The View From The Mountain

Having watched the new and improved Dune film on HBO-Max three times now (and loving every second of it), I thought it was time to make a Dune diorama for myself. I love the Dune universe, having been introduced to it by my father many moons ago. The scene I depict is a giant sandworm passing by a castle built on solid rock, on the planet of Arrakis--better known as Dune. I saw the David Lynch-directed version of Dune with my father on opening day, back in 1984. While that version had its moments, we didn't really care for it too much. The sandworm and the base of the castle were sculpted from Scupley, which had to be baked. The castle itself was sculpted from Apoxie putty, which air-hardened on its own. The Apoxie putty allowed for more details in such a small scale. My father and I watched the Dune miniseries on the Sci-Fi Channel, and by that time, I had read all six of Frank Herbert's original Dune novels...

I always liked the Ents from the Lord of the Rings. They were basically these big, talking trees with faces. And so I made my own Tree Beard. I sculpted him out of Sculpey. Once it hardened after I baked it, I painted my Tree Beard in the basic colors of a tree. The face has a beard that I carved to look like moss. I painted this green over a black undercoat. Granted, he's not an exact replica of the Tree Beard from LOTR, but he's my interpretation of the character, and I like him all the same.