One of the hardest things to model when building a diorama is water! Not to mention a waterfall.
I think one of the most scary aspects of working with resin to simulate water is the "Only one chance" dilemma... basically if it doesn't work on the first try the risk of completely ruining your model is very high. 

​The best way to tackle a project like this is with careful planning and also
be prepared to start over.

​We are all only human and we make mistakes, it's a little like learning to ride a bike and falling off, sure it might hurt and given time we heal but the only way to overcome our trepidation is to get back on and have another go.

This project has gone through many stages to get to its current state and in the upcoming video tutorial I'll carefully and slowly step you through every one of those steps so you have a fighting chance at making an awesome waterfall on your first attempt.

It's a slow process but that's just the nature of model building and sometimes we need to take a careful calculated approach to model building.
​I've definitely been guilty of trying to rush and slap a scene together but I'm never entirely happy with the end result because I knew if I just took a bit more time I could have done a much better job.

I'm always amazed at what a little bit of greenery does to change the look of a model, I always start to feel a boost of motivation once I see the model starting to transform with static grass!
​Comment below to let me know what aspect of this upcoming tutorial you're looking forward to the most? Is it the waterfall itself and how it spills over the rocks?, or are you more interested in how I color and pour the resin?
I tried a few new techniques on this diorama that I'm very excited to share in the video.

It seems that every time I pick up a twig or a piece of tree armature I find new ways of creating some amazing looking trees.

These are made from seafoam, also known as seamoss and super trees, whatever you want to call them they make for some of the best model tree armatures around!

As I type this blog entry those two trees are still poked into the keyboard.

The main difference with these trees is the way they have been flocked. My standard technique for adding foliage to trees has always started by adding ground foam followed by Noch leaves over the top.

One of the reason for taking this approch was due to the size of the Noch leaves package, they are only 100 grams so all in all you don't get much! I wanted it to last and that meant substituting other products as a filler.

I am very happy with my current method of making trees that can be seen in the latest tutorial... However the slight tweak that I did today has changed the way I will be making future trees. 
If you haven't seen the latest tutorial on trees here it is:
And if you don't want to miss future videos you might like to subscribe.

Basically I'm going to be doing away with adding ground foam prior to adding the Noch leaves, sure I'll be using a lot more of the Noch product but the results are certainly worth it.

When viewed from a distance the comparison with the trees that have ground foam vs the newer style trees made purely from Noch leaves isn't all that noticeable however when view close up the difference is like chalk and cheese.
If you've been following along with my videos you'll know that I like to do close up photography so it will be interesting to see how these new trees change the look of the scenes I create.  

These trees will feature in the latest scenery video I'm currently filming "Realistic Scenery Vol.11"
if you're new here and want to see some of the previous videos in the Realistic Scenery series you can see the complete list here:
Complete Guide Series - Start to finish scenery tutorials

You may have noticed I mentioned Noch Leaves a lot in this post, the main reason is because I have a few bags of the Noch product in my draw and that's what I've been using for most of the tree videos however there are other brands:

• TreeMendus - have a great range with a good variety of colors.
• All Scale Scenics - Available from OzRail Model Trains.
• Javis Scenics - Sells a leaf product however for HO scale it is too large although the scenic scatter they sell is made from sawdust and is good for modelling bushes with very small leaves and comes in a range of greens.
• MP scenery Products - I've used these a couple of times, I usually find them on eBay.
  
• Noch - I use the most
  
  

Just to name a few.
The only down side to Noch is they have stopped producing the Olive Green which happened to be my favorite... I'm currently waiting on a selection of the TreeMendus leaves which may take the place of Noch in the future as their range of colors is much better. 

Today I managed to make a start on the next video tutorial On creating a waterfall. It's going to be a big project but even with the very basic landform taking shape I can already envision a very cool looking scene.

The hardest part for me I think will be getting just the right riverbed color and the transition from the deeper sections at the base of the waterfall to the more shallow sections just down stream of the falls. 

The image above is what I'm using as a reference for my waterfall, I like how there is a small alcove shape that fans out as the river flows further down stream.
And the image below shows the very first stage of creating the basic land form for the diorama.

From what I can see in the reference photo is there is a lot of greenery which is expected near a large body of water however I will also need lots of rocks to form the cliff sections of the waterfall. You can never make too many plaster rocks! I don't anticipate using them all but have more than you need is much better than not having enough.

Oh and by the way... this is just the first batch of molds! I plan on doing this about 3 or 4 times.

Another easy to follow tutorial on making some amazing looking trees that anybody can achieve. 

The above photo shows the previous scene shown in Realistic Scenery Vol.10 however one technique that wasn't shown in that video was the creation of the great looking eucalyptus trees that can be seen in the foreground.
You  can watch the tutorial by clicking on the YouTube video below.

And don't forget, if you're enjoying these tutorials try subscribing to my YouTube channel so you don't miss out on seeing the latest videos as they get uploaded ​?

Also Don't forget to check out the home page and let me know what video you'd like to see next, simply select the one that interests you the most and hit submit. It will send me a message to let me know what topics are the most popular. Check out the home page

Oh and did you manage to spot the koala?
That koala was 3D printed on the Anycubic Photon! It's unbelievably tiny yet still retains so much detail...