Hot Wheels rally diorama

I thought I'd put my scenery skill(s) to good use and knock up a small diorama for some of my Hot Wheels collection, namely the rally ones. 

Yes, along with small toy figures I also collect small toy cars. I hasten to add that I don't buy every single one, and I don't hunt around for rare cars or the limited-edition Treasure Hunt ones. I just have a look whenever I'm in Walmart or the local supermarket and pick ones I think look cool.

I was inspired to make this diorama by the racing track on a YouTube channel called 3D Botmaker Racing. They race Hot Wheels, and cars by other manufacturers such as Matchbox, Tomica and Maisto, on wonderfully landscaped tracks, something I never knew existed until one race popped up on my YouTube feed. I thought I'd give it a watch for a minute, and two hours later I was hooked. You can get a taste of what I'm on about with this video.

Anyway, the diorama.

I had to keep in mind that 1/64 scale is a lot smaller than my usual 28mm stuff; for comparison, here's a Hot Wheels Mustang next to a 1/43 Mustang, which is the right scale for minis. As you can see, the larger Mustang has been decorated with blood spatters in case I ever get around to playing some kind of zombie/post-apoc game.

As per usual I pretty much forgot to take work-in-progress pics, so apologies in advance. I kicked off with two pieces of quarter-inch foamboard (the good stuff from Michael's) cut to size, in this case eight inches by five. The back was glued to the base with plenty of Mod Podge and also held in place with three of those small brass nails you get in picture-hanging kits.

I sliced up some polystyrene packing sheets with my hot wire cutter to make the cliff. To make it stick out further from the background I stuck a piece of XPS foam as a kind of spacer and then glued the cliff pieces in place. Once dry the rocks were covered with Liquitex modelling paste to give them a rough texture. 

The edges of the track were given a layer of DAS clay to add depth and texture, and then I added some extra modelling paste to areas of the cliff where I thought more was needed.

As you can see, the next WIP photo jumps forward quite a bit. When the paste and clay dried I painted the road edges English Ivy craft paint and then did the cliffs with my usual recipe of Pewter, Fog, Country and Granite greys. I gave it a light wash with thinned Seraphim Sepia to add shading and undertones, and then drybrushed more Granite Grey and a touch of Off-White over it.

I brushed Mod Podge over the edges and sprinkled on a lot of my flock mix, and then the road got a good coat of Mod Podge and had a ton of sand dumped on with a teaspoon. I left it for a couple of hours to dry, then dabbed thinned matte varnish all over the base to seal the landscaping.

As you can see from the above pic I totally forgot to do the top of the cliff, so I had to redo all the steps I'd used on the edges. Duh.

Here's a quick photo to make sure the cars still fit on the road.

The road was painted the same way as the rocks, with a base of Pewter Grey and drybrushes of Country and Fog greys. A final very light drybrush with Off-White finished it off. All the drybrushing on the diorama was done with makeup brushes, which are perfect as they're so soft.

After another wait for the varnish to dry I painted the flock with more Mod Podge and used my homemade static grass thingy to apply 2mm dark green static grass over it. 

It's tuftin' time! I began by supergluing a bunch of 4mm dark green tufts in random spots all over the grass and put a couple of thinner ones on the edge of the track. I dug out my light green clump foliage and used it to add an edge to the open side of the base, and also glued some to the bottom of the cliff face. I added some pink flowers just to break up all the green and grey.

The final large bit of painting was the background, which I just did Deep Sky Blue to give the impression of a nice sunny day, perfect for bombing around dirt roads at 150mph.

The trees are the same ones I used for the scatter terrain I made during Season of Scenery. After painting the trunks the very apt Dryad Bark and drybrushing them with some Mahogany Brown, I poked holes in the top of the foam with a nail and pushed the trees in. 

And it's done! Here it is, sitting on the hot tub cover because there's a lot more light outside than in the kitchen, and also the kitchen table is crammed with crap my hobby stuff.

So let's have a look at it with some cars!

Kicking off with an absolute rally classic, the Ford Escort RS2000.

Here's a Lancia Delta Integrale.

A 1984 Audi Quattro.

An Alfa Romeo GTV6.

And finally an MG Metro 6R4.

With this diorama being a success in my book, I have more I want to do, namely a racetrack, road scene and garage. Stay tuned, and I haven't given up on miniatures, there's more of those to come too!