Hello
and welcome to choppy munchkin studio
There are a lot of iconic scenes from my neighbor totoro
like the bus stop, make Acorn grow etc
But one thing that always fascinates me was the old Tokorozawa city that was portraited in the movie
I love the old shrine, the friendly farmers and the muddy country road
Director Hayao Miyazaki was living in Tokorozawa city back in 1960s with his wife
And today I'm going to show you how do I create this diorama
The Old Tokorozawa City and the invisible catbus
To start this project I first draw a sketch of the farmland on the base
Putting my tractor truck to make sure the ratio is correct
While putting onthe first layer of plaster I realized the sketch I did is going to be fully covered up
so I decided to use my graphic memory to shape the farmland
Then I'm using an x-acto knife to carve out the rice terraces
I also carved out a little space for the shrine and a drainage canal next to the road
I use acrylic paint to paint accessories
I choose blue as the main color for the tractor truck because when Mei and Satsuki moved into the house
Their father was driving the same colored moving truck
While painting the little tractor truck, I also added some rust effect to make it look dirty and old
I try to bring as much details as possible to our main character - the catbus
Next I start making the electric pole by dipping three wood sticks into water-based antique walnut wood stain
while waiting for the sticks to dry I started covering farmland with brown base color
Next I'm adding woodland Scenics earth turf to the main road
Use a fan brush to brush it even
Next I added gray ballasts in the middle of the road
I add a medium green fine turf to the path around the rice terraces
I mix different colors to the farmland to make a look more vivid
I'm adding some fine turf to the middle of the road
adding the shrine and some bushes along the road
drilling holes for trees and electric poles
adding as many bushes as needed
Next, my favorite part, bring characters and personalities into the diorama
Adding a little haystack and the farmer who is taking a nap
Next step, resin. I'm wrapping plastic sheets around the diorama with glue gun
I remove some parts of the masking tapes, so I can fix the edges before the resin seal it
carefully remove the plastic sheets
I'm using glass Mode Podge and airbrush to create the ripple effect
Let's not forget to connect electric poles with electric wires
I'm using thin PLA cables and super glue them on the poles
Trim off the extra
Add black wash to the logic poles and wires check out how to make black wash in the link above the video
last but not least, paint the base