Defenders in Action
the base

The Beast, Doctor Strange, and the Scarlet Witch in a basic diorama. I learned a very valuable leason with this model.
DO NOT underestimate how hard it is to build a diorama base.
I thought the figures would take the longest and be the hardest part of the entry. I was wrong. While the figures might have taken a little time, the base was much harder than I had anticipated. Didn't come out quite like I had intended either. The base is 18' X 18" X 12". To get what I was originally shooting for would have taken something twice as big.
I built the mountains by making a rough shape out of cardboard then attaching some cut sheets of foam. The foam (which was used as packing material for some electronics) turned out very nice. I had some 9" X 12" pieces that I cut in thin sheets with an exacto knife. The cutting left just the right texture for a mountain terrain. The big problem though was attaching the material to the cardboard. I though I would just coat the cardboard with white glue and stick the foam to it. WRONG! The foam didn't want to stay in place. The glue didn't have enough holding power to keep it there. Plus since I was cutting several pieces out of the same chunk of foam, it was textured on both sides and didn't make very good contact. I ended up dis-assembling my mountains and adding the foam 1 piece at a time. I layed a very heavy book on each piece to force a better contact. I had to wait for each section to dry completely before moving on to the next.
Next, I primed and sealed all the foam. Then I put the mountains on a piece of cardboard that was cut to the size of the box I was using for the backdrop. Now came texturing the base. I spread out a bunch of white glue, then using a wet brush, I spread it over the entire base. To give it a rocky / dirt type feel, I sprinked a bunch of corn starch over the area. (just about anything with the same texture will work. I have used flour and other household products for this before). Then I primered the whole thing with black. Came back with a light gray primer, leaving a little black showing in the cracks and such. Then went in with 2 other grays I have. One kind of blue/gray, the other more of a muddy / gray. Just sprayed them in in a random patern. Kind of giving the mountains a little veining with it. Also added just a few highlights with white for some of the rocks, and the very tops of the mountains. Then a light misting of the original light gray to tie it all together again.
On to the background. It ended up just being black primer. Originally, I had a picture of a night sky with a full moon and stars that I was going to blow up and attach to the backdrop. Hence the grayish color selection. It was supposed to be a moonlit night. Unfortunately, I no longer have the picture on my hard drive. After searching google for a while, I gave up. I was out of time, and had to settle for just the solid black. Thought about trying to sprinkle in some white for starts, but opted not too. If it came out looking crappy, I was screwed. I was out of black primer, so I couldn't fix it. With that in mind, and the deadline looming, I just left it black.

I was still pretty happy with the results. Not exactly what I wanted, but pretty good. The figures are not permanently attached, so I plan on revisiting this dio in the future. I have another idea I plan on trying out for these 3 figures.