primed the models and I tested the fitting again.  When I was satisfied. I moved on to working on the vegetation and plants, but that is for next time.

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

Today I will say a few words on the base. After fitting the girl and the robot I recall sealing off the little water way with air-drying clay and marking in the bricks.  I then added layers of tissue paper covered with PVA glue to create texture.

Most of the ornaments I found at a craft and hobby store, except for the lion’s head that I took an imprint of (I don’t recall from what).

The fountain/pool base was built up stone by stone.  In this case, I recall it just looked better than impressing the brick.

Below is another gallery with another round of fittings.  Where I live, we say, ‘measure a hundred times and cut the cloth once‘.  Always good advice.

I also start to cut up and fit the robot properly to the base.

That is all for today, hopefully I get some free time on Sunday to add more posts.

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

In this short project, I will be going down memory lane, and trying to remember the steps taken in building this diorama from Laputa – Castle In The Sky.  I will have to work with the pictures at hand, because back then I had no reason to take that many.

There are actually two kits of the Laputa guardian robot.  This one, and another with the robot in combat mode with the boy instead of the girl.

The first step is always to assemble the kit without gluing it together and see what you can achieve – size and pose permitting.

That is all I can manage time-wise for now.  I will try to get back to it in a day or two.

As always stay safe and have fun,

NR.