Pacific Rim diorama

    I don't know how many of you out there are Pacific Rim fans but personally I loved the movie! Who cares about the plot?!? Giant robots and monsters duking it out and smashing shit to bits. What's there not to love??? LOL

So I bought a coupla Pac Rim action figures over the past 2 years and by themselves, they're not much....quality and articulation-wise. But I thought maybe if I put them all into a scene, it might work, since the good thing about them is, they come all weathered out, so minimum work needs to be done on them.

I thought this would be a good time to start on a water dio, as I've always been fascinated by this stuff but never tried it. Boy, IT WAS FUN! You can check out the tutorial HERE. Otherwise, less talk more action! PACIFIC RIM ACTION! ;)

CONCEPT

As you can tell, I couldn't sleep so I had to relieve my boredom LOL.

I'm not looking to recreate any scene from the actual movie, so Pac Rim purists, please spare me! :P I know the Striker Eureka didn't go down like this. And there was no aircraft carrier involved. But I just wanted that in to convey a sense of scale. Those waves are over 50 friggin metres in height if you compare 'em to the ship!!! It's a tsunami party!

I wanted to tell a little story with that aircraft carrier in the foreground as well...so I kinda had planes sliding off the deck, a micro explosion, and one lucky bugger that made it to take-off just as his mates were pitching....Man, you wouldn't wanna be on this thing!

My Striker Eureka was already broken, so I decided that it'd be the sacrificial fallen Jaeger! Used a soldering gun to burn those slash marks into the tough PVC.

WAVES & SPLASHES!

And of course, the most fun part of a water dio! So let's have a close-up look at them waves....I was going for a more exaggerated effect rather than realistic, as it's called "the cauldron" after all...so it should look like the water is friggin' BOILING and splashing all about and it's an aquatic hell out there! 

I used Woodlands Scenic Realistic Water to lay the board after painting it various shades of blue and froth. Then I poured on the 'water' made some texture let dry, and then sculpted the waves with Woodlands Scenic Water Effects. As these things dry clear, I dry-brushed white paint on tips and waves to bring out the 'frothing' effect.

The trickiest part of the action was of course, sculpting the water to convey direction and motion. I did this with some transparent pla-plates and Woodlands Scenic water effects. More details in the tutorial!

ACTION

The trick of any diorama is to convey a dynamic sense of action with poses, rather than to have your figures look stiff or like they're at a stand-still. I tried my best to make it look like this was in the thick of action and someone hit the 'pause' button.

ANGLES

And finally, some random angles for y'all to enjoy. I tried to do this so that photos can be taken from any angle and height.

The Jaegers came pretty detailed and weathered, but I hand-painted in small metallic details, especially on knobs and wires and pistons, to make 'em pop.

Heeeeyyyyyy. That's a face only a mother could love...

Hope you've enjoyed the pics! I really had big fun doing these water effects. Will try more water dios in time to come ;)