The Creature's water ballet scene in The Creature From The Black Lagoon, is one of the most poetic moments of the film. The juxiposition of the shapely, feminene Kay, gracefully swimming on the surface of the Black Lagoon, unspeknown along with the mirrored Creature stalking below is a cinematic visual that speaks volumes of the underlying messages of this classic beauty and the beast film. It is a mating dance of two worlds of light and dark that come together.

  For this scene, I will use Geometric's Micro Creature in resin and Preiser 1/32nd scale Eve female figure for Kay. The 1/32nd scale looks perfect and comes in various limb poses and hairstyles. Fortunately the Creature will need very little repositioning, matching that small scale pattern in putty would be tedious.....lucky me. I cut off the Creature's head and glued and putty it back on so it is looking up. I will use the cool Creature base with the metal leaf fronds to secure the Creature and incorporate into the diorama....another lucky point.

The Creature is basecoated Apple Barrel's Sage Green and scales outlined with Phylocanic (sp) Green. Creature is washed with a burnt umber (black/brown) oil wash and further drybrushed with lime green (yellow plus sage green or olive green)to bring out the scales.


   To build the Kay figure, I pick out the best swimming arms and legs from the Eve, build-a-girl set...and of course the flowing hair. I had to cut off the flowing back of her hair and reposition so it would look like it flows naturally in the water. A little putty helps on the hair seam. I paint her in 50's style of makeup with the bright red lips and blue eye shadow. I paint the white bathing suit over the nude figure...no need to sculpt a suit on a figure this small, as it will be skin tight, especially with the wave ripples around her figure...right guys?

  

 

 

 

  The base will consist of three planes: bottom, back wall and top. For the top I will use a sheet of clear acrylic plexiglass I bought at my local hardware store. The back wall and bottom are 1/4 inch plywood which I glue and also screw together to make a 90 degree angle. I glue the supplied Creature base to the bottom and add Magic Sculp to blend in the area. I will add various plastic plants from my local craft store and little skull I bought from Mike Parks at Wonderfest years ago. It is always nice to have a stash of monster accessories in many scales.


  

 

 

 

    I cut a piece of lagoon green matte board and airbrushed it to a lighter color halfway up for the lagoon background. This is then glued to the inside wall of the diorama. The back outer wall , I attached a cool little mini "what-if" photo lobby card with the movie logo.

  The clear acrylic sheet will be my water surface. I take my swimming Kay figure and tightly outline with a razor tipped Sharpie on the acrylic sheet where her body will fit. I want this hole to be as close to her body as possible, as I will fill in the gaps with clear material. I drill out the shape with my Dremel tool and test fit the Kay figure.

 

 

 

 

  For the final cuts I use a needle nose pliers and make small bites on the edges to get the figure to fit snug. Once I achieve a good swimming pose in the acrylic sheet, I lightly glue her in place. I seal all round Kay with Woodland Scenic's Water effects acrylic paste which dries clear and is the basis of all swimming wave shapes.

   Make sure each application dries to a clear state before adding more Water Effects, This takes several applications to get a good wave look. Also apply swimming wave ripples away from the figure to show movement . Once the Water Effects has dried and am satisfied with the wave pattern looks, I use three or four screws to fasten the acrylic water plane to the back wall. To hide the screws, I cut out lily pad shapes out of plastic floral leaves and place over the screws and surrounding area. I then apply a final coat Woodland Scenics Water effect to submerge the lily pads a bit.

   To secure the Creature to the base , I drill a hole in two of the metal base fronds that mounting post will fit into from the Creature's leg.

  This fun water diorama is easy to make and very shelf friendly.