Mudpup's Rocky Shore Diorama

[MudpupWaterdog]

I'm back with another even larger diorama: the Pacific rocky shore!

This one is vertical and designed to hang on the wall, so the figures here are all glued on. It's supposed to represent a slice of rocky shore from California, and from top to bottom it shows the different tidal zones and some things that live there. The shore is four feet tall (1.22 meters), and made out of insulation foam glued to wood and coated with sand and glue (I'll put some making-of photos in the next post).

Here it is:



From top to bottom, it has real periwinkle shells, Safari Toob Sally Lightfoot crabs custom painted into striped shore crabs, 3D-printed barnacles, real mussel shells (I had to clean and oil them myself, it was a real process), a Safari IC starfish, some real snail shells glued on, two AAA abalone repaints, some sea anemones from a home aquarium decoration, and a Papo edible crab. Algaes are all plastic plants from the aquarium store.

Here are some close-ups of the tidal zones:






I may add some other animals, such as the Papo hermit crab or shrimp (repainted as a spot prawn). Open to suggestions as to which other animal toys would fit the diorama!

[bmathison1972]

This is wonderful. I'll try to think of other things to add. I know the PV Crabs set, except for the blue crab, are all from the Pacific Coast of North America. See my Blog review here, if you haven't already: https://animaltoyforum.com/blog/crabs-habitat-earth-by-play-visions/

I'll snoop around later for more options.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

That is seriously a very cool display. Wonderful job and idea!

[MudpupWaterdog]

know the PV Crabs set

That's a great idea, I didn't even think of that. I have a near-complete set already, but since I'm gluing things to this diorama permanently I'll look around for some individual figures.

I also found that AliExpress has knockoff Colorata Kajika sculpins for sale, maybe I can customize one of them to look like a species of Pacific marine sculpin. This Ali store sells sea anemones in two different sizes, if I had seen this before I started working on the diorama I would have bought a few in both sizes instead of the rubber aquarium decor I used. They also have the bat star, which looks nice even though it's so small. I know the Safari IC nudibranch is from the tropical Indo-Pacific, but do you know of any north Pacific species similar enough in morphology that I could convert one?

That is seriously a very cool display. Wonderful job and idea!

Thanks! I love rocky shores, and with this hanging above my desk I can almost hear the breakers and smell the salt spray.