When I started working on the diorama, I only had the general layout in mind. I could imagine the way that the cows would be surrounding the one rebel, the lampposts, the trees in the hazy evening background. I knew that most of the materials that I would need could be found at any hobby shop, because most of the materials that I would be using would have been the materials used by model train hobbyists for years. I visited a couple of hobby shops, gathered up a bunch of materials, and got to work.

I needed a basic lucite case to showcase all of my work. I found one that was basically the perfect size and shape at a store that specialized in containers. After I bought it, I discovered that you can buy lucite at many hardware shops and then cut and glue it to your own specifications. That may be cheaper, but it's also more work, and I can't speak to its efficacy. I also enlisted the help of a carpenter friend to create a wooden base-- four pieces of kerfed wood to contain the "lid" of the lucite, and four pieces to make a larger base beneath that.

The first order of business, after having the basic containment unit, was to get the basic base and landscaping done. I visited a number of websites detailing how to do this, and I rented a DVD that promised to give a tutorial for it. Instead, the DVD turned out to be mostly an advertisement for the company's specific products, but it did have a fair amount of good information, including a tidbit that I found useful: buy plaster cloth. Plaster cloth is a fine net fabric that has been soaked with plaster. You moisten the cloth, drape it over your skeletal structure, massage the plaster into the screen holes, and wait for it to dry.

Initially, I tried to follow the DVD's instructions. I cut a piece of cardboard to the length and width that I wanted, wadded up newspaper and positioned it on the cardboard where I wanted, taped it down with masking tape, and draped the wet plaster cloth over the newspaper. I massaged the plaster into the holes and waited. Unfortunately, the wet plaster matted and compacted the newspaper, the cardboard got damp and warped, and the outcome was a loathsome little turd of a landscape. It was clearly not suitable.

My next attempt was a day later, after visiting the hobby shop again. Hobby shops sell sheets of foam. I bought a sheet of foam 1/4" thick, and used that as the base. It wouldn't warp like the cardboard and would provide a better base that I could drive trees and figurines into.

I used some styrofoam packing peanuts instead of the newspaper, figuring that no matter how waterlogged they got, they wouldn't soak the water up and get waterlogged. I used double-sided tape to get them to stick to the foam base.

The plaster cloth had to be applied in multiple layers to provide strength and stability, so I cut the cloth to fit the size of the base and applied many layers-- it was important to cover not only the top but down to the foam base itself. I didn't worry too much about overlapping the foam, figuring that I'd trim back any excess after it had dried.

The styrofoam peanuts made an excellent base for the plaster cloth. They held up to my big-ass fingers pressing of the plaster into the holes. The plaster cloth recommended that you wait for the layers to dry somewhat between layers, but I was pretty impatient.

My next step was to figure out where I was going to place my figures, once they had been tweaked and reconstituted to fit my sinister purposes. Once the plaster had dried, I got around to placing the figures and trees in the approximate positions that I had imagined them in my dream.

I can't stress the importance of this part enough. You need to actually physically place all of your figures and landscaping, just so that you know what you're dealing with. My initial layout had the "action" in the front and center, and only through looking at several different possible layouts did I decide on the one that I eventually went with.

Once I had a fairly specific idea of where things were going to go, I customized all of my figurines. All of my figures were off-the-rack store-bought things from a couple of different hobby shops, but they weren't good enough for me for one reason or another. I got a jeweler's loupe so that I could do the detailed work (and, really, I only used the loupe once or twice-- but it sure made me feel cool to wear the thing).

Many of my figurines needed to be trimmed or altered.

Most of this could be easily done with an X-acto knife, but there were several customizations where I really wanted a more organic feel. I took apart a wire hanger, held one end above a stovetop flame, and once it was red-hot, I used it to melt down the plastic strategically. Additionally, I knew that I would have to wire electrical components through the lucite "lid," so I used the hanger to burn small holes through the lid.

After this I added paint to the parts of the figurines that needed it. I used a number 1 sable brush, because the tip was fine enough to add very small detail-- a facial expression here, a tiny dot of blood there. I used a standard wider brush for the indelicate applications.

Not pictured are my struggles to get the entrails right. I tried five different substances for the guts-- clay, putty, various cements, plastic leavings-- before finally settling on good old fashioned elementary-school glue. Let it dry for a little while, ball it up and paint it-- guts aplenty.

Anyway.

The next part, which there are no pictures of, involved applying the snow to the plaster base. Hobby shops sell "snow," but you can also make your own. Use finely granulated styrofoam. Spray down a base using a watery glue-- mix one part water and one part schoolboy glue-- and then sprinkle on your "snow." Hose it down again. Repeat if desired. Let dry for kind of a ridiculously long time. It's important that you don't touch the snow for a full twenty-four hours after you spray it down. My first attempts had big thick smooshed-down areas in the exact sizes of my fingertips.

I also applied snow to the trees. The trees that I got all came from the hobby shop as well, but these are also relatively easy to make yourself. To make trees, you can use thin twigs and whatnot that you find outdoors and apply any leafy substance that you can-- hobby shops keep baggies of dried lichen for just this purpose.

Snow is applied to the trees in much the same way that it is applied to the plaster base-- a coat of the watery glue, a sprinkling of "snow," more glue, repeat if desired.

In addition to my snowy landscape, I had also constructed a "test area," another, smaller piece of foam base covered with plaster cloth and "snow," so that I could test various techniques. I used this test area to place a figurine and surround it with paint. Once it had dried, the figurine was not held to the snow at all-- the snow had gathered around the paint and the figurine in such a way that the figure was basically lying loose atop the snow. I needed more stability for my figures. After some experimentation, I discovered that a good way to do this was to use a pair of clipping needlenose pliers to cut pins or needles in half, hold them over a stovetop flame, and then insert them into the figures. The pins cool down pretty quickly and the plastic holds onto them like a slug holds onto some delicious lettuce.

At this point, I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and place the trees and figures. I had marked the places the trees would go with pins when I applied the snow, so I knew within a few millimeters where the trees should go. Additionally, I'd taken an overhead shot when I placed the figures several days earlier. I placed the figures first, adding the blood in the snow with a small eyedropper-like squeeze bottle and then adding splatter, splash, footprints and trample marks with the paintbrushes.

The smaller body parts-- dismembered arms, legs, etc.-- were too small to bear pins being put through them, so I just rested them atop the bloody snow. The model is to be kept level; however, the glue, snow, and blood tend to make the relatively light body parts stay in place up to about a 90-degree angle.

My initial dream featured lampposts, and I really wanted to incorporate them. Most hobby shops have various styles and kinds of lampposts, or if you would like to make your own you can buy very tiny light-bulbs there as well. I used a small drill-bit to cut through the snow and foam, and then threaded the wires for the lampposts down through the snow, foam and lucite to dangle. Then I applied glue and snow to the lampposts, adding a healthy dollop of superglue into the hole to keep them in place.

Now all that remained was sanding and painting the base, and wiring up the electricals. I used both coarse and fine sandpaper to smooth the wooden bases, glued them together with wood glue and weights, and then used black spraypaint to make their appearance uniform.

Now that the base was sanded and painted; that the lucite fit snugly into the kerfed base; that the figures were all placed and painted; the trees and lampposts all steadied in the snow. To keep the foam base from moving around in the lucite, I added velcro. Adhesive enough to prevent slippage, but not so permanent that I couldn't take it out if I needed to do some rewiring or other adjustments.

To the underside of the base, I attached two 9volt batteries using velcro. I also attached a small electronic device that played a haunting drone on a loop. By hooking the lamppost wires to the nine-volt, the lampposts lit up beautifully.

ART-MAKING COMPLETE! VICTORY