Making a diorama base

 

For work, I make a lot of small dioramas. These usually have a 4mm thick MDF base, because it's cheap and I just hack a bit off the big sheet in the garage. MDF is pretty inert, and for my purposes, isn't affected by anything I use on top of it. 

Handy, because most of the time, what goes on top first, is some ready-mix DIY wall filler, smoothed with a wet pallete knife. Plywood would go all wobbly.

Much of the time, I'm building a slice of scenery, which needs a raised edge along the back, and this time it occured to me that it I made a gaffer tape wall around the edge, it would be less faff than piling the filler up, and then sanding it back. 

And it worked!

The trick seems to be to split the tape so it's only sticking to the side of the MDF. I used a full bit at the back, tucked under the board to fill the gaps between the split stuff, and it leaked a little. Also, harder to remove. The trick for this is just like masking tape, almost fold it back on itself when you peel it away, and it doesn't bring the plaster with it. 

I'll be useing this technique again...