Fembruary 2021 challenge WIP # 1

It’s that time of year again when the Fembruary Challenge from https://leadballoony.com is upon us. To be honest I’ve been thinking about it, or rather what I’ll do, since about September of 2020.

I don’t really take part in challenges but I never miss the Fembruary one. 1. It’s all about celebrating female miniatures. 2. It challenges me to come up with something fun and unique.

I urge all and any of you to get involved. It’s always fun to see Alex’s post when he gathers up everyone’s individual submissions to see what everyone has done.

Some of you may recall that for 2019 and 2020 I did dioramas based on my three daughters in a zombie apocalypse world. In 2019 they were on top of a VW beetle desperately holding off a zombie attack. In 2020 the time line had moved on and they were now well versed in fighting zombies and had taken to capturing the undead for science experiments hehe. In 2021 it’s been about five years and the girls, along with their Dad (me), have found some semblance of peace in the form of a treehouse. I’ve decided that this year I will do a series of Work In Progress posts as I’ve been greatly inspired by TIMs diorama progress posts.

The basic plan is to use an actual tree branch as the tree, build a treehouse on top of it. For the base I want to include a veggie patch, animals, work shed or space and a jeep.

The photos below show my progress so far.

As I’m a gardener, twigs and branches are easily found. This one was perfect but I did trim off the bottom.

Here’s the branch base coated. Haha, funny to paint over a branch to make it look like a tree.

Dry- brushed the branch to make it look like an old, dead but solid tree. Then screwed it to a suitable base. The angle of the tree was on purpose as I think it looks a little more natural that way.

Wall putty for a bit of texture for the ground.

Next I started constructing the treehouse. I found it to be similar to converting models. Basically just make it up as I go. There will be a centre house with an annex/lookout tower at the rear (it’s at the front in the above photo though) with verandas on all three of the other sides.

Not that I necessarily needed the uprights underneath because, well, superglue is called superglue for a reason BUT I thought for some added realism it works well.

So that’s it for now folks. Like with the other submissions over the years I’m thoroughly enjoying myself on this project. It’s the biggest and most challenging diorama to date for me. I’m hoping that it will tell a story by means of lots of little details.

Cheers

IRO