The first video for the year 2020 and it's a beauty! It's definitely my favorite river scene I've built so far...

Surprisingly it didn't take all that long to build, I think altogether I spent about 18 hours building the model but that includes making nearly 20 trees which was a whole day in itself!

Below you'll find the full tutorial video that is full of new tips, tricks and techniques that I haven't shown in previous videos.

I think the biggest takeaway from this diorama is the choice or resin that was used to create the water effect. 
Commonly Envirotex Lite or the Woodland Scenics Deep Pour Water is used to model rivers similar to this however they are only good for river depths up to 1cm deep... The river on this model was over 2cm at its deepest point!
The resin I used was AA Composites Deep Cast Clear Epoxy Resin and it is used for making wooden river tables. It was perfect because it has a low curing temperature and it can be poured to create very deep rivers.

If I were to use Envirotex Lite for this river it would certainly have cured much too hot and likely caused the surface to crack, I did some preliminary tests and found with deep pours of Envirotex it can melt plastic and foam as well as crack and introduce large heat bubbles as it cures.

The bear, photographer and fish were all 3D printed on the Nova 3D 'Elfin' printer, as you can see it did an amazing job on the HO scale photographer! Even the intricate detail on his face was printed well, I just need to work on my painting skills!

Talking about painting skills... I have a friend that is well worth checking out, Eric from Manscale Models on Facebook is an award winning model aircraft builder and his Facebook feed is packed full of tips and projects he's been working on: https://www.facebook.com/manscale/

One of my favorite techniques in this video is the fish, I spent ages trying to figure out how to submerge the fish under the water and it wasn't until a watched a video from HMS2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEgki4IYB5I where he made a small fish tank that I got the idea to make small stems to mount the individual fish onto.
It worked a treat and while the execution was different from HMS2 it was his video that sent me in the right direction.

If you'd like to help support the channel and website feel free to check out my Patreon page, it's a crowd funding page that helps me continue to fund the channel and make bigger and better videos for you in the future.
​https://www.patreon.com/join/luketowan?

This tutorial takes diorama building to a whole new level... It's no small feat building a model with this much detail and realism but all that time and effort certainly pays off.

The tutorial video is packed full of tips and techniques that I've never actually shown in other videos.
If you're a frequent viewer of the channel you'll notice I do a lot of natural scenes showing bushland and rivers however this model is a step in a different direction.

Don't forget to make sure you subscribe to the BCR YouTube channel so you don't miss out on awesome future videos like this one.

The video below is the full tutorial video:

Some of my favorite details in the scene include the vending machines which you can see in the photo below and I was really happy with how the tiled walls turned out.

I'm showing more of an urban scene here and the future plan for this model is to add a top street level scene that will help complete the diorama.
With the top scene in place it will be quite a large model, as it stands the diorama is 1.2m long and with the top added it will be at least 60cm tall with the structures in place.

so far this is definitely my favorite model, mainly because I can actually drive a train through the scene which is really cool, plus once the street level is in place I'll be able to drive my tiny HO scale cars on there as well.

I hope you enjoyed the video and stay tuned as the next video is not far away!

It's amazing how far 3D printing has come in the past few years! So much so that I can 3D print an ultra realistic model of my house!

In Realistic Scenery Vol.19 I use a resin based printer, the Anet N4, to 3D print a highly realistic replica of the house I'm currently living in.
To actually design the house I used a free web based program called TinkerCAD, it's really easy to use and for basic type shapes like a house it does the job perfectly.

A lot of people ask how  make my models look so realistic and to help answer those questions here are some of my secret tips for making model look realistic...

Those are just some of the techniques I use when taking the photos of the models, obviously there is quite a lot more with regards to equipment but that can be for another blog post.

For those of you who have made it to the end I have a little treat for you in the form of a photo:

I was lucky enough to have the perfect sunset when it was time to take the photos! And after spending nearly 3 weeks building this model I couldn't have asked for more...

In Realistic Scenery Vol.18 I step you through the process from start to finish in creating this awesome looking night scene but to be honest it looks pretty good in the sunlight as well

Believe it or not but the thumbnail image above as well as the images below have not had any color grading effects done! It's all straight from the camera.

The kit I used to detail the interiors was the 'Ohio Shipping' kit from roometteslighting.com, they make awesome interior kits for a range of the Woodland Scenics DPM plastic kits.
It makes a huge difference to the overall look of the model and brings so much life to the scene.

All the tiny details you see scattered around the building were all 3D printed on the Anycubic Photon 3D Printer, I am constantly amazed at how well the prints come out from this tiny little 3D printer.
If you want to download the files and print them yourself you'll find them here: 

Also to see a couple of extra images you can check out the photo gallery...
When it comes to photos I can sometimes have a critical eye, like the above photo for example! There is some of the diorama base visible and the distant lights in the background are very close to the road, but overall it's a nice photo.
If I spent a bit more time on it I could always use photoshop to fix some of those imperfections.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial video ​😃
Cheers
​Luke

Making an amazing beach diorama like this is much easier than it looks... Sit back and relax with a cup of coffee as I take you through each step of the process building this hyper-realistic diorama

Building large dioramas with such big water features can be a bit of a daunting challenge which is why I decided to film this tutorial, when it's broken down in to easy manageable steps the entire process is not as difficult as it first seems.

There was a number of different specialist tools I used in creating the scene however the main feature which is the ocean water and the wave required no special tools. Although the resin can get a bit costly! All up I used about 1.2 liters of resin which will set you back approximately $60.

If there was one tool I can 100% recommend for anyone getting into the hobby or even if you've been in the hobby for a while and want to take it to the next level you'll definitely want to grab a static grass applicator... They definitely make the biggest difference in getting scenes to look realistic. There are a number of different manufacturers like Woodland Scenics and Noch who sell applicators or you can even try making your own home made version.

Don't forget to check out the photo gallery here: