Titanic Grave - Miniature Boiler Dio & Live Triops!

[Prop-Builder]

Titanic Miniature Boiler and Living Crustaceans.

I don't believe anyone's tried this one before. I'm making a 'living' diorama of some of Titanic's wreckage such as one of the many boilers seen lying in the mud on the seabed. As you can see from the pics below, I had started the boiler already (10 years back in fact) and will be casting it in resin mixed with a metal compound such as iron filler to get the natural rust effect kicking in. I love this reaction when I place my castings in water and doesn't take long to get results.

Once I have the model (approx 20 cm tall), I will place it into a fish tank with some sand around the base to mimic the environment around the real wreck and give the tank an eerie blue glow/lighting for night viewing.

The bonus addition to this 'living' dio is the Triassic Triops' Dinosaur Shrimp (or Triops LONGICAUDATUS HorseshoeCrab Shrimp). These little critters are very easy to maintain and would be the ideal life-form for my Titanic diorama tank set-up! :cool

When viewing documentaries of the wreck, I can make out small fish, eels or smaller crustaceans - Shrimp swimming around the boilers and couldn't resist the temptation of combining my models with water and life! The tank I intend to use will be bigger than the one pictured below and have a dim blue lighting effect to simulate the eerie onscreen footage of the ship's grave bed.

Here's a Youtube video I found of these guys in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4quPALV24Ww

As you can see from the black dots down the side of the boiler, I have many rivets to make and need some ideas on creating 1mm rivet heads in fairly short time. Any ideas?

UPDATE!

I have just purchased some Sea-Monkeys to put in the tank with the Triops. These will provide food as well as be an added addition to my mini life diorama of the Titanic shipwreck!

 

[Utinni]

cool!

I think dabs of glue works great for rivet heads! I know a lot of prop makers do that for movies.

- Jeff

 

[takevin]

More then likely between the paint and glue you use will kill off anything alive in there.

 

[Prop-Builder]

More then likely between the paint and glue you use will kill off anything alive in there.

I won't be using any paint or glue on the final cast piece. The colour I hope to achieve using my rust dipping method in water, then sealing it somehow so it doesn't affect the water in the tank in any way. There must be a way to do this, as aquarium set-ups have many ornaments available for them and get around that problem somehow.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

...
As you can see from the black dots down the side of the boiler, I have many rivets to make and need some ideas on creating 1mm rivet heads in fairly short time. Any ideas?

Drops of a highly viscose glue.

DAMN ! That´s what I get for walking away from the PC and not refreshing a thread for a few hours

 

[Prop-Builder]

I will try out the glue idea. Thanks for that!

Hopefully when I come to casting this piece, I can get all those tiny details reproduced in resin. I'm mainly concerned with the tiny 1mm rings on the black part at the top. These may prove tricky to 'fill' in with resin.

I've done some more reading on Triops and even decided to introduce Sea Monkeys to the tank as a food source for the Triops. They will also make an interesting addition to the diorama and will look even more to scale with the boiler. I am now awaiting their arrival. I'll first try growing these critters in small containers as described on the instructions until I get the hang of them, then move them over to the larger tank. The Triops apparently lay ten's of eggs daily, so I'll have an unlimited supply!

For the blue dim lighting for night viewing, I thought about just placing a blue sheet of clear plastic/acrylic under the tank light to get the effect.

You may have noticed the model lying next to the boiler in the pics above? This is to be a Titanic deck ventilator. I originally didn't intend to place the two together in the same dio, so unfortunately, they're not quite to scale, so I'm not sure whether to use it or not?

To make the dio even more interesting and detailed, I may add 'dolls-house' ornaments such as plates, vases & cutlery to scatter around the wreckage. I expect the Triops will be constantly digging them up and re-burying as they scamper around looking for food! This will keep the bottom looking fresh and interesting. Maybe I'll get some miniature boots and dolls too!

Here's an image of a boiler on the sea bottom, this is what I'm aiming for.