Lunar Scape

This year for the Bradford Science Festival the theme is space, so I am creating a Lunar landscape diorama with the activity of children creating plasticine aliens to place within it.

Building the scene
Painting the scene
Creating the background
Final Pictures

Build

I’ve created a box which is 30″x 23.75″ x 17″ which at the moment has a double layer of 10mm board. To create the surface I will be laying a foundation of newspaper, layered with wire mess. The craters will also be made of mess and then coated with Modroc plaster of paris strips.

The comic book are being used to weigh down the two bottom layers while they dry.

Wire placed over the top as a trail run.

I’ve added a third layer of foam board to the base, then covered the area with ball of newspaper. Over the top of this I covered with a sheet of wire mesh, which I’ve glued into place.

I’ve started modrocing with the help of my daughter. It’s starting to look a little more lunal and not a rubbish pile

Painting

After I finished modrocing the Lunar scape, I gave it a black base coat.

When the base coat dried I mixed up blue/ grey acrylic and water solution and covered they entire surface with it.

I have layered this piece three times, each layer I have added more white to the grey/blue mixture I used for the base coat.

I airbrushed a light grey over the entire surface, adding a mottled effect.

I painted the top of the frame with light grey and black round the back.

Background

With the landscape finished, it’s now time to work on the surroundings.

Taking some black card and soft pastels, I sketches out an alien world as a backdrop. For the planet I called upon inspiration from the 80’s. Can you guess?

I started to add a star field behind the planet using pastel, for the rest I am probably going to do with my airbrush.

I added a magnetic strip to the back board and its opposite to the back of the base. The backdrop I cut down and stuck it to the backboard using adhesive spray.

The two side panels I cut them down diagonally to make it easy access for people to place the alien creations within.

What is left to do is paint the two side boards and add magnets for them to attach to the base and backboard.

Magnetic strips have been added to side panels and 8 little magnets have been glued in to fix the sides to the back board. I have also painted a black board around the base.