Last week I have been busy creating the rubble on the diorama base. The ground was filled first with some insulation foam, to reduce the thickness of the celluclay layer. On top of the foam, celluclay mixed with white glue, red color and water was applied using an old brush.

Into the still wet celluclay I pressed single scale bricks (from Juweela) and small plaster parts, adding some white glue first. After this had dried, I added some small stones and model railroad ballast.

As all was dry, I painted the rubble. I started with a base layer of brick red and light gray for the concrete parts. Then I applied a wash from oils (lamp black and burnt umber), blending and removing stains with a clean brush moistened with white spirit. After this had dried, I slightly dry brushed the bricks using a orange red color, and a light grey color for the concrete parts.

As a final touch I added a filter from ochre and some umber. This added a lot of realism to the colors, as the stark contrasts are subdued, the red and gray hues become much more natural and the overall color range is compressed, also making the overall impression more natural:

overview

front view

details of the bricks

the door from outside

the door from inside

Over the “slit” visible on the right hand side the burnt out Opel will be placed.

Now I will add some more details (steel parts, another plate, cables) and also more rubble to the ground areas not yet covered, but this has to wait for the figures being ready to be fitted to the base. Of course the Opel also has to be added, after blackening the bricks under the car.

Now the base is finished. It is made from a plywood board, some ledgers and thin plywood parts attached to the sides. After being glued together, it was covered with veneer, stained and varnished.

This is how the base looks like at the moment:

Here the stained and varnished veneer is visible.

The walls are made from plaster parts being left over from the first version of the scene, and are temporarily placed on the base. Behind the Opel, there will be a small brick wall, opposite to the car a wall with concrete pillars, bricks and a steel door.

The brick structure was carved into the plaster using various sculpting tools: